zhang zhuang - where to focus?

[chris101]

where should i focus the mind during standing meditation? i've read that you should focus on the dantien; but if the initial purpose is to establish a root, wouldn't it be more effective to focus on the feet and their connection to the ground, and end by collecting at the dantien? what will be the effect of doing this?

thanks,
chris.

[David Jamieson]

physically- focus on the palms of your hands.

mentally focus on the lower dantien, which is about 2 or so inches below your belly button and 2 or so inches inside of you.

It is where the artery splits and runs down your legs approximately.

mentally visualize the dan tien and move outwards from it.

cheers

[3rdrateIMAkilla]

Many different ways. I seperate awareness into

1 specific external

2 general ( or even peripheal) external

3 specific internal

4 general internal

But my self, for standing meditation, I usually close my eyes, and concentrate on emptiness.Or I sometime half way close my eyes and look beyond by nose to the floor. If I find myself losing focus, I just say the word " Ding" to myself and I'm back to nothingness

Also focusing on polarities is good. Like pressing your feet down while pressing lightly, or stretching the crown upwards

[chris101]

thanks for the response guys. the way i normally do the meditation is: at first relax whole body 'downwards' to the floor; then focus purely on the feet and their connection to the ground. after a while i raise arms into 'tree embracing' posture, trying to focus on whole body at once, but attempting to emphasise ground connection. then i lower arms and focus purely on root. again i raise arms and do certain slow arm movements, focussing purely on hands. then lower arms and focus on establishing root again. finish by concentrating on dantien - collecting energy.

i'm not really a gung fu man. i've had a long term injury so i can't train properly in MA, although i used to. my big interest is in meditation and i do chi gung to supplement this. i'd greatly appreciate any comments on my practice (as detailed above). can you tell me specifically what will be the effect of establishing a root on my everyday life and my spiritual practice, if indeed my method will achieve that end?

thanks.

by the way, if anyone wants to correspond with me on meditation issues, my email is cpearse123@hotmail.com
i'm quite knowledgable on certain philosophical points, so feel free to ask anything or share any insights.

peace,
chris.

[3rdrateIMAkilla]

I find one of the first things I get from standing practice is that my solar plexus relaxes downwards, and my digestions is improved and food tastes much better, but not at all in a "munchies" sort of way. Energy may rise from the legs into the kidney , and lower back area, creating pleasant warmth and vibration. Every breath becomes more refreshing if I consitently practice also. But I focus on stillness as to not get out of control with the vibrating. Just my experiences anyways.

I also focus on all directions. If I have my arms out in front of me, not only do I focus on root downwards, but upwards as well, along with being balanced forwards and backwards, and left and right.

[PHILBERT]

Hi backbreaker!

[Sam Wiley]

When standing in the tree embracing posture, your eyes should be looking forward and slightly downward to a point about 15 feet in front of you on the floor (provided you have that much room, but the direction is the same should you be facing a wall).

Technically speaking, you should not be thinking about anything at all. If you are doing everything absolutely correctly, this will come. But there are visualizations and things like that that you can do. For one thing, you can imagine the qi flowing up your backbone on the in breath and down the front of your body to the dantien on the out breath. You can visualize the qi as anything you like, a light, a marble, etc. I have heard other visualizations that you might want to try, such as imagining honey or warm water flowing down over your head and body as you exhale.

If you are into meditation, and have taken up qigong, you might want to consider learning Taijiquan. Many styles are low impact enough that your doctor might approve of you learning them for health. Meditation and standing qigong will help in learning Taiji and getting the benefits you are supposed to get from it. Later on down the road, provided your health has improved enough, you could look into learning the martial side of it. I would recommend the Yang style, if you are interested.

[chris101]

yeah i definitely intend to learn tai chi once i've recovered fully from my injury. I used to do karate a lot until i hurt myself a year ago; since then i've not been able to do any sort of exercise at all. i have a problem with the cartilage in my spine, from straining myself with breathing exercises. you probably find it hard to believe that it's possible to injure yourself by breathing, but it is. it's taken more than a year to heal and has been the most frustrating experience of my life, but at last it's getting better. take my advice: never overdo it with any sort of exercise because you can seriously hurt yourself, which is not nice.

when i get back to training i've decided to definitely go the gung fu root (hopefully wing chun if i can find a good sifu) because i never liked the 'stiffness' of karate. anyway, i hated the training and didn't listen to the sensei at all. not that i'm arrogant, i just think karate is a pile of $hit compared to real gung fu. i'm going to do a lot of tai chi too, but for now i'll concentrate on zhang zhuang to develop a good power base for when i start training.

cheers

[chris101]

by the way, sam, why do you recommend Yang style? do the different styles vary significantly? how different is Yang style from, say, Chen?

Also, could you help me out by telling me what to look for in a good teacher (i don't want to learn from a ninconpoop). is it presumptuous to ask a teacher if you can just sit by and watch a lesson and then decide whether to join or not? any pointers you can give me would be much appreciated.

[Sam Wiley]

Some styles of Taiji are more physically demanding than others. Chen and some other styles demand more physically, with a lot of low stances, stomping, etc. Cheng Man-ching style and Yang Cheng-fu's style are less physically demanding, but still good when it comes to health. So in the beginning when you take Taiji, I would recommend practicing something less physically demanding and working your way up from there.

Some of the styles are very similar, while some are as different as night and day. Yang style is vastly different than Chen style in my opinion, though in a few places you can see the Chen influence. Most styles of Yang style that are being taught now are the typical Taiji that everyone thinks of when they hear the word, slow and measured and relaxing, and some schools only teach for health. Chen style is very martially oriented.

A teacher should be secure enough with himself that you can ask to sit in on a class or even participate in a trial class. Watching or even participating in one class is not going to give you mastery of the art, after all. My advice would be to sit down, if possible, with the teacher either face to face or on the phone, and talk to him about the art to which he has dedicated himself. Get to know the person a little because if you are not comfortable talking to him, you're probably not going to be comfortable learning from him. And definitely ask to sit in on or participate in a class. That way, you get to see how he is around students and how he approaches both people and his art. I would advise you to look for a teacher who is honest, sincere, and open, who makes you feel like you can gain something of value from learning from them. In addition, I would say that a teacher should also be open to you seeking out other teachers of the same and different arts to gain other perspectives, insights and skills. His job as a teacher is to present you with information and to aid and never hamper your learning. Your job as a student is to find the best teacher you can find and learn everything you can learn.

I wish you luck.:)