ShinNa Tai-Chi Blog

[Path to Mastery 4/22/10 – Wk32 D4 (Str 9.12.09)(Ph2 11.15.09)] Continuing our Tai-Chi Journey: Crow Bridge refers to connecting the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth.  There are a lot of explanations as to why this should be done.  Crow Bridge is named after the legend of a couple that were separated from each other and could only meet once a year when crows would form a bridge for them to meet.  The tongue is supposed to bridge a natural Chi pathway that is disconnected from the roof of the mouth to the throat.  It is believed that by placing the tongue on the roof of the mouth, you complete the Chi pathway the travels through the center of the front of the body.  It is also said that the mild tension on the tongue necessary to create the bridge allows the white blood to flow through your mouth to prevent your mouth from getting dry, meaning your mouth will salivate.  I didn’t understand the importance of this until I started studying relax...

[Path to Mastery 4/21/10 – Wk32 D3 (Str 9.12.09)(Ph2 11.15.09)] Continuing our Tai-Chi Journey Today’s blog is going to be short.  No Sound breath or silent breath. When you practice Tai-Chi or Chi-Gong do it so that you cannot hear your breath.  Gabriel used to say that you should breathe so that nobody can tell you are breathing.  The test is if you put a feather under your nose, the feather wouldn’t move as you are breathing.  Now I can’t do that, at least not for any length of time.  But the longer I train, I feel my breath deepen and lengthen, and I feel the flow of Chi increases with this breathing.  It also creates more pressure, but it is gentle.  There is breath with sound that we practice, but that will be covered later.  For now, enjoy practicing the silent breath and remember, no matter what happens relaxation comes first!  Have fun! History of Tai-Chi Journey up to this point: Before the blog opened to the public, we cover...

[Path to Mastery 4/20/10 – Wk32 D2 (Str 9.12.09)(Ph2 11.15.09)] Continuing our Tai-Chi Journey: There are breathing concepts, breathing techniques and breathing exercises.  But before any of that, you have to just let your breath be and observe it. When I first joined my teacher Gabriel my mind was filled with the idea of different breathing techniques that would make my Kung-Fu (Martial Cultivation) more powerful.  I was excited to learn the secrets of breathing.  With anticipation I asked, so while doing the form, how do I breathe.  He said, “Just breathe.”  I was in semi shock.  I said, “I thought you were supposed to exhale while you extend and inhale while you retract.  Am I not supposed to do some kind of breathing.”  He replied eloquently, “No.”.  He had a talent for anticlimactic answers.  Later, as I practiced it became clear to me that the form teaches your body to breathe.  As you do the form, your breathing naturally...

[Path to Mastery 4/19/10 – Wk32 D1 (Str 9.12.09)(Ph2 11.15.09)] Continuing our Tai-Chi Journey: Breathing is the most important part of Tai-Chi.  I would say that Breathing is the most important thing period especially considering the amount of time it takes to have an immediate impact in your life.  You don’t need a formal education to figure out that it doesn’t take long at all from the time you stopped breathing until it has a deep and profound impact in your life. I often tell people that breath is the most important diet in their lives.  Energy has different states.  At its lowest vibration level, it is solid.  You heat it up a little, it becomes liquid.  Yet, you heat it a little more, it becomes gas.  Then it becomes plasma, and I am totally blanking out on the other stages, but with my limited scientific understanding at some point it becomes light.  Sunlight.  I have often read that all food we eat is a variation on sunlight....

Feedback [Path to Mastery 4/16/10 – Wk31 D5 (Str 9.12.09)(Ph2 11.15.09)] Continuing our Tai-Chi Journey: I was talking to my buddy Alexis, a very enlightened individual, and I learned a lot. We talked about the different aspects that bring about the enlightened state of mind, the mind that is free and full of light. In a sense this is the state of mind we all are trying to get to, whether it is through success, money, meditation, prayer or stealing your sister’s candy. We do things so we can be free, so we can all get to a place where we are happy. While we were discussing this, we were discussing how important it is to create a reliable system that would allow people to consistently get to that place of the mind and body where there was fulfillment. Then it dawned on me. The Tai-Chi system is a system of feedback. We learn through feedback. Without feedback, we cannot learn. Our senses are nothing more than the feedback the brain receive...

Still working on it! Will post as soon as it's done! Thank you for your patience.

[Path to Mastery 4/14/10 – Wk31 D3 (Str 9.12.09)(Ph2 11.15.09)] Continuing our Tai-Chi Journey: Now that we have discussed the Dan-Tien from an energetic view, let’s cover it from the physical perspective, the opposite perspective, the Tai-Chi way!  This will be the last principle we cover on Relaxation. We covered the physical location of the Dan-Tien previously when I covered ‘Chi Sinks to Dan-Tien’ in principles regarding the lower body in the alignment chapter (Covered on 3/16).  Now let me add a little more detail.  Besides, being 3 finger widths below the belly button, and a third of a distance from the front inside the body,  the Dan-Tien is located between the 3 points, the Ming Men (across your belly button on your lower back), and your Kwa (the crease where your thighs meet your pelvis).  Of course it is not in the center of these 3 points, but it feels like the Dan-Tien sits on a point where these 3 points converge.  I jokingly refer to it as ...