COLLEGE OF TAO & INTEGRAL HEALTH
& Integral Health
Movement Arts ALSO SEE THE TAI CHI & QIGONG PAGE, WHICH INCLUDES A CALENDAR OF CLASSES in the Los Angeles/Santa Monica area.
Purpose: Happiness, longevity and self-attunement
Center: The whole body
Goal: No physical trouble
Dao-In (pronounced dow-een) is a series of movements that have traditionally been called "exercises for conducting physical energy." It is a collection of exercises, resembling hatha yoga, from achieved masters who practiced indoors on a mat. Wise people tried to find a practical way to improve the stagnation of physical energy. For example, if you lie down too long, when you get up you will be stiff, or part of your body will be sore. If you walk, stand, sit or do physical work for too long, certain muscles, or the muscles of the entire body, will react. This includes tendons, cartilage and bones. The principle of Dao-In is to make adjustments to your body as necessary. When you get up and do a few movements, the internal flow of energy is affected and stagnation can be prevented.
Once people began doing this physical energy-conducting, they discovered that it not only prevented stagnation, but it also improved their health and lengthened their life. Externally, it helps the muscles, tendons and bones. Internally, it helps different systems of the body function better, including the circulation, secretions and so forth. Its pure purpose is to nurture and attune your internal energy.
When you do Dao-In, the most important thing is relaxation. Some postures require more training of some of your muscles, so follow the principle of building your practice up slowly.
While it adjusts and attunes, Dao-In also generates, strengthens and invigorates your energy. There are five major parts to the whole system, three of which are the physical foundation. Another part is a meditation, and the concluding part is primarily focused on the face and head.
It takes about 30 minutes to perform the entire sequence of movements, but it is not necessary to do the entire set. For additional information please see Master Ni's book Attune Your Body with Dao-In and its companion DVD/videotape (available at www.taostar.com).
Please Note: The Dao-In levels were revised in December 2010 so that it is easier to use the Attune Your Body with Dao-In book and DVD to learn the form! Essentially, the sequence of 64 movements, as seen in the book and DVD, has been divided into thirds. So, Level 1 is the first 1/3rd of the sequence. Level 2 is the second 1/3rd of the sequence. Level 3 is the last 1/3rd of the sequence. So once you finish learning Level 3, then you know the whole form, in sequence, as it appears in the book and DVD! This should make learning the form easier and more straightforward since you can simply follow the sequence of the book and DVD to learn the movements for each level!
Eight Treasures
Purpose: Stimulating and accelerating the body's energy
Center: Upper, Middle and Lower Tan Tien
Goal: Strengthening the bodily kingdom
A beginning student of oriental styles of exercise might be interested in learning the Eight Treasures. It provides a good foundation for health, coordination and spirit. In the Ni Traidition heritage, the Eight Treasures are called "Pa Kun Dao In" which means "Channeling Exercise of the Eight Old Respectable Ones" or "Shien Jia Ba Jin Tu ", which means "Eight Groups of Exercise from the Immortal School." It has been nicknamed "Ba Duan Jin,".
The Eight Treasures are a form of Dao-In that was passed down from the Yellow Emperor through 74 generations of direct lineage in the tradition of the Integral Way to myself. They are a series of short exercises patterned after natural movements which, unlike Dao-In, are done standing up. Names such as "White Crane Washes Its Feathers" and "Move the Stars and Turn the Big Dipper" suggest a type of internal exercise (Chi Gong).
You do not have to be in excellent athletic condition to do Eight Treasures. They are not as complicated as T'ai Chi Chuan, but it is not necessary to do complicated arts. Complication is only an expression of athletic condition or talent.
The Eight Treasures can be practiced by anyone at any level of fitness. People with severe health problems can benefit from practicing the method of breathing and placing less emphasis on the physical aspect. As one's health improves, the more physical part of the exercises can be emphasized. Those who are already in excellent physical condition can benefit by developing a strong center (abdominal chi) and a more harmonious flow of energy.
Certain Chi Gong styles emphasize different aspects or parts of the body. The Eight Treasures work not only on all parts of the body, but they activate all twelve channels and the eight extraordinary channels. Other Chi Gong styles may be limited to activating only certain channels. It takes between 20 and 50 minutes to perform the entire sequence of movements, depending on how many repetitions you do and your speed.
Harmony Tai Chi
Purpose: Coordination of the entire body
Center: All three tan tien
Goal: Balancing the energy
There are many styles of Tai Chi being taught in Taiwan and China today. Harmony Tai Chi is similar to those styles, yet it maintains a gracefulness, naturalness and evenness that exceeds any of the newer styles. As its name implies, it brings about unity between the body, mind and spirit. It is a good practice for people of any age for health, enjoyment and artistic intention. It is the most suitable style for people who admire and would like to learn some simple Tai Chi.
In our teaching of the Integral Way, the path of spiritual self-development, the Eight Treasures is required, along with Harmony Tai Chi. Other styles of Tai Chi are not required, because they are for more advanced students who have a higher interest, ambition or enjoyment.
Harmony Tai Chi Movement (also called Trinity Style, Unity Movement, or Internal Harmony Tai Chi) contains the essence of the Chen, Yang and Wu styles. Chen movement was developed earlier than Yang and Wu, which are later, simplified styles. The Chen Style, which alternates between strength and softness, originally developed from martial arts. The Yang Style tends to be gentle and slow. The Wu style tends to be lighter and faster.
Since Harmony Tai Chi has a balanced focus on integrating the body, mind and spirit, it is the style most suitable for men or women of all ages. Because of its unique quality of capturing the essence of the Yang, Chen and Wu styles of Tai Chi, Harmony Tai Chi saves the serious students of Eastern Health and philosophy the necessity to learn these other styles separately. Instead, it allows for more time to pursue higher forms of learning that are specific in one’s cultivation of directing the focus on each of the three tan tiens.
One will readily note the expression of Yin and Yang energies throughout the Contained (Part I) and Expansive (Part II) segments of the long form, alternating between the two polarities in a continuum. The experience of this graceful dance of Yin and Yang energies teaches one to become more aware of the Universal Subtle Law in his or her daily life, immediately righting the imbalance and maintaining equilibrium in one’s thoughts and action to avoid violating the natural law. Harmony Tai Chi, as its name implies, harmonizes and unifies all three spheres of the human being, allowing its practitioner to experience his or her entire being in synchrony—the Spirit attains clarity in guiding the mind, the Mind achieves impartiality in communicating with the body, the Body carries out its physiology in sustaining life.
Harmony Tai Chi captures the gracefulness and the meditative benefits of the popular Yang Style, the power generating aspects of the Chen Style, and the agility of the Wu Style. It distills the unique benefits of all three styles into one form that can be easily learned by anyone who is interested in improving their health and well-being. Many serious students may learn Trinity Style as a stepping stone to the higher forms of Tai Chi Movement such as Gentle Path, Sky Journey or Infinite Expansion.
Harmony Tai Chi is a standing movement, done faster than Qigong with movements that are more sequential than the Eight Treasures. It takes about 5 minutes to perform the beginner’s 18-Step Harmony Tai Chi form, 8 minutes to perform the intermediate 28-Step form, and 25 to 30 minutes to perform the advanced 108-Step long form.
For more in-depth information about practicing the Harmony Tai Chi form, click HERE.
Tai Chi Sword
Purpose: Spiritual concentration
Center: Upper Tan Tien
Goal: Spiritual enhancement
Master Ni: As I view it, general sword dancing is for pleasure and has no spiritual meaning, although it has a lot of graceful postures. It is great to watch women, children or old people do a sword dance. If you use sword practice for spiritual purposes, however, then it will help your cultivation. Chi Gong, Dao-In and Eight Treasures can be the foundation on which practices such as Martial Arts, Sword Practice and Push Hands can be based.
In my school, the School of Internal Harmony, the sword is not for fighting or fencing. It is for developing spiritual concentration. Having good spiritual concentration affects the health of your body, mind and spirit in a positive way.
Self-Healing Chi Gong
The five movements are: stomach strengthening, liver cleansing, kidney fortifying, lung/immunity boosting and heart circulating. For example, if someone gets into a heated argument and becomes so upset that he or she cannot calm down, cannot eat, has a headache, and is very nervous, that person can practice the liver cleansing movement, which will drain the anger away within minutes.
Another example is someone who experiences bloating, distension and gas pains after eating. Instead of popping pills, the person can practice the stomach strengthening movement and experience relief in a short time. Self-Healing Chi Gong is easy to learn and use.
Crane Style Chi Gong
Purpose: Health
Center: According to instruction
Goal: Improve health and the nervous system
Crane Style Chi Gong was developed by Dr. Zhao Jin Xian in September, 1980, in Beijing. Since then its popularity has spread throughout China. Every day, more and more people are practicing it to cure chronic ailments or simply for the joy of staying healthy.
In the Orient, especially in China, Korea and Japan, the crane symbolizes longevity and peacefulness. It has a quiet, non-competitive character. The movements of Crane Style Chi Gong are based on those of the crane, which are graceful and harmonious like the water of a mountain stream. Crane Style Chi Gong is simple to learn and practice. As long as one's mind follows the flow of chi during the exercise, its therapeutic effect is pronounced and one's energy becomes better regulated and balanced.
Each section of Crane Style Chi Gong concentrates on moving chi to a different area, opening up different points and strengthening the chi flow throughout various meridians. A brief summary of each of the five sections will help explain the energetic movements.
Section 1: The main purpose is to allow the body's internal chi to communicate with the environment or to take in fresh energy from the universe and expel stale energy from the body.
Section 2: The purpose is to open up the three yang meridians and three yin meridians on the hands.
Section 3: This set is used to regulate the flow of chi in the Ren and Du channels by loosening the vertebrae, thus causing the yang chi to rise and the yin chi to sink.
Section 4: This series is practiced to release stagnation in the upper and lower limbs and improve chi circulation.
Section 5: The main purpose of this standing meditation and ending section is to regulate the mind, the respiration, and the body (or, in other words, concentration, breathing, and posture).
Crane-Style Chi Gong is a balanced, nourishing practice which not only strengthens and refines your chi, but can also bring about a marked improvement in almost every aspect of your life. Crane Style Chi Gong is a standing exercise. Its slow and graceful movements do not require great physical effort. It takes about 20 minutes to perform the entire sequence.
Taoist Meditation
Purpose: Uniting the mind with the body
When practicing meditation, there must be no skepticism about what you are doing. If you are skeptical, you cannot meditate in quietude with pure energy. Being centered and all-embracing is the basic spiritual practice called wu wei, which is described in the Tao Teh Ching. Doing nothing extra may be the most fundamental of all virtues, and the highest. This is a simple reference to meditation as a form of sitting, walking or standing Chi Gong.
Cosmic Tour Ba Gua Zahn
Purpose: Extending the physical nature to spiritual nature
Center: Lower Tan Tien with energy reaching to all points
Goal: Enjoyment of the cosmology of natural movement: "I move, so the universe moves."
In recent years, some communities and hospitals in China organized a test to compare the results and effects of doing Cosmic Tour to other kinds of exercise and sports. The results showed that Cosmic Tour is outstanding for the purposes of healing, rehabilitation and preventive maintenance.
As a physical art, Cosmic Tour is not only movement, it is also a body language for spiritual communication with yourself. If you practice it, you will learn to unite and develop your whole body, not just your intellect or your physical strength. For example, a dancer who waves a streamer of colored silk in the air is one with her cloth. Similarly, in Cosmic Tour you move your whole body, not only on the physical level but also on the more subtle levels.
In Cosmic Tour, the circular movement resembles the spiritual maturity of an individual's personality. A mature person will not hit an obstruction but will go around it to avoid friction or damage. Circular movement is the cosmological framework of the universe and life. Because their orbits are defined, heavenly bodies do not collide and thus find endless life and infinite transformation.
The whole set of movements in Cosmic Tour is based on continuous rotation in many directions. Many circles, big and small, are made. This is why it is called Cosmic Tour. The sixty-four movements of Cosmic Tour were developed according to the principles expressed in the Book of Changes and its sixty-four hexagrams.
Cosmic Tour exemplifies the Eight Great Manifestations of nature that are expressed as different energies in the Book of Changes, which is also called the I Ching. The Book of Changes explains the eight arrangements of natural energy in great depth. The pleasure and benefit you receive from the philosophy of the I Ching with the Eight Great Manifestations can be expanded by doing the Cosmic Tour. Are we not making a cosmic tour in our lifetime when we physically enter the world?
It takes approximately 20 minutes to perform Merry-Go-Round, which is a simplified version of Cosmic Tour. It takes approximately 20 minutes to perform Cosmic Tour Ba Gua Zahn.
_____________________________________________________
Tao Teh Ching, Chapter 76
When a person is alive, he is soft and supple.
When a person dies, he becomes hard and rigid.
When a plant is alive, it is pliant and tender.
When a plant is dead, it becomes dry and brittle.
Hence, the hard and rigid are companions of the dead.
The soft and supple are companions of the living.
Therefore, a mighty army is ready to be vanquished.
A tree that is dry is ready for the ax.
The mighty and the great will be laid low.
The soft and the gentle will outlive them all.
(Translation and Elucidation from The Complete Works of Lao Tzu by
Hua-Ching Ni available at the Tao Store online)
THE CHI HEALTH INSTITUTE is the official organization offering professional-level education and certification in the Ni Family movement arts: Dao-In, Eight Treasures, Harmony Tai Chi, Tai Chi Sword, Self-Healing Qigong, Crane Style Qigong, Taoist Meditation, and Ba Gua. Following are descriptions of each of these forms.
Purpose: Happiness, longevity and self-attunement
Center: The whole body
Goal: No physical trouble
Dao-In (pronounced dow-een) is a series of movements that have traditionally been called "exercises for conducting physical energy." It is a collection of exercises, resembling hatha yoga, from achieved masters who practiced indoors on a mat. Wise people tried to find a practical way to improve the stagnation of physical energy. For example, if you lie down too long, when you get up you will be stiff, or part of your body will be sore. If you walk, stand, sit or do physical work for too long, certain muscles, or the muscles of the entire body, will react. This includes tendons, cartilage and bones. The principle of Dao-In is to make adjustments to your body as necessary. When you get up and do a few movements, the internal flow of energy is affected and stagnation can be prevented.
Once people began doing this physical energy-conducting, they discovered that it not only prevented stagnation, but it also improved their health and lengthened their life. Externally, it helps the muscles, tendons and bones. Internally, it helps different systems of the body function better, including the circulation, secretions and so forth. Its pure purpose is to nurture and attune your internal energy.
When you do Dao-In, the most important thing is relaxation. Some postures require more training of some of your muscles, so follow the principle of building your practice up slowly.
While it adjusts and attunes, Dao-In also generates, strengthens and invigorates your energy. There are five major parts to the whole system, three of which are the physical foundation. Another part is a meditation, and the concluding part is primarily focused on the face and head.
It takes about 30 minutes to perform the entire sequence of movements, but it is not necessary to do the entire set. For additional information please see Master Ni's book Attune Your Body with Dao-In and its companion DVD/videotape (available at www.taostar.com).
Please Note: The Dao-In levels were revised in December 2010 so that it is easier to use the Attune Your Body with Dao-In book and DVD to learn the form! Essentially, the sequence of 64 movements, as seen in the book and DVD, has been divided into thirds. So, Level 1 is the first 1/3rd of the sequence. Level 2 is the second 1/3rd of the sequence. Level 3 is the last 1/3rd of the sequence. So once you finish learning Level 3, then you know the whole form, in sequence, as it appears in the book and DVD! This should make learning the form easier and more straightforward since you can simply follow the sequence of the book and DVD to learn the movements for each level!
Eight Treasures
Purpose: Stimulating and accelerating the body's energy
Center: Upper, Middle and Lower Tan Tien
Goal: Strengthening the bodily kingdom
A beginning student of oriental styles of exercise might be interested in learning the Eight Treasures. It provides a good foundation for health, coordination and spirit. In the Ni Traidition heritage, the Eight Treasures are called "Pa Kun Dao In" which means "Channeling Exercise of the Eight Old Respectable Ones" or "Shien Jia Ba Jin Tu ", which means "Eight Groups of Exercise from the Immortal School." It has been nicknamed "Ba Duan Jin,".
The Eight Treasures are a form of Dao-In that was passed down from the Yellow Emperor through 74 generations of direct lineage in the tradition of the Integral Way to myself. They are a series of short exercises patterned after natural movements which, unlike Dao-In, are done standing up. Names such as "White Crane Washes Its Feathers" and "Move the Stars and Turn the Big Dipper" suggest a type of internal exercise (Chi Gong).
You do not have to be in excellent athletic condition to do Eight Treasures. They are not as complicated as T'ai Chi Chuan, but it is not necessary to do complicated arts. Complication is only an expression of athletic condition or talent.
The Eight Treasures can be practiced by anyone at any level of fitness. People with severe health problems can benefit from practicing the method of breathing and placing less emphasis on the physical aspect. As one's health improves, the more physical part of the exercises can be emphasized. Those who are already in excellent physical condition can benefit by developing a strong center (abdominal chi) and a more harmonious flow of energy.
Certain Chi Gong styles emphasize different aspects or parts of the body. The Eight Treasures work not only on all parts of the body, but they activate all twelve channels and the eight extraordinary channels. Other Chi Gong styles may be limited to activating only certain channels. It takes between 20 and 50 minutes to perform the entire sequence of movements, depending on how many repetitions you do and your speed.
Harmony Tai Chi
Purpose: Coordination of the entire body
Center: All three tan tien
Goal: Balancing the energy
There are many styles of Tai Chi being taught in Taiwan and China today. Harmony Tai Chi is similar to those styles, yet it maintains a gracefulness, naturalness and evenness that exceeds any of the newer styles. As its name implies, it brings about unity between the body, mind and spirit. It is a good practice for people of any age for health, enjoyment and artistic intention. It is the most suitable style for people who admire and would like to learn some simple Tai Chi.
In our teaching of the Integral Way, the path of spiritual self-development, the Eight Treasures is required, along with Harmony Tai Chi. Other styles of Tai Chi are not required, because they are for more advanced students who have a higher interest, ambition or enjoyment.
Harmony Tai Chi Movement (also called Trinity Style, Unity Movement, or Internal Harmony Tai Chi) contains the essence of the Chen, Yang and Wu styles. Chen movement was developed earlier than Yang and Wu, which are later, simplified styles. The Chen Style, which alternates between strength and softness, originally developed from martial arts. The Yang Style tends to be gentle and slow. The Wu style tends to be lighter and faster.
Since Harmony Tai Chi has a balanced focus on integrating the body, mind and spirit, it is the style most suitable for men or women of all ages. Because of its unique quality of capturing the essence of the Yang, Chen and Wu styles of Tai Chi, Harmony Tai Chi saves the serious students of Eastern Health and philosophy the necessity to learn these other styles separately. Instead, it allows for more time to pursue higher forms of learning that are specific in one’s cultivation of directing the focus on each of the three tan tiens.
One will readily note the expression of Yin and Yang energies throughout the Contained (Part I) and Expansive (Part II) segments of the long form, alternating between the two polarities in a continuum. The experience of this graceful dance of Yin and Yang energies teaches one to become more aware of the Universal Subtle Law in his or her daily life, immediately righting the imbalance and maintaining equilibrium in one’s thoughts and action to avoid violating the natural law. Harmony Tai Chi, as its name implies, harmonizes and unifies all three spheres of the human being, allowing its practitioner to experience his or her entire being in synchrony—the Spirit attains clarity in guiding the mind, the Mind achieves impartiality in communicating with the body, the Body carries out its physiology in sustaining life.
Harmony Tai Chi captures the gracefulness and the meditative benefits of the popular Yang Style, the power generating aspects of the Chen Style, and the agility of the Wu Style. It distills the unique benefits of all three styles into one form that can be easily learned by anyone who is interested in improving their health and well-being. Many serious students may learn Trinity Style as a stepping stone to the higher forms of Tai Chi Movement such as Gentle Path, Sky Journey or Infinite Expansion.
Harmony Tai Chi is a standing movement, done faster than Qigong with movements that are more sequential than the Eight Treasures. It takes about 5 minutes to perform the beginner’s 18-Step Harmony Tai Chi form, 8 minutes to perform the intermediate 28-Step form, and 25 to 30 minutes to perform the advanced 108-Step long form.
For more in-depth information about practicing the Harmony Tai Chi form, click HERE.
Tai Chi Sword
Purpose: Spiritual concentration
Center: Upper Tan Tien
Goal: Spiritual enhancement
Sword practice that is much more graceful than general martial arts. As a form of spiritual cultivation on a level that transforms the spirit from hormonal level to become chi and transfers the general physical chi to become sen, spiritual potency. With this in mind, sword practice can be considered a spiritual practice.
Master Ni: As I view it, general sword dancing is for pleasure and has no spiritual meaning, although it has a lot of graceful postures. It is great to watch women, children or old people do a sword dance. If you use sword practice for spiritual purposes, however, then it will help your cultivation. Chi Gong, Dao-In and Eight Treasures can be the foundation on which practices such as Martial Arts, Sword Practice and Push Hands can be based.
In my school, the School of Internal Harmony, the sword is not for fighting or fencing. It is for developing spiritual concentration. Having good spiritual concentration affects the health of your body, mind and spirit in a positive way.
Self-Healing Chi Gong
Purpose: Therapeutic
Center: According to the problem
Goal: General health
Many Chi Gong exercises are designed for general health improvement and maintenance, but Self-Healing Chi Gong is specifically therapeutic. Self-Healing Chi Gong consists of basic, simple exercises for each organ system of the body, and its effects are immediate. The advantage of this system is that it gives people tools that empower them to help themselves. It is a self-regulating technique, similar to self-administered acupressure for a headache, the flu or a cough. All disease begins with a small imbalance. Self-Healing Chi Gong helps you become more in tune with and accountable for your own health.
Center: According to the problem
Goal: General health
Many Chi Gong exercises are designed for general health improvement and maintenance, but Self-Healing Chi Gong is specifically therapeutic. Self-Healing Chi Gong consists of basic, simple exercises for each organ system of the body, and its effects are immediate. The advantage of this system is that it gives people tools that empower them to help themselves. It is a self-regulating technique, similar to self-administered acupressure for a headache, the flu or a cough. All disease begins with a small imbalance. Self-Healing Chi Gong helps you become more in tune with and accountable for your own health.
The five movements are: stomach strengthening, liver cleansing, kidney fortifying, lung/immunity boosting and heart circulating. For example, if someone gets into a heated argument and becomes so upset that he or she cannot calm down, cannot eat, has a headache, and is very nervous, that person can practice the liver cleansing movement, which will drain the anger away within minutes.
Another example is someone who experiences bloating, distension and gas pains after eating. Instead of popping pills, the person can practice the stomach strengthening movement and experience relief in a short time. Self-Healing Chi Gong is easy to learn and use.
Crane Style Chi Gong
Purpose: Health
Center: According to instruction
Goal: Improve health and the nervous system
Crane Style Chi Gong was developed by Dr. Zhao Jin Xian in September, 1980, in Beijing. Since then its popularity has spread throughout China. Every day, more and more people are practicing it to cure chronic ailments or simply for the joy of staying healthy.
In the Orient, especially in China, Korea and Japan, the crane symbolizes longevity and peacefulness. It has a quiet, non-competitive character. The movements of Crane Style Chi Gong are based on those of the crane, which are graceful and harmonious like the water of a mountain stream. Crane Style Chi Gong is simple to learn and practice. As long as one's mind follows the flow of chi during the exercise, its therapeutic effect is pronounced and one's energy becomes better regulated and balanced.
Each section of Crane Style Chi Gong concentrates on moving chi to a different area, opening up different points and strengthening the chi flow throughout various meridians. A brief summary of each of the five sections will help explain the energetic movements.
Section 1: The main purpose is to allow the body's internal chi to communicate with the environment or to take in fresh energy from the universe and expel stale energy from the body.
Section 2: The purpose is to open up the three yang meridians and three yin meridians on the hands.
Section 3: This set is used to regulate the flow of chi in the Ren and Du channels by loosening the vertebrae, thus causing the yang chi to rise and the yin chi to sink.
Section 4: This series is practiced to release stagnation in the upper and lower limbs and improve chi circulation.
Section 5: The main purpose of this standing meditation and ending section is to regulate the mind, the respiration, and the body (or, in other words, concentration, breathing, and posture).
Crane-Style Chi Gong is a balanced, nourishing practice which not only strengthens and refines your chi, but can also bring about a marked improvement in almost every aspect of your life. Crane Style Chi Gong is a standing exercise. Its slow and graceful movements do not require great physical effort. It takes about 20 minutes to perform the entire sequence.
Taoist Meditation
Purpose: Uniting the mind with the body
Center: Middle Tan Tien
Goal: Gathering energy
Meditation is one aspect of self-cultivation and an important part of spiritual self-improvement. Meditation is sometimes a harvest, and at other times a refinement.
Goal: Gathering energy
Meditation is one aspect of self-cultivation and an important part of spiritual self-improvement. Meditation is sometimes a harvest, and at other times a refinement.
When practicing meditation, there must be no skepticism about what you are doing. If you are skeptical, you cannot meditate in quietude with pure energy. Being centered and all-embracing is the basic spiritual practice called wu wei, which is described in the Tao Teh Ching. Doing nothing extra may be the most fundamental of all virtues, and the highest. This is a simple reference to meditation as a form of sitting, walking or standing Chi Gong.
Cosmic Tour Ba Gua Zahn
Purpose: Extending the physical nature to spiritual nature
Center: Lower Tan Tien with energy reaching to all points
Goal: Enjoyment of the cosmology of natural movement: "I move, so the universe moves."
In recent years, some communities and hospitals in China organized a test to compare the results and effects of doing Cosmic Tour to other kinds of exercise and sports. The results showed that Cosmic Tour is outstanding for the purposes of healing, rehabilitation and preventive maintenance.
As a physical art, Cosmic Tour is not only movement, it is also a body language for spiritual communication with yourself. If you practice it, you will learn to unite and develop your whole body, not just your intellect or your physical strength. For example, a dancer who waves a streamer of colored silk in the air is one with her cloth. Similarly, in Cosmic Tour you move your whole body, not only on the physical level but also on the more subtle levels.
In Cosmic Tour, the circular movement resembles the spiritual maturity of an individual's personality. A mature person will not hit an obstruction but will go around it to avoid friction or damage. Circular movement is the cosmological framework of the universe and life. Because their orbits are defined, heavenly bodies do not collide and thus find endless life and infinite transformation.
The whole set of movements in Cosmic Tour is based on continuous rotation in many directions. Many circles, big and small, are made. This is why it is called Cosmic Tour. The sixty-four movements of Cosmic Tour were developed according to the principles expressed in the Book of Changes and its sixty-four hexagrams.
Cosmic Tour exemplifies the Eight Great Manifestations of nature that are expressed as different energies in the Book of Changes, which is also called the I Ching. The Book of Changes explains the eight arrangements of natural energy in great depth. The pleasure and benefit you receive from the philosophy of the I Ching with the Eight Great Manifestations can be expanded by doing the Cosmic Tour. Are we not making a cosmic tour in our lifetime when we physically enter the world?
It takes approximately 20 minutes to perform Merry-Go-Round, which is a simplified version of Cosmic Tour. It takes approximately 20 minutes to perform Cosmic Tour Ba Gua Zahn.
_____________________________________________________
Tao Teh Ching, Chapter 76
When a person is alive, he is soft and supple.
When a person dies, he becomes hard and rigid.
When a plant is alive, it is pliant and tender.
When a plant is dead, it becomes dry and brittle.
Hence, the hard and rigid are companions of the dead.
The soft and supple are companions of the living.
Therefore, a mighty army is ready to be vanquished.
A tree that is dry is ready for the ax.
The mighty and the great will be laid low.
The soft and the gentle will outlive them all.
(Translation and Elucidation from The Complete Works of Lao Tzu by
Hua-Ching Ni available at the Tao Store online)
