Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Tai Chi Martial Arts Best for Growing Chi Power

By Al Case


[]When it comes to building chi power, tai chi chuan is one of the best. What's interesting is that the concepts used in that martial art can be used in Karate, pa kua chang, hsing i, or whatever. The concepts are that universal.

One of the first drills one might encounter, if one finds a good tai chi chuan system, is 'holding the bowl.' This is an easy drill, at least for the first couple of minutes...smile. One simply assumes an hourglass stance, back very slightly rounded, and positions the arms as if holding a large pot.

The first challenge in this stance is that of the mental aspect. One's mind starts to have thoughts, and these thoughts are a distraction. Once one has dedicated himself to getting past this phenomena, the mind thoughts start to disappear.

The second challenge is actually concerned with the physical aspect. After an hour or so, the body tends to get a bit upset. It doesn't want to run energy through it, and it will shake, shiver, and even try to get sick.

Just ignore the mental yak yak, and forget the body protest, and focus yourself on the stillness of the mind (listening to the universe), and move chi power through the body. After a short while of holding the pot one will start to feel chi energy vibration, and there are many things you can do with this energy. You can move the power around the 'pot' of the upper limbs, you can circle it around the meridian running through the center of the front and back of the body, and you can do all sorts of other things.

What is of importance is that this posture has heavy martial arts function. After becoming competent at this posture, doing the karate kata called Sanchin will reveal amazing amounts of subtle chi power. One's martial arts abilities will truly start to glow.

This position, incidentally, is one of the ten arm positions, as described in 'The Perfect Technique,' (Quality Press). Thus, it becomes a centerpost for martial arts practice. The idea behind this book is that there are only ten positions the arms can assume that will 'run' chi energy, and that the position of the arms in the 'holding the bowl' position is the first and probably the most critical of these arm positions when developing chi in the martial arts.




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