- chi kung (level 1)
forms:
- 5th palm change
- tantui (lines 1-4)
but i had swapped contact info with John Eagles, one of Jason's intermediate students, and we'd scheduled a Saturday meeting, figuring it would be a good chance to catch up on some of the things i had missed from previous weeks and practice some of the other things i hadn't quite figured out. since we both lived near Pasadena, we met in Garfield Park, which is a small grassy park in South Pasadena just off Mission St.
i told John that i'd wanted to go over what he'd showed us a few weeks ago with chi kung level 1, as well as the 5th palm change. John said that he was fine with that, and that he'd probably also do some jian shu (Chinese sword) practice on his own.
John has been with Sifu Jason for about 4 years. from what i can tell, he seems to have developed a pretty good understanding of a lot of Jason's teachings pertaining to bagua open-hand as well as weapons training, although i'm sure he'll deny it. John also seems to be a very laid-back, receptive, and generous personality. i find him to be one of the more open students in Jason's class in terms of entertaining questions, engaging in discussion, and demonstrating lessons. sometimes, i find him almost too receptive and generous--he'll often provide more information that i can readily digest, and i find myself having to parse out my questions to him to control the flow of information to a manageable stream.
chi kung (level 1)
John had led the early arrival students through this some weeks ago (reference day 6: 4th palm change and application), but at the time i was overwhelmed with the information involved.
to summarize from the prior session, level 1 chi kung involves 9 exercises following the 8-sided taoist symbol (1 exercise for each side, plus 1 for the center of the symbol). this 8-sided figure is named bagua (hence, the origin of the name of the martial art based on it), with a trigram for each side. each side also has corresponding meanings in taoist alchemy, cosomology, and philosophy, with associated elements (yin and yang permutations of wood, earth, fire, heaven, and water), animals, fortunes (as in fortune-telling), emotions, and numbers. further complicating things is that there is a pre-natal and post-natal bagua figure. in essence, the 8-sided figure appears to be the basis for all of taoist teachings, principles, and way of life.
i'd managed to scribble down a basic diagram when John had led people through it the first time, and then with Ching-Tszieh's help had filled in some of the terminology and concepts. i'd subsequently taken some time to do research on the internet to clean up my scribbling and generate a cleaner copy of the 8-sided diagram.
unfortunately, i wasn't able to do much with the exercises other than collect a vague and foggy recollection. i'd asked Art for some help, but he hadn't been able to do much since it was at the end of a class and everyone had been leaving.
i was a little surprised when John said that there were actually 3 levels of chi-kung, with level 1 just being for chi-gathering. he offered to show me more than just level 1, but i told him that was pretty much all i could absorb and that i'd be satisfied with this. he shrugged, and we started off slowly.
level 1 chi-kung starts by facing northwest, performing the associated exercise synchronizing slow physical movement and breathing, and then proceeding around the 8 points of the compass, facing in each direction and performing the respective corresponding exercise, until finally finishing and facing the center. having done some of the background work, i was able to follow along with John much better. it also seemed to help to remember the exercises in sets of 2, since there seems to be a connection between pairs of exercises, especially consecutive ones. it also helped to understand that each exercise is meant to gather chi into distinct parts of the body. as we went through the 8 exercises, John named the element and the body part related to each one.
near the end, John made an interesting comment to me. he said that chi was something that can't be forced. he said that the harder you try to find it, and the more physical effort you put into performing kung fu techniques, the more difficult it is to find chi. to make his point, he held up a fist and squeezed it, then said "if you squeeze it [chi], it'll just ooze out."
i think i can remember the set of exercises, although i promptly forgot the breathing...which i know is probably one of the most important parts. this will probably need quite a bit more of work.
5th palm change
after the chi-kung, we took a number of minutes to go through the stances. John then said he wanted to review all of the first 4 palm changes.
this was expedient enough, although we had to stop and discuss which palm change was which--i, being a beginner, am still having to mechanically sort out the distinctions between each palm change, and John, being more advanced, has to figure out which are the correct 4 palm changes from all the palm changes he knows.
we also had to stop before starting the 5th palm change. Sifu Jason broke this palm change into different sections, since it is a longer one involving more nuanced (as in not as intuitively obvious) movements and combat applications. John and i did a few dry runs to figure things out, then did several runs of the entire sequence we've covered in class to date. John commented that he thinks there's actually another section of the palm change that Jason will show us, since what we're doing in class doesn't quite match his memory. despite this, i was happy just to review what we had, and get a better feel for the entire sequence of movements.
tantui (lines 1-4)
after we'd gone through the 5th palm change, John asked me if there was anything else i wanted to know. in particular, he asked me if i knew anything about tantui. i said i knew the first 2 lines, but that i'd like to pick up the 3rd line.
with that, John lined up next to me, and we immediately went through the first 2 lines. he watched and corrected me on lines 1 and 2, and then took me through line 3. to me, line 3 is very similar to line 1, in that it involves wide circular movements of the arms in a vertical plane. it differs in that it incorporates successive punches in opposing directions. i'd tried to figure it out on my own, but there were a couple of points that i needed help going through.
John demonstrated line 3 several times, then had me perform it with him. after stopping to watch me, he seemed comfortable with my performance, and then said we should go through line 4.
line 4 is a rather complicated sequence of movements, involving an initial low stance rising into a forward facing kick and punch, which are then followed by a reversal of direction and backwards steps done in conjunction with a series of punches. it is awkward, somewhat befuddling, and for me entirely non-intuitive. i managed to get a sense of it after awhile, but not enough to feel comfortable. like so many other things in this class, this will take some practice.
John offered to show me line 5, but i told him i didn't think i was ready for this yet. which was the truth. i'm not. and it will probably be some time before i am.
by this time, we were wrapping up. we had started at 9:30 am, and it was now close to 11. John had originally planned on doing some jian shu practice on his own, but i could tell he had forgone that and was done for the day--i certainly hoped it wasn't because of me. we chatted for a little bit, and then i packed up and left to run some errands.
with the material we had gone over, i felt that i'd gotten plenty to think about and digest, even if it was stuff that i'd gotten before. i'm probably going to have to go over it again with Sifu Jason (and maybe even again after that...) to get things down.
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