concepts:- Buddhism (samsara, Zen)
- Taoism (wu-wei)
- force (turning, centripetal and centrifugal, silk reeling)
- rooster versus bear
- leg drive
- coiling snakes
- 1st palm change
- 2nd palm change
- 3rd palm change
- 4th palm change
i arrived to find Simon and Tommy, 2 of the new baji students, having breakfast in their car watching the matches on the tennis courts. i ended up chatting with them while we stretched and warmed up. eventually, while we waited for the rest of the class to show up, they decided to go on an expedition to find a bathroom (the one in the park has been closed for the last 2 months), leaving me to practice in the sun.
everyone else began showing up gradually. Sifu arrived to find just me and Laura discussing Adam Hsu's book The Sword Polisher's Record, which she had brought for me to borrow. seeing me holding the book, he asked if we had read Sifu Adam's new book Lone Sword Against the Cold Night Sky (which is apparently just out). he said that the title was actually a line from a well-known Chinese poem on Buddhism, and refers to the idea that a person wishing to reach enlightenment should live in each moment bereft of the weight of the past or the future, just like a sword being held up to a night sky is alone without any obstructions to impede it.
Tao and Zen (now versus then)
we ended up having a philosophical discussion on the nature of living, martial arts training, Taoism, and Buddhism. nothing super deep, but enough to reflect on the idea of living in the moment, and understanding the distinction between what a person can manage (the right now) versus what they cannot (the past and the future). Sifu said that the moment (or this moment) is the only thing each of us really experiences, and so whatever came before and whatever will come is entirely beyond our grasp.
this led us into the notion of Zen (or, as it is known in Chinese, Ch'an), which is the popular (but in my mind, very distorted and very superficially understood in the West) branch of Buddhism known for its ascetic lifestyle and laconic modes of teaching. essentially, part of Zen involves the idea of the "Zen moment," in which a person is completely embedded a specific moment in time. for Zen, or Ch'an, living in the moment is a crucial component of realizing existence, and hence a key element on the path to enlightenment. it sounds simple, but often proves difficult to live.
we went from there to talk about samsara, which is a Buddhist term to describe the world (both literally, as in the physical planet and its inhabitants, as well as figuratively, in terms of the actions, events, and things taking place around us). the word was originally derived from Hindu notions of existence being a recurring, endless, miserable cycle of life and death. Buddhism, in declaring its belief that the state of the world is suffering, ascribes to its setting the domain of samsara; all suffering, all human living that we can see, is part of samsara. in a way, it's comparable to Christian notions of the "mortal" or the "mundane" world (as opposed to the "ethereal" or "spiritual" realm). Samsara is what Buddhists seek relief from, and from it we escape through enlightenment.
but to deal with samsara, much less escape from it, Buddhism calls for a certain level of detachment. we need to de-link ourselves from the world and concerns for the world, and instead focus on achieving enlightenment. which is where Ch'an places its belief of the Zen moment as a mechanism for detachment from samsara.
i raised the question of Taoism and its approach to suffering in relation to Buddhism. Sifu described Taoism as a way of life, out of the various ways developed in Chinese history. in particular, Taoism asserts the concept of wu-wei, or living in accordance with existence. in some aspects, it is very similar to the idea of the Zen moment, since wu-wei in part calls for the acceptance of each moment as it comes, and living with what there is as opposed to struggling to control it. Sifu commented that so much of the modern world is about trying to dominate the world around us, whereas Taoism recognizes the fight for domination invariably causes suffering, and that a better way is wu-wei.
Sifu ended the discussion by tying this back into martial arts training. he said that one of the points of martial arts was focusing on the now, or on the moment. this is necessary to learn martial arts, but it is also a product of martial arts. concentration on each moment helps practitioners connect with the physical movements of techniques, in terms of their nuances and the intent behind each one. conversely, proper execution of techniques helps practitioners focus on the sense of motion independent of the world around us, and so detaches us from things extraneous from the moment of physical movement. more than this, it helps to fully empower martial arts, because correct performance of techniques call for the unity of mental understanding and intent, physical action, and spiritual calm that allows the techniques to be at their most effective. it is in these ways that martial arts become what has been described as a "moving meditation" capable of enriching a person's entire existence.
which is why so many martial arts instructors tell students that it is necessary to "let go." that is, students have to let go of their mental baggage--negative experiences, harmful emotions, poor lessons, anything that can impact their learning of new (and better) things. Sifu mentioned that his instructors told him that students have to "let things go" in order to "pick things up." according to Jason, this is what often impedes students from truly learning a martial art; students can go for years but never advance. some students just have too many things within them stopping them (in kung fu, in school, in life...). which is why instructors cannot guarantee that every student will become a master. all an instructor can do is teach; the student has to learn, which is an entirely different set of variables.
i found this probably the best part of today. it tied in well with other parts of my life. i've been doing quite a bit of research and exploration of these kinds of things on my own as part of my journey into Ironman. some of you may know that i do ultra-endurance events. in fact, this was (and is) my past-time outside of kung fu. but what many of you do not know is that i've been using triathlon (and mostly Ironman) as a vehicle for a journey into spirituality (not just my own, but for the subject in general). it's somewhat comparable to the ascetic traditions of most of the world's religions, which in their own respective ways have asserted that it is in moments (there's that word again, get it?) of supreme physical effort that one can find the most profound spiritual experiences and insights. i'm working on a book about it, involving entries from my other blog for triathlon, as well as deeply personal essays from experiences in my own life. the book will be finished when it is finished--it's a long journey, and Ironman is just as long, and i know i'll need several trips down that path to really express what i want to express.
for some references, you can check out:
- zen: http://goto.bilkent.edu.tr/gunes/ZEN/zenphilosophy.htm
- samsara: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/samsara.html
- wu-wei: http://www.jadedragon.com/archives/june98/tao.html
- the spiritual path of Ironman: http://jonathaninthedistance.blogspot.com/2007/01/world-of-what-is-possible.html
by this time, Phunsak, Kieun, Art, and the remainder of the jian shu class had arrived. Sifu promptly ordered Phunsak to lead us through a brief session of the 1 and 2-hand drills while he went to work with the baji students.
Phunsak this time shortened the repetitions to 6. this sped things up somewhat, although not by much. by the time we had finished with the drills, Sifu had already returned to start us on circle walking.
he told everyone to begin circle walking, and to perform the palm changes repeatedly on our own while walking. he asked that we all find our own rhythm, and to find our own respective paces. this was so that we could get a better feel of the forces involved in the palm changes out of the circle. in particular, he wanted us to feel:
- the turning force generated as we stepped into ko-bu and turned to start the palm changes,
- the centripetal and centrifugal forces that appeared as we alternated rotational direction both within the palm changes and while walking on the circle, and
- the chan si jin ("silk reeling") force that came as we twisted our limbs and bodies in the palm changes.
Sifu said that this class he was taking time to observe each of us individually to correct our form.
i think he had set today in the curriculum as a review session to "polish" technique and get everyone settled on the 1st 3 palm changes in the circle. which is good--i am sure that there's plenty of room for all of us to improve our technique, and i am positive that there are things each of us are missing (and should not be).
1st palm change
we began with the 1st palm change. last week Sifu had pointed out to me that my hand position was wrong (and it turns out not just a little wrong, but WAY wrong) for pushing moon out the door. my upper hand was being held out in line with the elbow horizontal to an imaginary door. this is wrong. it should actually be with a dropped elbow and the hand vertical against an imaginary door. which makes sense, since this puts a practitioner in the same position as one of the 2-person drills related to the 1st palm change (reference: day 11...looking back on it, my thoughts are duh, no wonder that drill was on the same day we reviewed 1st palm change!). this time, i kept it a point to keep my hands in the correct position.
2nd palm change
after some time, Jason had everyone proceed to the 2nd palm change. here, i knew i needed to make some corrections, as during the course of the week i had reviewed the handouts Sifu and Mike had given to me on 64 Palms and found out that i had been employing black bear turns its body when i should have been employing golden rooster spreads its wings. what had puzzled me, however, was the difference between the 2, since both appear very similar to me (they both involve getting into a low stance with spread legs, with both arms moving across the torso away from each other).
during a break, i asked Phunsak and Kieun to clarify the distinction. apparently, golden rooster spreads its wings distributes weight unevenly between the legs in 60/40, with the front leg holding 40% of the body weight, while black bear puts the weight evenly. in addition, golden rooster is not symmetrical in hand and arm movements, with the leading arm actually serving to push the opponent away, whereas black bear is symmetrical with a leading arm that acts to push the opponent to their backside. while both techniques involve sinking, the end result is that golden rooster causes the opponent to fall down away from the practitioner, while black bear causes the opponent to fall on their back next to the practitioner.
Sifu also emphasized that everyone remember that golden rooster spreads its wings is supposed to be immediately followed by purple swallow skims the water. too many people--including too many of us--were getting lazy and skipping purple swallow to go directly to embrace the moon. the problem, he said, was that embrace the moon is supposed to be a pushing motion, and that the pushing motion would be ineffective without purple swallow, since purple swallow 1) guides the opponent into your push, and 2) actually generates force from a combination of leg forces and torso rotation.
i had noticed the added power of the torso rotation during my individual practice time during the course of the week. i could feel the additional strength generated by what appears to be a throwing of the body weight (or mass) of the torso out of purple swallow into embrace the moon. so i felt some comfort with this.
what i hadn't realized, however, was the leg force. in fact, this had completely escaped me. Sifu did purple swallow skims the water several times in slow motion, and directed everyone's attention to the rear leg. he said that it was important to exaggerate the motions of the technique in practice, so we scooped very low with the lead hand and then followed it up, with the legs acting as the means to lower and raise the body. in addition, he said it was crucial that we drive with the rear leg as we rose, so that it generated a propulsive force up and forward into the opponent. it is the rear leg that generates power in the technique. Jason commented that in combat, we would not exaggerate the movement, but that for training it was good to exaggerate the movements to better learn the correct technique and improve our understanding of its mechanics.
3rd palm change
next, we moved on to the 3rd palm change. here, Sifu pointed out 3 major problems that i was having.
first, my leading hand was not lifted high enough. apparently, it's supposed to be far enough above the head to engage an opponent's high strike using the first 2 techniques in the palm change: flying horse soars in the sky and yellow bird swoops down for food.
second, i was not using my legs to lower my body in hawk pierces through the sky. this technique is supposed to be an expression of fire and water, with one hand rising (fire) and the other hand matching the torso as it goes down (water). but the torso is supposed to be upright; if the legs are not serving to lower the torso, the result is that i tend to lean forward (or slouch) to see the fire-and-water effect. hawk pierces through the sky is supposed to produce the same result as black bear turns its body, with the sinking legs and arm acting to push the opponent onto their backside while the rising hand acts to engage an opponent's attempted strike.
third (and this by far was my most egregious error of the day), my hands were too far away from my body in both hawk pierces through the sky and big serpent coils its body. Sifu said that this is dangerous, as it creates openings for the opponent to attack the body, and also exposes the arms to being grabbed. according to Jason, i need to keep my hands and arms close to the torso. he said i need to imagine that my hands and arms are snakes coiling around my body.
i found that the adjustments for this palm change not so easy. i'm still working my mind around the mechanics of the form, and having to rethink my leg movements and hand and arm positioning left me having to sort through things. i ended up having to take some time to myself to work through the revised mechanics s-l-o-w-l-y, so that i could get a better feel (and i mean that literally in terms of mind-body sensations) for the form when it is done properly.
4th palm change
Sifu wrapped up class with the 4th palm change. he told us just to experiment with it in the circle for today, and that we would be refining it more closely next week.
i had already attempted this during the week (what can i say, it's hard to resist the temptation of something that appears to be a very close logical next step in the progression of palm changes in the circle). as a result, i felt some level of comfort with this. of course, i found that doing it at high(er) speed was a bit of a challenge, and that my balance suffered at high speed in transitioning between techniques. but i figure this is something i can work on, and so it's not something to panic about...yet.
after awhile, the baji students came over to say goodbye, whereupon Sifu lined us up and dismissed us for the day.
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