Wonderful! Practice Tai Chi in yoga practice

In the Tai Chi system, Tai Chi frame practice, like yoga asana practice, is both "body refinement" and is the initial step towards the ultimate spiritual home. Through the Taijiquan frame practice itself, it is possible to achieve the realm of "invisible and imageless, the whole body is transparent, the nature is forgotten, and the chime hangs in the West Mountain" as stated in "Shoumi Ge". In other words, Tai Chi practice is given ultimate meaning at the beginning of the "shape refining" stage, and some guiding principles are put forward throughout the practice during boxing practice. These principles have in fact always existed in yoga asana practice, although many have not been explicitly stated. The practice principles in the Taiji Boxing Frame represent some common rules in the primary practice and can be used for reference in different genres of yoga practice.

The practice principle of Tai Chi frame can be divided into two parts. One is the principle of body posture, which focuses on tranquility, and the other is the principle of body movement, which focuses on initiative. However, the two are integrated with each other. In action, we must maintain the requirements of stillness, and stillness implies the principle of stillness.

1. Principles of body shape

The highest principle of body shape is "upright". Its essence is called in Buddhist practice,"If the body is straight, the pulse is straight, and if the pulse is straight, the heart is straight." For yoga practice, it is very important to keep the three main meridians of the body in the left, middle and right smooth and the flow of qi to awaken and guide the kundalini. It is very important to keep the body upright in the pose.

In the ancient boxing manual, the requirements for body techniques are very summarized, such as "standing upright and comfortable, supporting the eight sides","lifting strength with a virtual collar, concentrating qi in the dantian, and being impartial". Because most of the true skills of Tai Chi are passed down orally and personally by the master, there are few written records. After entering modern times, due to the popularization of Taijiquan, its body shape requirements were gradually refined and clear in words.

"The head is upright and the neck is upright, and the neck is strong."

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that "the head is the highest place of clearing and emptiness" and the head is the total gathering place of all the meridians. All the essence qi of the five organs and the clearing and yang qi of the six organs gather here. Therefore, paying attention to the correct posture of the head during practice is not only the key to being upright in the whole body, but also an important method to induce the rise of qi and blood to nourish the brain and enrich the spirit, and strengthen the function of the god to dominate all life activities. For conditioning body shape, the head posture plays a key role.

Head upright means that the head is naturally vertical and cannot be tilted forward and backward. If the neck is upright, the two major tendons behind the head will naturally be upright. The two major tendons behind the head are the way for the middle qi to flow up and down. If the neck is not straight, the circulation of qi and blood in the meridians will be blocked, affecting the movement of the whole body.

If your head is tilted off during yoga pose practice, your spirit will easily be depressed and your body will have difficulty achieving balance. When the balance imbalance of the body leaning forward and backward or tilting left and right occurs during exercise, you can correct it by hanging the roof. For example, in the tree pose, in addition to focusing your gaze on a fixed point, you can also use your mind to feel the top of your head extending upward. However, it should be noted that in cases of deficiency, the deficiency leads the deficiency, only if it is intended. You cannot exert too much force. If you exert force, the neck will be strong and the qi and blood will not flow.

The classic yoga pose, Tadasana, as the basis of all standing three-dimensional poses, also puts forward the same requirements: Tada is a mountain, and sama means vertical and immovable. As the name suggests, it means that standing must stand like a mountain, running up and down, and standing still.

In breathing control, there are similar requirements: face forward and stand up straight. Many people unconsciously bow their backs during the practice process, but they do not know that this affects the circulation of qi vessels.

"The chest is empty and the chest is solid, and the top is weak and the bottom is solid."

Chest space includes two requirements: "chest containing" and "chest opening". The triangular area between the sternum and the nipple is slightly contained. The correct way to contain the chest is to relax the chest so that the aforementioned triangular area presents a natural contained state.

Open chest means that the chest is relaxed and unfolded to both sides, but not to expand outwardly with force. Open the chest and contain the chest to form a chest space.

Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the heart and lungs live together in the chest, and the heart governs the blood, which is the driving force for the circulation of qi and blood in the body. The lungs govern the qi, govern breathing, and face all meridians. The chest is where the Yin meridians meet. The Shanzhong is also a large acupuncture point in the human body. It is also called the upper Dantian. In yoga, it is the heart chakra. Chest space can smooth the exchange of qi and blood in the five internal organs and yin meridians, that is, strengthen the intensity of breathing without increasing the breathing rate to reduce asthma during exercise.

Take the mountain stance as an example, keep your body on a line. The chest cavity should be expanded and the shoulder muscles should sink backwards and downward. With the relaxation of the shoulder joints, the upper and lower diameters of the chest are lengthened, and the diaphragm is lifted and stretched, which not only lowers the center of gravity and makes the body more stable, but also reduces the pressure on the heart and massages the abdominal cavity.

The chest is empty and the abdomen is naturally solid. With the help of abdominal breathing or anti-abdominal breathing, it can promote the restraint of the qi in the Dantian and strengthen the intra-abdominal pressure. During the movement, it not only completes the exercise of the muscles, bones, and meat, but also massages and exercises the spleen, stomach, liver, kidney, large intestine, small intestine, bladder and other viscera.

"Collapse your waist and tighten your buttocks, and your spine is upright"

The "waist collapse" here does not mean waist collapse as usual, but refers to loose waist, that is, lengthening the lower back.

Tai Chi practice places special emphasis on waist training, so it is called "Tai Chi waist". The waist is the master of the body's movements and the hub of the upper and lower bodies. The waist should be loosened and then it can collapse. Loose waist means that the lumbar spine, its ligaments and muscles on both sides of the waist are relaxed, thereby changing its natural bending state. After loosening, you will naturally feel heavy, with the intention of rising and growing. Straightening is not stiff, but pulled up and down, as if the vertebrae are gently superimposed together like a floating picture,"shaped like a nine-curved pearl."

When you collapse your waist, you must cooperate to tighten your buttocks. The physiological structure of the buttocks is slightly protruding outward and backward, but if it is too protruding, you must have the disease of bending down and lowering your head. During the practice of tightening the buttocks, pay attention to the inward suction of the buttocks. The purpose is to make the qi more concentrated in the dantian, and the other is to make the spine upright to maintain the center and tranquility of the trunk. When you tighten your buttocks, you must cooperate to lift your perineum. That is, at the perineum under the submarine wheel, lift it up in a virtual way. The perineum is the starting point of the Ren, Du and Chong meridians. Lifting the perineum can prevent air leakage in the front and rear yin.

Since Taijiquan is mostly performed on the basis of bending the knees and sitting on the hips, the requirement of "collapsing the waist and converging the buttocks" corresponds to this step. The same is true for yoga practice. In the straight three-dimensional pose, pay attention to the vertical spine and not to protrude too much and chest out. Otherwise, the qi will go up retrograde and cannot be attributed to the dantian. Standing unstable and easy to fall over. Moreover, the qi in the chest and abdomen cannot meet, the heart and kidney cannot meet, and the spirit is incompatible. If yin and yang are incompatible, all laws will not be available.

In a practical sense, in the pose, it is often emphasized that "the tail sinks and retracts inward", so that the lumbar spine is elongated, the pressure on the lumbar spine is dispersed and reduced, and the muscles of the lower back will not become stiff. Lumbar muscle strain has positive significance, and it needs to be paid attention to for pregnant women.

The above three points are all upright and upright methods. However, considering the different requirements of tai chi and yoga practices, the deeper meaning of righteousness must be emphasized in yoga asana practice. Being upright actually does not completely mean that the body is straight and rigid. Its connotation also includes upright in the oblique direction and upright in the spirit. The so-called righteousness is all about "using the noble spirit in the heart to move it to the whole. Although sometimes the body reclines, the natural upright spirit in the recline is used to dominate it." Therefore, it is "non-appearance, but it is what God naturally gets it." This is true among the various forms of Tai Chi, such as "earth-striking hammer". In yoga poses, such as in the triangle stretching equation, one should also maintain the integrity of the spirit. (Internship Editor: Wu Jinyu)