How to sequence the practice

[Anonymous]

I was wondering about where to start practicing the material.

Should start with the 8 postures, or just jump in with Santi / Pi Chuan.

I’ve got some CMC TCC experience, but I’ve never done anything with holding postures.

Thanks,
Peter

[Anonymous]

Hi Peter,

First, in the I-Chuan VIdeao Series, Bruce mentions how everything that’s done in standing in the book “Opening the Energy Gates of the Body” is a prerequisite to holding postures. So you might want to start there…

Otherwise, if you’re wondering whether to go for the I-Chuan postures or for San-Ti, the question was asked somewhere else on the forum and if I remember well it’s Bruce himself who answered something like “if you can, go for San-Ti directly”. Now I’m not sure where that was on the forum, nor if my quote is perfectly exact, but basically that’s what he said : SanTi works faster and is more efficient, but it’s harder to do.

Personally I initially tried to go directly for SanTi (having already done several years of Energy Gates Qi Gong), but I didn’t manage to sustain my practice. I then went for the first two postures of the I-Cuan series for some weeks, and then suddenly something clicked and I felt I was ready to go back to SanTi.
I use a lot of the information that’s in the I-Chuan series in my practice f SanTi, most notably the preliminary standing work with the Tantien before the hands are raised. It has made my SanTi much more manageable and (in a weird sort of way) enjoyable.

Hoping this helps,

Erwan

[Anonymous]

Hello Peter.

Based on my experiences i would say “it depends”… As illustrated in many of the material by Bruce there are a million ways to get to the goal of strengthening your chi awareness, flow and power. Some do it via hundreds of form movements, some just stand. Which method will depend on what kind of person you are – a good teacher will take this into account and devise a specific program jsut for you.

As an example if you do a ton of very intelectual work (computer programming, engineering …) you may want to do circle walking to compliment the standing. Just standing may be to “still” for your mind at the beginning. As you open up ore with the circle walk you can do more standing. If you come from a very structured background you may have to go the “massive amount of forms” method.

For me and for people i know i would say circle walking really made chi flow very real very fast. Then if you also do the 8 posture standing and the “open energy gates book” you can potentially get there very quick.

Open energy gates book is very important – it’s almost like a safety manual on chi flow.

Hope that helps!
Andrew

[Anonymous]

Hi Erwan,

Thanks for the response.

I guess it’s a big helping of I-Chuan with a side order of Opening the Energy Gates to start.

Peter

[Anonymous]

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the feedback.

I’m not quite sure what you mean by a “very structured background”.

Circle walking sounds great, especially since I’m in my brain / on the net a whole lot, but I pretty much exhausted my resources on the Hsing I program. Oh well…

Peter

Just remembered, there’s a circle walking chapter in great stilness which I already own.

[Anonymous]

Hi Peter

I guess it was a bit fuzzy…here’s more details.

People have different ways of learning. Some people learn via following instructions to the letter. They do not deviate from this path and just stick to it. The opposite end of the spectrum you see people that like learning on their own. They follow not one program but potentially many different programs. They take one path and then try variations often deviating and experimenting. An example of the 2 are Tai Chi (very structured), and Bagua (very free flowing). There are also very structured Bagua learning modes e.g. post birth forms, but by nature i would say you could classify the 2 like this.

If you generally found TaiChi chuan too long and structured – it takes sooo long to learn the forms. I would try doing simple repetitive movements. I was like that. The one move that sold me on bagua is opening your shoulder gate. You relax your arm hold it in front ( pointing straight ahead) and then move your whole arm in the direction you are pointing via pushing your shoulder forward. If you dont have too many blocks you should feel a tingling in you shoulder ball joint. This then radiates down your arm. In addition you should feel something going from your ball joint down your body into your leg. circle walking has you hold this and then walk in a cricle.

There are actually not too many books i could find on just circle walking – so maybe eventually i was thinking of writing one.

In reference to your very first question. Me personally i am doing standing / circle walking / etc… in the end they all compliment each other. But i think the first thing you should do is clear your blocks (opening the enrgy gates by Bruce) and start growing the feel of energy flow (your choice depending on your learning styles).

Hope that helps, and don’t give up. If you want more info posting some of your experiences would really help. e.g. “I found taichi way too confusing – too many moves!…I can feel the flow but it’s not that strong…”

Andrew

[Anonymous]

Andrew,

Sorry, I don’t know how I missed your post. Thanks for responding.

I managed to mess my foot up 2 weeks ago, so I’ve been holding off on practice till it heals up. (We’re dealing with a whole mess of snow here, and that doesn’t mix well with a recently broken ankle.)

While I was doing the standing, I was just working on building the time, and dealing with the jitters/discomforts of standing.

As far as the circle walking goes, man do I have a lot of work to do… It seems that I literally have trouble putting one foot in front of the other (at least as it should be done) without almost falling down every other step. Thinking maybe I should start with crawling…

I’m hoping to get back to it by the end of the week, pain permitting.

Good luck with the book, and once again Thanks & Sorry .

Peter

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