Sinking

[Anonymous]

I’d just like to know if anyone has a bit of a checklist for sinking chi that gets it happening really well. I have only had a profound experience one time where my legs and soles of my feet completely relaxed and I was able to ride the rebound back up to about hip level such that I felt completely empty from my waist down.

I was playing around with a lot of things that day (opening joints, dantien work, imagining energy shooting down from my feet) and I just haven’t been able to replicate it again, but I would really like to figure it out so that I can try to add it into my tai chi form.

Any ideas?

[Anonymous]

Hey Cameron,

When you go through your body, is there any place that you connect to the feeling really well? Often, for example, sitting and resting your hand on your thigh, you can get a very clear sense of the feeling, just in the hand.

The idea is to try to learn from that feeling and mimic it in other places, so that eventually, the head-to-toe downward flow of sinking becomes stronger…but you have to find it somewhere before you can recognize it everywhere. You know?

[Anonymous]

The sensations are really just a bit of this and a bit of that. I have been looking for the water feeling that Bruce has described a few times but I have only really felt that a tiny bit in my thighs every so often where it feels like my skin is dripping down. That’s what I was presuming the overall feeling should be everywhere in my body. It’s still not clear as to exactly what it should feel like though, whether it’s that or something different. I think all that I’ve been doing so far in tai chi is sinking my center of gravity.

The sensation that I can do the best is actually opening my hips, knees, and ankles such that I feel a slight lift at each point. How I do that is merely think of releasing the joints down and expand them out at the same time. I don’t feel the sinking but it sure does become a lot more effortless to stand. My guess is that it’s a prerequisite to have all your gates open if you want to sink your chi properly. I haven’t got many of them but it’s something I’m working on. Even that is a bit hazy, like if I start at my bahui point I can get a sensation like someone is touching the point but whether that means it’s open I don’t know.

I think it’s as you said. Once I know pretty much what I’m looking for I should be ok, although I’m not sure the sensation feedback will always be the same. The trick is getting there without falling into the trap of THINKING that I’m doing it when I’m not.

[Anonymous]

Hey Cameron,
Here’s my Beginners perspective :

I’ve been working at sinking for over a year now and have taken as many perspectives on the topic as I could find….the one that helped me the most came from Mr. Kleiman ; I really loved his analogy of thinking of yourself as a sponge that soaks up all the fluids and chi and you basically just hang out and observe then wait until it fills up to the point where its leading edge begins to sink. And so you just build on it from there. Sometimes it takes me 10 or 15 mins to settle in and begin to feel that sponge quality. Of course some sessions feel more obvious than others and I’ve yet to feel the full-on, continuous, sheet of water sensation of sinking. However, I do feel like I’m making progress however slow it may be. Along the way, I’m also beginning to get the feeling of blockages popping up here and there. I’d like to think that after a while, sinking will become more and more obvious, consistent and concrete. At which point the time will come to learn scanning & dissolving then combine and practice them all seamlessly.
Thanks for the opportunity and I hope this somehow helps!

[Anonymous]

Is that thinking of bringing energy from outside into your body as well, or just taking what you have and making it evenly fill out? What is the leading edge?

I’ve played around with thinking of my tension going inwards towards the bone while also thinking of my energy expanding out towards the periphery. I think that could be similar to what you describe as it feels like when I expand outwards things fill out in my body more evenly.

I will play around with the sponge thing and report back what I find.

[Anonymous]

hi cameron

one of the hallmarks of the water method is that you put a lot of emphasis into direct feeling.

the hard part of that is you don’t know what your feeling until after you feel it, and even then, you have to think about it to describe what you just did.

and it’s clear to me that thinking is a part of the problem, most people are “feeling” their thoughts so much they don’t have much capacity to directly feel left over.

the brain is something that has a strong tendency to filter, that’s a lot of what the brain does, it ignores most stimulus coming in so you can focus on one thing. when that brain of yours is making up noises in your head (thinking), it limits the ability to notice other things.

I would put forth the idea (yes, this is thinking about) that if you really want to get good at this stuff, a core skill is getting to be able to FEEL really good, and not be too hung up on describing or whatever, just keep feeling it.

at that point, when you get the “a ha!”moment, that’s a great time to remember to “just relax, don’t get excited” that a ha feeling is your brain taking over and having a noise party for a bit (thinking), and it is liable to pop you out of that experience, back into thinking mode.

staying relaxed, not too goal oriented, and open & paitient seems to be the doorway to really getting this stuff.

Tao talks about little mind and big mind. to my way of experience, little mind is the brain, big mind is awareness. if we expand big mind out past little mind, begin to explore the world through direct experience, explain everything less, and just be comfortable, really good things can happen.

practically speaking, It seems that if you first spend years playing with it until you really get it, then, and only then, will you have any real chance of saying something coherent and accurate about it. until then, it”s like the story of the 5 blind men and the elephant. each blind man could describe what they were experiencing, but they never got the big picture, cause they got hung up on describing the part they felt, not knowing there were many other experiences needed to fully have felt the elephant. and the discussion they had did not assist the blind men in improving their understanding, rather the opposite.

hope this helps, and id like to hear what others think about it? even better, what have you felt?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the tips. I’m getting better at feeling stuff so hopefully it will lead me to converge towards what we’re all after.

[Anonymous]

Some of my most clear moments of dissolving happen when I have been working hard and take a moment and get still. Whether form work, neigung or pushing hands, get a good bit of energy going physically and then sit and dissolve, you will be surprised by the internal clarity.
Also if one is constantly trying to be aware of something but never stops and is actually still, it is too easy to miss the subtle stuff. Kinda like “If your lips are moving you are not listening” LOL

Aaron

[Author]

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