Issue 51 - Tse Qigong Centre

Life TrainingBeing rooted or grounded meansthat the energy in our body iscentred and is at the Dantian. TheDantian is the storehouse of our energyand is located at the area below ournavals. The Dantian connects with theacupuncture point, Qihai, but its locationis actually in the area around the Qihaipoint. The Dantian can grow larger asmore Qi is stored there. Sometimes itfeels like there is a resilient rubber ballwhen we press in this area. Thisis a good and shows thatthe body has stored a lotof Qi.Another areaof the body which isvital to developinginternal energy, arethe legs. When wepractise martial arts,the legs are the rootsof all power. If thelegs are weak, then nomatter how strong theupper body, you still willnot have the power tocarry through a strongpunch. These applies to allmartial arts, whether it beWing Chun, Taijiquan, Xingyi,Bagua or others.In the past, traditional,high quality skill was muchharder to obtain. If a teacher didnot like you, they would not teachyou or accept you to be their student. Youhad to prove yourself worthy of the skillas a person because good teachers didnot want their family skill changed ordamaged. So often, in the beginning, ajunior student would learn very slowly.Sometimes they would practise horsestance, called Ma Bo, to help them traintheir legs and build up their internalenergy. This kind of training also createdmore patience and discipline. If a studentcould make it past this bitter test ofstanding in low horse stance for a longtime, then it meant you could withstanddifficulties and be a stronger person forWhen practising the martial arts, you will often hear the words,‘rooted’ and ‘grounded’ being used in relation to stances or energy. Whatdo they mean and do they only apply to martial arts or can they alsoapply to Qigong and other aspects of life outside of practise?Grounded & Rootedit. However, if a student only wanted tolearn high level forms and specialtechniques, it showed that they onlywanted to have the sweet and take thebest part.Many people do not think aboutQigong developing the legs, but Qigongalso has its difficult parts. There are manypositions in Wild Goose Qigong, forinstance, that require the practitioner tosink the weight on the back leg whilestepping forward or raising the arms.There are squatting postures andstretching postures whiletwisting the toes.Other forms likeSwimming Dragonrequire standing onone leg and movingfrom a low stance to ahigh stance smoothly.Even some of thesimple Qigongexercises, like HealthyLiving Gong, requirestanding one leg. This“The bamboo treeis symbolic of awise person.”also helps to improvebalance in the brain as well ascoordination in the body and strengthenthe legs.From a Qigong point of view,when the energy is not centred at theDantian, then the body will be out ofharmony. The person may be overlyanxious and think too much and not beable to focus on any one thing for verylong. When the legs are strong, they arelike the roots of the tree, they can supportus and draw nourishment from the earth.Strong legs connect with our kidneyswhich in turn connect with the our back.Our back is like the trunk of a tree andshould be flexible to movein any direction. If a tree istoo stiff, even the wind canbreak it. All of this makesthe whole body lighter andmore flexible. The bambootree is symbolic of a wise person inChinese culture. They can bend to anysituation and not harm themselves bybecoming angry or distressed whenthings change.Being grounded also refers to aperson’s nature. If a person is grounded,then we consider them to be calm, wiseand settled in their behaviour. If someonenever knows what they want and arealways wanting to try different thingsinstead of developing themselves in onearea, then they are not grounded. Thesepeople are like pigeons. If they thinksomeone has thrown something tasty onthe ground, they will make a rush to tryand grab at it, often leaving what theyalready had in their mouths in the firstplace.I knew of a student who nearlyevery time hecame to class, heasked when hecould learn one ofthe moreadvanced forms inthe system. Hewas not happy tocarry on with thesyllabus and let hisbody and skilldevelop naturally. He also missed thepoint of growing naturally with hissurroundings. There were many otherstudents far more senior than him in theclass. Do you think it would have beenfair to them if the teacher taught thejunior student something that others whohad been to class every week for manyyears had not even learned? If you aretoo greedy for skill, you will never learnto taste and appreciate what you arebeing taught at that moment. If youpractise more, this will help youto be stronger both physically andemotionallyby Tse Sihn Keiemail: Sihnkei@qimagazine.comQi Magazine 58