Lesson 05
How to Relax in Tai Chi
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Teacher, I understand the pre-conditions to Relax:
So how do I relax? |
To Relax, we must let our bodies experience what it means to have Five Points Of Gravity. In other words, we must have Body Awareness of Five Points of Gravity.
Our Lesson is This:
Five Points Of Gravity (五點聚力)
There are five 'lines' in our body:
- Our Spine
- Our Left Arm / Our Right Arm
- Our Left Leg / Our Right Leg
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From: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Irregular_bones_-_anterior_view_-_with_legend.svg
When we experience a Downward Gravitational Pull (墜力) in the bottom part of each of the five lines of our skeleton, we will have achieved Five Points of Gravity (五點聚力).
Having Five Points of Gravity will improve our posture, and it is also one of the fundamentals to allowing our bodies to Relax.
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When will I know whether I have achieved Five Points of Gravity? |
We have to:-
- First be aware of what we are doing (i.e. have the pre-requisite knowledge);
- Then, apply our knowledge onto our own bodies, we should let our body experience it. This is known as Body Awareness (體會).
To achieve Five Points of Gravity, we have to have Body Awareness of a Downward Gravitational Pull (墜力) in the bottom part of each of the five lines of our skeleton structure (i.e. in each of the five lines).
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I'm confused, how do we feel a Downward Gravitational Pull (墜力) ? |
To feel a Downward Gravitational Pull (墜力) in our body, we have to first understand our own body. We will only be able to of improve our health (by entering into the Tai Chi State) when we are aware and in control of our own bodies.
In Chinese, our consciousness is described using two words: intent ("意") and knowledge ("識"). Together, it represents that our intent must be directed towards our knowledge ("意識").
- We have to first build sufficient knowledge to know what we are doing (知識)
- Only then can we can direct our intent (意) to give instructions to our body.
Applied here, we have to first learn about our muscles, blood vessels, and our skeleton structure. In other words, before we give instructions to our muscles (to not contract) through our mind-muscle connection, we have to have knowledge of how our own body functions first.