Wuji Standing Qigong (Zhan Zhuang)

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I practice wuji standing qigong daily as part of my training.
Is the standing qigong exercise part of your training?
I am curious to know how integral wuji standing qigong
training is in the Shaolin tradition. If you do practice it, how
does it benefit you?

[tetsumaru]

wuji standing qi gong is not something I am familiar with. There are a couple of versions of eight section brocade that I know, all of which is done standing. My Iron palm qi gong is done standing....I know a little bit of Tai gong that Shi De Ru teaches. If I have been practicing regularly and training properly I get the best feeling from Iron Palm qi gong. However, I always seem to get a pretty good "qi buzz" with any of the eight section brocades. The tai gong is good. It wakes me up in the morning but I don't have a full understanding of it.

The benefits I feel are more stable energy all day. Not the ups and downs I normally had. I feel calmer and less tense. More focus...I am not bothered so much by everyday little things. I did notice that when I was practicing regularly I healed quicker and I was never really in a bad mood. I believe that is partly due the good blood circulation and exercise.
So what is wuji standing qi gong? to you?

[zachsan]

Sounds like Xanax.

[jt1]

I alternate sitting Zazen with a standing posture similar to the one you mentioned. I have not studied Chi Gung. I got the posture from a book titled "The Way of Power" by Lam Kam Chuen. It sems to have come from Yi Quan. I find both the standing posture and seated zazen to be energizing and centering.

[Inevitable]

hmm, not familiar with it..., i practice some chen tai chi, and the 8 silk brokade standing up thats about it

[Maestro]

practicing 'standing post' or zhan zhuang is very good. shaolin monks usually do this in a horse stance. although, if this is done for extended periods of time ..like a hour or more, your joints become to stiff, you definately become stronger and can hit hard, but you become slower. and there are better ways to gain leg strength

but anyway, standing post is a great qi gong exercise, i do it often, in many different ways.

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So what is wuji standing qi gong? to you?

So what is wuji standing qi gong? to you?[/QUOTE]

Since the Shaolin temple and the Chen village are within reasonal proximity, the idea of an overlap in qigong exercise is, of course, feasible. Wuji standing qigong (zhan zhuang) is an integral part of my Tai Chi training. I am asking you Shaolin players if wuji standing qigong (zhan zhuang) plays an important role in your training. There is some discussion in the Tai Chi world that Chen village may have borrowed many of its movements from Shaolin kung fu. It is just my curiousity to know if the way Shaolin players nurture intrinsic energy similar to the way many Tai Chi players do, and that is by doing wuji standing qigong (zhan zhuang) as part of there internal training.


Generally speaking, wuji standing qi gong in its simplest description is as follows:

standing in a relaxed "song" way
knees bent so you have a curve
feet about shoulder width
arms are held in a circumference shape in front of you at about chest height
sink your weight/intent/energy
tilt your head slightly forward
breathe naturally or breathe with your dantian

There are variations--many of them, and I do practice a few other variations.

The benefits I derive are as follows:

calm mind
expanding elastic feeling, especially around my arms
practice at sinking my weight/intent/energy
awareness of my center of gravity (or dantian as being the center of my gravity)
practice having roundness in my shapes

I am curious if there are similarities in the internal work of Shaolin kung fu and Tai Chi.

[doc]

There is some discussion in the Tai Chi world that Chen village may have borrowed many of its movements from Shaolin kung fu.

Interesting concept, considering the fact that the tai ji taught at Shaolin is predominantly Chen style.

[Maestro]

taiji has alot in common with shaolin gung fu at its highest level. epscially that fact that taijijuan is BRIDGE dependent. if taiji exponent has no bridge, for the most part they are ****ed, unless they are young and strong, but taiji takes a long time to master

and taiji was supposedly created by zhan san feng after studying long fist in shaolin temple.

[master splinter]

oh holy wow,

i remember as a newbie here i would rant on and on and on about the importance of zhan zhuang training, and what did i get??? i got a bunch of little fleas jumping on my anus telling me that zhan zhuang not so important.

i say who cares about what other people think, if you find it beneficial, keep doing it, and dont quit. the truth never needs approval.

[tetsumaru]

OHHHH I know what we are talking about now. I do that alot. I am just taught things and I don't know what there names are I just know how they work...sort of. Anyway, that qi gong is in ALOT of "routines". I got to a point were I could feel the energy running up my spine and around back down the front of my body and there was that swirlinf sensation between my hands and chest. It brings alot of chi to all the right places. Some people do it sitting...I've seen the falun dafa people around doing it.

[Maestro]

lolo, i saw the falun dafa people in NYC doing it to. they also had people in cages and people acting like they were getting tortured lololo

kinda felt bad for em though, almost wanted to surprise attack one of the qi gong guys just to see if they had any REAL energy. because that is what standing post(zhan zhuang) is really good for, developeing your basic energy. if u got that u always got good gung fu

[Inevitable]

ahhh, kk, now i get it yeah i used to practice that all the time, kinda on the same page as tetsumaru, you can teach me but don't ask me to recall by name

[blooming tianshi lotus]

Rountine shmoutine !! tell me about your wuji anyway...... do you the slapping thing? or some rubbing meridians or something....... I only know wuji to mean hands on qigong movement where the the hands act as the focal director for where you're concentrating the qi to flow to ....

yah. that's important ...... being able to use it that way for your own small grandmicrocosmic circulatory benifits and then being able to use to benifit someone else in a therapeudic manor is just a natural progression of that skill ..... you should hope you learn it sometime


nice trip to've even got 'that ' far .cheers

BtL

[Inevitable]

hmm i'm on the same type of "wuji" as you, directing "chi"