Eastern Thought (Chi)

Fruiteloop

Fruiteloop

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Reading your thread @meowzician I found it very interesting on what you said about those practices with kung fu

It made me aware that I am not that aware of myself. I guess that I am constantly doing and not being in the present moment.

I wonder if this could change.

Chi is often translated as energy but is really just flow. Tai chi is something to do with body flow.

I do stretches often but not regularly so I do not move my body in a fluid way. I sit too much at my computer.

I got anxiety in the past doing nothing, this is less now. I was thinking about doing motions. Not memorizing them but just doing some movement.

Because I went to a tai chi class and it was not a beginner class and they went too fast. So I do not want to do any memorization.

If I am aware of what I am doing I think I can learn specific moves later but right now I want to make it so I have good awareness of the moment.

It does not matter how fast or slow you move as long as it is the right speed to have control I believe. Without that the body will not do what I want it to do.

I was wondering if you or anyone can give me some advice on flow or wu wei?

I spend too much time on the computer and need other activities.
 
@Fruiteloop

Nice to see you again!

I don't think I'll be able to explain it very well, but here goes: Wu wei is when you get results by working with the nature of things instead of against them. Think of a river--notice how the water simply flows around the rock rather than trying to force through it?

Best book I've ever read that explains wu wei and other Taoist concepts, a book that is also easy reading and quite charming, is Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff. Yes, it uses Winnie the Pooh to explain stuff. :)
 
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meowzician said:
@Fruiteloop

Nice to see you again!

I don't think I'll be able to explain it very well, but here goes: Wu wei is when you resullts by working with the nature of things instead of against them. Think of a river--notice how the water simply flows around the rock rather than trying to force through it?

Best book I've ever read that explains, wu wei and other Taoist concepts, a book that is also easy reading and quite charming, is Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff. Yes, it uses Winnie the Pooh to explain stuff. :)
Click to expand...

Working with and not against.

That is a good concept to keep in mind.
 
"To be both the lotus and the water is to exist in a state of ultimate grace: fully experiencing the heaviness and turbulence of the world around you, while remaining rooted in the pure, untainted essence of your own being"​
 
Fruiteloop said:
Working with and not against.

That is a good concept to keep in mind.
Click to expand...
Sometimes it's just easier to show rather than tell. Think about a kitty. (I'm a total cat mom, so with me it's always about a kitty). You're spending the night at a friend's house and you really want to pet the kitty! You know if you go try to find and pick up the cat, that the odds are about 10% that the cat is going to cooperate, right? It's going to squirm in your arms, jump down, and hide. LOL Instead you make a warm cup of tea, and sit in the recliner reading a book. A half hour later there's the cat hopping up on the arm of the recliner, checking you out. :) Why? Because you worked with the nature of the kitty.
 
I think that the reason I might have a hard time keeping a flow state is because of Si containment.

Si is Introverted Sensation where they body naturally wants to react to everything.

Especially since Fi wants to make it react to everything also.

I sleeped all day today, it was not because I was tired but I had nothing to do. I did not feel bad afterwards.

Without knowing what it is I should be doing I do nothing most of the time when not on track.

I'd like to get better at not reacting but a paradox exists. I do not react at all most of the time, keep everything bottled up.

So I constantly have reslessensess inside me. Do not know what to do about it.

However I can try to find some way to get out my emotions somewhere.

I want to leave the house more often.
 
@meowzician this from yogapedia

"Flow yoga is a dynamic practice of moving from one posture to another, following the breath. Learn about the different styles of flow yoga, such as Vinyasa Flow and Inside Flow, and how they can help you achieve a meditative state and improve your fitness."
 
I saw a documentary on Tibetan monks who went into brain scanners.

They could increase gamma brainwaves by over 100 times that of normal people.

I never studied scripts translated or untranslated by the Buddha, I only know some acculturated facts.

Siddhartha Gautama had bad anxiety because in his culture suffering was eternal because of reincarnation.

You came back suffered and died. So he was trying to find a way to end suffering.

He did not care about philosophical questions like how big the universe was.

Under the bodhi tree he found enlightenment and when he did flower blossoms feel to the ground.

Before he had been practicing asceticism and almost starved to death but a little girl gave him rice milk.

He came up with a whole system of mediation to stop suffering which was based on non extreme actions.

That all actions have dependencies on all other actions we must balance them by neither adictions nor adversitions.

That is why meditation needs to begin with calmness and observation.

It is not really about breath but grounding oneself to the inner physiology of self regulation.

This can mean that we become aware of the temporariness of experiences.

We train to be aware that sensations come and go.

Some people have superhuman abilities if they train enough but that is not the point.

It is to be still and non reactive, open to what comes in and out.

That way you live life without stress and with love and compassion for all beings.
 
Wyote said:
Click to expand...

The translation: Non - Interference

As a political philosophy it makes sense.

But when he says people have turned it into a forced action that makes no sense.

Because Buddhism is not about forcing anything.

Yes a ruler makes conditions where things can just happen naturally but that also happens on the personal level.

The origins of it (Lao Tzu) makes no difference to its application. Anyone could do it.

I do understand that modern systems people try and force things.

It's not true that the western interpretation goes in the opposite direction.

Eastern stuff all mixes together when transported to the west but they may make more distinct subtle distinctions between their philosophies.
 
Yin is the absorptive portion of tao
Yang is the expanding expulsion of tao

What yang does is like a mount slide or avalanche.
Yin is the open base or field that takes the dirt or snow and calms it down.

A dike is a good example.
When a flood comes you do not stop it by opositision, the dike veers the water into another place away from the town or city.
If the dike was not there everything would be destroyed in a huge flood. Instead the water goes somewhere else.

These opposites are also within the human body.
They can be directed where you do not oppose it but let it go where it wants or needs to go.

When practicing martial arts some think all they need is strength. That you work harder.
There is also the way of putting your efforts into leverage. Putting effort where it will work without waste.
You can hurt yourself trying things that don't work. You can also grow into ways that do work.
This is kind of like the 5 elements we see in the East, each one has a way of moving that must be approached differently.

So Chi is about where things go and how to influence where it goes not so much about resisting where it goes because that doesn't work.

When you observe where things go you can learn how to influence them in big and small ways.

Observe the self and you can understand what to do better understanding how to make things happen without frustration.
 
Fruiteloop said:
Chi is often translated as energy but is really just flow. Tai chi is something to do with body flow.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure if I answered this already. I don't remember doing so.

When I began Tai Chi, all the talk about Chi went in one ear and out the other. As far as I was concerned it was Chinese superstition. I do not think that that today. I'm going to relay a couple of stories. The first one is fairly easy to believe and if you want you can write it off to suggestion, although quite frankly I don't know how closed eyes would fit into that. The second one is just so unbelievable that I really am not expecting anyone to believe me. I realize I'm just some random, anonymous person on the internet. I know when I read people saying these sort of way out there things, I certainly don't believe them. But I'll put it out there.

Story one.

I forget how the conversation started but I mentioned to my Sifu that I didn't really think "gathering chi" was a real thing. Gathering chi means that while doing a deep breath, you slowly bring your hands together as if you are holding a ball. You might feel your hands warm--I always wrote this off as increased circulation.

He said, "Let's try something. Sit down, close your eyes, and gather chi. Then just hold it and wait."

So I did. And as I waited, I definitely felt something between my hands, like a push. Not a touch. Something else. My eyes popped open, and just as I opened my eyes I could see him pulling away. "What the heck did you just do????" I'm not sure what the emotion was. Shock? Surprise? My voice was certainly raised.

"That is chi." He said.

After class, I went out to dinner with my bestie from the class and I told her about it. I expected her to explain it away in some natural way because she was a very sensible person. But she gave a good natured laugh. "Let me show you. Go ahead and gather chi."

So I did and she did too. Then she took her hand and pushed between my two hands. "Oh F***" I said. It was almost like there was an invisible band connecting my two hands that she was pushing against.

"Doing the Tai Chi increases your sensitivity. Your chi was always there, but NOW you can feel it being manipulated."

I already knew that what she said about heightened senses was true. My children delighted in trying to sneak up behind me, and I ALWAYS knew when they were. I won the game EVERY time.

So my friend and I sat there playing around with it, and I'm doing my INFJ thing, collecting every experience, every piece of data. Suddenly my mind spots a pattern. "This is working EXACTLY like magnets."

She blinked and said, "Yeah, I guess you're right. It DOES feel like magnets."

"So chi really is some sort of electromagnetic force." I said.

That's why I'm a believer. If you want to write that off as power of suggestion, I understand. But it wasn't.



Story 2. The freaky one. This is about those heightened senses.

In my seventh year, I was transferred to a different school to study directly under my teacher' teacher. This was the grandmaster who was the son of one of the last bodyguards of the Chinese Emperor. He was the real deal. Class had ended and three of us friends were hanging around just chatting. I'm using false names to keep the two of them straight. Rich and I were just chatting in the corner, and Kathy was behind me out on the mat, practicing some of her black belt forms. As I was talking she came up behind me and did a fake backhanded sucker punch.

It was distracting. I turned and said, "What the heck?" She stopped and looked at me funny.

"What do you mean."

"The sucker punch."

"What sucker punch?"

"Knock it off. You just came up behind me and practically hit my head with that sucker punch."

The room was awkwardly silent for a second. "You couldn't have possibly seen that punch."

"I did so see that punch." I thought she was gaslighting me.

"No," said Rich. "She's right. I saw it. But you couldn't have. It was completely behind you. There must be an explanation."

We spent the next ten minutes checking to see if maybe I saw a reflection in the window glass or in my eye glasses or whatever. We finally left without finding any sensible reason.

You know what Sherlock Holmes would say. “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” I had seen a sucker punch behind my head, out of my line of sight.

Do with that whatever you want.
 
@meowzician

I am not sure how it happens either.

Energy creates a field whether its magnetism or electricity or something else.

I think of it as vibration and resonance.

Like how our voices can affect people far away these "senses" are attuned to the environment.

I can hear the air conditioner behind me and not see it.

I can hear the cars outside my house pass by because the vibrations go through the walls.

It's just like how people can see better in more details without glasses some people have more subtle sensory awareness.

We humans early on had to be in the wild and sense preditors and other natural phenomena and we did not read or write so more brain power could be devoted to the environment in ways we lost in modern society. The body know things. It is how we survived.

Modern humans cannot survive in the wild alone anymore. The Majority cannot. But it used to be we could.

Dogs especially can hear things far away. My friend believes they are psychic but I just think they can smell better.

On a physical level we can say tornados are big sounds that push things. It is a vortex. Our bodies might doing something on a small scale.

Push and pull but our muscles can only pull. We create openings for energy to go into. And then that energy built up pushes us and other things however that happens?
 
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