The scene is set. Two Tai Ji Quan players are about to engage in a fight. They stand facing each other, neither begins, neither moves. They wait for the other to begin the attack. They are standing still, yet nothing is static. Qi is flowing, they are both sensing the subtle changes of the other and the environment. Through sensing, comes awareness. A Tai Ji Quan player will have an edge over the other, if her/his ability to sense is more acute. The moment one begins an attack, s/he has begun a forward, outward motion of energy, transmitting her/his information of her/his energetic distribution to the opponent, who will then utilize this energy to a counterattack. As such, no Tai Ji Quan player would make the first move, unless s/he is sure that her/his Qi is stronger than the other. Check out this clip from the movie "Hero," from many years back. It is not of Tai Ji Quan but demonstrates what I am trying to describe very well.   
 
Tài Jí Qúan太極拳, sometimes written as Tai Chi Chuan (Wade-Giles romanization), translates as "Supreme Ultimate Fist." As you may have read in a previous post, Tai Ji Quan is a martial art with Chinese roots. It is estimated that 300 million people from at least 57 different countries practice Tai Ji Quan, making it one of the most practiced martial arts in the world. However, many have no idea that it a martial art, even those who practice it, as it has been transformed into a method of maintaining health or a form of dance. And why should it not be so? If something has the ability to adapt better in a changing environment over a period of time, then this adaptation will ensure its survival. This is something that has helped Tai Ji Quan to persist and thrive in the world, as people of all ages, children, adult and elderly practice this art with different emphasis and intentions set by its practitioner. Maybe it is even this skill to adapt to change, which is in itself a flexibility in being, that the Tai Ji Quan practitioner acquires through the practice of this art. One image my Tai Ji Quan teacher, Donald Rubbo, used to present was of bamboo. He described how bamboo is flexible and bends with the wind without breaking, as compared to rigid trees that may be strong but break due to the lack of flexibility under the strain of strong winds.  
 
Tai Ji Quan is considered an internal martial art, meaning that the energetic work is done inside the body, versus an external focus where emphasis is placed on external strength. It is based on Daoist philosophy and the principles of Yīn-Yáng, which many of us know as the diagram with the black and white 'fish;' white fish with black eye and black fish with white eye. Master Huang, master of Tai Ji Quan, calligraphy and dance, describes the philosophy of Tai Ji and Yin-Yang very well through movement as well as intellectually. One of the Daoist ideas that is key to Tai Ji Quan and Chinese Medicine is the principle that we, all living beings living in this world, are connections between Heaven and Earth; the sacred trinity. If we learn to be and stay connected constantly to this Heaven-Earth power, we are always filled with Qi; thus, we are able to conserve our own personal Qi and Jing (life Essence) to maintain life in our bodies. A manifestation of Yin-Yang is in the form of the elements Fire and Water: 
 
"Fire rises and water flows down. Water can put fire out when placed on top. This is reversing. It is a natural law that never changes. However, when the water flows down and you put your pot under it to stop it from reaching its extreme limit, the result is the boiling of water. This is called Yin-Yang reversal theory that allows one to make use of the natural laws. The T'ai Chi boxing system is based on this reversal theory, which is used in every aspect of the skill." (Kuo, Guttman, 1994, p.1)
 
Tai Ji Quan applies these philosophical principles into movement and through practicing these movements regularly, we begin to embody these principles in living our daily lives.
 
Going back to that first scene in which I described the two players; my teacher used to emphasize to us to 'play' Tai Ji Quan when we got too serious thinking and trying to make the correct form or application. We learned to move slowly but also quickly, when it was needed. In moving slow, one becomes aware of the subtle changes in weight distribution on the different aspects of the feet; thus aiding in balance training. Also, the awareness of the space around oneself, the elements in the environment and that a gentle flick of the finger, when one is connected to her/his Dān Tían, can move boulders. One aspect of Tai Ji Quan is form training, Tào Lù, where one performs the empty-hand or weapon form without contact, and if so it is choreographed. This is how many people practice Tai Ji Quan, especially if it is for health and it works on the basic form. Tùi Shǒu is Pushing Hands; this is the application of the form with contact to another practitioner but only to push the hand to uproot her/his stance, not to strike, punch or hurt. Another two aspects are the Nèi Gōng and Qī Gōng, which translate as "internal work" and "Qi work" respectively. These refer to breathing techniques, meditation, awareness training, meridian stretching as well as stillness practice. For me these are the most important aspects of the practice because they work on the unseen, deeper connections of the individual to Heaven-Earth and the clarity of mind to dis/engage in a confrontation. With stillness in body, the mind learns to become still but the Qi flows relentlessly.
 
 
 
Reference
Kuo Lien-Ying/ translated by Guttmann (1994): The T'ai Chi Boxing Chronicle. Berkeley, CA, USA: North Atlantic Books 
 
 
 
 
Image by Ron on Pixabay

Many people I meet assume that as I look Chinese and practice Chinese Medicine, I must have grown up having Acupuncture. This is not the case, I got to know Acupuncture, which wasn't very common at the time in Malaysia, a little over 25 years ago. I was in the US at university at the time and was experiencing an injury of my own from dance training. I began by talking to a friend of a friend, who was Native American; she had had Acupuncture for her issues and had a very positive experience. This inspired me to try it and it opened up a whole new world of my body that I had never been aware of. At first, it all seemed so mystical and supernatural, my practitioner sticking needles into my injured ankle, which then began a healing process that required me to become observant of my own body. It was this new awareness of my body that inspired me to begin my journey into healing. I began researching Acupuncture Meridian/ Channels and Points, trying to understand how Acupuncture works, realizing that actually there is a logical body of knowledge and understanding in Chinese Medicine that dates back thousands of years. It is one that does not just focus on the physical, material world but also the energetic; what our eyes may not see but our beings can sense if we are open and ready to sense it. As we walk out into Nature, we may not see what moves the trees or the rivers, but we "know" that this power exists. The ancient Chinese called this force Qi. 
  
I like to view Acupuncture Meridians as Rivers of Qi flowing through our bodies in very distinct patterns and configurations. The Chinese civilisation, like many civilisations around the world, was born along 2 Rivers, the Huang He and the Yang Zi. As such Water shaped a lot of their understanding of Nature and reality. These Qi Rivers are essential to the flow and nourishment of life in a living body. If for some reason the flow is blocked or stopped at a place in the body, this area or other areas further downstream will become undernourished or depleted of Qi. This can then manifest pain, swelling, necrosis or other symptoms that may cause discomfort. The complete absence of Qi in a being would then result in death.
 
As a student in Chinese Medicine school, I often asked the question, "Which came first, the Channels or the Points?" This question was not clearly answered until I was a practitioner at a continuing education course in Shonishin (Japanese Children's Acupuncture-Massage). As we learned to massage children along specific Meridian pathways, I became aware that most Acu-Points are not mature at birth but actually develop through years of movement, nourishment, experience and growth. As such, we can deduce that the body's Qi Rivers begin flowing first and with time the Acu-Points develop. Through my practicing of Acupuncture and Tui Na massage, I have gained the perspective of Acu-Point as being like access locations to the Qi flow of our body, like access sites at the bank of a River. We could also therefore describe Acu-Points as doorways into our Qi pathway that are already in flow. Through pressing or needling an Acu-Point, we could influence this flow of Qi to increase, decrease its volume and force, or to divert its flow into an area or an organ of the body.  
 
There is an Acu-Point called Yŏng Quán 湧泉, Kidney 1 (KI-1), the first Acu-Point of the Kidney Channel and the closest Acu-Point to the Earth. It is on the bottom of the foot, in the centre-line of the foot, on the area just below the ball of the foot. This is translated as "Gushing Spring." (Ellis, Weissman, Boss, 1989) The Kidneys are associated with the Water element, as such a body of Water like a Spring indicates to us that this is where the source of life manifests. This is an Acu-Point that can revive consciousness, like in the case of fainting or a stroke, by taking the Qi upward, like a gush from the source. Another name for this Acu-point is Dì Chōng 地沖 Earth Surge. (Ellis, Weissman, Boss, 1989) This explains the other function of this point to root the Qi down to the Earth by descending Qi blocked in the head. This point can be used for headaches but also to dispel local foot pain. In a blogpost a few years ago, I wrote about Earthing, walking barefoot on the Earth to create connection. This is clearly the Kidney 1 Point being stimulated.
 
I mentioned in my last blogpost about honouring the Rivers we live by, stimulating your Acu-Points on your body is like honouring your Rivers within. Try taking off your shoes to walk barefoot on the Earth, or bathe your feet in Water, or even both at the same time in a River near you.
 
   

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Reference
Ellis, Andrew / Wiseman, Nigel / Boss, Ken (1989): Grasping the Wind. Brookline, MA, USA: Paradigm Publications
 
 
Image Baby Feet by 5921373 on Pixabay, adapted by Elaine
Image Okavango Delta River by Lion Mountain on Pixabay

My new year has begun with a period of retreat, into myself and into Nature that surrounds me. I have been blessed everyday this past week to have had time to connect with the Genius loci, Spirit of Place, of where I live and with the incredible weather of this season; cold, warmth, snow, rain, sunshine, blue skies, grey skies...
 
I grew up in the city of Petaling Jaya, in the Klang Valley in Malaysia, just outside of the Malaysian capital city Kuala Lumpur. Kuala in Malay means estuary, mouth of a river and Lumpur refers to mud. Kuala Lumpur lies at the estuary where the River Klang and Gombak meet. Klang River then flows all the way to the Straits of Melaka passing through Petaling Jaya, ending at the port city of Klang. Like many cities and places in the world, people gather together to live by a River because it provides water, to drink and irrigate crops, as well as to provide a means of transportation, of connection. My experience of Rivers till then was that they were dirty and polluted, which unfortunately is still true, and that you should never go to swim in it, much less explore it and its surroundings. The Klang has a brownish colour that looks like Teh Tarik, (a milk tea from Malaysia) which is a combination of the mud and silt washed down stream as well as industrial pollution. I have never been anywhere near this River except in a car driving alongside it on the highway or on its concrete bank in the city, which I now find sad. Yet it was this River that was providing me with the water that I was drinking and washing all through my childhood. 
 
This past week, I went on an exploration of the River where I live, the Birs. It is surrounded by industry, forest greenery and urban housing. It begins in the mountains in canton Jura and flows downward to feed the Rhine, which then flows all the way to the North Sea. The Birs provides drinking-water and electricity for the region of the Birseck, where I live, and I had never been aware that it was flowing right under the roads and highway that I often use. I am told that it used to be too polluted from industry until the past 20 years, where there have been efforts to re-naturalise the River and its surroundings. It has a greenish-brownish tinge to its colour, which gives me a feeling that it is not completely back to its natural state, though fish and crab have begun to breed once again in these waters. The Birs as it approaches Birsfelden seems unnaturally straight, as it was cut to fit our human 'want' for straight and organized arrangements. In doing so, the wetland areas began to dry out and animal habitats destroyed. Further upstream, where I have not yet explored, in Zwingen a dam was built in 1890, to harness the power of the water; this too limited the flow of the River. When you see pictures from the archives of the Birs from the 19th century, you will understand how much we humans have changed this River and its environment. 
 
One of my teachers, Nathaniel Hughes describes,
 
"In our march of 'progress,' I feel we have acted more than we have listened, taken more than we have given and done so without sufficient respect or gratitude. In response, the wild places are diminishing. However, we can each, individually, renew this ancient honouring of the land should we wish. I have long been a believer that real change starts on an individual level, that personal responsibility, personal integrity, small steps towards living in our world harmoniously, are ultimately powerful. (Hughes, Owen, 2014, 4-5)    
 
As I walk beside this living being, I hear its trickle, its gush, its torrent. This relaxes my spirit and I am thankful that this water flows and nourishes us physically as well as mentally. At the same time, I hear the competing hum of the highway, the trains and the jet planes. I know that these too are part of our world but they do not have to be the dominant force. We have a choice in this. We can slow down, to listen, to give space to the subtle and the placid. It does not have to be about competition, it can be about collaboration; that we create together, rather than destroy to dominate another. I observe a heron on my walk standing stoically on a rock, enduring the spray of cold, winter flow of the Birs on its feathers, seeking its next meal, possibly.
 
    
Reference
Hughes, Nathaniel / Owen, Fiona (2014): Intuitive Herbalism - Weeds in the Heart. England: Quintessence Press
 
 
 
Image by Elaine

We will soon be experiencing the second new moon after the Winter Solstice; it is the Chinese New Year. We will enter into the year of the Metal Ox. It is a Spring celebration, the returning of life after the death of the land in winter. There are many symbols used in this celebration; the animal that the year represents, the color red, the plum blossoms, fish...this got me thinking. Why fish? Some believe that it has to do with the sound of the word in Mandarin; the word for fish, "yú," is also the sound used for the word "abundance." Hence, the fish is often pictured as a pair or more, double or more abundance, and is eaten for the new year. I believe that it goes even deeper than that and it is not just in the Chinese culture but across cultures of the earth. The fish is a symbol of life, abundance, fertility. Part of the reason for this is that fish live in water and water is the medium for life on earth, as I discussed a few posts ago. 
 
For a long time now, I have been interested in finding out more about evolution. What most of us know as evolution is based on the Darwinian Theory of Natural Selection; it is often summarized as "Survival of the Fittest;" pictured as a few figures moving/ progressing from left to right, ape to primitive human to upright Homo sapiens of today. However, there are other theories of evolution not just the Darwinian one, which proposes that an organism that best adapts to its environment will survive and reproduce. When Charles Darwin published his work "The Origin of the Species" in 1859 he was doing so after Alfred Russell Wallace, a younger, less experienced and less financially-stable naturalist/ geologist, among other things, had written Darwin to describe similar ideas of species evolution in his travels in the Amazon and South-East Asia a year prior. Darwin and his associates decided to publish Darwin's work before someone else, such as Wallace did. Hence, we associate evolution with Darwin, not Wallace. In fact, there are other ideas of evolution that pre-date Darwin but were not accepted by society or the scientific community of the time. One such individual is Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, a French zoologist, who published his findings and hypothesis almost 60 years before Darwin, but was ridiculed by the French scientific community of his time for his bold hypotheses. One of his suggestions was the "inheritance of acquired characteristics," which states that an organism can acquire and pass on to its offspring characteristics or adaptations which it acquired through use or disuse during its lifetime. Lamarck was not given credit for his work, even ridiculed and forgotten until now, about 200 years later.

"One reason some scientists are taking another look at Lamarck is that evolutionists are reminding us of the invaluable role cooperation plays in sustaining life in the biosphere. Scientists have long noted symbiotic relationships in nature." (Lipton, 2015)

New ideas and perspectives are emerging in science as well as in society. For so long, we were exposed to the idea that "only the fittest survive." Currently, more are realizing that the reason we humans have survived and thrived till this day is because we learned to cooperate with each other; banding together to stay warm; pitching our resources together to feed more over a longer period of time. We learned to live in symbiosis with other humans as well as other living beings and our environment, which one may dispute with the current state of affairs on the earth.      
 
My interest in evolution has revealed to me how everything on this planet, if not the universe, is related to one another. It has shown me how all vertebrates including humans were once fish. Click the link to watch a fascinating documentary on our inner fish ancestry. These creatures lived in oceans and over hundreds of millions of years, evolved to have limbs, that then transformed to hands with opposable thumbs which we have today; that allows us to create the reality we live in today. So maybe the Chinese are celebrating Chinese New Year with symbols of the fish not just as the beginning of a new year, but also as an honoring of the roots of our existence on earth.    
 
 
 
Reference
Lipton, Bruce H. (2015): The Biology of Belief - Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles. Carlsbad, USA: Hay House Inc.
 
 
 
Image Koi by endri nana nana on pixabay 

Photos by Elaine.