Exercise 2: letting off the accelerator doesn’t really stop this exercise
David, you explain that slowing down an exercise is a passive process. When I relax with the intent of having exercise 2 wind down, I simply keep revolving clockwise and counter clockwise and I have to tense my muscles. Otherwise it seems like this exercise will never stop.
Me
Hi Terrence,
It’s good that you notice these things.
The energy has a natural pattern… when you build up the exercise, you affirm that natural pattern.
The energy has a tendency to continue in motion once you set it in motion.
So if you feel a need to tense your muscles to slow down, (as if you are working against another force)… you’re picking up on the perpetual nature of the Chi in movement in your field. (Continual) It’s fine to do that.
The energy also responds to the mind. (and the breath) You eventually can stop, change, slow, speed up the chi with a thought, or a thought and a breath. You won’t feel it work “against” you.
Eventually, a student cooperates with the chi and let’s it help move the body. So physical movement becomes an effect of the chi in motion… integrated fully with thought and will (as opposed to the cause).
You can learn to move the body with the mind, breath and will. At the highest level, they all become one… body, mind, will, movement… (the epitome of the Tao. Ever present now)
This knowing (1st hand experience) is why Martial Artists and professional athletes often move into a spiritual experience with the energy… at the highest levels… their art or sport is 90% mental and will power.
It’s accessible through gentle movement too… Tai Chi Gung! Easier on the joints… gets right to the point. Spiritual movement.
Pay attention to stress, tension, anxiety, judgement, “bad mood”, holding on, restricting movement, control … all lower frequencies. These are what you release in the 2nd half of the exercise. You release them to the earth. (I die daily to be reborn again)
These slower vibrations slow the life force, … not “wrong”… just different. Held in the mind and body, they speed up aging itself, restrict, constrict and block the free flow of the life force in the body. (They are less childlike)
They can manifest as muscular tension, blocks in the meridian system in the body, blocks in the flow of energy through the chakras, even symptoms of illness or dis-ease.
As slower, heavier vibrations, they tend to want to fall down to the earth. The body feels “light”er, more buoyant after releasing them.
And as mentioned before, you still engage the muscle sets that are designed to resist gravity to maintain good posture standing up. Eventually, you’ll embrace the rising chi to do this. If you give yourself over to this rising chi and become one with it in spirit, mind and body, you will float off the ground.
Best wishes,
D