Paul's chi kung

Cold splash

Autumn in Hong Kong is the right season for some challenging cold splash, at around 20 degree C. For seniors chi practitioners, it is not just a physical challenge, but more of a chi and meditative practice.

In recent years, cold practice has been popularized by Wim Holf. His practice is derived from Tibetan buddhism. The cold practice of Tibetan monks is actually not directly related to their Buddhist practice. Primarily it is a way to keep a monk's body warm during winter when he is practicing away from people in mountain seclusion. Nevertheless cold practice can help a practitioner build a strong and healthy body, in addition to focus his mind.

The logic of cold practice is simple. Firstly, warm up our body (by physical exercise, body rub, breathing exercise, or a combination). Splash our body with cold water. When our body feels cold, do powerful breathing to keep our body from shivering - then do a short period of meditative breathing. Repeat cold water splash and powerful breathing, if possible a few times.

With good practice, our body can be conditioned to generate heat with focused meditative breathing when the weather gets cold.

Tai chi as moving meditation

Tai chi can be practised in different ways, moving meditation being one. Founder of the famous Taiwan dance troupe Cloud Gate Dance Theater (雲門舞集) Lin Hwai-min (林懷民) put tai chi as moving meditation in his work Moon Water (水月) . I watched it in Hong Kong many years ago and was impressed. Needless to say, he invited a Taiwan tai chi master to teach his dancers how to do tai chi, and choreographed it in the style of moving meditation.

How to do tai chi as moving meditation?

First, a practitioner needs to condition his joints, so that during movements, chi will not stick in some of his joints to “try to open them”. For professional dancers, it will not be too difficult.

Secondly, a practitioner must initiate his movements from his soles that transmit the energy to his core, that spread evenly to his whole body. This is actually a core requirement expressed in a classic tai chi text ( From feet to leg, controlled by core, expressed in fingers 「其根在腳，發於腿，主宰於腰，形於手指」).

Thirdly, carefully co-ordination by breathing is needed in every movement. This is the key, as all meditation requires breathing control to achieve energy balanced fullness. Prior training in breathing control is required.

Tai chi will be most interesting if a practitioner can learn to practice it in different ways.

Internal sensation and its limitations

When I watched pictures or videos of tai chi masters, old time or nowadays, I often wondered why some of them were obese, especially after middle-age. They definitely didn't look like sportsmen, or someone leading an active lifestyle. My observation was that they did tai chi the right way, and should have good internal sensation. What is wrong here?

As a physical exercise, internal sensation alone is not enough (without good internal sensation, it is not tai chi in the first place). To increase the exercise effect, a practitioner must firstly do serious isometric contractions, and secondly do a few rounds of the tai chi form (better to have different emphasis each round). Needless to say, one must also not eat too much! Diet is important.

My routine is that, in addition to do three rounds of tai chi form (being done seriously), I also do daily breathing exercise and meditation (plus scheduled chi-slow-jogging, and targeted stretching). Needless to say, a good smart balance is needed to monitor my BMI, viceral fat level and metabolic age.

Simply put, internal sensation is not enough to keep a practitioner healthy and fit.

Breathing gymnastics

Breathing can be a physical exercise, can be a strenuous one too. Tibetian meditation expert the late Alexandra David-Neel called it breathing gymnastics. There are some breathing exercises that can help a practitioner to build up a good foundation. The following two belong to these exercises. I practise them regularly.

The first is pranayama single nostril breathing, and the second is Taoist micro-cosmic circulation. These two are complementary. The former conditions our central middle chi channel, while the later conditions our front and back chi channels. Both can also be practised with breath retentions.

It is important to build a good foundation in breathing gymnastics. Faulty breathing exercises can unduly strain our breathing muscles and harm or disturb our autonomous nerve systems. For severe cases, onset of psychosis can be triggered.

The risk of breathing exercises

Is there a risk in doing breathing exercises like pranayama, chi kung, deep meditation, Tummo yoga etc? Indeed there is. In Hong Kong, psychotherapists have a name for it: chi kung syndrome. Its symptom is primarily chi out of the practitioner's control. In severe cases, it might lead to psychosis. News had it that Westerners inflicted with psychosis during deep meditative sessions in Thailand. Self-learners beware, as things can go wrong even under the guidance of a teacher.

Tai chi and zhan zhuang are generally safe. In the Chinese systems, those free-wheeling chi practice can be problematic - those are commonly called self-generated chi practice (自發功).

How to prevent the risk? And why do tai chi and zhan zhuang being safer? These two questions are related. As both are standing practice with focus on energized hands, a practitioner can learn in day one to practice using hands and feet to control chi. In addition, controlled breathing comes second to body connectedness. Fair to say, doing it in such a way, chi generation will be slower than more breathing-focused methods. But then, one cannot have the benefits of both worlds. It is therefore safer to stand with zhan zhuang first, before going into breathing only exercises.

[Practical seated meditation]

Meditation nowadays is more likely to be practised for non-religious reason. The simplest (entry level) reason is for mental relaxation. These are usually called Mindfulness training. It can be a single session, or a retreat for the full day or a few days. There are many schools or methods. A simple method is mental focus on the WHOLE process of inhalation and exhalation. As breathing is a physical process, mindfulness to breathing can steady our otherwise restless mind.

Like all mass-market products and services, mindfulness training has the largest number of customers. Its benefit is however minimal.

To reap more meaningful benefits, meditation has to move beyond relaxation. For want of a name, I will simply call it advanced meditation. In advanced meditation the training objective is to make the body energized EVENLY with chi (prana) BEFORE entering into meditative state. Yes, it has to be trained - with diligent practice.

There are many methods to achieve this objective. These include “standing meditation (zhan zhuang)” and “yoga-asana”. Essentially these are doing holistic physical exercise to generate chi evenly within the body (in contrast to typical sports in which training of specific muscle groups are emphasized). When our body is chi-activated (energized evenly), our seated meditative state will become calmer and deeper.

With some vigorous breathing exercises, the same result can also be achieved (or these can be done after zhan zhuang or yoga-asana). Vigorous breathing exercises include Yoga pranayama, mild Tummo yoga and Wim Hof method. Visualizatuon is generally required. The final stage is emptiness meditation, where we reap the final benefit.

One last question:

What is the final benefit of this advanced form of meditation?

It can able us to concentrate our mind to one single point, with emptiness (energy filled) in our physical body.. Religious training like Ta***ic Deity yoga requires more intense concentration. In secular life (for most people) only comparitively lower level of mindful concentration is required. We can focus our mind to the task with “a fresh mind”- be it tackling a mind only philosophical problem or a practical tough situation that requires our finding a new solution.

Cold shower and Tummo Yoga for health

According to lady-lama Alexandra David-Neel, Tummo yoga is for heath. Although the practice involves visualization of Deity yoga (in addition to breathing exercise), it was said to have nothing to do with Tibetan Buddhism. It has heath benefits, first and foremost to withstand ice-cold weather, as monks who practised solitude meditation in caves at the Himalayas would be trappwd for the whole winter. In addition to provisions, a strong body to without the cold was essential.

Doing cold showers today can have similar health benefits. The way to do is similar to Tummo yoga, in a less vigorous way, as the bathroom is not as cold as in the Himalayas.

The first step: both involve doing some deep and slow breathing exercises (with retention after both inhalation and exhalation). Breathing exercise should be done until chi (prana) can fill the whole body (from feet to head) with just normal (rather than deep) breathing without retentions.

The second step is to wet the body with cold water. Here there is a difference in water temperature between shower water and ice-cold water in the Himalayas. There will be a shock in both cases. Sound breathing exercise can reduce the shock (too much shock can harm our body).

The third step is conceptually the same: make the body warm through fire visualization. Here, the power of Deity yoga (visualize at one/with the help of one's chosen Deity) can help.

The fourth step: after the body has been warmed up, wet it again. This time the shock will theoretically be lessened, of course it will also depend on each individual and the environmental coldness. In the Himalayas, a monk would wrap himself with a ice-cold-wet-sheet - with the objective of drying it up. Both need to repeat a few times. After that the body should feel warm, with the good feeling of having chi filled the whole body. Good health ensured.

# This is different from doing cold shower in Wim Hof method.

Deity yoga vs. Wim Hof

In traditional Tummo yoga, heat is primarily generated through Deity yoga (internalize the psychic power of one's chosen Deity). According to the account of the late female lama Alexandra David-Neel, after initial physical warm up by deep breathing and retention (after both inhalation and exhalation).

In Wim Hof's case, as I interpreted it, there is an initial stage of warm up. His is through strong breathings and retention (primarily after exhalation). The psychological part is via group dynamics. In pychological lingo, the power of the group's collective psyche. (though WH didn't use such terms).

The difference is due to different training objectives, and different cultures. Both can achieve their respective objectives. Personally speaking, I am with the former, minus the (too) religious aspect. Both involve “tricking” the mind.

The power of visualization

In zhan zhuang, we do visualization. Common visualizations include embracing a tree, holding (or moving) an elastic and/or heavy ball. Partner to visualization is our internal response. The more “real” the visualization, the more powerful it will become.

In Tummo yoga (inner fire, 拙火定), the heat is created by visualizing fire from our dantian through our central channel towards our head. The traditional approach also includes the practice of deity yoga. Deity yoga is essentially visualizing a chosen deity staying inside our body, helping us in defined way (be it heat, compassion or whatever).

In meditative state, our verbal (rational) thinking will subside, in its place our visual side can be trained to be the driving force, through self-suggestion.

In traditional Tummo yoga practice, practitioners start with conscious deep breathing and retention after inhalation. The objective is to physically bring heat and help clearing our internal channels. Gradually the practitioner will move towards a meditative state with visualizations, for more powerful heat generation.

Wim Hof method, as per my interpretation, primarily makes use of group dynamics instead of meditative visualization. Group dynamics is a western (New Age) concept. Traditional Eastern practices are more personal in nature.

Cold shower and Tummo yoga

Many years ago a friend of mine told me that her father did cold showers for a good part of his life. His practice of taking cold shower came from necessity. When he was young in China, he was once put in jail for some months, framed by the authority. The prison had no hot water. It was freezing winter. He had to learn! He rubbed his body till his skin became red, then he poured the cold water - and washed himself quickly. It turned out he became more healthy upon release, and his kept his practice till old age, when he became too weak to take any cold shock.

Wim Hof has become rather famous in recent years, through his power breathing, cold shower, ice water dip, and, more intensely, high altitude snow mountain hiking. Said to have lots of health benefits. Fair to say, fitness programs like tai chi, jogging and going to the gym also have many health benefits.

The first person in the West who learned Tummo Yoga in Tibet was a rather famous French lady called Alexandra David Neel. She passed away in 1969 at age 100 (just before her 101 birthday). She wrote many books on Tibetan culture, including mentioning her experience in learning Tummo yoga. She learned it out of curiosity. She said only those monks who practised in caves year round on high snow mountains learned Tummo yoga. It was a necessity - for survival. She learned seated Tummo yoga, and had passed the test of drying a few blankets wrapped around her body. Advanced Tummo yoga involved hiking around high altitudes with scanty clothes - also a necessity for a monk living there through winter. According to her, seated Tummo yoga involved breath retention and visualization. However, out of practice one would feel cold again.

Why she didn't pursue her Tummo yoga study further? She said Tummo yoga was a health practice, and has nothing to do with Buddhism. She said she intended to live long term in places warmer - hence no need to learn more.

For me, I see no reason for me to learn ice water dip (some MMA and Muay Thai fighters do water dip for physical and will power training), not to mention snow mountain hiking with scanty clothes. I agree with the comment of the French lady. I do cold shower, except the coldest of winter. I want to stay healthy, without catching cold unnecessarily.

Buddhism and yoga pranayama

Indian thinkers and gurus have had highly rational and meticulous minds.

Buddhist thinking is highly rational and methodical. Analystic philosophers in Universities nowadays are still studying and analyzing Buddhist texts. Ethics, metaphysics and epistemology are the three major branches of contemporary philosophy. Take ethics for example: “Why should humans act ethnically?” Most religions would say, “God's command”. Not for the Buddhism. They reason it philosophically. Very briefly, they first argue the impermanence of everything. Based on that, they then argue the non-existence of the self (The concept of self, as they reasoned, is due to ignorance of reality). From that they argue that my “self” of the future has the same importance as the “self” of every other sentient being. Finally, as we all agree it is reasonable to act good (ethically) to one's future “self”, it is reasonable to act good (ethically) to all future sentient beings. The “future” is like the next moment!

It is the same for yoga pranayama. Take single nostril breathing as an example. A yogi wants to condition every part of his mind and body. By narrow the inhalation path, he (or she) stimulates, and conditions, his nasal cavity, through cold air. By narrowing the path, his breathes will be slow and deep. Furthermore, by focusing at his nasal cavity and his relevant pelvic floor muscles part, he clears his connecting (left and right) central nadi (energy channel).

There is much to be learned.

Form and breathing

Indian practices focus more on breathing, while Chinese and Japanese practices focus more on form. All chi practices have to be activated by breathing. How come form can take priority over breathing in chi practice?

In traditional Zen meditation, the famous saying is “just sit”. However it is not sitting in any style you like. There are very specific ways of sitting. So much so, the late Japanese Zen master Shunryu Suzuki wrote,

“These forms are not the means of obtaining the right state of mind. To take this posture is itself to have the right state of mind. There is no need to obtain some special state of mind.”

In short, the right form will take care of everything, one doesn't need to take care of breathing or managing the mind. Just observe the flow of thoughts, and the flow of air on inhalation and exhalation.

The same for tai chi. Tai chi has two major ways of practice. One is square form and the other is round form. In doing the square form attention has to be focused on our body structure. With the right structure chi will be generated, without the need to worry about breathing. In short, like zazen, form itself will manage breathing. In the round form, it is the form of moving meditation, essentially it is balancing of chi built up through square form practice.

In Chinese Zen/Tao (particularly in Tao) meditation and tai chi, conscious breathing will be used only in advanced practice.

How do different focuses affect one's practice? Very briefly speaking, form focus is safer but slower in progress, while breathing focus is more risky but quicker in progress. For advanced practitioners, both focuses are needed.