Standing Well
– Chief Instructor Brett Wagland

"To help his students, who spent hours under his guidance, standing like a tree, Master Wang (Xiang Zhai, 1885-1963) composed verses that condensed the essence of his teaching:
      'Propelled by natural strength,
      You are as strong as a dragon.
      Inhaling and exhaling naturally and quietly,
      You perceive the mechanism of all movement.

      Avail yourself to the force of the Universe,
      And bring your instinctive ability into full play.

      In motion you are like the angry tiger,
      In quietness you are like the hibernating dragon.’”
(The Way of Energy, by Master Lam Kam Chuen, p.17.  London : Gaia, 1991.)

In Tai Chi, Xing Yi, Ba Gua, Shaolin and Yi Chuan, Standing practice is used to develop relaxation, awareness, concentration, strength and internal energy.  When you see a big old tree, such as a spectacular Morton Bay fig with its large roots, powerful trunk and a thick canopy of branches, you realise why ancient Chinese masters chose a tree to highlight the importance of Zhan Zhuang (standing like a post).  The great masters saw the body as a web of muscles, tendons, ligaments, bones and fascia, all interlinking to give it an integrated strength.

Many students at first wonder why we practise Quiet Standing.  They enjoy doing it for a few minutes.  However, as the session becomes longer, they find it more difficult and boring. 

Ultimately, Standing practice enables us to return to wu ji (the state of no-thing-ness, limitless, infinite).  In this awareness, the mind transcends the constant barrage of thoughts.  We eventually reach this deep state of calm as the body and mind work together.  Initially, we start by scanning the body for tension, and then as we relax, we dissolve the tension away.  Slowly the mind begins to feel quieter, calmer and more spacious.  Thoughts still arise but there are glimpses of calm between them.  It is similar to seeing the blue sky between the clouds.  With regular practice, the blue sky becomes the norm.  Although a few clouds still drift across, the clouds make no difference to the sky.  We identify more and more with the sky than the clouds.  Thoughts have little or no effect on our state of calm.  This is a wonderfully liberating experience.

The first posture we use is standing with feet shoulder width apart and hands hanging loosely at the sides of the body.  We can also practise this posture with hands resting on the Dan Tian, just below the navel.

From this initial posture, we begin to bring our hands in front of the abdomen, as if embracing a large ball.  We hold this posture for 10 to 20 minutes, until the waist and abdomen feel warm. 

Next, we bring our arms to chest height, as if embracing a tree.  This posture begins to strengthen the upper back and spine.  It also teaches us to relax (especially shoulders and chest) and to allow the qi to sink down from the top part of the body to the feet, that is, to lower the centre of gravity.  This posture teaches us to apply many of the Tai Chi principles while standing static.  The first is relaxation.  The Chinese word is “song” which means to relax and open the body, especially its joints.  It also implies that we use only as much energy as is required to maintain the posture.  Another Tai Chi principle is that there should be a light and sensitive energy at the crown of the head, as if there were a string attached to the top of the head, supporting the body from above.  “Sinking the chest and rounding the back” is another important Tai Chi principle.  It relates to holding a natural posture without upper body tension.  Most people push the chest forward and pull back the shoulders, creating tension and rigidity in the upper body and lower back.  This restricts breathing and puts pressure on the neck muscles.  The posture is not a slumped over feeling.  It should resemble a 3 year old’s natural standing posture.  Practising the Embracing the Tree posture for 10 to 20 minutes will strengthen the whole body, allowing us to experience a state of relaxed power and awareness.  This enables us to develop unification between body and mind.

It is quite common for students to find longer sessions of Standing to be quite challenging, even boring.  However with practice, the body-mind gradually changes.  Experiences of calm and greater strength are encouraging signs of breakthrough.  The strength we develop involves not only muscles but also sinews.  The Standing practice enables the body structure to align in such a way that force or pressure on the upper body can be transferred through the arms, shoulders and spine into the legs and through to the ground.  In the martial arts context, this allows us to use very little effort to neutralise and disarm attacking forces.  As our Standing practice develops, we can do more with less energy.  Every time we practise, we feel refreshed and energised, and our overall power increases.

Once we can stand for 20 minutes in the Embracing the Tree posture comfortably, we can attempt San Ti.  This posture introduces us to standing with about 80% of the body weight on the rear leg and 20% on the forward leg.  The arms are in an onguard position.  This posture takes relaxation, concentration and strength to another level.  It teaches us to relax when we experience pain – the opposite to what we normally do.  The San Ti posture is taught in the Wu Dao Gong course and it relates to the internal martial art called Xing Yi Chuan (Form Mind Boxing).

Standing practice gives us the wonderful experience of calm power, greatly enhancing our health and well being.  It requires very little space and no special equipment.  We can gain insight into the internal that lies hidden until it is revealed through this simple but profound practice.

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