~ The Integral Synthesis of Tai Chi, Xing Yi, and Bagua ~

Why are we starting “ The Next Steps in the Integral* Chuan** Curricula, with Yi Chuan Qigong? 

• Note: Actually, “I Ch’uan” is the correct spelling in Wade Guiles, and is spelled “Yiquan” in the Pin Yin transliteration. We here use the synthesized spelling, “Yi Chuan,” in honor of merging both. This fits with the theme of Bodymind Healing Qigong where two rivers become one, and we heal through joining opposites 🙂

In this ten video Integral Chuan series, before  viewing the videos on Xing Yi and Bagua, it can be helpful  to see the synthesis of these traditions that Grandmaster Wang Xiangzhai passed down to Master Han Xingyuan, who passed it on to my Sifu Master Fong Ha. Grandmaster Wang, after being a sickly child, travelled around China and learned from the greatest masters in China. He developed the Yi Chuan as a synthesis of the essence of the three internal martial arts wanting to penetrate and actualize the essence of the Chinese marital arts. He became one of the most renowned grandmasters in China  He and his students used these methods for healing and treated people in many of China’s hospitals.

Master Ha brought back those teachings to his students in the US. One year he said he met a Grandmaster who would change his practice forever. He met Grandmaster Han Xingyuan and then in the mid 1970s he started to teach his internal arts differently, emphasizing each posture as a form of Standing Meditation Qigong. The following two summers he brought Grandmaster Han to the US to train his students. I was gratefully part of that group. Master Ha called his institute, which was meant to share this perspective with the public, “the Integral Chuan Institute (ICI).” “ICI” in french means simply “to be here and present.” So I wanted you to experience the tradition in the order I learned it so that when you approach Xing Yi and Bagua you’ll bring the essence of the practices (Yi Chuan) to your next integral chuan practices. Actually, if you want to approach the Integral Chuan practices in the order I learned them, then you can practice the Yi Chuan before or during your immersion into the Tai Chi 19 week training program.

What is Yi Chuan? YI Chuan (or “intention practice”) develops our ability to direct chi, through focusing the intention. In the broader sense, this practice develops our ability to focus the mind for improved concentration, creativity, and productivity.  From stillness, we begin to move. ( In the integral Chuan Curricula, the practice of the 108 moves of the Tai Chi Chuan long form, Xing Yi, and Bagua further develops chi and yi, builds strength in movement, stamina, and the ability to relax in strength. As you grow in your practice, the movements of the forms of the integral chuan become informed or filled by chi.) In the West we talk about relaxing or strengthening. Among the many things you’ll learn from your Yi Chuan practice is how to activate a state which combines both relaxing and energizing, This state-specific state of consciousness is called fongsung 放松, There is no equivalent English word for this joining of opposites. You’ll learn how this state of fongsung is important for activating the parasympathetic nervous system for healing and other purposes.

In addition to my training in Yi Chuan with Grandmaster Ha, I have had the great gift of also had training from Yi Chuan Grandmasters Han Xing Yuan, Sam Tam, and Han Jing Chen. And I have also had the blessing of mutual exploration and sharing of the Yi Chuan tradition with others such as my friend and colleague Ken Cohen, to whom I first introduced the Yi Chuan.

I like to start with the caveat and disclaimer that though I’ve been classically trained in these traditions of “Chuan”,** I am not representing that I am transmitting them exactly as my esteemed sifus did. So, in the videos that follow I’m taking the liberty to add to those traditions from my background as a psychologist who has devoted much of his life integrating that background with cross-cultural spiritual traditions and the Chinese Internal Arts.

For example, in his controversial book, Bodhisattva Wariors, Shifu Tomio puts forth the thesis and research showing that in early Buddhism standing meditation postures were part of the wider Chuan Fa (associated internal arts). Each posture was used to help the practitioner to not only develop martial skills, and health benefits, but also to work through “klesas,” emotional blockages and psychological issues.

Wherever you go, whatever tradition you see, “traditions of postural initiation” are hidden and waiting to be experienced— to actualize archeytpal energies and open pathways to be divinely & shamanically human.

Therefore, in this Yi Chuan Qigong video series, in addition to learning about the traditional methods of practicing these Chinese Internal Arts, you will learn such a wider view: 

 • A perspective which looks at the practice of the Chinese Internal Arts as traditions of “postural initiation,” which includes: self-healing, spiritual unfoldment, self-defense and changing one’s life stance psychologically.
• Creative, mythopoetic, and Imaginal interpretations of movements  
• A Postmodern perspective which, 1.) Honors every element of classical training, but ads the personal meanings that come from our practice, and 2.)  A pluralistic perspective which incorporates associations from wider cross-cultural wisdom traditions which may not be part of classical Chinese Internal Arts teaching (Mayer, 2012).

Photo from Oaxaca. Mexico, from the Dios de Los Muertos celebration.
Extra points for anyone who can identify what Tai Chi Movement is like this 
shape-shifting figure (and why it’s connected to underworld journeys) 😀 

What you’ll get from this Yi Chuan Video: 

• A historical, cross cultural, and imaginal view of the Yi Chuan Qigong.
  
  A. Do the historical roots to the Yi Chuan go back to the Bodhisattva Warrior tradition of Buddhism?
  B. Experiencing Yi Chuan Qigong as a cross-cultural tradition of “postural initiation.” 
  
  1. In Mahayana Buddhism using postures to work through ”kleshas” ( mental obstacles or afflictions that cause suffering and  spiritual progress.  The five primary klesha’s are ignorance (avidya), egoism (asmita), attachment (raga), aversion (dvesha) and fear of death (abhinivesha).
  2. Chinese Internal Alchemy uses postures to open “rivers of chi,” practice Self-cultivation, and heal imbalances. 
  3. In somatic psychology using postures to change one’s life stance psychologically.
  
• Pre Practice warm ups from Bodymind Healing Qigong
• The importance of “intention” (Yi) in all forms of internal arts. Using intention to activate your parasympathetic nervous system for healing.
• Learn the esoteric meaning of “Chuan” (“Exoteric” meaning of Chuan in English is “fist”)
• Shape-shifting and changing your life stance though Yi Chuan Qigong.
• Synthesizing differed traditions of Standing Meditation: Wuji Qigong, and Yi Chuan Qigong.
• The integral synthesizing the self-defense and psycho-spiritual dimensions of Yi Chuan.
• Integrating the perspective of Four Dimensions of Purpose with  Yi Chuan Qigong: Self-healing, spiritual unfoldment, self-defense, and changing one’s life stance psychologically.
• Specific  instructions for Yi Chuan: Positions 1 through 4. 
• Cultivating the Sphere of the Body in Yi Chuan: Mechanics and esoteric energetic cultivation methods. For example, balancing the opposites of “expansion and contraction/gathering” a key to cultivating “the Golden Ball.”
• Using postures to heal life issues: Fear of dogs, etc.
• Yi Chuan Walking Meditation.
• The Animal Movements of Yi Chuan Qigong. Examples of Yi Chuan 12 Hands Practice: Wrapping Snakes.
• Doing “no thing:” The “no -force” school. Empty Force. What is “Fajing?” The explosive power of
  the ball of chi.
• Develop a deeper understanding of intention and form, enhancing overall well-being and spiritual growth.
• Teaching story: The initiates’ transformation: Finding the Yi Chuan hidden in everyday life. Learning to sacralize and embody the movements of the internal arts, and making each posture a healing pathway.
  
  * The continuum of the terms “integrative” to “integral” (Walsh, 2006) goes from:
  A.   Accommodation by forcing novel ideas into preformed conceptual categories thereby expanding those categories.
  B.   Mutual enrichment, both theoretical and therapeutic becomes increasingly systematic.
  C.   Processes of mutual enrichment and integration lead to and are conducted within an increasingly comprehensive, coherent, and holistic conceptual framework adequate to both traditions.
  
  Reference: Walsh, R., & Shapiro, S. (2006). The meeting of meditative disciplines and Western psychology. American Psychologist, 61(3), 227-239.
  
  ** The word “Chuan” ( Ch’uan in Wade Guiles or in Pin Yin it’s “Quan”) is usually translated to mean “fist.” So the various systems of Chuan are exoterically about the uses of “the fist.” But one day when I was meditating on the word I realized that the esoteric meaning of a fist could be “taking the five fingers, five elements and grasping them into a whole.” Thus a practitioner of the Chuan is one who seeks to  hold the five healing elements in their grasp (fire, earth, metal, water, wood) and make them whole. See Mayer, M. , “Qigong and Behavioral Medicine: An Integral Approach to Chronic Pain,” Qi Magazine: The Journal of Traditional Eastern Health, 1996.
  

Thus the “ The Integral Chuan” amalgamates Tai Chi, Xing Yi, Bagua, Yi Chuan and Qigong into a holistic framework which embodies the essence of all the  systems. Standing Meditation Qigong, as Master Wang Xiangzhai and Master Ha transmitted it, is the center post around which all systems rotate. Or, in the language of age-old wisdom traditions, Standing Meditation and Yi Chuan Qigong transform the systems of Tai Chi, Xing Yi,  and Bagua into an integral system of “postural initiation.” When one practices any one of these systems the essence of all other Chuan systems are contained

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