Saturday, May 16, 2009
On Spontaneous vs. Patterned Movement
On Spontaneous vs. Patterned Movement
I have long felt that it was not essential to memorize complex sequences of moves in order to get great benefit from chi gong, tai chi, or even yoga. Many teachers focus on outward form, insisting that the student stand and/or move in strict accordance with the instructions passed down from teacher to student, never including anything original or creative.
I have often wondered why such strict adherence to form was necessary, since obviously the original teachers must have made discoveries on their own (from their personal experience) rather than following inherited patterns. I suspect that many followed the energies themselves to awaken inner bliss flows.
At last I have found a chi gong teacher who apparently agrees with what I have intuited, at least in part. In his book called "Qi Dao, Tibetan Shamanic Qi Gong: The Art of Being in the Flow," Lama Somananda Tantrapa makes precisely this point I have described. The old masters, he notes, relied on personal observation and exploration, not rules or mastery of set form, since these did not yet exist. He observes that many styles of Qi Gong, including yoga, Kung Fu, and Tai Chi (all of which are variants on "moving energy"), have been reduced to "doing forms" rather than discovering one's own inner nature as well as the energetic basis of all that exists.
At first I thought to purchase this book, but then I discovered that it is apparently directed toward achievement in the martial art--something I have minimal interest in.
Once again, the emphasis (in this book) is on active control and mastery (male approach) rather than opening to bliss and experiential union with divine energies (female approach).
Energy is energy, but it can be used for many different purposes.
(Image from internet)
