"minimum effective dose"

[D_Glenn]

If you’re practicing Taijiquan you should try to do it as a Xing Zhuang (moving Post meditation). In Bagua circle walking there’s mental and physiological states that you enter into and pass through. The first one is that you will feel like a goat with a cart attached to it. Goats don’t pull carts, so this is the awkward phase. Some people don’t practice Circle Walking for a long enough time so this is the only state they’ll ever experience. If you continue long enough then there will be like a feeling of a rush of blood moving throughout your whole body and suddenly you feel like a Deer with a Cart attached to it. Deer also don’t pull carts. So it’s like your body wants to run and leap, but you can’t start moving faster, it’s a struggle to maintain that slow and steady gait, or slow speed of the form. This feeling of blood rushing and moving around will eventually settle and then you suddenly enter into the final state where it feels like an Oxen pulling a cart, or a plow through a muddy field. It’s what they’re bred for. Your body feels extremely strong and powerful, your mind is at peace. Moving slow feels good. Every step feels like you could crush tiles beneath your feet. This is relatively easy to do in Circle Walking because there’s not a lot of distractions and you can get into a meditative state. You have to be alone, in a peaceful environment where you know nobody will be around you for a period of time. When I met CXW he said that this is why he’s breaking the form into sections that can more easily be learned. So that one could learn one section and then just repeat that over and over and practice your Xing Zhuang. Then learn another section. And keep adding sections into your Xing Zhuang practice as you learn them. You have to know the form like the back of your hand in order to maintain the meditative state. The Second state change is easy to fall out of and return to normal. The third state is even easier to fall out of, and you don’t slip back to the previous state, you just return to normal. And you would have to start all over. Or wait until the next day.
Being in a Middle basin height will help you to experience these State Changes because the thigh muscles require a lot of blood to be moving through them when they’re working. But it needs to be easy for you to be in it. You can’t feel pain or be struggling to move around.
I personally would recommend that someone learn Circle Walking to experience this, and then try to get it to happen during your form. But if you’re already doing it in a meditative environment it might be easy. CXW seemed pretty confident that people could do it.

The goal is to practice this everyday and shorten the amount of time required to pass through the first 2 stages, then you get to experience the 3rd stage for a longer amount of time during the practice session. Then you will be able to find your own minimum amount of time that you need to dedicate to this Xing Zhuang practice. Xing Zhuang shouldn’t entirely replace your Zhan Zhuang but it can significantly reduce the amount of time you spend doing it. So it can be a trade off.

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[windwalker]

Some might find this interesting reading...

Xu Hong: You have been working hard recently, and I hope to remember that nature and nurture are separated by a thin layer of paper. If you are not careful, you will fall into the trap of nurture. Most of what you remember is still trapped by nurture.

Let go of the baggage, don't let go of the acquired knowledge, and practice to a different world.

What we pursue is the physical skill, and the physical form is just a tool and model.


You know, in that note, I compiled as many as seventeen kinds of "power generation methods" alone, among other things. As a result, the teacher said lightly, "Most of what you remember is still trapped by acquired knowledge," and a bolt from the blue knocked me back to my original shape.

For a moment, there was a little bit of it - like asking for photos in the "stratosphere" of the Internet, but being exposed to a public trial - a feeling of emptiness, loneliness and coldness.

Oh my God! If what I remember is "trapped in the day after tomorrow", then what is "innate"?

Why not just find Xiantian and practice there, but "why not practice in another cave"?


Why not practice to a different world?
Guozhong
23.09.14 Xiaotaoyuan (source)

It may take awhile before ones practice is just part of what they do...maybe longer before their practice and themselves are one..expressed in all that they do..

汪永泉授楊式太極拳語錄及拳照
Wang Yongquan Writings on Yang Style Tai Chi Chuan

Editor's note: There are several ways to practice Tai Chi Kung Fu, such as standing like a post, coiling stance, practicing solo forms, rubbing hands, large rollback, sword practice, knife practice, spear practice, and so on. Teacher Wang Yongquan has given detailed lectures on many of these methods, each with its own unique aspects.

In addition, he has also taught an important training method: practicing anytime, anywhere in daily life.

This mainly refers to the foundational skills of Tai Chi Kung Fu - the knowledge of oneself. Practicing anytime, anywhere doesn't mean gesturing Tai Chi movements all day, but rather paying attention to aligning one's physical and mental state with the basic requirements of Tai Chi in daily activities.

This greatly increases the time spent practicing and makes the basic requirements of Tai Chi Kung Fu a habitual state, almost like an instinct of the body.

This is very beneficial for the growth of skills. If a person often finds themselves in a state contrary to the requirements of Tai Chi Kung Fu in their daily life, such as being restless, mentally sluggish, stooped, shrinking neck and shoulders, hollow chest and hunched back, having internal conflict, stiffness, overall tension, or struggling with oneself, it may not necessarily be severe or typical, just a tendency or a slight issue, but it still has a detrimental effect on training.