A friend in email asked what I thought about adapting a kickboxing exercise into jhāna and taiji training. My response:
any movement can be made into a jhāna or taiji type of movement if done with that intention.
it
takes quite a bit of practice though to really completely let go of all
tension, especially if you're trying to approximate a martial arts
move.
so even experienced taiji players, even though they're
slow, appear to be relaxed, often still have quite a bit of unnecessary
tension carried around. For me, and probably most people, it's because
you have the intention, this needs to be fighting/martial so even though I'm doing slow, soft relaxed, my body needs to be tough and take a hit.
Result is you tense up.
Let go of all martial intent
For me the key was to just completely let go of
any martial intent, and just like the name of xing yi says, focus on a
form/posture/shape, and use your mind's intention to effortlessly morph the physical body into
that shape.
I treat my body like a bag of water or empty sack
of air that I shape it into a posture. If I can feel a body, then I've
still got much unnecessary tension. The more I do it correctly, the more the tactile sense of body disappears, like just an empty bag with gooey magnetic
force, boneless, no sense of mass or weight.
check zen, stay zen, always zen.
zen while static, zen while moving.
zen while slow moving, zen while lighting fast.
(zen = jhāna, maximize jhānic force and generating internal energy, charging the battery at all times).
