November, 2008 Archive
Advanced Tai Chi and Eye Therapy
When we begin studying Great Extremes Boxing, we fixate on learning forms and sequences, on remembering strange things and foreign ideas, and on trying to relax. It’s a giant task, coordinating internal arts, but when relaxation begins to wake awareness, both remembering and learning begin to flow, and motions grow more subtle, more profound.
Move the eyes. After we get Tai Chi form basics, one subtle motion we search for is eye-motions. Some movements in the form direct us to hook the eyes on a distant object and, as our body turns left and right, leave the eyes floating inside the head; this is the way Ward-Off works. In another movement we lead with the eyes: eyes turn to the West, then the body follows as in Single Whip. Repulse Monkey teaches the eyes a deeper kind of peripheral vision by directing the mind to both hands, while those hands are on the edges of vision.
Eyes soften. The continuous, waving motions in the eyes, from pose to pose throughout the form, draws a sensual ease and relaxation into the eyes and face, head and neck, and relaxation spreads throughout the body. For some, like me, vision improves. My vision moved from 20/80 to 20/30 over an 8 year span. What began as softening my face led to relaxing my whole spine and, one day, all of a sudden—Pah!—I could see crystal-clear.
At a fairly sophisticated level, the Tai Chi Chuan Long Form reflects treatment protocols revealed by Francine Shapiro in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR): Basic Principles, Protocols, and Procedures, 2nd Edition. EMDR is an integrative psychotherapy method “designed to maximize treatment effects.” Although some skeptics perceive EMDR as an alternative therapy, studies continue to display great successes for EMDR. Its success sparkles, particularly in treating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and intense, trauma-derived mental health issues.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing’s therapeutic phases outline a clever and comprehensive strategy for healing deep wounds, and the methodologies suggest applications that we can use for developing and deepening Great Extremes Boxing, both as a martial art and healing art.
Read Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing »
Extreme Boxing Immersion
Every month I put on a mini-workshop to immerse practitioners in Tai Chi Chuan concepts. Immersion allows more time to study peculiar and specific aspects of this Supreme Art. I attempt to move from yin to yang, healing concepts with slow, qigong work to intense, explosive practices with combat ideas. Both are potent pieces.
The best immersion includes both combat and healing, and then emphasizes one or the other. It’s difficult, at least, to achieve real fa-jing, explosive energies without sinking and relaxing enough to generate whip-like actions and ease. Likewise, healing and health benefits are impotent without visceral stimulation and mind-shift states achieved in the shake of combative applications or inside the mind of an awakened-state animal. Each workshop includes both combat and healing work, and, month after month the focus rotates from fight to heal, one after another.
The November workshop was by invitation only. We covered the 4 of 12 Devastating Mother Applications from the Short San Sau. We worked out numbers 4, 5, 6, and 8 as follows
- Squeeze (Ji or Chee) then Elbow, Punch, Angled Elbow
- Press (An) Punches Throat into Vibrating Punch, Neck Clap and Head Smack
- Press (An) Tiger Punches Throat, Wrist Snaps Head Back, Palm Slams Collar, Jerk into Elbow
- Jerks the Arms to Headbutt, Pressing (An) below Collars, Swipe the Neck, and Beak Punches
