Qi-Heart/Mind
Beginning the process of finding the backstop was initially frustrating at times. Both because it could be such an elusive sensation, and also because its process of activation stood in direct opposition to what I had previously learned about internal alignments while standing. The process of releasing these frustrations with the 1000 yard stare and smiling down to the foot while training as part of the ignore factor of the meditation has had some beneficial side effects. One being that my general awareness of my frustrations and the lucidity to release them has increased both in mundane life and in my seated meditative and musical practices as well. This has both increased my understanding of ‘song’ as a process of release being one that extends from and through the physical body to the emotional and mental processes and that this facilitates this idea of becoming ‘unbothered’ that sifu sometimes talks about.
As my training began to incorporate the last steps of standing the sensations of the esophagus and the flesh beneath the breast bone relaxing down became more apparent. These sensations were and are usually followed by oncoming stillness as the thoughts and emotions began to recede as the tensions that inspired them settled away. Around this time sifu mentioned that if any reading were to be helpful to this material it would be the neijia classics from any of the families so I decided to return to the classics of the family system of Taiji I had studied for some years and noticed something interesting. That while the dantien is mentioned with regard to the method of mobilizing qi, with regard to its place of origin, qi is said to come not from the dantien but the Xin, the heart/mind. And with regard to the process of developing the qi, again the dantien is not the end all be all, but instead the bones are pointed at as further down the path of cultivation.
This is interesting since the Xin is said to reside in this area of the solar plexus and beneath the breast bone in what is sometimes called the middle dantian, the relaxation of which is part of the final stage of our standing practice. This makes me curious to know more; what exactly is the role of this sort of somatic regulation of the emotional center in the development and cultivation of qi and this process of cultivation more broadly?