My main area of study is the 1700 year old Wild Goose system. One of the interesting things about traditional systems like Wild Goose is that they do not start with applications, but rather begin with principles of healing. Healing principles are the foundation of the entire system and in this case the method used is qigong .
The word “qigong” translates as “energy work” or “energy skill”. Qigong encompasses every kind of energy from the gross physical to the finest levels of bio-energy (qi), including mental, emotional and spiritual energy. This broad range of energy application places qigong practice at the root of most internal healing and martial arts.
There are three components that are critical to qigong practice – posture, breath and intent. Each of these pieces plays an important part in both preparing/conditioning the body and in the application of technique. All three work together, with the ultimate goal of unifying the individual on all energetic levels. This post explains some important points about the most physical of these three components - posture.
A balanced posture is appropriate for conditioning the body’s energy flows. If you think of the body’s energy channels as plumbing, then correct posture helps align and clear all the pipes so the energy will flow freely. Some postures may be used primarily to absorb energy and others to project, while others may do a combination of both. Postures are also specific to types of energy. The foundational posture of many qigong routines is the wuji posture. Of the five elemental energy types – fire, earth, metal, water and wood, the wuji posture enables earth energy. It takes its name from the wuji or “empty state” defined at the beginning of Taoist cosmology. Those familiar with martial arts may recognize the wuji posture as a “ready stance” or a shoulder’s width “horse stance”. Wuji is itself a very functional posture and also serves as a starting point for developing other postures (stances).
The wuji posture can be thought of as “stacking the structure”. Skeletal components are aligned one atop another, just like you would stack a group of dinner plates, with each component resting comfortably on the one below it. This stacking creates an alignment between the crown-point (Bai Hui), the central body point (wuji point), the base of the perineum (Hui Yin) and the center balance point of the foot. The pelvis is a critical part of the equation too and is held in a neutral position. If the pelvis was a bucket of water, the water would not spill out the front, back or sides, but remain level.
The body is relaxed so that only minimal muscular tension is required to remain upright. Muscles are only part of the equation in the internal arts. Much attention is paid to using the body’s fascial elements – the tendons, ligaments and connective tissue that permeate the entire body structure. We are to relax into this supporting fascia.
The Taiji classics describe the body alignment of this posture by advising us to hang the crown point – as if the top of our head was suspended by a thread. At the same time the head is suspended, the body is “rooted” through the feet. To be rooted means that the body weight is settled down through the legs and into the earth. There is also an energetic connection between the body and the earth. This energetic connection extends into the earth, just like the roots of a tree.
The feet are parallel to each other at about a shoulder’s width distance. The ankle, hip, shoulder joint and the ears are all in the same plane and everything relaxes into the skeletal, muscular and fascial body structure.
If you consistently practice the body alignments and principles of the wuji posture, those principles will in turn support all the other healing and martial postures. Next post – breath.
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