“One of the greatest things you can do for your health is to push a force through your body as you relax.”
I first remember being told this quote from a member very early on in my Tai Chi practice. I found it so profound that I quickly memorized it and kept repeating it to myself even though I did not understand it at all. It was the first part of the quote that initially had my attention “One of the greatest things you can do for your health”. I thought WOW, if Master Moy says that, then I needed to know what this is all about!
But what force was he talking about? I felt no force and how do you push it through your body? A true mystery for any new Tai Chi student!
But as I continued to practice new ideas started to come to me. I compared these ideas to seeds you plant in the earth with the hope that one day they may bloom into beautiful flowers. These seed ideas needed patience, consistent practice, and a wish to understand in order to bloom. I could not rush it as my body needed time to change and my mind to open to new understandings. I also knew with Master Moy watching and helping me I would be given every opportunity to realize some of the truth of this timeless quote he was sharing with us all.
It was while talking with other students I quickly realized mentally that Master Moy was referring to the Danyu. A move I practiced every class but, in all honesty, I could never connect my Danyu with the quote at all. How was that possible?
Then one day I heard an instructor say you must learn to develop the ‘opposite force’ by pushing from the bottom of your feet. OK, there it was I thought, a reference to the force in Master Moy’s quote. It comes from the feet pushing down to create an opposite force that goes up. With this idea I started to focus my Danyus on my feet. I wanted to feel my feet and the ground under them. I tried for a long time to get my feet to push me up. My legs would usually shake and felt unstable. I then realized I had to develop more strength and flexibility in my legs if I was cultivating this force in any way. I started to slowly understand how the whole body had to work together. So, I worked on this as well. I did many Danyus, and the progress was slow but I never wavered from my wish to understand this quote more.
With time and to my surprise I did in fact start feeling a force go up my legs. My legs became stronger, and Master Moy had us stretch the legs through movements such as the snake and the splits. I also found I could begin to relax my upper body a little more and not use as much muscle to come up. But the quote said, ‘through your body’. How does that happen as it seemed to me to be a lower body practice only. But one day, and I can’t recall when, to my surprise, I began to feel the force from the push start to go up my spine. It was quite a shock to me. I realized the force travels through the bones including the spine and up into the middle of the body. Once I knew the truth of this because it was happening inside me, I had a real focus on my Danyu.
But the last part of the quote was still a mystery to me “as you relax”. This was very challenging. Standing up in the Danyu takes energy and can tire you quickly. So how do you relax as you are pushing up? I could not do many Danyus even though I felt the force more and more. Although I thought I had come a long way in my Danyu it was still tiring, and my mind struggled with this concept. Then one day at a workshop Tony Kwan was watching the class doing Danyus and he quickly told the whole class to stop. He said, “don’t you understand you really need to relax and let go”. I felt in that moment he was talking to me, and I knew instantly the blockage was in my head. It was my unwillingness to really let go of all I thought I learned and knew. I needed to become a true beginner again with no preconceived ideas rather than one who ‘knew’ the Danyu. It was a lesson in humility and dropping the ego. My only goal from that point on was very simple and focused and that was to relax my body and mind when I did Danyus. Whether I did a few or many I did not care as relaxation was my main goal in each Danyu. The Danyu then became what I termed and understand to be the ‘Art of relaxation’.
With my now 30+ years practicing Danyus I honestly still feel I have much to learn about this quote but through the journey it has improved my health immensely showing me that the Danyu really is one of the best things you can do for your health!
How rich this quote from Master Moy. To me, the danyu is to be learned over again and again: learn to push from the feet, and to relax the whole body while doing it. It’s never easy, but when I can feel the push and the relaxation enough to enjoy the move and to somehow feel my spine, it is such a reward and an astonishment at what this art is all about. And, as you say Joe, it’s a matter of letting go all what we’ve learned so far, even what we’re not aware of. Which is the hardest thing to do. Thanks a lot Joe, I already read your article many times, and I keep on reflecting on it.
Joe thanx for your insights into the Danyu. I will apply them into my Danyus
Merci beaucoup Jean Hubert, je ne me lasse pas de me faire rappeler de relaxer, de ne pas bouger, de laisser aller lors de séances de méditation debout.
Dear Joe, thank you for this great story and a good description of on one of the key points of tai chi. I have my own story about understanding this principle which I might share one day. In brief, it came to me not in practicing Donyus, but in doing Zhan Zhuang (standing meditation) day after day. The idea is the same: you stand without moving, sinking the mind and the body, relaxing into the ground, and you get a returning force that travels up right up to the top, expanding the whole body, even the bones in the head, while completely letting go of all tentions.
As in the Donyus, completely letting go is central to this practice. I only had a single instruction from Master Moy: don’t move, (meaning, do not fidget, or scratch if it itches, or quit as soon as it becomes boring). In my experience, if one wants to deepen one’s understanding of tai chi, one has to practice Zhan Zhuang diligently at some point. It may sound paradoxal, but more heat, more stretch (spine-body) and more circulation is generated by this ”non-move”. The breathing changes with time: it becomes very deep and very soft, and the mind and heart become quite still after a while. Zhan Zhuang is one of the three pillars of our tradition along with Donyus and Toryus.
I would love to keep this conversation going and compare notes, Joe. Please keep posting your insights and share your stories.
Warmest salutations
Thank you for your insights into Zhan Zhuang they will improve my standing meditation practice.
Zen Strzelczyk
Thank you so much for your explanations. This article is really helping me to find the relaxations throughout my Tai Chi.
Merci, j’apprécie de me faire rappeler de les principles, au tant que possibles. Ca m’aide beaucoup.