From the perspective of water-based Tai Ji Chuan, there are three stages in learning and training: the first stage, the primary stage, and the Hinayana mature stage, that is, Tai Ji Chuan's promising method and secular method (wisdom), emphasizing that boxing is becoming more and more powerful, and one method can produce various methods to understand Tai Ji Chuan's name and appearance-learn to stand and enter the frame. The second stage, the second and intermediate stages of Taiji's understanding of power and Taiji's understanding of power, that is, Taiji's inaction, belong to secular law (wisdom). Emphasizing the loss of Tao, all methods are unified into one method-unbundling and unbundling. The third stage, Tai Chi Chuan Mahayana stage, understands Tai Chi thinking such as fluid, powerlessness, inaction, rootlessness, infinity, invisibility, no phase, no dwelling, etc.-and enters the stage of changing frames, building frames and no frames.
Taken together, it can be divided into the following seven progressive steps.
The first step of progress:
ground
When I first started practicing Tai Ji Chuan, when I was studying full-time, the first 10 days were the most confusing, and many people felt stupid. In fact, it is not that everyone is stupid, but that the terms and intentions of Taiji Chuan are not hard, which is a brand-new concept and experience for the established knowledge reference system-maybe this aspect itself is a blank sheet of paper, and there is no reference object. However, this is an important way to cultivate and stimulate internal skills, which must be established from the beginning. Otherwise, if you are too busy learning movements as soon as possible and then pursuing the standardization of movements, you will be farther and farther away from the requirement of becoming a master of Tai Chi Chuan, a profound internal skill. In this way, if you study and practice Tai Ji Chuan for several years or more, you can only practice the Tai Ji Chuan routine-it is only equivalent to practicing gymnastics every day, which can achieve the effect of exercising your bones and muscles, while the rich connotation of Tai Ji Chuan can't be tasted. Therefore, in the first stage of learning Tai Ji Chuan, the key is to solve the problem of how to learn and practice boxing.
The key point of this stage is to learn the essentials of action, understand the connotation of spirit, and be able to blend into the process of boxing and walking.
The second step of progress:
Internal and external integration
Nan, a famous scholar, pointed out in his Essays on the Book of Changes: "Taoism in China pays attention to cultivation, and if it wants to become immortal, it must get through the second pulse of Ren Du. The so-called "Ren Du Er Mai" needs to be "yellow". This "yellow middle" is abstractly said to be heaven and earth, specifically, everything is fine in people's internal intestines and stomach, and yellow is the central color. " Li "is not a rational principle, but a medical principle of China, that is, skin pores. Those who have done their work and enough cultivation are internally and externally connected through every pore. At this time, the so-called state of harmony between man and nature has reached the body, and his face is radiant. It's really beautiful at this time, with developed limbs and smooth body. Then,' the sage inside and the king outside' have such a high accomplishment. It is beautiful to have the opportunity to send abroad, to send abroad a career, to integrate inside and outside, and to integrate heaven and man. "The connotation of this passage can be realized through Tai Ji Chuan's practice. How to realize it, the key is to realize internal and external integration.
Internal and external integration refers to the mutual integration and connection between oneself and nature. Internal and external does not refer to the division between the internal body and the skin surface at the level of human body structure, but the kung fu composed of the spirit and spirit of boxing practitioners, which constantly develops and grows in the process of natural communication, integration, blending and communication with the outside world. Among the Tai Ji Chuan spread by Mr. Wang Yongquan, the former vice chairman of Beijing Wushu Association, the most fluent way to cultivate internal and external harmony is three balloons. Three balloons are emitted from the body and scattered around the shoulders, waist and hips, among which the waist balloon dominates the shoulder balloon above and the hip balloon below, forming a whole with the integration of internal and external qi, thus forming the realm of harmony between man and nature. This realm has an outstanding effect on health and longevity, and the benefits of supplementing energy in the body are obvious.
The third step of progress:
Follow each other up and down
Generally speaking, after the three-way balloon has laid a good foundation, you need to experience more about going up and down during walking. Regarding the following, Mr. Yang Chengfu, the third generation descendant of Yang-style Tai Ji Chuan, once said: "Those who follow up and down, that is, Tai Ji Chuan said: Rooted in the feet, originated from the legs, dominated by the waist, shaped by the fingers, and from the feet to the legs and waist, will always be complete." Manual movement, waist movement, foot movement, eyes movement, so it can be said that the party is up and down. If you don't move, you will disperse. "This is an exposition of the importance of following up and down. This is boxing. However, going hand in hand from top to bottom is not just about "how to move the hands above and how to move the feet of the lower limbs." "In the method of Taiji esoteric transmission, there is a special training method, that is, after the three balloons are unfolded in parallel, the shoulder balloon leader leads the two arms to operate; Hip balloon mainly guides the ups and downs and movements of legs; Waist airbag is the leading and medium of shoulder and hip airbag. In addition, in order to avoid physical and mental distraction during boxing walking and make the three parallel balloons run in harmony, a vertical line (imaginary thinking line) in the body must be vertically put down in the center of the three balloons. At this time, the forward, backward and left-right movement of the body are guided and manipulated by this vertical line in the body, thus being realized on the basis of internal and external integration.
There is a saying that the cultivation method of alchemy or possession of secrets is to cultivate the meridian. In fact, in the process of Tai Ji Chuan's cultivation, there is a similar content of cultivating vertical lines in the body. This is a step-by-step long-term training process. There are three standards to measure the cultivation level of vertical lines in the body: first, vertical lines are soft, lively and natural; Second, the vertical line in the body is integrated with the clock hammer, which can rise and fall up and down and rotate freely; Third, let the vertical line in the body be thick and expand, and no external interference can confuse it. The above three signs are not taught moves, but natural manifestations of internal cultivation.
The fourth step of progress:
Integrated internal strength
Many people are only satisfied with practicing boxing routines, thinking that they can work wholeheartedly every day; Don't you know that Tai Ji Chuan has to undergo physical and mental training in the boxing training stage, and the important content of this stage is to break the fist and crush it, so that the operation and transformation of every movement and posture can be integrated into the internal work.
The popular Tai Ji Chuan mainly takes the use of various formulas as the content of this stage, such as the white crane shining its wings, exploring the height of the horse, fanning its back and so on. The key point of the present stage of internal taiji must be that each decomposition action must rely on the corresponding internal mental method to run automatically. Although learning internal skill Tai Ji Chuan needs to study together with boxing routines at first, it is not easy for ordinary people to learn internal skill. So at this stage, we must correct and gradually put an end to the empty shelf phenomenon of only exercising. Only by recognizing that Tai Ji Chuan must combine skills and tactics can we achieve the unity of knowledge and action, and gradually achieve the goal of "there is skill in tactics and skill in tactics". At this level, we can understand and comprehend the mystery of the combination of yin and yang of Tai Ji Chuan's frame, and lay a solid foundation for the application of hand rubbing in the next step.
How to integrate internal strength? The key is to take apart each boxing frame and try to figure it out silently, so that this formula can be changed from rigid and flexible, from recruiting to internal strength, from deliberately cumbersome to concise.
The fifth step of progress:
Intrinsic concentration
Practitioners often attach great importance to the beauty of certain postures, such as squatting left and right, waving pipa, single whip, cloud hand, descending posture, holding the tiger up the mountain, hammering the bottom of elbow, crossing hands and so on. Therefore, in the process of practice, the shortcomings of thinking and paying attention to posture can never be changed, and it is not easy to get rid of the whole body stiffness, thus forming one's own spirit and excessive dependence on body movements; Some people even have pathological phenomena such as elevated blood pressure. Therefore, we must move from "loose air" to "loose air".
When practicing Tai Ji Chuan, it is particularly important to relax, loosen and open the tip. Relaxation is to relax the major joints of the body to form a fluid and spring state. Loose and scattered can make the internal gas in the hand naturally blend with the external gas of nature at the outer edge of its own momentum; It is also convenient to realize the realm of "color is empty" that Buddhists say. How to integrate with the outside world and make it integrate with the body shape? The key is to gradually fade the hands in mind, eyes and feelings from Tai Chi in the process of practicing, until you finally forget your hands and reach the state that "hands are not hands". Generally speaking, in this stage of training, we should focus on squatting on the left and right knees, waving pipa, single whip and other actions. Especially for single whip, it is necessary to repeatedly carry out internal strength training of "carrying five bows in one body" and "empty four tips".
After "loosening", it is bound to be accompanied by "opening gas", and after "opening gas", it is bound to enter "completely opening gas"-loose, loose, soft and loose, just like a balloon filled with gas, full and full; Like revolving doors and seesaws, the transition between movements is naturally easy and does not show traces; Then the whole body becomes a whole mixed inside and outside, so the effect of being sensitive, energetic and prolonging life is naturally displayed. The answer supplements the sixth progress ladder:
Throw the boat across the river.
In society, many people often learn more when they practice learning from Tai Ji Chuan. Learn Formula 24, Formula 42, Formula 48, Formula 88 and so on. As a result, every morning, you have to play these routines in order not to forget them. However, as a result of this kind of study and practice, a lot of energy is often spent, but the effect is not ideal.
There is another situation, that is, many Tai Ji Chuan fans, after mastering boxing, tend to stick to boxing routines and work hard on gloves all their lives. In fact, boxing is just kicking down the ladder, helping to understand the true meaning of Tai Ji Chuan, with the aim of reaching the other side of Taiji Kung Fu. After crossing the river, the boat was thrown away.
In order to learn more and more, beginners should learn and practice as much as possible. At a certain stage, they must "lose and lose", their movements become more and more natural and casual, their internal skills are simple and simple, and they are not complicated-from the characteristics of Tai Ji Chuan Sect and the shackles of the original boxing frame, they have entered the stage of changing the frame → creating the frame → no frame. At this stage, if people drink water, they will know the warmth and coldness-they will naturally feel it when they reach this state. The answer complements the seventh ladder of progress:
Natural inaction
Legend has it that in Yang-style Tai Ji Chuan's Internal Skill Inheritance System, there is a picture depicting Yang's advanced kung fu-"The thirteen steps in the whole picture are painted with a worse door on the top, and the eighth step is marked with the name of the master Yang Luchan. Healthy Hou Gong ranks sixth, class Hou Gong ranks fifth, and young Hou Gong ranks fourth ... "The first layer of this picture means knowledgeable, and the second layer. "This is a superb realm, that is, natural inaction. Everything passes through the air, and the air has a wonderful realm. This is consistent with the realm of Taoist crushing emptiness and Buddhism's "four emptiness" It can be seen that the realm of natural inaction is a realm that is difficult to express in words. If you say so, it can be described as follows: At this time, every move, every trend and every inner strength in Tai Ji Chuan's boxing frame disappeared, and Tai Ji Chuan's unique thinking-"rootless, powerless, neutral and directionless" became a conscious consciousness, reaching the realm of freedom, inaction, invisibility, self-reliance and harmony.