Relaxare Si Extindere

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Relaxing and Expanding

By Ting Kuo-Piao (William Ting) T'ai Chi Vol.25, No.1

In order to perform good quality T'ai Chi Ch'uan and to continually improve skills, the practitioner must understand thetrue meaning of "sung."

To approach a high level in the art of T'ai Chi Ch'uan, a foundation must be built that includes many qualities; stability,balance, flexibility, coordination, unity and internal spiraling. But what connects all these elements together? It is theability to be sung.

Sung is a key factor in that mastery of all the other qualities depend upon it. It could be thought of as the commoningredient that each one must contain.

However, to be sung does not mean that you automatically know how to accomplish these skills. Each needs their ownindividual attention for study and practice to acquire, but sung enhances their development.

In other words, the ability to be sung is absolutely essential for high level T'ai Chi, but it is not the only requirement. Thewhole combination of factors is necessary, but without sung, it is not possible to do any of them at the higher levels.

The characteristic of sung in T'ai Chi is vital, yet possibly the most misunderstood. To be sung is a subtle internal qualitythat is revealed within the expression of posture, action and spirit.

What does it mean to be sung? There can be no simple answer. Sung is a quality that the practitioner continually refinesand deepens, forever.

Most definitions I have seen simply descibe it as relaxing, but that is only partially correct. A very important concept isoverlooked that radically changes how T'ai Chi is experienced, both in the quality (gongfu) of practice and the level ofskill that can be achieved.

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What is missing is "expansion", also referred to by some as "peng jing." However, most people confine peng jing to withinthe boundaries of their own skin.

I will be referring to a broader view of expansion, which permeates beyond the individual and out into the environment. I

teach this concept by telling my students to relax within expanding and expand within relaxing.

When you ask most people to relax, either they do too little, being reluctant to let go, or they give up too much and golimp.

When people don't relax enough, they are invariably placing reliance on the strength found solely within theirmusculature to support themselves and control movement. The muscles respond by tightening and straining, using far

more effort than is necessary. Hence the term tension.

Not only is this exhausting and painful, but the force in the muscles constricts blood vessels, affecting circulation andblood pressure, squeezes the nerves which decreases sensitvity,and binds joints, reducing flexibility. Energetically, thetightness of the muscles also locks out qi (energy) and what's inside gets trapped in the tension and can't flow smoothly.

The result is very little energy moving inside the body. When the energy is expended, fatigue and soreness replace it.

Usually beginners start with a body that is held together much too tightly. The first step in developing sung is to releasethis tension.

As students are encouraged to relax, their next response is to go limp. This is a step in the right direction but it goes toofar. Where tension uses too much muscle, now those same muscles seem to lose their vigor.

The problem is that the student doesn't understand what it means to be relaxed. They equate relaxing only with makingless effort. Tension is literally dropped with nothing to take its place. This is like having a building where you take out allthe supports and don't use anything else to brace it up. It will fall down.

At this stage, students often yawn and feel sleepy. They think they are so relaxed, but their posture is really collapsingand shrinking, and their movements look limp and dull. Very simply, there is less room inside the body for qi to flowthrough, resulting in less internal energy and ultimately fatigue.

How do we relax without collapsing? If we use less muscle strength, what is it that will keep us from falling down?





In T'ai Chi, we learn to rely less on muscle and more on qi. Yet, how do we access this energy? By expanding. This isthe key that is not often explained.

Qi inhabits and travels within the emptiness of space. By literally opening ourselves up through expansion, we canaccumulate more qi.

Everything in the universe is defined at some level by a measure of space. Even those things that appear as solid areactually made up of minute combinations of particles called molecules, which are made up of even smaller particles ofatoms that consist of even smaller particles of protons, electrons, etc., and so it goes.

Think about it. What is there in-between each of these infinitesimal pieces? Space. It penetrates and surroundseverything, but it is described as no-thing. We say it is so small it has no center, so big there is no edge. Space is whereqi dwells.

I want to point out that I prefer to use the word expanding as a description instead of stretching. To stretch does mean toextend out to a greater length. However, when told to stretch, very few people are also expanding.

This creates a problem in that students usually stretch by reaching in a single direction. With everything going the sameway, there is no opening effect, so that stretching usually leads into rigidity.

While stretching is not necessarily expanding, expanding does include the same concept of extension. The difference isthat expanding is understood, without question, as a relaxed or elastic condition, that spreads or opens out in alldirections at the same time. In other words, stretching is just a part of expanding, whereas expanding includes stretching.

Look to the basic principles of posture for the indication of expansion in T'ai Chi Ch'uan. The classics say: form a centralline, tailbone sinking down, feet deep into the ground with the headtop reaching to the ceiling. This is both an upward anda downward expanding movement that opens the spine. Chest in, back out, sinking the shoulders slightly forward withelbows down, is a right, left, forward, backward expanding action that widens the space between the shoulder blades,hollowing out the chest and opening the upper body.

Note the classics do not say do this and then do that. The instruction is all-inclusive, helping to build a posture that isdeeper, higher and wider. One that can support a spirit that is lively, resilient and powerful.

You must expand at the same time you are relaxing or the posture falls into collapse, and you must relax at the same





time you are expanding; otherwise, the extension evolves into rigidity.

It is the ability to relax which gives expanding its elastic quality, but it is expansion which creates the space that allows forthe accumulation of qi.

Tension does not allow for expansion, keeping the body stiff, with less flexibility. On the other hand, if we only relax anddo not expand, the amount of qi that can be absorbed will be limited. Then again, if we expand and do not continuallyrelax, the extension turns into tension.

This process will get you nowhere. You cannot do one without the other; relaxing and expanding must both be active atthe same time.

I use a sponge as an example. A dry sponge is hard and rigid. But in the presence of water the sponge softens andswells, absorbing the fluid within itself.

We can make a comparison using the sponge as our body and water as qi. When the body relaxes and expands, qi canfill up the spaces both within and around cells, fibers, tissues and joints like water fills the sponge.

Just as a sponge gets softer and bigger as it fills with the water, our bodies become more flexible, resilient and buoyantwith the accumulation of qi.

There is a difference between a sponge and our bodies in that a sponge will absorb any fluid it comes in contact with, thefluid being the catalyst. It is up to us, on the other hand, to assimilate the qi.

Even though we are continually surrounded by qi, it does not mean we automatically take advantage of it.

For example, take a bowl of water and place a piece of rigid plastic in it. The fibers in the plastic will neither relax orexpand, so nothing changes to the plastic or the water.

Try a piece of cellophane wrapping; it is very relaxed. Pick it up and it drapes limply. You can fold it, crumble and twist it,yet when placed in the water still nothing happens, because it does not expand. The cellophane will get wet but remainsessentially unchanged and the water stays in the bowl.





However, toss a sponge into the bowl and a transformation immediately begins. The sponge softens (relaxing) andswells (expanding) and the water disappears as it exchanges place from the bowl to within the sponge.

Can you imagine your body as the sponge and the water as qi? Relaxing and expanding is the method for accumulating

qi.

Most students in the process of learning need to experience each extreme, as in too tense or too limp, in order to fullyunderstand the correct way, the middle way, between the two (Zhong Tao).

Sung uses balance, and good balance requires sung. To be stiff and tense reduces circulation of blood and qi, flexibilityand sensitivity.

This can be described as too yang not enough yin. To be limp is not relaxed but collapsed, the body is shrinking, andeverything is down, with even less feeling of energy. That is to be too yin with not enough yang. You must have both, yinwithin yang and yang within yin.

The truth of this is evident in the T'ai Chi symbol. One portion is yin (black) with an equal portion of yang (white). Yin andyang balance each other. However, neither portion is totally yin or completely yang. So we see a little dot of yang within

the yin and a dot of yin inside the yang.

This is a very important concept that is often overlooked. I have heard movements described as being either yin or yang,with portions of the posture called substantial or insubstantial, as in the right leg being full while the left one is empty.That is not quite right. If that were the case, then the symbol would appear without the two dots. Fullness must containsome emptiness.

The classics refer to forward motion having the idea of backwards at the same time. Up movement must contain down,right should have left, etc. This is precisely the definition of expanding, an opening out in any or all directions at once.

To illustrate this another way, if a posture is described as having 70% weight in one leg and 30% in the opposite one,where is the balance? It is already lopsided. There must be 70% fullness with 30% emptiness in the one leg and 30%fullness and 70% emptiness in the other. Then the whole body is 100% equal all the time. That is the way to keepbalance!

There is one more dimension we need to mention and that is change. The T'ai Chi principle is not static, but quitedynamic in keeping with the natural law of process.





Indicated by the curving line, yin and yang are constantly transforming, so that nothing is ever the same but alwayschanging and adjusting.

That being said, there are many factors, such as atmospheric disturbances, physical condition, or emotional and mentalstates, that affect our ability to be consistently balanced or sung from moment to moment. There is no perfect balance.No one is perfectly sung.

There is never a point where one can say they have reached the utmost level where no further achievement is possible.There are no limits. T'ai Chi practitioners continually practice to refine themselves for their whole life.

Consider that the concept of being sung is a subtle, internal characteristic, very easy to disregard if the student isn't alsoaware.

It's somewhat like trying to find a buried treasure. You have to have some idea of where to look. Like a map, theguidance of a qualified teacher is essential to show you the way and to make corrections.

But more importantly, you must start with the belief that sung exists and make an effort to discover it. However, you must

not force the outcome. In other words, you have to create the conditions that allow relaxation and expansion to occursimultaneously and then try not to attach to them when they do.

One can always be more sung, but not if one has attached to it. Sung should be natural. If you try too hard, your body willget tense and the mind too serious. Then you will never get it.

Once you have achieved sung, don't attempt to manage it, because then you will lose it. Simply calm the mind and the

body will be easier to relax; relax the body and the mind will calm down more. As with everything else, the two go roundand round; they are intricately woven together.

The state of our mind is especially significant to the development of sung. The mind shouldn't be allowed to wanderaround indiscriminately. Avoid thinking too much, worrying, or dealing with strong emotions such as fear, anger, grief,excessive joy, depression, agitation or nervousness, etc. This will have a reaction in the body.

A tense mind leads to a tense body, but it also works the other way around. A tense body contributes to a tense mind.The key to controlling it is in uniting body and mind. For the body to be relaxed, the mind must be calm.





Coordination of movement depends on the cooperation of body and mind together. What the mind perceives, the bodyfeels. Conversely, what the body feels, the mind absorbs and makes adjustments as needed.

At the beginning, body and mind are never together. We have all had the experience where, in our mind, we think we

understand but the body says it doesn't quite feel right. Or, in our mind, we understand perfectly well what should bedone, but the body's not following the mental picture and does something else.

We need to be constantly aware of our errors and making adjustments, otherwise mistakes can go on forever. That iswhy being calm is so important.

A calm mind increases awareness, a relaxed body increases sensitivity, and the process of communication between the

two bring them closer together. By juggling information back and forth, eventually body and mind become one.

The unity of body and mind is the key to understanding relaxation within expansion; expansion within relaxation.

The mind can go places your body cannot physically go. How else can you be rooted deep like a tree, or your head besuspended from the ceiling? What is it that allows your presence to fill up the expanse of a whole room? How can youcontrol an opponent's center without even the slightest touch? It's all in the connection of mind and body together.

Even when it is not obvious to others, what the mind thinks the body does and feels. You can try it. Stand in the middle ofthe room and reach your arms toward the wall. Most likely you cannot touch it. Do it again, but this time try and touch thewall from where you are. I expect that this time your arms are stretched out rigidly, your body leaning with the balancetoo far forward.

Now try this once more. This time imagine in your mind that you are touching the wall. How does your body feel now?

Your arms should feel longer. as if the length of them extends from your feet to the wall.

While your fingers feel as if they touch the wall in front, also feel as if your back touches the wall behind. Feel your armstouch the walls on either side while your head touches the ceiling and your tailbone sinks to the floor.

Physically it looks as if you still cannot touch the wall, but you know, and others can sense it too, that your energy iscovering the whole room.

Expanding is a result of this mind/body connection. There are subtle internal changes, caused by expansion, not readily





apparent to the eye. Cells, fibers, tissues, and joints open and blood and qi flow in.

Like a balloon full of air, qi fills out the body, connecting it all together through the center. Now there is unity with all thevarious parts and extremities of the body, giving coordination to movement. The classics say if one part of the bodymoves, every part moves together.

This is how to tap into a different kind of strength, not just bone and muscle, but an inner fortitude. It comes from unity;being sung empowers unity.

To illustrate, simply consider this: how much power can a punch hold if delivered just by the action of an arm? Back it upwith the whole body energy and the power increases substantially.

Unity is what makes the gentle looking practice of T'ai Chi Ch'uan not only a formidable martial art but also an excellentregimen for maintaining health of body, mind, and spirit.

Students who study the art also claim that their other activities benefit from their practice as well. Their golf swing is moreaccurate, their tennis arm more powerful, their ski legs more balanced and flexible. All abilities in one form or anotherbenefit from the same natural principles.

I hope that this article will help to clarify what it means to be "sung". If students realize that it doesn't merely mean to berelaxed but also expanded at the same time, they will overcome many faults and their level of T'ai Chi skill will improvegreatly.

Sung strengthens stability, creating a posture that is broader, deeper, higher. Sung helps to spread out the balance andkeep it equal. Sung gives flexibility it's looseness while uplifting energy and spirit. Sung opens up the body, increasingthe level of qi.

Qi is the foundation for unity of body and mind, as well as coordination in movement. Sung lengthens the internal line ofspiraling energy flows.

Since sung is a component of stability, flexibility, balance, unity, coordination and spiraling motion, it is the key that allowsthem to cooperate with each other and is how each moment in T'ai Chi contains all of them continuously, from beginningto end.

T'ai Chi Ch'uan without sung is not real T'ai Chi. It may look similar but will not produce the same results.





In short, the more you relax, the more you can expand; the more you expand, the more qi you will have; the more qi thatyou have, the stronger will be your feeling of unity. Unity is what T'ai Chi Ch'uan is all about. This is the value of sung!



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