dwai

It’s a good idea to keep coming back to this

Standing without preparing the body will lead to pain and stress (for most people). I remember that with my first teacher, our sessions would be 2 hours long - first single form warm-ups, then standing meditations (prayer hands set, etc.). Now and then, there would be folks interested in learning who would try the class out. I remember one guy who claimed to have been doing tai chi and qigong for decades - he said he could handle the standing. After about 30 minutes, we heard a thud...the poor man had fallen because he was forcing himself to stand, despite my teacher having told him to move around or sit down if the standing was too much. Unfortunately he never came back to the class

I’ve not come across any rule that prevents us from working on the MDT in temple style. The taiji stance is not the same as the prayer hands form that we use in temple style for MDT work. Also the same posture can be practiced in different ways depending on what the purpose is. For beginners (ie someone who has had 4-6 months of form practice) the static posture is used to learn how to sink qi to the LDT. Then it can be used to MDT and UDT.

That is a wonderful gateway to meditation.

My sifu used to have reinforced walls in his academy It depends on the type of fajin being applied. The below is a video of my sifu showing some fajin (8:09 onwards) -- Here's another one -

Hey! These guys look familiar Why...that's my buddy, his son and me

Interesting conversation (I'm sure we've all discussed this many times on this board). FWIW, we should never do just standing. Standing should be complemented by moving. So in the context of Taijiquan, if we stand (beginners should not stand for more than 5-10 minutes and slowly build up standing time) - it builds power, we should also practice a moving form to circulate the power. If people only stand, they can end up damaging their kidneys or other health problems. Another thing about standing, imho, is that the mental state is very important - one must be "sung" in the mind as well as the body.

It means that (imho) once the absolute is realized, then suffering, pain, pleasure etc are no longer experienced through the mind of the limited entity (self). But it requires realization proper, not an intellectual understanding.

There is nothing apart from the absolute. What you see bound by time and space are just appearances

They are not distinct from each other Everywhere In Advaita Vedanta, this "Samsara is Nirvana, Nirvana is Samsara" is presented as follows - Asti, Bhati, Priyam, Nama and Rupa. Asti - Being Bhati - Shining Priyam - Love Nama - Name Rupa - Form While ordinarily we only see Nama and Rupa, the wise also see the Asti, Bhati and Priyam aspect of phenomena. If we stick with only names and forms, there is impermanence. Once we see the Absolute Consciousness shining forth as Existence (Being), Consciousness (Shining) and Bliss (Love) through that impermance, we see the Absolute is always present.