ChiDragon

First of all, no one can stand the pain in the zhan zhuang position without practiced for sometime. Even just practiced Taiji in the first three months, the movements alone, the leg muscles are very painful. Eventually, the pain will go away after the muscle are used to the stress from contraction. In Taiji, moving the legs one at a time, the stress is only applied to one leg at a time. However, in zhan zhuang, constant stress was placed on both legs. The level of pain depends on the bending angle of the thighs. The lower the angle of the thighs, the more pain there is. The smaller the angle of the thighs with respect to the vertical, it will cause less pain. Hence, beginners should start with a small angle to have less pain to begin with.

OK, now, I know why you responded to the thread the way you did. What you are telling me was that no one had practiced Zhan Zhuang yet. I will continue after dinner.

The original idea of zhan zhuang was really standing on post. So, only some part of the foot is touching the post. It is much harder to keep in balance for a beginner. In order to stay in balance, the practitioner must shift the body weight to the center. That is where the rooting training comes into play. Nowadays, it is too easy for the practitioner to stay in balance by standing with two feet flat on the ground.

Believe it or not, rooting comes with the package of Taiji. You will know what I meant if you have practiced Taiji long enough. Besides, Taiji also makes the hands and arms stronger too. It was the muscle tone that generates the body energy. I think in the third video, one can see the body and leg strength of the Chen Taiji practitioner.

Yes, thank you! I grant you. General speaking, I was only differentiating the difference in the major philosophy of the two religions. However, there are no restriction of how they wanted to practice. Each individual could have a choice of how or what to practice.

Yes, zhan zhuang is standing on the posts. That is only the description of it. The purpose of standing on the posts with the legs bend and support the body weight. As result, it builds up the muscle tone of the legs. Zhan Zhuang is zhan zhuang, one can rest the hands to side or put them up in the air. It makes no difference, the legs are still bend at a different angle depends how long the practice has been done. To stand with the angle at 90 degree was the goal. Nowadays, not many people can come to that point. Unless one is a real master of kung fu. The "tree-hugging" Zhan Zhuang is the standard posture in martial arts. I still would like emphasize on zhan zhuang that makes the legs are strong again. It is the practice is mainly on the legs. The contract of the legs muscle will develop muscle tone that will make the legs powerful. As a matter of fact, in Taiji, has the effect of Zhan Zhuang. In most Taiji moves, it require to stand on one leg while lifting the other. One leg has to take the weight of the body as opposed to two legs in zhan zhuang. Hence the weight was doubled on one legs. In return, it puts more stress on one leg. The leg has to react with more contraction to resist the double weight.

Good question, I knew someone might challenge that! That is right, general speaking, boxers do not practice zhan zhuang. However, if they have practiced, then, they will have the advantage over the opponents in the ring. That is why you had made the last statement.

The leg work of a Chen style Taiji practitioner VS a taller regular boxer.

On this video, I would keep my eyes on the legs and balance on both. One can almost predict who is going to be the winner. One can tell who has a kung fu body and who is not.

This video shows the difference in legs strength between the two opponents. The one who kicks and spins the whole body around and fall down has poor leg work. Who bounces around too much will lose lots of energy. If one lose his balance most of the time, one will have weak punches. Thus it is so important to have good leg grounding for a good martial artist to handle the opponent.

The healthy cells in the immune system will keep the foreigners out of the body. Just fine tune the body to the ultimate state of homeostat with qigong.

Yes! Since I have ever translated the TTC into English and from the relative chapters about "wu wei", that is exactly how I got to where we are right now. PS Oops...I had responded to this thread once already. I guess I was so carried away with wu wei!

The human body relies on the health of the cells to be alive. Does the EM depend on humans to live?

Again, a full breath can only take in oxygen but not energy. The energy was produced within the body cells. To be exact, it is the mitochondria that was converting the glucose with oxygen into energy.

The fallacy here is your body can only direct your breath but not energy.

Now, I am constantly breathing slow and deep until a large amount of breath sink into the dantian(LDT). Without holding my breath, I continuously breathing in with a tiny bit of air through my nose into my lung. Up to a point that I cannot breathe in anymore air, then, I exhale slowly until I am out of breath. Hence I repeat the same cycle. I think this is a good practice when I am arm wrestling with my brother-in-laws. I can see their faces turning red while holding their breath. I was peaceful and calm while regulating my breath. I was complimented by one of the sister-in-laws. She was saying look at him. He is so calm and the face didn't turn red and his arm didn't even move!

She is retired. Please read the following: https://easterninternalarts.com/Classes.html

Yes, I believe both practices are compatible. When you are speaking about Zen(褝), I think the term "neidan(內丹)" used here is inappropriate. It is because the practice of neidan was practiced by ancient Taoist to prolong life; the intention was to become an immortal. However, Buddhism believes in reincarnation.

Practicing Qigong will reflect the state of your health. The body is a self healing machine. You may not have to focus on your health but the exercise. The Qigong exercise will take care the health of the body on its own. If the body needs healing, then, it shall be done without expecting result. If the body does not need any healing , then, it will keep the body in the state of homeostat. In other word, the body will not get any worse or better but just keep the health state at a constant level.

I am curious how do you or anyone else practice neidan?

So, alchemy is not real!

Yes, that is how the body works. However, the diagram shown was only figure 1. It didn't really tell the whole story.

I thought the concept about the three treasures of Jing, chi, and shen was very clearly described as the eastern alchemy. I am so surprised that the concept had been floating around for centuries. Are you telling me that no one realize that is the original idea of eastern alchemy?

In that case, then, please don't forget to wear a gas mask when you walk on a busy street.

Micro plastics are measurable as opposed to some unknown force in the air which is not. However, oxygen are measurable and it was known it helps to produce energy in the body. The cosmic force in the air is an imaginary force which is causing beyond reasonable doubt.