Wujifa and Asking Questions.

Here's something from the Wayback machine. A number of years ago before this blog existed, we had a few different forums. One of these was semi-private Wujifa forum on LiveJournals.com. You see at various times I've found myself go back and revisiting various things I've written, done, and worked on as it helps me in so many ways. Now that we've been working on the new Wujifa book I find myself doing this more often and it's a good thing to do even if you aren't writing a book. Anyway, this post is not a "be all end all" on the art of asking questions, I just found it interesting and I thought it might be a good thing to dig up and share here on this blog today. Enjoy!

wujifa

January 12th, 2006

In class we ask questions, and sometimes it can be hard to think of good questions. So what is a good question? Well, that right there is a good question. When we ask "what" we are looking for something to be described, explained, and defined. I will list some other questions I might think are good ones.

1. Questions about purpose

Questions about purpose many times are "why" or "what" questions like; Why do we do this exercise? We can ask this same question as; What is the purpose of this exercise? Another good question about purpose is; Why should we do this or that practice?

2. Questions that give some background

Questions about background can come from a number of different angle with different approaches. If we have some background many times it can give us some insight to the practice we are asking about. Personally I am amazed that more people don't ask me about what I do or don't do... practice or what I have done or what I may have discovered about a certain practice when I did them. Then a great follow up question would be why I do or don't do certain things. Also a basic history about a practice or where they where developed or how they were developed can sometimes give insights to a practice too.

3. Questions about stages and results

Questions about what we might expect when we practice. These are always good questions to ask about. If we can gain some insight about what results we should look for or what stages or levels there are to a practice this can give us some idea of what to look for... Actually even asking that question is a good one; What am I looking for when I practice this? What are the things I can expect from practicing this? Are there different stages of practicing this?

The one word of caution I would give is to try to understand where you are at when you practice. So, if you ask about stages or levels of practice you may want to also ask; What level should I practice at? The reason I say this is because so many people want to practice at stages beyond their skill and the end up not getting very much from the practice. It is always good to work at basic levels and get a good full understanding before moving on to more advance levels. Even when you get to more advanced levels it still good to go back to basics often. I will also say sometime certain people can be afraid to take the next step or practice at the next level. This can also be a good topic to ask about.

4. Questions of how to do something

Questions of "how" are questions of instruction as in the question; How is it done? How do I get this part to do that? When I do this how do I do that? These questions are questions looking for advice on the practical workings most of the time and are good questions to ask. But, if you don't ask some of the questions above you might not have the depth you could have when practicing and really be limiting yourself.

Note: One more thing about questions

It is good to ask yourself these kind of questions too. It is good to ask yourself these kinds of questions often. By asking yourself questions you open a door in your mind that starts to seek for more, a deeper knowledge and understanding, with this knowledge and understanding you can start to get a greater awareness of what you are practicing. Once you gain these understandings and an awareness to some degree you can start to develop a better "feel" for what you are practicing and doing... which will lead to new and deeper questions to be explored and asked.

How To Develop Repeatable Wujifa Strategies

One of the fundamental means for developing a real and successful practice in the art of Wujifa is to develop the ability to evolve different strategies that are reproducible and repeatable as well as training methods that are functional across many different skill-sets or platforms.

Now the questions the Wujifa practitioner, or any martial artist, needs to ask is; what are these different strategies which are most functional at ones’ current level and how can they be developed and/or improved over time?

After answering that, you may be asking yourself ‘What are the first steps the Wujifa practitioner should take on their path?’ The very first step is to define, define, define. Understanding “what” it is you are doing and “why” you are doing it. 

Understanding the “what” and “why” are really helpful in getting clear on what you need to do and why you are doing a practice.

Next you will want to identify and manage the capabilities you will need to execute and develop in working toward your goals in your practice. Investing in a training journal, setting up times and places you will train, as well as the training methods you will start with are good examples of some of these goals.

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. C.S. Lewis

Make sure you test and evaluate your strategies, development process, and execution, as these steps create possibilities for tweaks that can often create insights for establishing improvements that are essential for real success.

Be organized. Have some simple organizational structures in place. Having a sense of how to organize your practice can be key. If you take the time to understand the processes involved, the clearer the bigger picture and processes can be defined now and in the future. Take some time to develop your map for improvement. Include the processes and procedures that will ensure the implementation of these become a way of life. Don’t bite off more than you can chew, at the same time you’ll need enough to nourish your progress toward your ultimate goal.

There's a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth. Maya Angelou

How do you know? Information, data, and metrics are useful in providing general estimates to guide strategic decision-making and performance measurements. So another important point is the establishment of goals and milestones. It grounds future assessments of the effectiveness of methods and strategies established and where you may be missing something important in the process you have set up for yourself.

Remember your rules are simply methods. Review them and see if your practice has matured enough, or that you have the ability to know when to change the rules to maintain strategic advantages in your Wujifa training practices.

Peter Drucker said, “Success always makes obsolete the very behavior that achieved it. It always creates new realities.”

A big key to progress is the understanding of the process. In the beginning, processes may not be comprehensively defined or understood which is fine. As one matures in their practices then strategies can further be developed, defined, and refined. Remember asking questions are a great way to do this. Make sure you write down questions in your journal and review them. Visiting past questions can reveal patterns and opportunities as much as your current question(s) may.

Peter Drucker also said, “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”

Take responsibility for your progress and learn to navigate change so you can be successful on your developmental journey. Knowing where you want to go is important. Even more important is the understanding of where you are, even more so when setting out on your journey.

As we say in Wujifa “You are where you are and that’s where you start.” Be practical and take the time to assess where you are and what your current goals are. Common sense isn’t always common practice. Taking a little time can make all the difference between failure and being on the path to success, even before the planned changes have begun to take hold.

Zhan Zhuang Alignment

When practicing Standing, or Zhan Zhuang, getting good alignment is one of the common difficulties for beginners. The method for Zhan Zhuang alignment in Wujifa is called “One Two Three Four, One Two Three Four”. The two sets of One Two Three Four are different and complementary sets of alignment points.

The first set of alignment points are: (these links open new windows)

1. The feet are parallel.

2. The knees are over the feet.

3. The hip/inguinal crease/kua are lined up over the feet and knees.
4. The shoulders are lined up over the kua, or inguinal crease.

Looking at the foot first, draw a line from the center of the heel to the second or third toe. If we do this on each foot, these would be two parallel lines. This is what we mean by the feet are parallel. In this model, we extend these lines using visualization which will let us calibrate the accuracy of how parallel these lines truly are. Using these longer lines, small mis-calibrations will be easier to notice. It’s important to mention that the feet are only about a foot to a foot and a half apart. Many people stand with their feet much wider when standing. We will not address that method in this post.

Next, apply the same process to the knees. From the center of the knee cap to the center of the area on the back of the knee, we create two lines again and extend these visualized lines as we did with the feet. If the knees are turned out, the backs of the lines will intersect behind your body. If the knees are turned in, the fronts of the lines will intersect in front of your body. The aim is for the two lines to be parallel and over the two parallel lines of the feet.

The same method is applied to the hips from the center of the inguinal crease and center of each glute. If we tuck and tighten the glutes to pop the inguinal crease out in the front, the lines will intersect behind your body. If we tuck and crunch in the front with relaxed glutes, the lines will intersect in front of your body. (These are just two of many common misalignments.) Rolling the femurs out, relaxing the glutes, and relaxing the belly and lower back simultaneously corrects many common mistakes and will allow these visualized lines of the hips to be parallel, which will allow the parallel lines to stack up, over the knees and over the feet. If the lower back is arched, the lines in front of your body will be tilted down. If the lower back is tucked, then the visualized lines in front of your body will tilt up. What we seek is to have the visualized lines parallel and level with the ground and with each other.

For the shoulders, somewhere between the acupuncture points L1 and L2 and the outside of the shoulder is the point on the front (depending on the person) and the back point is relatively on the same area in the back. If people hunch forward, which is a common mistake, the extended visualized lines will intersect in the front. If the chest is puffed up with the shoulders pulled back using tension in the rhomboid and other upper back muscles, the lines will intersect behind you. Keeping the spine straight and allowing the rib heads to turn or relax naturally will allow the chest to relax and keep the shoulder lines parallel and over the hip, knee, and feet. This is the first set of alignment vectors.

The second One Two Three Four of basic standing Zhan Zhuang alignment consists of the following four points:

1. Inguinal crease "in"

2. Tailbone and lower back relaxed and sinking "downward"

3. With the spine straight and the rib heads relaxed, the sternum drops "downward" without hunching the back or shoulders.

4. The head relaxes "back and upward", maintaining a natural relaxed curve through the cervical vertebrae.

In the Wujifa system, we address the second model of One Two Three Four as puzzles. These puzzles are figured out over time through training.

The first puzzle that we normally address is the inguinal crease "in" and lower back/tailbone "down". This is different than tucking. As we’ve mentioned in other posts like "Basic Tips for Zhan Zhuang and the pelvis", and in the first model explained in this post, the femur heads roll out, creating a feeling of widening in the lower back, the glutes relax, and the lower back relaxes. This allows the inguinal creases to go in, the lower back to lengthen, and the tailbone to sink.

The next puzzle is the combination of points two and three. When the lower back sinks correctly, many people tend to hunch forward or lean backward. Keeping the spine straight and vertical and then allowing the rib heads to rotate is the key to understanding the relationship between points two and three, and is the aim of “Three” in this set and model.

In point number four (the head back and up), in connection with number three, many people pull the head forward, or back in a military “Attention” posture both which make the neck rigid. We correct this common problem by guiding them to straighten and elongate their spine by relaxing. Next we have them look up to the ceiling, and then bring their chin down by allowing the head to pivot on the top of the axis bone at the pinnacle of the spine. This results in the ears lining up over the shoulders in a natural way. Using this method allows a person to understand what is meant by the head back and up in a relaxed natural way.

An important point to remember is not to force this alignment. Some people have hunched for many years or stood with their feet turned out for many years, or have carried a lot of back tension for a long time, thereby shortening muscles in those respective areas. The mistake is to force this alignment instead of relaxing into it. So we bring the alignment as close as we can, challenging ourselves slightly so the muscles can relax and open in the problem areas. As we practice over time, we continue to adjust the parallel lines to where they will stack naturally and create better connections throughout the fascial systems of the body.

As one understands this more, one also understands how the method is not the truth, and how the connection of the fascial system of the body is what is being sought. Ultimately, these methods of alignment can be bent or broken slightly to the level of fascial connection manifested through this kinesthetic process.

Also check out: More on Zhan Zhuang and Movement
Also check out: Keys for Developing the Inguinal Crease, aka Kua, with Wujifa Side to Side Practice
Also check out: The Concept of "Sit Down" in Wujifa Standing...
Also check out: Wujifa Two Feet And What Does This Mean

Wujifa Triangles

The triangles in Wujifa are a principle and a method to help people understand the aim of practicing Wujifa. In math, there is a saying that knowing any two angles of a triangle will help you discover the third, and hence, the same is true in Wujifa. Within the principle of the Wujifa triangles, there are successive triangles, which in one way can be linear… or better said “progressive” and yet because of multiple reference points, non-linear at the same time.

The first triangle consists of three points: structure on the left, relax on the right, and balance on the top. The concept of WUJI in Wujifa on the method level is to be thought of as a fulcrum on which the creation of polarity (or yin and yang ) is born within this paradigm. In Wujifa, unlike other arts, we don’t focus on polarity, we focus on discovering the connectedness or one-ness of the principle of Wuji. When attention is applied manifestation will come about to the level that one understands how Wuji works as a principle.

The first triangle, as we said, any two angles helps discover the third, so with the Wujifa triangle, the practitioner discovers the two that work easiest for them to help them work and understand the third. For example, if one understands relax and structure, this leads to an understanding of balance. If one understands balance and relax, it leads to an understanding of structure. Understanding structure and balance leads to an understanding of relax. Remember, relax is not limp. Structure is not rigid. Balance is not polarity.

As one understands structure, relax and balance, a new understanding will evolve which leads into the progression towards the next triangle of connection ease, and equilibrium respectively. For example, if one starts to develop a kinesthetic understanding of structure, relax and balance, they will start to notice the fascial connections within the body. Working with these fascial connections will bring about an ease of movement and the harmony that equilibrium will bring. The next level following the same progression would lead to unity, power and poise.

Unity grows out of connection, which is a concept of structure. Power grows out of ease, which is a concept of relax. Poise grows out of equilibrium, which is a concept of balance. Each aspect of each triangle: structure, relax and balance; connection, ease and equilibrium; then unity, power and poise; are not imagined concepts but physical manifestations of skill or kinesthetically experienced realities within the body.

Remember, these are all just words, and practice over time brings these into being through one’s awareness. Over time, and understanding, each one of these words will come to be understood as meaning basically the same things as well. Balance cannot be balance without structure and relaxation. Structure cannot be structure without balance and relaxation. Relaxation cannot be relaxation without balance and structure. Understanding the flavor of each word and how they harmonize with each other to create the same meaning is the suggestion of this method of the Wujifa triangles, and hence the principle.