Uprightness

Unlike the 4-foots who have a direct heart connexion with the ground, and eye connexion with the thing infront of them, we have heart connexion with what we face, and a tenuous (at best) connexion with the ground through our limited 2-foot stance. The precariousness of our verticality is best seen in infants learning to walk. Pre-vertical they sit beautifully upright like little Buddhas, totally engrossed in their activity yet also totally connected to what surrounds them. When they crawl, or shuffle along on their behinds, they still look masters of their world, strength & mindset uncompromised by mobility, returning instantly to their seated composure once they've got there. However, things change as they try to stand up and take those first few steps. As well as uncertain balance, they just don't look right or comfortable when standing; suddenly insecurity enters their lives, not just the insecurity of a delicate balance but also the anxiety of reaching the object of desire quick enough. Add to this the pain of teething and they suddenly have to cope with a very different world. I suspect this is something we never quite recover from.

It is also remarkable how quickly children loose their natural flexibility once they start to walk, especially in the hips. I remember Max being able to get into full lotus with relative ease at 3 or 4, a flexibility that inspired Pip & myself into a few months of yoga (before we realised it lacked the humanity of connectedness). Now he can barely cross his legs when seated. It is just not really natural for our femurs to be at a greater angle than 90 to our spine. This is why, when doing TaiChi Form, the student is encouraged to sit into their posture (Dr Chi used to say "thighs parallel to ground" though I wouldn't recommend this - makes my knees hurt just thinking about it). We want the same openness in the hips and suppleness in the spine as a toddler, with the sure-footed confidence of a cat. The same way that a hollow chest encourages the energy in front of you to come in and connect (Liang used to talk of leaving the window open invitingly so that you can catch the burglar), a similar hollowness in the groin and hips should invite the ground up into your groin & belly. The legs should feel as though they are wrapping around something (weight on outside edge of foot). This consuming openness in the lower body should inspire the heart to open more so that your connexion with the ground is mirrored in your upper body connexion to the world in front. Think of the belly as a lower-heart. One of the major consequences of our upright, slighty leaning back, belly rising, sunk, relaxed posture is that the lower-heart & middle-heart (chest) join into one major organ of energy and connectedness. Body-as-one-unit requires the unification of our hearts. The upper-heart is the head. To bring this one in line requires you to forget the tyranny of sight. Instead of closing the eyes (never a good idea for a martial artist) concentrate on the peripheral vision and allow the head to move with the waist. Feel with the eyes rather than see with them. Also concentrate on the eyes in the back of the head (back-brain).

Eyes at the back of the head relax
and connect like hypothalmic threads.

The physical chiasma is the crossing of the optic nerves in the brain. This point is the Taoist place of mind in meditation. The back of the head where the optic nerves travel to after crossing sprout energy limbs that come round into the fray, controlled mainly by our peripheral vision. Softening & relaxing the face (think a subtle widening smile) hollows the head and naturally brings us into our peripheral vision and consequently into the world of energy and connectedness. The head is the most difficult part of the body to bring in line because it is the usual (though not natural) place of thinking - the activity that disconnects us from the real world. I remember reading an article by the great Buto dancer Min Tanaka where he described an exercise he had developed to relax the neck and unify the head with the rest of the body. He recommended throwing yourself naked into a fast flowing mountain river. Apparently if the neck is relaxed it will flow with the rest of the body along with the current that carries it, around rocks & obstacles. However, if tense the head will tend to smash against these obstacles. Beautifully Japanese - you either learn or die.

Min Tanaka b.1945; with hair, unusual for a buto dancer.