November, 2009 Archives

The Healing Power of Mind

Post Date:November 30, 2009 | PermaLink | Comments

    Incense smoke coils about the twelve people sitting in meditation at the Mountain Wind Zen Meditation Center of Pittsburgh. The candles beside the statue of Shakyamuni Buddha flicker and sway as each person focuses upon the dantian—the center of the physical body and the vessel of “Chi” or energy of each person. The room pulses with vitality, and the intensity is palpable. To an outsider, these people deep in meditation (or Samadhi) might been seen as seeking some power beyond the here and now—whether it is called enlightenment, transcendence, or divinity. Yet people often do not realize that meditation seeks to tap the incredible potential to heal the body both psychologically and physically. In fact, these people are healing themselves through meditation.
    The therapeutic benefits of meditation are gradually becoming more accepted in Western medicine and thought. Published medical studies have documented the extent to which meditation eases pain, bolsters the auto-immune system, decreases stress, improves mental health, and helps alleviate the symptoms associated with chronic pain, anxiety, depression, cancer, and heart disease. One meditation practitioner associated with CloudWater Zendo in Cleveland, of which Mountain Wind Zen Meditation is an affiliate, has even been able to cease taking psychotropic medication without any negative side effects. For these reasons, numerous hospitals have initiated meditation classes and therapies for patients since the benefits are so enormous.
    Western culture is beginning to realize what has been known for thousands of years in China: meditation keeps the body and mind sound and it has the potential to treat a wide range of ailments and diseases. More, American culture has been paying attention to the fact that body and mind share a vital connection, and any imbalance or weakness or either the mind or body causes an imbalance in the other. By training and restoring the balance of the mind, the body is healed as well.
    Traditional Chinese Medicine (often referred to as TCM) is built upon the interconnectedness of body and mind. The foundation of the human body from a TCM perspective is comprised of Chi (or qi), the bio-electricity that surges through the cardiovascular and nervous system as well as through causeways called “meridians”; Jing, the essence of the body that is carried in DNA and manifests in all aspects of the human form—muscles, organs, bones, eye color, hereditary diseases, and the like; and Shen, the spirit latent in mind consciousness and awareness. These three elements—Chi, Jing, and Shen—comprise the essence of a human being, and when they are balanced, the person is healthy. When out of balance, those disharmonies can manifest in both the physical body and the mind. For example, alongside the psychological symptoms of depression, a person also develops physical symptoms such as lethargy, fatigue, joint and muscle pain, and other symptoms. To bring the mind back into harmony also revitalizes and mends the body.
    As Dr. Yang, Jwing-Ming, a famous T’ai Chi and Chi Kung Master and one of my teachers, once remarked, the Western approach to illness is to treat the physical symptoms and not the root sickness, which may reside in the person’s mental processes and emotional responses. It is vital to heal the mind—whether the issue is depression, stress, anger, grief, or other overwhelming emotions—in order to eradicate the residual traces or catalysts of an illness. Meditation trains the self to be more aware of those processes and responses and not to allow the seeds of potential sickness to germinate and grow. Or, in response to an illness or disease already present, meditation addresses a malady by reintegrating the balance of body, mind, and spirit, thereby healing the whole self.
    Despite the recognized and documented therapeutic potential of meditation, the idea of remaining in a stationary posture for a prolonged period of time is a daunting if not impossible task for many people, but there are other means to obtain these same benefits. T’ai Chi, the slow and gentle Chinese martial art, is also known as “Moving Meditation” since its graceful movements are coordinated with deep abdominal breathing and sustained awareness of body and breath. A knowledgeable and conscientious T’ai Chi teacher recognizes that in order to tap the immense health benefits of T’ai Chi, the mind must be trained in conjunction with the body to attain a state of meditative awareness. T’ai Chi and Chi Kung (or qigong, the therapeutic or medical side of T’ai Chi), are regarded as a vital branch of Traditional Chinese Medicine. For this reason, T’ai Chi should not be perceived as merely a dance or a slow version of Kung Fu, but, under the guidance of a competent and authentic teacher, T’ai Chi is a means to restore the balance of body and mind.
    My approach to teaching T’ai Chi is heavily flavored by my experience as a Zen Monk and the Resident Instructor at the Mountain Wind Zen Meditation. Yet all T’ai Chi classes should stress the meditative and mind training aspects in order to remain faithful to T’ai Chi as it has been practiced and taught in Buddhist and Taoist monasteries in China for thousands of years. Remaining true to these roots maximizes the ability for T’ai Chi to rectify body and mind imbalances, cultivate spiritual awareness, and provide a means of strengthening the physical and psychological self.
    Western Medical attitudes toward the therapeutic and medical benefits of T’ai Chi have been slowly changing in a more positive manner much like that of meditation, and many published medical studies document the extensive benefits of T’ai Chi. (For those who may be interested, an extensive published medical bibliography is included at http://www.stillmountaintaichi.com/benefitsoftaichi.php). My own experience over the last few years speaks to the shift in acceptance of T’ai Chi and meditation as healing practices. In the four years since moving to Pittsburgh and establishing a T’ai Chi School, Still Mountain T’ai Chi and Chi Kung, I have lectured on T’ai Chi and Traditional Chinese Medicine at Allegheny General Hospital and the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Pharmacology, been invited to present on T’ai Chi and Chi Kung at the National Ovarian Cancer Symposium, have given workshops and seminars at MaGee-Women’s Hospital, UPMC’s Cancer Caring Center, the Dean Ornish Program at Allegheny General, Shepherd Wellness Center, Gilda’s Club, the National Hemophilia Foundation, and the Mid-Atlantic Healing Weekend for persons with HIV/AIDS.   As T’ai Chi and meditation become more prominent and accepted in our culture, more people are discovering the healing benefits of these two thousand years old practices and turning to T’ai Chi and meditation as effective healing strategies that complement Western medical practices.
    To provide others with access to meditation, T’ai Chi, and other branches of Traditional Chinese Medicine has long been a vital aspect of the Buddhist tenet of extending compassion to others. As a famous Buddhist mantra emphasizes:

    May all beings be happy and have the causes of happiness.
    May all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.
    May all beings never be separated from the great joy beyond   suffering.
   May they always remain in the great equanimity beyond attachment and aversion.

T’ai Chi and meditation are paths to happiness, joy, and equanimity, and to guide others along those paths so that they can eradicate suffering and heal the body and mind is very important spiritual work. Matter of fact, to extend compassion to help another person to heal is to heal oneself as well. In this respect, the path of mindfulness and meditation is entwined with helping others revitalize the body and mind and discover the great joy that permeates all aspects of the world. To recover the joy of life is to heal oneself and the world in which we live, and in this respect, meditation is an extremely potent medicine.

Chinese Medicine's Physical Therapy

Post Date:November 24, 2009 | PermaLink | Comments

    “If you want to be healthy and live to be 100 years old,” Dr. Oz states, “then practice Qigong.” Dr. Oz advocated the benefits of Qigong on the Oprah Winfrey Show in November of 2007, and since then, more and more people have become curious about Qigong and its medical and therapeutic benefits.
    Qigong (also spelled Chi Kung) is an ancient form of exercises developed thousands of years ago in China, and is the physical therapy component of Traditional Chinese Medicine (or TCM for short), which is comprised of herbs (natural pharmaceuticals), acupuncture, and Qigong.
    Physical Therapy in the West is perceived as a modality that facilitates healing—especially after surgeries, or to remedy chronic muscle, tendons, or joint issues. Qigong is both a therapeutic modality as well as a preventative one. As the old Chinese folk saying goes, “A Door used everyday does not rust.” The principle equally applies to Qigong, which targets a wide-range of muscles, tendons, joints, and organs in order to correct as well as stave off disease and disability.
    The exercises incorporate gentle stretching, bending and strengthening of the joints, muscles, tendons, and sinews of the body, which target a range of issues from arthritis to back pain and other skeletal and muscular diseases. Moreover, not only is Qigong effective to heal injuries and to address the chronic pain associated with bodily injuries, but the exercises also prevent such issues from occurring in the first place or from recurring once the body has healed.
    Since the movements are coordinated with deep, diaphragmatic breathing, the exercises also reduce stress and anxiety and are effective for pain management. The ongoing attention to the breathing alongside the movements reduces blood pressure, reduces anxiety, and generates a sense of psychological balance and well-being.
    In order to demonstrate how Qigong efficacy as well as how the exercises can be practiced by anyone, let’s look at an example for what the Chinese call “50 Year Old Shoulder,” which is known in the West as “Frozen Shoulder.” The Chinese call this problem “50 Year Old Shoulder” since after that age, people often do not raise their arms above their shoulders and heads, which leads to an atrophy of the muscles as well as the limited circulation of the rotator cuff.
    To being this exercise make a loose fist at the side of the hip, and then circle the arm up the front of the body and over the head and then down the back to the starting position. As the fist rises up the front, take a long, relaxed inhalation, and then exhale softly as the fist circles down. The physical movement stretches and lubricates the shoulder and helps to alleviate pain associated with arthritis or a rotator cuff injury, but coordinated with the breathing, the angle of the arms rotation stretches and massages the lungs, helping to relieve asthma, COPD, and other reduced lung capacity issues.
    Since Qigong focuses upon both skeletal-muscular as well as internal organ systems of the body, it is an extremely effective modality of physical therapy and overall well-being.    Qigong’s ability to alleviate and address diseases such as high blood pressure, asthma, circulatory issues, and cancer have been documented by the World Health Organization and the AMA. For all of these reasons, Qigong has been helping people be healthy and to live long, productive lives for thousands of years.

Here I Go Again, and Other Fingers Pointing

Post Date:November 16, 2009 | PermaLink | Comments

Here I Go Again, and other Fingers Pointing

Cycles and patterns seem to give our world shape and meaning. With the leaves falling and a brusque chill in the air, it does seem like November. We use our idea of November as a touchstone to create our idea of the real; so with the warm, sunny days of last week, people were saying "It doesn't feel like November." Now, with the clouds and brisk wind, it "feels" like November. It is easy to recognize these cycles in the external world, but we are often blind to these same cycles in our own lives.

If we look at the comings and goings of our lives, they move in circles of sameness and familiarity too, but it is when the cycles are unpleasant that they seem the most pronounced; that is, when the same problem comes up again and again, or the same type of difficult personality reappears.

From the view of Buddhism, each of these things—both the difficult patterns and the pleasant ones—should be welcomed since they are moments that offer a glimpse into our selves. They are, in fact, the manifestations of karma, the chain of cause and effect that ripple through our entire life or maybe even lives.

When the pattern of sameness emerges—the same problem, and strangely familiar difficult person or situation—we should welcome them since we clearly haven’t finished with this issue. We should be grateful that we have the opportunity to bring this pattern to some resolution or maybe even to an end. It is a unique opportunity to apply the tools of our meditative practice or our T’ai Chi to our world, and to be liberated from the constraints of our selves.

So when an uncomfortably familiar difficult person or arduous event comes face to face with us, examine it closely, embrace it, learn from it, and then, just then, you will be able to step off the carousel of sameness and to see all things freshly and for the first time.

Amitabha!

The Internal Arts and Ch'an Buddhism

Post Date:November 07, 2009 | PermaLink | Comments

The Internal Arts of Qigong (Chi Kung) and Taiji (T’ai Chi) have a long-standing connection with Taoism and Buddhism in China. They are founded upon the principles of the I-Ching (Book of Changes), Taoist Philosophy and Buddhist Sutras. Internal Arts were originally thought of as skillful means on the path toward enlightenment, and for thousands of years have been used to enhance the practice of meditation.

In order to more fully understand the relationship of Internal Arts to Ch’an practice, it is necessary to have a fundamental understanding of the principles that inform the Internal Arts as a whole. In brief, the body is comprised of three distinct but interrelated parts:

1. Jing, the physical body with its muscles, organs and genetic make-up (DNA) that has been passed down from generation to generation.

2. Chi, the energy of the body and the driving force behind the cardiovascular system, the nervous system, the brain, the organs, and all of the muscles, tendons, and sinews.

3. Shen, literally “Spirit,” but more accurately described as “consciousness and intentionality.”

These three elements are inseparable, and they act as adjuncts to one another. For example, the idea to pick up an apple from a tabletop begins as an intention (Shen) that requires energy impulses (Chi) to move the muscles of the arm and hand (Jing) in order to lift the apple. While this example may seem to oversimplify the relationship of Chi, Jing, and Shen, it demonstrates the inseparability of the three as well as how each is at work in all activities from the most mundane physical movements to the most profound intellectual efforts—including all aspects of the Meditative Arts.

All Internal Arts practices cultivate Chi—energy—which in turn feeds Shen and nourishes Jing. A healthy body and mind is a result of the harmonious flow of Chi. When the Chi of the body is unbalanced, illness or disease can occur. From a general standpoint, the Internal Arts are health maintenance exercises which have their roots in Daoyin—literally “healing exercises” that are sometimes known as Taoist Yoga. In this respect, Internal Arts are valuable ways to maintain, promote or re-establish health.

Internal Arts exercises are invaluable tools for Ch’an “health” as well. At the physical level, the exercises are comprised of gentle stretches and movements that prepare and condition the body for the rigors of seated meditation. Qigong exercises have been a mainstay of monastic practice in China for many centuries, and Bodhidharma is often attributed with the creation of two such sets of exercises that were intended to bolster the overall health of the monks at the Shaolin Temple and to increase their stamina for sustained Buddhist practice.

In addition to the obvious benefits of increased flexibility and strength, the physicality of the practice enhances body awareness—the shifting of weight, the ebb and flow of inhalation and exhalation, and the pulsing of muscles as they perform a particular move. The attention to the workings of the body during Qigong and Taiji mirrors the effort of walking meditation as one maintains awareness of the body as a whole. The emphasis upon maintaining sustained attentiveness demonstrates how both Internal Arts and Meditation cultivate Shen as the concentration of the intentional mind.

Perhaps most importantly, Taiji and Qigong amplify the body’s energy for sustained Ch’an practice. Meditation, gong-an (J. koan) work, and hua-t’ou practice require immense pools of concentrated energy. Taiji and Qigong are means to not only generate Chi but also to focus that energy for spiritual ends. The Internal Arts were in fact developed as tools for spiritual enhancement, and Taoist masters would generate Chi in the Field of Elixir (Tantien) so that it could be transformed into the spirit essence of enlightenment. For Buddhist practitioners, the cultivation of Chi was not a goal in and of itself, but rather a byproduct that fueled practice.

Spiritual pursuits are at the core of the Internal Arts practices. As the T’ai Chi master Wang Tsung-Yueh once wrote: From mastery of the postures, you will gradually awaken to interpreting energy. From interpreting energy, you will arrive at spiritual insight. However, without long arduous practice, you will not suddenly make this breakthrough.

To someone who has spent time with the “arduous practice” of seated meditation, the spiritual insight that Wang Tsung-Yueh describes will seem familiar since “sudden insight” is the result of sustained and concentrated meditative practice. The key ingredient to such insight is the awakening and concentrating of energy, and it is in this respect that the Internal Arts are absolutely invaluable for Ch’an practice.

While many contemporary practitioners of the Internal Arts—particularly in the West—have distanced Taiji and Qigong from spiritual practices, CloudWater Zendo and its affiliated Sanghas are dedicated to the authentic roots of the Internal Arts and incorporate Qigong into their standard offerings.

Fingers Pointing at the Moon and Other Swift Kicks in the Pants

Post Date:November 01, 2009 | PermaLink | Comments

The practice of Ch’an Buddhism (Zen in Japanese) is often described as a “Finger pointing at the Moon.” What, you might ask, does that mean? After all, it seems like another opaque statement that finds itself caricatured in cartoons: “If you can snatch this pebble from my hand, then you are ready.” And then: “Now the student has become the master, and the master is the student.” The phrase a finger pointing at the moon does leave itself open to such parody, but it is an important element of Ch’an practice and T’ai Chi. In relation to the history of this blog, it is a rejoinder to an earlier conversation about the importance of books and DVDs in ones practice.

In response to an earlier post (“Who Needs a Teacher Anyway?”), Secundra in Cleveland had written in response to my statement that it is nearly impossible to learn meditation and/or T’ai Chi from books or DVDs. Her comment reads:

“Can I play "devil's advocate" for a minute? One of the items I pick up in reading editorials from Buddhist magazines is that if people live too far away to have access to a teacher, then DVD's and the internet serve as a way to keep the practice up without abandoning it all together.”

People with whom I have studied are not close by for me here in Pittsburgh either. Dr. Yang lives at his mountain retreat in California; Master Helen Wu is in Toronto; Professor Li is in Beijing; and Ven. Shih Ying-Fa is in Cleveland. (Lucky Secundra, though!) Granted I speak to Ying-Fa regularly via phone, but that does not and can not be a substitute for meeting face to face.

So what does a person do? I must admit, I read and study. And I absolutely relish that time. What I am doing, though, when I read is not searching for ways to stimulate and entertain myself. Rather, those texts are approached as maps—a look how to get from here to here. And I find inspiration. After all, I know that people can give up on practice even with a teacher close by. So a teacher close by isn’t the only thing that keeps a practice going.

When I read a book on Ch’an or T’ai Chi, I have a hard time finishing a single chapter because I want to get up and try it—whether it be to go to my meditation cushion or to the back deck to play T’ai Chi and apply what I just learned. The other night my daughter and I rewatched The T’ai Chi Master, formerly titled Twin Warriors, a movie starring Jet Li with great T’ai Chi scenes. I barely made it through the film without breaking into Grasp Bird’s Tail and Brush the Knee.

One should not forget, though, that texts are inspiration. To return to the image of a finger pointing at the moon, so many people mistake the finger for the moon. The finger is the guide—the prompt—to look for oneself. To stare at the finger is to miss the moon. To read a book on T’ai Chi and not practice is to mistake the words and pictures for playing the form for oneself.

So when we read, we read for inspiration—a guide or, if we need, a kick in the pants, to our practice. After all, neither a book nor a teacher will enlighten you. Only you can do that through your own diligent and dedicated effort. And don’t you think, by the way, that now is a good time to meditate or play T’ai Chi?

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