More Proof Meditation Builds And Re-Wires The Brain

From Agence France-Presse, via "Raw Story":

A Chinese-influenced meditation technique appears to help the brain regulate behavior after as little as 11 hours of practice, according to a study released Monday.

Researchers at the University of Oregon and Dalian University of Technology charted the effects of integrative body-mind training (IBMT), a technique adapted in the 1990s from traditional Chinese medicine and practiced by thousands in China.

The research to be published in the upcoming issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences involved 45 test subjects, about half of whom received IBMT, while a control group received relaxation training.

Imaging tests showed a greater number of connections in the anterior cingulate -- the part of the brain which regulates emotion and behavior -- among those who practiced meditation compared to subjects in the control group.

"The importance of our findings relates to the ability to make structural changes in a brain network related to self-regulation," said The University of Oregon's Michael Posner, a lead author on the study.

*Story continues at link highlighted above.*

And consider this, from "The Aquarian Conspiracy", by Marilyn Ferguson:

(Page 168) "Meditation, reverie, relaxation and other associated psychotechnologies tend to increase the slower, larger brainwaves known as alpha and theta. Inward attention in other words, generates a larger fluctuation in the brain. In altered states of consciousness, fluctuations may reach a critical level, large enough to provoke the shift into a higher level of organization.
-Larger fluctuations of energy cannot be contained in the old structure. They set off ripples throughout the system, creating sudden new connections."

This is a great example of why the internal martial arts offer a truly unique way to combine self-defense with meditation, something I never felt in Tae Kwon Do or Kenpo. I clearly feel and perceive these things differently in Tai Chi Chuan and Xingyi.

The Chatter In The Modern Urban Mind

In the last post we read a quote from Robert W. Smith on the use of the mind in Internal Martial Arts. So everybody is on the same page, here's the quote again:

"A system based solely on body mechanics remains forever at the level of calisthenics and rudimentary fighting. Functionally, such a system is limited by the fact that in the animal world man is something of a weak creature.
Except by recourse to his brain, he cannot stand physically with most of the other animals.
But the brain itself needs to be checked and trained. The trouble with urban cultures throughout the world is that man's brain is out of control. The internal imposes the restraint that, paradoxically, leads to freedom. The mind is king -remember this- and must be accorded priority over the body."

Our skeptical friend at Martial Development saw an inherent contradiction in this statement:

"The trouble with urban cultures throughout the world is that man's brain is out of control."

"The mind is king and must be accorded priority over the body."

(M.D.) "Are these contradictory statements? If not, why? And what does it mean for the mind to be accorded priority over the body?"

The disconnect was leaving out the brief sentence between those two themes:
"The internal imposes restraint that, paradoxically, leads to freedom."
In my opinion, Smith is making not one but two statements. The first is that the urban mind is on overload from stimulation. The second is that quieting the chatter in the mind is healthier, and is both a necessary product and component of the Chinese Internal Martial Arts.

Back in 1980 my friends and I built a shack in the deep coast range mountains out of Coos Bay Oregon. My friends grandparents had homesteaded the last private farm 26 miles up the Coos River. In the summer you could drive a truck across a shallow ford in the river, in the winter you pulled yourself across in a cable car high above the flood waters. Then we hiked in another two miles to where we built the shack.
Here's what I mean about the chatter in the urban mind:
We noticed that it took a full week for our minds, our bodies, our beings to settle into life in the forest. We were hunting and gathering food, there was constant danger of injury, being charged by elk, drowning, and a brush with Bigfoot.
We became like the animals. We smelled like the animals. We felt the heat in the summer and the driving rain in the winter. We didn't see a television for six months at a time.
Every now-and-then we'd take the truck to the University of Oregon in Eugene where we visited the girls and restocked our pot supplies. As we entered the city we'd literally feel the electrical energy. Power lines, noise, Yuppie assholes.
Before, our minds had been quiet and open to absorb every bit of information you need to live and hunt in the woods. What we felt is that as we entered the city we had to put up a mental wall, to shield us from the overload of stimulation. Most people go through their entire life in that condition and know nothing different. Later, when we returned to our shack in the woods it took another few days to decompress.
*****
This is what Smith is talking about.
Short of living like Thoreau at Walden Pond, we can quiet our minds with introspective, internal martial arts. We can live in the moment, setting aside concerns of past and future. Smith is talking about training the mind in this way to free it:
Yi (mind intent) leads Chi (energy), resulting in Jing (action).
In this context, Smith is correct and the trained mind is "king".

"On Guard" Stance: Raise Hands vs. San Ti

Yang Chengfu in "Raise Hands"

Back in February we took a long look at the "On Guard" stance in Tai Chi Chuan. In that post, various instructors gave their opinions on what position or "Stance" gives the best pre-attack protection for students of Tai Chi Chuan.
Opinions varied, but "Raise Hands" or some variation of that posture was suggested the most.
Here's where we can see a difference in "Intent" between Tai Chi Chuan and Xingyi. Looking at the picture of Yang Chengfu above, we see that his stance in "Raise Hands" is back-weighted, front leg "empty" and ready to kick if necessary. The arms are held high, as if to join with the attack and neutralize.
Now let's take a look at the "San Ti" stance from Xingyi (also Pi Chuan, or "splitting fist"):

Note that the weight distribution is more forward, with the back leg spring-loaded and ready to drive the body into the opponent; to "occupy" his space. The front hand is held fairly high to check an incoming punch, the rear hand held at the Dantien to protect the center and groin.
In my opinion, I think these two stances reflect the "Intent" of the two arts. Tai Chi Chuan is more likely to respond to the attacker, attempt to neutralize and control the opponent.
The Xingyi San Ti appears to be ready to punch the other guys lights out.
Now, both these arts are still using internal principles and Xingyi does attempt to neutralize, but Xingyi is more likely to hit first. Just my opinion...

Xingyi Bear Form:


Coming soon:
Thoughts from myself and Chris Dow, author of "The Wellspring" on elements of "Martial Shapes", and just what makes internal arts different than hard-style arts.

Re-thinking Cheng Hsin, Part Two

Peter Ralston In Push/Uproot

Back in June I wrote my first post on "Re-thinking Cheng Hsin", the ecclectic martial art of Peter Ralston. Cheng Hsin, which is defined by Ralston as "The true nature of being" is a study of internal arts drawn from Ralston's highly-qualified martial background (Tai Chi Chuan, Bagua, Aikido and Boxing). More than that alone, it is precieved to be a deeply introspective art, with elements of self-discovery Ralston and others explored in encounter groups that guided Ralstons early spiritual development. After my previous post, one of Ralston's students wrote me to describe the powerfully emotional release he experianced in the discussion portion of Ralston's seminar.
While this experiantial element of Cheng Hsin may be a desireable goal to achieve, it is one of the aspects of Cheng Hsin that can simply not be learned from a book.
I have previously described Ralston's first book, "The Principles Of Effortless Power" as a tough patch to weed, with Ralston seemingly trying to re-invent the wheel at times. Not so with his second book, "Cheng Hsin T'ui Shou: The Art Of Effortless Power". In this book, Ralstons writing is much clearer and there are many, many techniques that demonstrate the physical art of Ralston's concepts.
However, much like the way introspective spiritual enlightenment is difficult to achieve without being guided by someone like Ralston, his second book needs to be studied along side his Fight/Play video (described in detail at the link to my first post). Ralston's Fight/Play video has re-ignited many, many concepts that had taken a back shelf in my mind, and are now coming to the forefront. Most importantly, is re-introducing spiral movements into freeplay, as many of Ralston's "Leading Rollback" movements use.
While Ralston's Cheng Hsin T'ui Shou book is the blueprint of his techniques, mere pictures and descriptions are simply not enough to grasp the type of dynamic movement Ralston and his students display. This is why it is so important to view Ralston's techniques on video, where you can see footwork and dynamic changes.
Ralston's Cheng Hsin, which draws from Tai Chi Chuan, Bagua, Aikido and western boxing is a logical landing zone for those of us who have studied a variety of martial arts. His Fight-Play video can be purchased at The Cheng Hsin Website, and I highly reccomend it for those of us who study internal martial arts.
--Now back to the issue of photographs in instructional books; I am convinced that in some cases, drawings are much more effective at displaying directional movement. No book has done this better than "Aikido And The Dynamic Sphere", by Adele Westbrook and Oscar Ratti.

This is the Best book on Aikido I have ever seen, and the beautiful and clear illustrations by Oscar Ratti also make it clearly understandable. While there is a great deal of time and labor involved in these drawings, it is possible to see the flow of movement much better than in photographs.
For this reason, Ralstons Cheng Hsin T'ui Shou book, the roadmap to better internal body work, must be accompanied by his Fight/Play video, which can be purchased at his website link above.