Cheng Hsin Body Being

An aspect of training that I believe Cheng Hsin addresses very well is how we use our body, mind, senses and feeling. For this area of study we use the term body-being to remind us that we are not only dealing with a physical object but also a conscious being. Whether we are training martial arts, or simply living, we are doing it via the body-being.

The Cheng Hsin body-being is defined as manifesting five principles. These are;

• relaxed
• whole
• centered
• grounded
• calm

With Cheng Hsin’s goal of being effortlessly effective, it is not surprising that the lead principle is relaxation. Relaxation allows for speed, flexibility, balance and changeability. Relaxing allows us to align with gravity rather than fighting it and effortless power simply wouldn’t be effortless without it. Most people do not even begin to take relaxation to the extremes that Cheng Hsin students do, flinging their floppy bodies around like rag dolls and trying to achieve results without any tension at all. I have not seen any physical endeavour that takes relaxation so seriously.

Being whole requires that we feel all of the body, all at once, all of the time. It is literally a matter of integrity and, like relaxing, affects equally the body and mind. While being sensitive to all our body we want to use it as a whole, with every part directed towards our goal, no part fighting any other. A whole wave knocks you over, the spray only gets you wet. Being whole is vital to balance as it is the whole that we are balancing.

Being whole goes hand in hand with being centered. They are the same event, one being a function of the other. Moving an object from its centre is essential to efficiency and power. Eastern physical disciplines such as yoga and the martial arts have a long history of valuing and promoting the power of the centre region in the lower abdomen. Many people hold their awareness high in their bodies. When we bring our attention down to our lower abdomen we notice that we are calmer and literally more centered physically, mentally and emotionally.

As terrestrial beings, living in the earth’s field of gravity, we have a particular relationship with the ground. If our bodies are poorly aligned with gravity there will be unnecessary strain on the body. This misalignment will drain energy, need to be compensated for in movement and, over time, will lead to deterioration of the body. Relaxing dramatically will draw our attention to these misalignments and we can begin to redesign our posture and movement so that every part is stacked from the ground up. This not only frees the body up, it is also an essential component of generating effortless power.

The way we hold our body is not separate from how we hold our minds. One is reflected in the other. When our mind is disturbed or distracted by thoughts, worries or emotions we will not be free in our responses. Modern sports psychology refers to a flow state in which athletes are able to perform at peak levels, under apparently great stress, while reporting an eye-of-the-storm-like calm. This is not achieved by resisting or denying influences but by allowing them to be, without reaction or resistance. Calm is closely linked with relaxation and is impossible if the body is tense.

These five principles are trained throughout the various practices of Cheng Hsin, training techniques, doing partnered exercises and playing games. Additionally, there are many exercises aimed directly at developing these principles. At the end of three weeks of the Cheng Hsin retreat in Texas, attendees were able to fill an entire whiteboard with body-being exercises.

Those who have practiced Cheng Hsin will have noticed that in training the body there is a great deal of mind work. Consistent with the inseparability of the two, and reflecting Peter’s own training, the mind is consciously harnessed in redesigning our body through the use of visualisation and meditation exercises combined with movement. The fact that much of this work is imperceptible to an onlooker is one explanation of the term internal training. However the result of such training is very perceptible, with greater grace, speed, maneuverability and power. The use of feeling-imagery is something that I will write more on in a later article.

As a specialised tool for body-being training, Cheng Hsin has it’s own set of solo exercises, a Tai Chi set. This set is a choreographed sequence of movements in which all the aspects of Cheng Hsin body-being can be practiced and improved. Although there are specific applications for the various movements they are less important than the overall quality of movement and awareness with the body-being being functional throughout the set.

The study of Cheng Hsin body-being is a huge endeavour and would make a very fulfilling practice all by itself, applicable to all areas of life. There are many more considerations and exercises for developing posture, movement, perception and the nervous system than I am aware of in any system of Aikido and I am certain that aikido practitioners would learn a lot and benefit greatly from exploring this approach and method of training.

Comments

[Tomek]

I think that the main difference between Cheng Hsin and other martial arts is that Cheng Hsin recognises formally the "body-being" duality. I have trained in Karate and Aikido, I've watched many Judo sessions and completed an introductory course in Kendo, my friends do western boxing. In all of these systems "I punch", "I block", "I kick" or "I throw"—there is one and only one entity performing the action, it is "I".

But what is "I"? And if "I" am one then why do I refer to the body which I occupy as "my body"? It seems that Cheng Hsin does not make any attempt at unifying the mind and the body into one but rather accepts that there exists a duality and sets up a framework to deal with it. This is neither bad nor good. It's just different. The depth of thought behind it really appeals to me personally.

cheers,
-tomek