Xingyi is life and life is Xingyi. You won’t find the word “sport” on the site because that is basically selling this art form short, blasphemy.

To understand Xingyi and to be able to reach a certain level of dept into it means you have to study it.  Just waiting for your Shifu to feed you the secrets won’t help. Honestly I don’t believe in secrets, I do believe in insight and skill through practice. The system of Xingyi in itself deserves credit…by which I mean its genius!!

For those who are not familiar with Chinese philosophy … study it, really … next time you want buy useless shit, just don’t, instead buy a good book on Chinese philosophy or medicine.  Anyway I’ll try to explain a little bit in relation to Xingyi training as I understand it.

San Ti Shi (三體式) standing:

Don’t just stand there and think the Qi will come or that some kind of stuff will happen, it won’t. This posture “IS” the big bang theory in us human beings. It is the core of Xingyi; that which gives birth to the 5 elements, which in turn give birth to the 12 forms and so on. First understand standing between Heaven and Earth. The convergence of these two will give birth to you “the individual”. That means your xingyi is unique; your expression of it is precious.

As Martha graham said:

“There is a vitality, a life-force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost.”

Understanding Heaven above and Earth beneath is a feature that is common to other internal styles; Bagua, Taichi, although they might have a different approach. In Xingyi you stand and try to be aware of yourself as the middle of the convergence of these two forces.
First you must be quiet to feel them work in your body. Gravity pulls us towards the ground, without gravity we would float. It’s a fact and its happening as you read this, but we’re not aware of it. This most basic most obvious play of forces defines our lives, but as most things that define our lives we’re unconscious of them… ignorant maybe. This is only step one.

Step two is to combine who we are in our deepest essence, core, blueprint, whatever you wanna call it … its “Yin”- with what is we get from outside, input, the “Yang” part. Just imagine who you could be if you’d combine your Essence, that stored potential energy waiting in the dept, with Spirit, the spark that ignites it. That big bang is you, yes “you the individual”. The spark maybe the same but the Essence is different.  And that just by standing,  Zhan Zhuang 站桩.

The development of leg power, strength, focus, Qi, health, etc is the byproduct. Don’t get me wrong very necessary byproducts but not step one. Step one is defining “YOU” in between Heaven (Yang) and Earth (Yin).

Of course there is more to Explain about this stage.

Then we’re off to the 5 elements but that’s for part two.

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