A New Kung Fu Lesson

Well, we just came back from our annual trip to Big Sur.  With the economy being what it is, I’m not sure we’ll be able to go again next year.  I hope we can.  It would be sad if we couldn’t  go.  We’ve been going up there now for twenty-three years.  We just love that place.

For those of you who don’t know California, Big Sur is an area in the Ventana Wilderness about thirty miles south of Monterrey.  Monterrey is the setting for one of John Steinbeck’s most wonderful books, CANNERY ROW.    At one time Monterrey was the capital of California, back when we used to belong to México.  Now, the capital is Sacramento.  And for some reason, the Spaniards never really used much of the land in Big Sur.  It was just known as El Gran Pais del Sur (The Big Country of the South).    It’s incredibly beautiful.  Think of the mountains with towering redwoods, then put them right on the beach.

We always rent a little cabin down on the Big Sur River.  It has a kitchen.   There are no televisions.  There is not internet access.  There is no cell phone reception.  There is just the sound of the river and the squawking of Stellar’s Jays.  We read.  We listen to music.  We drink Irish Whiskey.  I play my various instruments down by the river.  It’s wonderful.

Every year we go out to eat one evening at a restaurant called Nepenthe’s.  Nepenthe’s sits on a hit overlooking the Pacific coastline.  The view is incomparable.  You can see it here at the Nepenthe’s web site:  http://www.nepenthebigsur.com.  They have an hamburger to die for.  It’s called the Ambrosia Burger.  It is aptly named.  It can be a little pricey to eat there, so we only go there once while we’re there.

But this is not about Big Sur, nor is it about Nepenthe’s.  It’s about kung fu.  What?  Keep reading.  To get to Nepenthe’s, you have to climb several flights of stairs from the parking lot.  For the past few years, I always dreaded making that climb.  There were times in the last few years that I actually stopped to rest on the way up.  This was really depressing for a guy who used to run marathons.  But I had put on so much weight.  I won’t say how much I weighed, but I weigh 130 pounds less now so that should tell you something.  Let’s just say that when I hear Valerie Bertinelli brag about losing 40 pounds with Jenny Craig, I laugh and say, “I got your forty pounds right here!  Forty pounds!  I could do forty pounds in my sleep!”  But enough of that.  I digress.

This year, those flights of stairs felt like nothing.  I just popped right up those stairs.  I felt like I sort of floated up those stairs.  And this has nothing to do with losing weight.  The truth is, LAST year we went to Nepenthe’s and I was not much heavier than I am now.  And last year those stairs still were killers.  So what’s different this year?  Last May, I started practicing martial arts again.  And last June, I started working out at my kung fu club again in earnest.  Now, nearly a year later, I’m back to teaching at the classes.  I have regained my previous fitness level.  I’m strong again.  I’m not just thinner, I’m stronger.  I start every day with 50 pushups.  I practice my kung fu each and every day.  I feel better for it.

And I know some people will say, “Well, it’s the exercise.”  But it’s not just the exercise.  During those years that I was fat, I spent many hours working out at the local Bally’s.  I spent plenty of time on treadmills and elliptical machines.  I worked out with weights.  I didn’t feel as strong.  So I’m here to say that there is something special about kung fu.  It’s the air.

Kung fu is based on circulating your “chi”.  Chi is life energy.  The Japanese call it Ki.  In Yoga, it’s called prajna.  The “science” behind kung fu is precisely the same as that of yoga, karate, and of acupuncture.  There is some evidence that chi is electromagnetic energy.  Whatever it is, I have seen its power.  I have seen people do some amazing things, things usually filed away under “mind over matter”.  But it isn’t mind, it’s chi.

It is chi that allows the martial artist to break a board with a fist.  Stop action photography has shown that for many practitioners, the board breaks a split second BEFORE the hand hits it.  It isn’t the fist that breaks the board, it’s the chi.

All of us have chi.  We couldn’t live without it.  We just don’t all know how to circulate it though our bodies.  Learning to circulate the chi through your body helps to keep your internal organs healthy.  Learning to circulate chi through your body makes your bones stronger.  Of course, you can circulate chi through meditation.  But meditation doesn’t make your muscles supple.  Kung fu (and it’s various incarnations, karate, tai chi, etc.) is sort of like moving meditation.

Moving your chi requires more than moving around, however.  You can practice a martial art and never learn how to move your chi.  It’s quite possible to go through all the movements of kung fu (or tai chi, or yoga, or etc.) without ever moving your chi at all.  It is all about learning how to breathe.

Now you say, “I know how to breathe.  I’ve been doing it all my life.”  That’s true.  But you’ve probably been doing it wrong.  We all know how to breathe as infants.  Then we forget how.  Most people think you breathe with your lungs, but really, you breathe with your stomach.  Singers know this.  When you breathe in, your abdomen should go out.  Your body should fill up with air.  The key to moving your chi is in coordinating your movements with your breath.  The Chinese say that a child breathes with his/her belly.  The adult breathes with his/her chest.  The dying one breathes with his/her lips.  Okay, they don’t say the “his/her” part.  That’s just me being politically correct.  Regardless, the deeper you breathe, the more your chi circulates.

Try this little exercise.  First, you need to stand in what is called a horse stance.  I explained how to do this once before.  Stand straight with your feet together and you hands at your side.  Move your heels out with your toes together.  Now move your toes out at forty-five degree angles, leaving your heels where they were.  Now move your heels out again, leaving your toes where they were.  Now move your toes out again.  Now move your heels out.  Now straighten you toes so they point forward (a total of five movements in all).  Now bend your knees.  You should look like your riding a horse.  This is your horse.  Everybody has a different horse.  Make sure your back is straight and your hips tilted forward—that is, your pelvis tucked under.

Now, bring your hands up, and keeping your elbows slightly bent, place your palms out in front of you as if you were pushing against a wall.  Keeping your index fingers pointed up, bend the rest of your fingers at the first joint up from the knuckle (so it looks like your indicating a number one).  Now, take a deeeeeeeep breath, while you bring your hands back, keeping your elbows pointed down towards the floor, all the way to your chest.

Now, exhaling slowly, push (and I mean really push, as if you were pushing a thousand pounds) your hands back out to their starting position, timing your breath so that you finish breathing out as your hands reach the end of the movement.  Breathe deeply in with each inward movement, all the way down to your stomach.  Visualize the air coming into your body down to a point about three fingers below your navel.  This is called the tan tien.  Inhale through your nose.  Exhale through your mouth.  Do this twelve times.

You will find this difficult at first (if you’re doing it right).  Once you can do it without much effort, try a similar movement moving your hands out to your side, as if you were pushing two walls apart.  Use the same breathing techniques.  Do this outside, and you’ll get even better results.  If you do this enough, you will start to develop something called “live hand”.  It’s also called “live foot” (when speaking about your legs, that is).  That is, you will begin to feel your arms and legs.  They will be alive.  And you will realize that they haven’t  been, and you’ve just  noticed that they are now.  And when you move now, you will do so with intent.  You won’t just be throwing yourself around.  It is a most singular feeling.

Of course, it will take several months before you begin to feel any real results.  But that’s okay.  You’ve got time.  Just remember to breathe deep.  Breathe with your whole body.  Take in the air.  It’s good for you.