How, Tang Ni Bu 趟泥步 or muddy water stepping is a cornerstone for great health.

Tang Ni Bu 趟泥步: muddy water stepping.

In our Bagua-way we focus on walking the circle slowly as opposed to a lot of Bagua styles you see on you tube and the internet. Neither is better, though the aim and benefit of it are different. Everybody is talking about rooting and they’re right to do so. But before a tree can grow strong and have good roots into the ground, there needs to be a seed. Just having a seed is not good enough. Throw a seed on the road and I guarantee you won’t have a tree there next year. You need to create a good environment for something to grow. That environment is slow Tang Ni Bu 趟泥步walking.

I’ll try to explain to the best of my knowledge how something simple as Tang Ni Bu 趟泥步can pave the way for future success in Kungfu and great health.

“allow yourself to make mistakes.”

I can’t stress that enough. Why? Well students that want to do something perfectly, most of the times stop playing around with the movement. They so rigidly stick to what they “think” they have to do that their movements’ stops being natural. A byproduct of thinking as opposed to being aware and conscious, is that you become “top heavy”.
Thinking is a Yang happening, right? So what does yang do mostly? …Indeed Yang rises and so does the Qi. Your breathing will inevitably follow; hence you’re “top heavy”. For those who don’t know Bagua it’s interesting to know that you walk with your feet along the inner and outer line of a circle. That makes the stepping in the beginning somewhat a challenge and being “top heavy” does not contribute to that.
Instead of listening to the voice of your body, you’re talking over it. It’s very simple; Bagua is not an intellectual system, don’t make it one. (That doesn’t mean you never think and ponder on your performance, btw).

Now it’s time to remember the environment I talked about. If you can quiet your mind and become more aware thus conscious of the state your body is in, you create an environment for inner growth. Our body is fantastic vessel, it knows if something is not good for. During Tang Ni Bu 趟泥步 walking it will tell you what is right and what is not. If you follow the basic rules of this walking, you’ll feel uncomfortable in the beginning, I guarantee it. This feeling of discomfort is caused by your body not being natural.
Now at this stage of training you need to be even more aware and quiet inside to locate and adjust the underlining imbalance which creates the discomfort. Luckily we’re walking slowly, get it?!!

Adjusting is not an overnight thing, it can take time. Try to adjust the growth of one of the plants you have in your house. You know how plants sometimes have the tendency to grow towards the light?  There is two ways we can solves this.
Or you have to loosen the ground and try to set it straight. Or you can adjust its environment. To do that just change the direction of the pot the plant is in and it will set itself straight because plants follow “The Way”, and that is being natural.
The former solution is somewhat difficult to do since we can’t change the soil we grow on. The latter however we can. Depending how good you are in listening and not budding in with your rational mind to try to solve the problem. With the plant analogy we create imbalance by pointing the leaves away from the sun, for the plant to grow straight again. In our bodies we have to create balance. In a way we are plants that grow away from the sun and that’s by definition not natural, we lost “The way”.

Just by being conscious and aware we are able to get back in tune with “The Way”. Something simple as walking slowly can do that!!! If you have the patience to first set a good environment, you will save a significant amount of time. Remember in the old days they first had to walk the circle for at least 3 months before being thought the palm-changes. A good body environment is more than just the physical of course. The beauty is that by practicing one the other will follow, and there you have it; overall health!

By saving time I don’t mean you will know Bagua faster btw. There is no “knowing” Bagua, just as there are no masters. But you will get faster into the more fun part of the training!

Hope you all enjoyed this.

Visit the school in Haarlem to start building good roots and stop wasting time.



One Body, One Life!

3 Replies to “How, Tang Ni Bu 趟泥步 or muddy water stepping is a cornerstone for great health.”

    • Ruud Vercammen Auteur van dit bericht:

      Hi,

      Thank you for reading my blog. Yours is interesting too.
      My background is Chinese Medicine and I think you will find some very interesting idea’s and concepts concerning Heart health on a broad scale: Physical, mental, emotional, spiritual.
      As the Chinese say:
      All emotions affect the heart:

      * fei bo xiong wrote:

      The seven emotions injure the 5 yin organs selectively, but they all affect the heart.
      Joy injures the heart…
      Anger injures the liver, the liver cannot recognize anger but the heart can…
      Worry injures the lungs, the lungs cannot recognize worry but the heart can…
      Pensiveness inures the spleen, the spleen cannot recognize pensiveness but the heart can…
      Fear injures the kidneys, the kidneys cannot recognize fear but the heart can…

      Hence the heart is affected by them all.

      I’m currently writing a thesis on the interaction of “The Three Treasures” or San Bao; which is the interaction of Spirit (governed by the heart), Qi, and Essence.
      Once finished I’ll try to post pieces in the blog.

      Thanks again!

      Reageren

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