How to utilise Hun Yuan Zhang, “Movement Zero” or “Open Close”.

Upon drawing down with a light awareness of the crown, the palms, tail bone and the soles of the feet and as we allow the "head to suspend from a string", we feel the spine lengthen as the tailbone "tucks under" and we experience the relationship between the head and the tailbone. To initialise the downward movement we relax the feet, while maintaining the light awareness on the crown.

With prolonged practice, as we draw down, melting the big muscles over the bones, we experience "Peng" force or a rising of the energy from the feet to the crown. The arms or rather the elbows open out to the side and slightly forward. This reminds us that within the sinking there is releasing, which will serve to keep the joints open.

When we have reached the "down" position, the body having been draw down around 3 inches, our awareness should have simultansously reached the ground underneath both feet whilst reaching the crown of the head with the arms having completed their opening movement.

As we release the relaxed force, which according to the classics of Tai Chi the root is in the feet, transmitted through the legs, guided by the hips and expressed through to the fingertips, we discover, in the case of the Up and Down movement, that the awareness rises to the crown, since the hands are by the side of the thigh. To ensure full body connections, we should feel the Peng all the way to the fingertips, to all extremeties as the body rises from the release of this force, however our instruction is to allow the arms to be drawn in, which again represents that within releasing there is sinking or drawing.

Simultaneously a wave of sinking, that may be used to initialise the release of the relaxed force, should arrive in the ground under both feet as the relaxed force reaches the extremities as detailed above.

Remember this is a training tool for the body and mind to learn to synchronise, to teach us to experience the changes of the muscles that create the movement and to help train our understanding that within sinking there is releasing and within releasing there is sinking.

The sinking while releasing, whether moving up or down creates a "stretch" through the body, drawing and releasing the "bowstring", so that a "bowstring" is always drawn and always ready for release. Eventually, when we stand in position or in transition for any posture or simply while making the tea, we experience a full body connectivity, where our drawing and releasing depending on the circumstances that present themselves.