Overview:
双盘 double cross leg
， 天盘 heaven, full lotu
单盘 single cross leg ， 人盘 humanity, half lotus
地盘 earth, no lotus， 自然盘natural sitting
Function of sitting in lotus post:
Lotus sitting is the most stable posture to keep your up body still grounded, back straight and head balance. 3 points touch the ground --- two thigh and tail bone area. There are requirements about sitting position. “Waidong gong” [practice of external movement] is used mainly to open up the meridians and getting ‘qi’ fast, but it can only be utilized to transform ‘qi’ [post-heaven qi] into ‘qi’ [pre-heaven qi].
“Zhanzhuang” is used to strengthen the body but cannot be practiced to extremes, neither doing it too much time or using too much strength are good.
Sitting in lotus is the most balanced and it is mainly used to cultivate the heart, the energy and the spirit. Practicing it is best to balance movement and stillness. But if one wants to obtain higher gongfu only doing “waidong gong” is not enough, one has to practice sitting in stillness. In half lotus it is not important which leg is at the bottom or above, or which thigh is sealing the ‘yongquan’ point of the other foot.
The crossed leg position is very comfortable, in crossed leg the four strength points are not stable, but in half lotus the three strength points are stable.
Both feets going from outside toward inside, then up with the two soles watching above isa called full lotus. Without full lotus and the ‘five hearts (Qi) leading to the Sky (Origin) (五气朝元/五心朝天)’ ， one cannot get ‘the three flowers getting together above （三花聚顶）’ [refers to ‘qing’, ‘qi’ and ‘shen’ becoming One]and therefore never reaching ‘superior gongfu’.
The strength points of full lotus are in the [area] of the sciatic nerves, and the requirement is to do it on a hard surface. Those with condensing osteitis or other internal ailments should especially do it on a hard surface.
When sitting one should be patient, and start with the crossed leg position.
There is a secret about sitting in lotus: the four bladder channels (they run on both sides of the spine) according to Chinese medicine cannot have an upward flow, but only when sitting in lotus all four channels should flow upward together, even one missing is not correct.
Taming mind and still sitting (收心静坐)
Invited to three or two people into the quiet room, sit cross-legged, natural breathing, eyes closed, to repent. Find ways merging together Yin and Yang thinking. Don’t think things of fantasy (fantasy is false). This practicing even has to get rid of conception. Don’t rise up any idea. Accumulating Shen (神)will generate Qi(气), the first step is taming your mind and staying still. Accumulating Qi(气)will generate Jing(精). While accumulating longer time, the warmer of lower field (xai-tian,下田).
Requirements: keep your upper body straight, with both eyes looking directly ahead, gradually collecting the light of the spirit. With the tongue against the upper palate and lips shut, let the teeth lightly closed. Place the hands on your knees, palms down. Still sitting and meditating quietly, gradually eliminating all random thought. This is the first step of “Yin-Xian-Fa”, called “safe-style”. Request without vision, without hearing, stop tongue tasting, listening to the heart rate, breathing naturally. This is the basic requirement for Daoist meditation. Request to your own body as the universe, heart is the heaven and kidney is the earth. There will be a new universe inside your body, with the practicing going further; you would feel the outside universe. Inhale with the whole body’s pore breath in, exhale with the whole body’s pore breath out. Based on the first step of “Xiu-Zhen-Tu”, our body has 36,000 pores. Shrink and expand your own universe by close and open your pores.
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