The long for interests me, but the short form is all I have since 1979.
I tried to learn a different form about 25 years ago, but all I did was confuse
myself so that I could remember neither the old form nor the new form. I
didn't stick with it long enough, maybe. But then I was also afraid I would
forget the original form altogether if I learned a different form: it was still
Yang family short form, but I think more original and traditional: I think my
first master, Da Liu, actually modified some of the short form to make it a
little easier.
I too find t'ai chi a good practice before sitting.
But my Chan shifu, Sheng Yen, taught us "morning wake-up" exercises, too,
aside from meditation methods, so I usually use these. We always use them on
retreat mornings when we first assemble in the Chan Hall, and after we do some
prostration practice. We practice the wake-up exercises all together as a
group, ritually, following a leader, and Sheng Yen would always join in when he
was younger and in better health. His teaching was very compassionate and very
complete, and of course he was a monk and lived this life everyday. He took
very good care of us.
He also knew martial arts and t'ai chi, but I never saw him practice them. His
kung fu was Chan! And he taught us special Yoga exercies to use on retreat: we
carried these out ritually, too, all together. Wonderful! This helped knit
the sangha together, I feel, and meditation and relations among people were a
lot better and easier.
In walking mediation in Chan, Sheng Yen taught us to concentrate on the bottoms
of the feet. We did both the Lin Chi and Tsao Tung walking: the fast and the
slow.
The fast walking particularly helped keep people's legs from hurting on the
long retreats: everybody practiced it with a lot of enthusiasm: it kept
people's spirits high during the long days. Sheng Yen always led the fast
walking; it was pretty hard for us youngsters to keep up with him, even when he
was in his seventies. But you become very loose and quick when you relax
downwards.
--Joe
> Anthony Wu <wuasg@...> wrote:
>
> The long form will help you get rid of sleepiness in the morning before your
> sitting.
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