The 10 Keys to Wu Chi (Wuji) Posture

1. Hang From an Invisible Thread

Imagine that you are hanging from an invisible bungee cord that is lifting your body upwards and straightening your spine.

The idea here is to feel buoyant like a ball floating on water and yet gravity is pulling your body weight down.

The cord attaches at the top and back of your head directly above the spine.

Every other part of your body is hanging.

At first just stand this way and after you have practiced long enough that you can easily get into the feeling of this posture then see if you can walk around this way.

Getting the feeling of the Invisible Thread is very healthy for the body as it aligns your posture and allows the energy to flow unrestricted.

2. Shoulders Hanging & Relaxed

Raise only your shoulders as high as you can so that you can feel the effort of holding them up.

Then let the shoulders drop and relax as much as possible while breathing out to help to get the shoulders completely hanging and relaxed without tension.

If you are really standing with the shoulders correctly relaxed and hanging then It should be easy to swing the arms a little just by swaying the body back and forth.

Also, the arms may feel a little heavy.

3. All Joints Slightly Bent & Relaxed

A simple way to help get the right position for this is to stand up straight and rigid then let go and relax everywhere just enough so that no more excess tension is being held anywhere in the body.

In other words it feels like you just relaxed every part of your body.

Then sink a little and relax again the same way about another quarter to half inch everywhere. This should put you into the correct posture.

4. Eyes Relaxed & Look Slightly Down

The eyes are about half way between open and closed and very relaxed while looking slightly down.

This helps to conserve energy and it actually increases the field of vision and helps make it easier to quickly perceive motion.

5. Relax & Drop Down the Lower Back

The ideal situation is to have the lower back drop so that there is no bend between the middle of the back and the bottom of the buttocks.

This often takes work on the part of the beginner to get it right and may well require the assistance of another person.

It is possible to help develop this posture by stepping back against the wall so that the back of your heels are against the wall and placing your back flat against the wall and trying to get your entire back from the middle of your shoulders to the bottom of the buttocks on the wall.

After this can be done with comfort then step away from the wall and maintain the flat back position.

A lot of these corrections seem simple at first- but I’ve found when people try to implement them- they often THINK they’re doing them…

But a quick look in the mirror would show them they’re not.

If you want a clear picture of how this should all look, we’ve put together a free video course where you can follow along with all these corrections and more.

6. Spine is Pulled Straight by Gravity

Strive to keep your body weight under you and pulling down by keeping the head pulling up as if it is being pulled up by a bungee cord and the body is relaxed and the weight of the body is relaxed and dropping so that you feel the weight of your body as if hanging from the bungee cord.

7. Point Index Fingers Straight

Point the index finger while staying relaxed and keep the rest of the fingers relaxed and not bent but not particularly straight either.

8. Breathe In & Out From Belly

The beginning way to breathe is to breathe in and out from the belly.

This may be a little difficult at first but it will become much easier with practice.

If you have never practiced belly breathing before it may be easier to learn to belly breathe by practicing the following exercise by itself first.

Push into your belly with your fingers.

When you breathe in use the air to push the belly out and move your fingers out of your belly with the air.

9. Tongue Lightly Touches Roof of The Mouth Behind the Front Teeth

The tongue lightly touches the roof of the mouth behind the front teeth while keeping your mouth closed.

Lightly means let the tongue rest there while keeping the mouth closed and breathe in and out through your nose.

This will connect the energy circuit between the Ren Mai and Du Mai Governing and Conception Vessel meridians causing the energy to flow without interruption.

One of the first effects you may notice from this is that you will have more stamina.

10.Weight is slightly to the Front of Center over the Feet

You do not have to bend and drop into an uncomfortable position while you practice standing in Wu Chi.

You can actually stand up tall while you are practicing as you only need a few inches of drop.

The biggest trick is to unlock your legs and let the rest of the body fully relax to the same extent.

Energy Activation

Wu Chi activates the energy and then builds and circulates it.

When practicing Wu Chi beginners may feel any number of sensations including but not limited to hot, cold, electricity, the micro or macro cosmic energy circuit or magnetic sensations.

Work with Wu Chi until you can feel the slight sensation of electricity or heat or until the veins on your hands look full when you look at them.

I hope this article has been of help to you.

For anyone looking for more on this subject, or where to take it from here, my Practical Guide to Internal Power will teach you the Internal Power skills you’ve always heard of- and may have seen- but were never taught.

This is the primer on skills that a master’s inner-circle students get, but almost never share publicly.

This has been a small taste of a much bigger program- and you can get the whole thing for free here:

Comments

  1. really awesome master.

  2. So much useful information, thank you, you are appreciated.

  3. Nice work Richard, great to see someone putting some quality instruction out there.

  4. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

  5. Thank you I’ve been practicing for many years but first time I felt so much heat when I put my hands together. Very good instruction.

  6. I can vouch for the power of the Wu Chi stand. I have been practicing for 5 months and I am up to 30 minutes. I am a 62 year old man weighing 345 pounds – honest – but I feel 20 years younger. My tendonitis is getting better and my sex drive is much stronger. I’m hooked for life. Take my advice and don’t wait until you’re a fat old man like me – start standing today, and keep it up, every single day, even if it’s only five minutes. You WILL feel your chi move and your sinking will improve like crazy, until you feel something like the Amazon river running from your head to your feet. Do it!!!

  7. Traci Guynup says

    The Forbes article you sent me said that sitting was unhealthy and would take 5 years off your life. But the monks do a LOT of sitting meditation, correct? Would you please comment on this? Is it just slouching in front of the TV that is unhealthy?

    • There are a number of studies that show the negative effects of sitting.

      I’d recommend you take a look at the studies themselves to see exactly how they where done, what they had the subjects do and what they found.

      From what I’ve seen they don’t get too specific about the type of sitting. I’m sure some types of sitting are less harmful than others. However, it seems there is mounting evidence that sitting more than a couple hours per day of any type is harmful.

    • John Honor says

      Sitting at a desk usually with less than ideal posture whilst engaging in boring or stressful work would normally be accompanied by unconscious and shallow breathing, which are a few of the things that makes sitting so bad. Sitting meditation, although sitting, would remove a lot of the negative factors whilst adding beneficial ones that benefit the brain and body.

  8. Jim from West Boca Tai Chi says

    Excellent brief tutorial on a VERY complex subject. I only hope I can begin to explain it so eloquently to my students. Thank you Sifu Clear and your staff for such professional videos.

  9. Can you practice Wu Chi when you are ill/sick? Or is it a better idea not to practice it if your body isn’t 100%?

    • Matt Holker says

      Of course it would depend on the nature and severity of your sickness, but Wu Chi can be very beneficial for the body even while suffering from most common illnesses.

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