Zhan-Zhuang and Meditation - The Detailed Tutorial

Posture and Key Points

First of all, the principles of Zhan-Zhuang (standing meditation, sometimes called standing stumps practice) and meditation are actually the same. It’s just us labeling them as different things.

In terms of appearance, one is practiced in a standing form and the other is practiced in a sitting form. Nowadays, many of us spend more time sitting and less time standing, so today I will probably talk more about “sitting” and less about “standing”.

We all know somewhat the key points of the correct Zhan-Zhuang posture. One of them is that the acupoint on this side (at the right shoulder), and this point (at the left shoulder), should be aligned to our groin. And the two feet should be parallel, whereas the space in between them should not be too narrow, nor too wide. These six points should be in a straight line, as this is related to our body’s meridians.

👆The position pointed out in the picture is the acupoint on Dr. Yang’s right shoulder

This is the posture of Zhan-Zhuang. Then the main principle of Zhan-Zhuang is that the whole body must be relaxed. Let’s start from the top of the body. You can open your eyes, or slightly close your eyes. This is actually the same as sitting meditation. Then we put our lower jaw gently downward. We have two carotid arteries on both sides of the neck. The carotid artery has a lot of pressure within. You can see how high the blood can spray out when the general or soldier commit suicide by cutting their neck in movies and television dramas.

It is usually about one or two meters! This is tested in modern medicine. So, the blood pressure is very very high. In fact, these four vessels - our carotid arteries and the two (at the back of the neck) vertebral arteries - they contain very high pressure. Thus we need to put our jaw down and press it down a little to avoid the blood going upward too fast.

It is the same as sitting meditation. The waist cannot be too straight. If you stand with a very straight waist, the qi will rush upward and we will feel very hot. Therefore, the waist should be in a relaxed state, not too straight, and not to bend waist. It’s the same with Zhan-Zhuang and sitting meditation - the waist should be relaxed.

Also same as in sitting meditation, our abdomen should be tucked in a little bit. Do not sit too straight. If we tuck our belly in a little, we will find ourselves very relaxed. But if we are too straight, we will feel too hot. It’s very important to be in a relaxed state.

Both in sitting meditation and Zhan-Zhuang, our abdominal chakra is a very important place. Chinese medicine calls this area Shenque acupoint and Guanyuan acupoint; in Taoism it is called the lower Dantian.

This place should be in a relaxed state so that the energy is easy to gather. If you are too tense, too tight, too straight, the energy won’t easily gather in this area, and we will have no way to form the Neidan ( in Taoism energy is gathered in lower Dantian to form the Neidan). This is a key point.

Where to Put the Tongue

Therefore, an essential point of practicing Zhan-Zhuang is to get our bodies in a state of complete relaxation. We have already talked about head position. Now we are going to talk about where we should put our tongues. We need to put the tongue on the palate. But here comes a tricky question: should you put your tongue at the front, middle or back part of your palate? I know lots of people putting their tongue at the front part of their palate. The positioning is actually incorrect. Pressing here (middle part of the palate) will be much better than here (front part of the palate), but it is best to press here (back part of the palate).

Pressing this place (middle part of the palate) helps towards opening the “fan xue”, which is therefore not highly recommended. The reason is that nowadays many people are not in a calm state of mind and thus pressing our tongue at the middle part of the palate can possibly lead to disastrous symptoms mentally and/or physically.

I recommend first using a posture coming from Taoism’s practice of “building the foundation in a hundred day”: Curl our tongue and press the tip of our tongue on the back of the palate. When we do that saliva will come out slowly and after we swallow it, it will return to our root chakra.

We swallow the saliva back in a slow pace because the saliva contains the essence of life. This is why old people produce less saliva. The younger and healthier a person is, the more saliva the person generates, as it is the essence of life.`

So gently press your tongue against here (back part of the palate). Do this naturally and in a relaxed way. That’s it. Thus far we have talked about head, eye, jaw, and tongue positions.

Don’t stretch your head too far frontward and do not let it stiffen up. Keep it naturally relaxed. The benefit is when you relax your head your shoulders will be relaxed accordingly. Many people do not relax their heads which leads to their whole bodies tightening up.

Keeping Our Muscles Relaxed

From my observation, a lot of people are very tense when they are practicing Zhan-Zhuang or meditation. That’s why you will often get a “warning stick “ strike (warning stick, also called as “keisaku”, is a tool used in Zen Buddhism for various purposes such as helping concentration during meditation). You see, you shouldn’t be too loose both mentally and physically, and you shouldn’t be too tight either. When someone strikes a warning stick on you, you feel all of a sudden relaxed and loose, right?

Because some people, in fact, most people, 99% of people are very nervous in daily life. So that’s why walking, living, sitting and sleeping are all practices towards enlightenment. He/she has to be in a very relaxed state in daily life, and after a very relaxed state, the circulations of qi and blood will be very smooth.

When our muscles are tense, we know how anaerobic feels. “Anaerobic” means bad blood circulation, right? So when we are relaxed we are in an aerobic state. The qi and blood can circulate in this state. So through slow walking, jogging, we are in a very relaxed state and hence qi and blood are easy to circulate.

When we are in an anaerobic state, we are very nervous. Most of us walk, live, sit and sleep in an anaerobic state throughout the day. When the body is in an anaerobic state, it will burst huge power for a short period of time, and this short period of explosive power encourages cell mutation. The cancer cells usually appear in an anaerobic state.

Why nowadays there are many people getting tumors and cancer? Mostly because they are in an anaerobic state and they are not relaxed physically and mentally. In fact, the feeling of resentment, hatred, annoyance, grievance, and upset are all part of his/her uneasiness. If his/her viscera are in a very relaxed state, he/she will not get any health issues. So the majority of liver cancer, stomach cancer, kidney cancer, and intestinal cancer cases are due to blockage, meaning that the blood is not circulating in that area.

Therefore that area is prone to generate certain bad body tissues. Especially the state of depression and stagnation of the cells will lead to a lot of cell’s death. The very few stronger cells, in order to survive, mutate and become cancer cells. That’s where the cancer cells come from.

Arouse the Immune System

This is a relaxed state that we just mentioned. So why do we say that the upper body should be in a state of our chest slightly drawn in and our back straight? This (shoulder) place looks very nice when chest is kept very straight. However, because this place is too straight, this place is tense and not relaxed. So we need to relax this place.

Our body has three immune systems. The first one is the neck lymph. We call it the neck lymphatic system. The second one is the underarm lymphatic system, and the third is the inguinal lymphatic system.

👆The position pointed out in the picture is the acupoints on shoulder to be relaxed

There are two important acupoints here in the shoulder area, both are slightly sunken in. As this place is very close to the first immune system of our human body, when we relax our shoulders, the neck lymph system and the underarm lymph system are relaxed as well. When we relax our shoulders continuously, these two immune systems will be aroused and they will become strong.

When we are constantly in a state of tension, our immune system would be consequentially in a high-pressure state, and thus its functions become poor. So when we relax our body, it will be relatively strong.

Our body has two nervous systems: one is the central nervous system and the other is the self-disciplined nervous system. The central nervous system controls our viscera from our brain, but some organs of our body have a self-disciplined nervous system themselves, and it is called the sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves in clinical medicine.

Thus, for example, our liver has a sympathetic nerve and a parasympathetic nerve. When we are nervous, our sympathetic nerve starts to function. It starts to work and mobilize resources.

For another example, when we are very nervous, the mechanism of the secretion of adrenal hormone, which belongs to a disciplined nerve of the kidney, begins to work. So it is a good thing for the adrenal hormone to start mobilizing, but after a long time, it gets tense and becomes tired.

So when we start to relax, our internal organs and parasympathetic nerves start to function, which can repair some damage in our body.

So, when we practice Zhan-Zhuang or meditation and go into a relaxed state, the parasympathetic nerves of our viscera begin to work. It begins to repair our body. This is why we need to relax when practicing Zhang Zhuang or meditation. Relaxation is playing a role in repairing the state of the body function.

Most of us are in a state of tension and not relaxed enough, as most of us are very persistent and deeply attached to all sorts of things. Therefore we are relatively nervous no matter what we do, sometimes even unconsciously. So, our body is always in a state of tiredness and fatigue.

If we are not deeply attached to doing anything as well as its outcome, we will do what we need to do but rather in a very relaxed way. Our body would not have a state of fatigue and tiredness.

What I said above is about a state of our body. Now let us talk about our back. Our back has many T cells, which are also our immune cells.

We said previously that our back posture should be straight with our chest slightly drawn in. But if we stretch our back very tight, it would be very tense. When we are very relaxed, the immune cells of our bodies also will be naturally in a relaxed state, thus facilitating their own recovery one by one.

Moreover, drawing in our chest and keeping our back straight naturally at the same time smooths the qi in our lungs. And if we stretch our lung very tight, as the lung connects to all meridians in our bodies, the breath of the lung is not so smooth. So, when our back is straight naturally and our chest slightly drawn in, when we are relaxed like this, the qi in our lungs is easier to flow, and we will feel more comfortable.

The Key Points of the Lower Body Posture

In the above, we talked about the upper body. As for the lower body, the most important key point is about the waist and the abdomen. As for the abdomen, the abdomen needs to be drawn in, and by doing this our waist will bend backward automatically, right? When our waist is very tight and straight, the hot qi moves upwards, and our abdomen will be very tense. This is not good for our energy to concentrate at our lower Dantian. So we want the abdomen to draw in, and we want our abdomen and waist to sink and not to stand too straight. This is a problem with the lower body posture.

Then let’s talk about our feet. When practicing Zhan-Zhuang, our feet should not be standing straight. I have already mentioned the length between the feet - our feet should be aligned to our shoulder and our groin.

The inguinal lymphatic system in the groin area is the third lymphatic system of our human body. A lot of terminal cancer patients when doing B-ultrasound scanning, are found cancer cells spread to the neck lymphatic system.

Patients in severe health conditions will get cancer cells spread to the underarm lymphatic system. When a patient gets CT scanning and found the inguinal lymphatic system is getting infected, then this patient is basically incurable. All the immune cells of this patient got infected and defeated. This is as if all of one’s royal guards are eliminated, then what does this person have to protect his/her viscera and body?

So I know that a patient is in the worst phase of terminal cancer if that person has the inguinal lymphatic system infected. It is very hard to cure at this stage.

Not all diseases can be cured. When a person is terminally ill, when he/she is already dying, it is really difficult for him/her to be saved. Of course, there is a way, but we will talk about this later, and we will not mention this topic here.

So the width between the standing legs is the same as the width of our two shoulders, not too wide or too narrow. Also, the legs should be slightly curved when standing.

The goal of all these postures is to help us relax. As when our body and mind are not separated yet, the body is quite important.

But in the end of our practice, we can separate the body and mind naturally. Now that we haven’t reached this state, our consciousness cannot go out yet, and it hasn’t reached the state of immortality mentioned in Taoism. Our body and the mind, are combined together, and they are not completely separated.

So we must first maintain relaxation to the level that the qi and blood can circulate and flow smoothly. This point is actually very, very important. So one of the main points of our Zhan-Zhuang and meditation is to relax, relax and relax.