The Importance of Not Ignoring Incorrect Exercise Movements/Postures

(Minghui.org) Today I read an article that discussed various manifestations of false sickness karma that some practitioners have been experiencing.

The article claimed that amid sickness karma, some practitioners thought they were getting old, some thought their former illnesses were recurring, while some admitted that they were not diligent and had slacked off on their cultivation path. Therefore, they were taken advantage of by the old forces.

I would like to add that in addition to cultivating oneself by looking inward amid conflicts, and doing the three things, practitioners should also meet the exercise requirements as taught by Master Li (Falun Dafa's founder) in Falun Gong and The Great Way of Spiritual Perfection. 

As the ancients said, “Walk like the wind; stand straight like a majestic pine, sit firm like a colossal bell, and sleep on the side like a bow.” This is especially true for practitioners. 

Problems in Doing the Exercises

The following is a list of my problems in doing exercises, which I would like to share with you so that you don’t make the same mistakes.

Because of my years of incorrect exercise movements and posture, my appearance has aged, and I look like an everyday person. Besides, my body has developed various discomforts. 

The most obvious was that, after working for two or three hours I must take a nap, otherwise I get sluggish and muddle-headed, and can't perform at all. I looked inward for xinxing problems, and sent righteous thoughts, but still could not get out of this state.

Then, I suddenly realized that my exercise movements were not accurate and I did not meet Master’s requirements. It was due to my attachments to sloppiness and reliance, thinking that just finishing the exercises every day was good enough. 

I did not realize that only when the exercise movements meet the standard can one’s body [benti] be changed. In particular, if one’s body is not relaxed when doing the exercises, the parts of the body that are not relaxed cannot be transformed, and over time, the body will develop discomfort.

I examined my exercise movements against Falun Gong and The Great Way of Spiritual Perfection, and found many small mistakes that are hard to detect without careful examination.

Exercise One

1. In “Preparation,” my feet were not shoulder-width apart, and my left foot pointed to the outside. After measuring, I found that the distance between my feet was much smaller than the width of my shoulders. The correct shoulder width is about the length of my two feet. Of course this is for your reference only, because everyone’s shoulder width is different. 

2. In “Buddha Maitreya Stretching His Back,” the fingers of my hands were not pointing toward each other, and my fingertips were not 20 to 25 cm apart.

3. When I pushed my head upward, my feet were not pressed downward, and my body did not straighten up. In addition, my arms, instead of my palms, were pushing upward, and my body did not gradually straighten up. 

4. To form Heshi, I did not “lift” my hands up to the chest, but instead “put” them to the chest, and had a shrugging of the shoulders. In addition, my forearms did not form a straight line.

5. In “Turning Both Palms as if Rotating a Ball,” my extended hand was not at the same height as my head.

6. In “Golden Monkey Splitting its Body,” my arms did not form a straight line from the shoulders.

7. In “Two Dragons Diving into the Sea,” there was also a slight shrugging of my shoulders, and the forces of the left and right hands pushing downward were not equal.

8. In “Arhat Carrying a Mountain on His Back,” the angle between my wrists and my body was smaller then 45 degrees, and my body was not upright. When stretching, I did not stretch my chest, but simply moved my chest forward. 

9. In “Vajra Toppling a Mountain,” when pushing my palms forward, my hands and shoulders were not at the same level, although it was very subtle and hard to detect. 

Exercise Two

1. When doing “Holding the Wheel in Front of the Head,” my hands were not at eyebrow level, and my palms did not point towards my face. As the music continued, my hands gradually pointed somewhat downward, instead of having the fingers of both hands pointing towards each other. As a result my arms could not form a circle. Because of my incorrect posture, my entire body simply could not be relaxed.

2. Given my incorrect posture in “Holding the Wheel in Front of the Head,” the three stances that followed were affected too. In “Holding the Wheel in Front of the Lower Abdomen,” my left hand was higher than my right hand, because my left armpit closed up. Naturally, my arms could not form a circle.

3. When doing “Holding the Wheel Above the Head,” my one hand was higher than the other, and my arms could not form a circle. In addition, my shoulders, arms, elbows, and wrists were not relaxed.

4. When doing “Holding Wheels on Both Sides of the Head,” my palms did not face the ears, my thumbs did.

Exercises Three and Four

I tend to have other things on my mind, and could not keep up with the music. My hands moved sometimes fast and sometimes slow, and touched my body. My hands and arms did not form a straight line. In addition, I had the same problem as described in Preparation.

Exercise Five

1. After tucking the lower jaw in slightly for a while, I tent to become too relaxed and lower my head, thus failing to keep my back and neck upright.

2. My arms and shoulders were not level, and one shoulder was higher than the other. Naturally my palms could not face each other.

3. After holding both upper arms slightly forward with the elbows rounded so that the underarms were open for a while, I relaxed my elbows and slowly, my upper arms would touch against my ribs. 

4. As I began to feel leg pain and back pain after sitting for 45 minutes, I would move my waist back and forth to ease the pain. Doing so kept the karma from being eliminated. The next time I moved my waist again and still did not realize that I should face the pain as a practitioner. Therefore, it took a long time for the pain to go away and for things to slowly get better.

5. When “Conjoining the Hands,” my left wrist was rarely relaxed. 

Because of my incorrect postures in meditation, I was very sleepy during the exercise and I sometimes even dozed off. This has also happened when I send forth righteous thoughts – I doze off and my right hand falls down. Because of my incorrect postures, I rarely felt that my entire body was light after the exercises. 

In my understanding, with incorrect exercise movements and postures, over time some people might appear hunched, some might have uneven legs, some might have one shoulder higher than the other, or one side of the face bigger than the other. If one had these situation before practicing cultivation and still has them after many years of practice, it may have something to do with incorrect exercise movements.

I suggest that those who have incorrect movements practice in front of a mirror to correct themselves, or open their eyes to check on themselves from time to time. It is even better at practice sites because practitioners can keep an eye on one another to verify that the exercise movements are correct.

In particular, to help elderly practitioners correct their movements, it is necessary to have a fellow practitioner watch them practicing and correct them until the latter can master the correct movements. One might have to repeat a particular movement before one fully gets it, therefore patience is the key. 

This concludes my personal understanding. Please point out anything improper.