Tadasana - Mountain Pose - Yoga Wuji

Notes from B.K.S. Iyengar

Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar is considered one of the foremost yoga teachers in the world and has been practising and teaching yoga for more than 75 years. He has written many books on yoga practice and philosophy. In 2004, Iyengar was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine.

The body extends upwards, with the base as firm as a rock; the mind is steady and attentive. Tadasana teaches balance, centering and evenness and direction of extensions. These principles apply to all the postures. -B.K.S Iyengar

Tadasana is perhaps the most basic yoga pose. All yoga poses are called asana and the word tada translates from Sanskrit to mountain, thus this is the 'mountain posture'. As it is a very simple and restful pose it is usually one of the very first that must be mastered by a new student. It is the base for all the other asanas, particularly the standing ones.

  

Although the pose looks simple, and indeed is the most simple of the asanas, it still takes much practise and concentration to master all the different areas of the body and combine them into a strong yet relaxed posture. Placing the body correctly from the beginning is of utmost importance as this will help the pose to be balanced for its entirety.

The ideal when practising tadasana is that the ankles, knees, hips, shoulders and ears are exactly in a straight, vertical line. At first, this may take a surprising amount of concentration and effort. In order for your body to be lined up this way, its base, that is your feet, must be lined up. Think about the way people stand most of the time, they pretty much always lean one way or the other. Resting most of their weight on one leg, perhaps switching between the two, or standing with one leg placed more forward that the other. Even when sitting ones feet are hardly ever planted flat on the floor.

That is why this pose is so important and teaches many of the fundamental disciplines needed to carry out other standing poses successfully. Balance, alignment, concentration and awareness of the body are all focused on whilst practising tadasana. When one first begins to practise it is very important to take care when doing each of the following steps so that the end result is good. As one becomes more experienced the body will more naturally align its self, and many of the steps will become less conscious.

Once the body is correctly lined up and placed in this position, it is very important to focus on keeping it this way. Make sure that you are not leaning more weight onto one foot and that your arms are still hanging in line. Focus on taking long, deep breathes. Checking your alignment will make you aware of adjusting your body in a sensitive and subtle way. Your left and right and front and back should be exactly in line and parallel, even if one finger is bent and the other is not, this alignment is lost. Become aware of the line that runs between your legs, through the front and back of the body and to the crown of your head. This line should be vertical and once achieved you should take note of the balance and stability your body has in this position.

Try and make the mind still, do not let it wander, instead making it focus on the body, thus making it aware of the equilibrium gained. The position is normally held for about a minute, but at first you may wish to only stay in it for shorter amounts of time, and with practice you may extend it to any length you feel comfortable with. It is an excellent pose to start off with and once mastered will make all other poses more balanced and strong.

Settling into the posture brings repose. It follows precise placement of the limbs, correct extension and balance. There is peace and unity within. The mind fills every particle of the body, bringing harmony. This is Yoga.
 - B.K.S Iyengar

Harmony and Unity of Whole Body

Notes from Master Wang XiangZhai

No matter which posture you practice, whole body must be relaxed. After assuming posture, you shouldn't change it. All joints should be slightly bent. You should put your attention to relax of body, but it means the state of relaxed but not slack; tense, but not stiff. Which means that basis for relax is keeping harmony and unity of whole body. In martial art it is called "three internal harmonies and three external harmonies." 

Internal: harmony of heart and intention, intention and energy, energy and force. 

External: harmony of palms and feet, elbows and knees, shoulders and hips. 

Inside body empty agility; outside body balance and roundness. Intention for use, body as basis, non-movement for harmony, unity of form and intention. Getting intention from form, intention is born from form, form is following intention. External and internal are one. Only by practicing long time you can master the spirit of these principles.

The Body Seeks Equilibrium - Fong Ha (1996)

Excerpt from T'Ai Chi Magazine, Vol 20, No 3 (1996)

Wuji Qigong: Harvesting Inner Resources

Fong Ha said that by putting yourself in a standing position such as Wuji, "You are activating your own automatic maintenance system. So it doesn't matter if you have bad posture. Every single cell in your body will want to maintain itself so you can stand up straight. Therefore, it is self-correcting at all times, regardless of your state of health, regardless of the state of destruction going on in your body. Your body is automatically self-adjusting and self-maintaining. By simply doing the Wuji stance, you are activating it already. There is nothing else you have to do. In my theory, you don't have to be able to stand in any special way. Just stand up and already the work is done."

"The body seeks equilibrium." Through the equilibrium, Fong Ha said, the mind and body become more integrated. "Integrated means the awareness comes from the center and extends to every extremity of the body. Then you have integration. Integration can also be talked about as evenly distributed tension, or even as density, as in matter. So the body, through the practice of qi, opens all the meridians and you become more and more integrated. The Chinese word is solid, meaning one, unity."

Fong Ha said that in terms of martial arts, "I have come to the understanding that knowing and developing awareness continues to be far more important than developing self-defense technique. Our awareness is there, we just don't know that it is there. So when we put our mind in the dantian, that is just a method to remind yourself it is there. That is the beginning of it."