Lift the head. Push the top of your head upward (ding jin).
Tuck you chin in and slightly downward.
Relax the neck.
Hold your head as if it were suspended by a string from above.
Slightly part your lips and softly smile. Your tongue should rest gently on the roof of your mouth behind your teeth.
Swallow all clear, thin and watery saliva.
Keep your eyes open, and hold a wide angle and soft focus in the field of vision.
Imagine an opponent in front of you and imagine using the self-defense movements of Taijiquan being used against an aggressive opponent.
Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.Breathe naturally as needed. Gradually, tend to exhale when extending limbs out, inhale when drawing limbs to a more centered position.
You head should be aligned along an axis through your center and down to your feet.
The head should not extend beyond the feet.
The head, torso and waist should move as one piece.
"The upright direction has always been the most salient, constant, and unique direction in our world."
- Roger Shepard and Shelley Hurwitz
"Professor Cheng often talked about the position of the head, "as if pressing up against heaven," "as if being suspended by the pigtail: worn by Chinese during the Manchu dynasty. He said that, while there are a number of good images for the head position, he especially recommended the idea of "hanging" because it counteracted the tendency to hold the head stiffly in place."
- Wolfe Lowenthal, Gateway to the Miraculous, 1994, p. 5.
"With respect to the position of the head, Cheng Man-ch'ing says, 'Cause the energy at the crown of the head to be light and sensitive. The head should not incline backwards or hang forward. It should not wag to the left or right, but should be as if suspended from above. When this is supplemented by keeping the wei-lü vertical, the spirit extends to the crown of the head, that is, it reaches all the way to the zi-wan point.' "
Cheng Man-ch'ing, Advanced T'ai-Chi Form Instructions, Wile 1985, p. 21.
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