When most of us think about meditation we visualize a mystic sitting in Lotus position, eyes closed and relaxed, savoring the stillness. But the fact is this same stillness can be found in even the most energetic of exercises. A champion martial artist creates this inner stillness and uses it to perform amazing feats of strength, physical endurance and stamina. The marital artist might or might not be stronger than an average person however. Their strength comes from the discovery of an immense reservoir of energy that everyone possesses. This energy can be accessed through meditation. Meditation trains our minds to focus inward, instead of relying only on our outward experience.
When we practice meditation it is neither necessary to be in a sitting position or even to be physically still, because when a master Karate expert is breaking a pile of bricks they are extremely physically active but are technically in a state of meditation. The process is the same whether you are practicing the very active Iron Shirt Kung Fu, sedate Yoga or the peaceful movements of Tai Chi.
Tai Chi standing meditation is an excellent example of this process. Standing while meditating actually gets better results because it opens up energy channels that might be blocked in a sitting position and, by increasing the number of possible distractions it teaches us to meditate under "stressful" conditions. It also better helps correct bad posture, which is the cause of many physical problems that people are suffering from. Bad posture can be traced to any number of chronic physical problems and Tai Chi is being used in clinics and therapeutic centers worldwide to treat these conditions.
When we exercise physically the brain manufactures endorphins and other chemicals that help develop our muscles and give us strength. The body has another source of energy however but physical exercise can access only rarely. Long distance runners often talk about the "zone" that they often fall into when running. This is meditation in action, accessing the body's internal energies and putting the conscious mind on standby. When we used standing meditation however we can treat the entire body like an anatomical object, more easily visualizing each part of it, which makes is so much easier to manipulate our internal energies. This also makes it much easier to remain in a meditative state when practicing forms and sets, especially pushing hands
