Dharma Drum Mountain

1. Background
The Dharma Drum's Eight-Form Moving Meditation was developed by Master Sheng Yen of Dharma Drum Mountain as a means of allowing people living stressful and busy lifestyles to enjoy some of the benefits of Chan meditation. The system, based on many years of practice and personal experience, has incorporated the essence of Chan meditation into a series of simple physical exercises.

In addition to physical exercise, practice of the Eight Forms helps you relax your body and mind, so that you can develop a healthy body and a balanced mind. Dharma Drum's Eight-Form Moving Meditation is a set of easy-to-learn exercises that can be practiced almost anywhere and at anytime.

This system of "meditation through motion" is beneficial to both body and mind, and once acquired through diligent practice, can be performed whether walking, standing, sitting or reclining, so that you are always mindful of being relaxed in body and mind. By practicing the Eight Forms, you will always be composed and at ease, and at every moment enjoy the bliss of meditation and the joy of the Dharma.To promote Dharma Drum's Eight-Form Moving Meditation, the Dharma Drum Meditation Promotion Center trained a total of 122 volunteer instructors in its first intake in April 2003.

At the same time, it commenced regional training around the country, and received much positive feedback from the public. To aid the instructors and to encourage self-learning among students, instructional videos were produced along with the already available instructor's manual. In addition, this learner's handbook was produced to enhance the effectiveness of instruction.

2. Benefits
Besides the purely physical benefits of the exercise, Dharma Drum's Eight-Form Moving Meditation also helps regulate your mind, so that it becomes more and more concentrated, and you can ultimately achieve the unity of body and mind. After a period of diligent practice, you can use these techniques in your daily life, relaxing your body and mind, or even letting go of your attachment to body and mind. Finally, you may achieve the ultimate goal of meditation - the generation of wisdom.

3. Who can benefit?
Anyone can practice the Eight Forms irrespective of sex, age, fitness and health.

4. When can you practice?
You can practice the Eight Forms at anytime, although it is not recommended within half-an-hour of a meal. If you wish to practice them at this time, you should take a leisurely walk instead, trying to be mindful and relaxed, as this is the key to the effective practice of the Eight Forms.

5. Where can you practice?
Any indoor or outdoor location with sufficient space and good air circulation is suitable for practicing the Eight Forms.

6. Exercising your body
When performing the Eight Forms, you should start by stretching the joints and ligaments, progressing from top to toe, and from working specific areas to exercising the whole body. If you follow this progression, you will exercise every part of your body while avoiding injuries. Performing the full sequence of the Eight-Form Moving Meditation takes about 30 minutes. Time permitting, you should practice all eight movements together. By repeating the sequence, your body will feel even more relaxed. If time is limited, the sequence can be performed in segments.

7. Focusing your mind
That the mind should be where the body is, is the basic principle of the Eight-Forms Moving Meditation. There are three steps for focusing your mind: awareness, partial relaxation, and total relaxation.

7.1: Awareness:
Going from awareness of specific movements to awareness of the movement of your whole bodyThis is the first step in the process for achieving unity of body and mind. When you practice awareness, you will realize how scattered your thoughts are. As your awareness of your movements increases with practice, you will find that your thoughts become more and more focused.

7.2 Partial Relaxation:
From awareness of tension in specific areas to awareness of relaxation in these areasMost people are unaware of the tension in their bodies. If you remain continuously mindful of your movements, you will perceive how your body and muscles gradually relax, and eventually feel the sense of physical ease that comes from the unity of body and mind.

7.3 Total Relaxation:
From relaxing specific tension areas to relaxing the whole body When you achieve unity of body and mind, your whole body becomes relaxed, not only specific areas. Therefore, you must learn to extend the relaxation that you feel in a specific area to every part of your body. If you can remain relaxed both in body and mind while practicing the Eight Forms, your whole body will eventually relax and you will experience the bliss of meditation and the joy of the Dharma.

8. Key points
8.1 Breathe naturally
Do not control your breathing; do not pay particular attention to your breathing.

8.2 Be aware of your physical condition
Some people may experience dizziness when practicing the neck exercise (Second Form), the back stretching and bending exercise (Fourth Form), and the upper body rotation exercise (Sixth Form). By keeping your eyes open while performing these actions and limiting both the range and speed of your movements, you should be able to avoid dizziness.

8.3 Avoiding injuries
When practicing the back stretching and bending exercise (Fourth Form), you should move vertebra by vertebra from the cervical through the thoracic and lumbar segments of the spinal cord down to the sacrum as you bend down. When resuming an upright position, you should feel your spine straightening vertebra by vertebra. Whether bending down or straightening up, your spine should never move as one piece. It is the gentle manipulation of each vertebra that enhances the benefit from the movement and helps to avoid back injury.

8.4 Awareness and relaxation are more important than accuracy
You should practice the Eight Forms in the most comfortable way, focusing on the experience of meditation rather than trying excessively to follow the movements exactly. Only then can you experience relaxation of the whole body as a result of the unity of body and mind.