20 LongTengHuYue 龍騰虎躍

Dragon and Tiger Leap into Heaven

Epic Longbattle

Often I have the feeling that the boundary between movements in Qigong is fluid, that the character of a movement continues into the one that follows.

This happens between DanFengChaoYang 丹鳳朝陽 – Red Phoenix Visits the Sun and ShuiZhongLaoYue 水中撈月 – Lift the Moon from the Water where the descent has the feeling of the Phoenix's wings sweeping downward. Here we see this again as a continuation of ShuiZhongLaoYue, almost hurling the Moon into the sky.

Once we're up there, though, there's this feeling of reaching, striving. The arms in competition, rivals to reach higher into the sky.

Long means dragon. Teng means jumping, leaping. Hu means tiger. Yue means jump from one place to another, like jumping over a stream. Yue also means going to heaven to connect with high-level beings. The leaping in this movement symbolizes two substances, Qi and Jing, which transform into Shen and bring us closer to the Dao. This movement symbolizes east and west cooperating in Yin- Yang balance. In shamanism, the dragon and tiger are symbols for elevation. The dragon of the east represents YuanJing 元精 or original essence in the body, while the tiger of the west represents YuanQi 元气 or original Qi. These two substances combine and transform in the body to nourish Shen or spirit.

-- Master Wu

The arms remind me of the Pillar of Severity and the Pillar of Mercy reaching up to Heaven, these two beasts bursting into the sky, it's joyous, this leaping flight. (Contrast this with TiHuGuanDing 醍醐灌頂 – Heavenly Dew Purifies the Body, with its feeling of pure light shining down the center.)