Standing Meditation to Activate Nim Tau

1. How to Stand
Begin with the Wing Chun stance, (feet shoulder width apart, knees bent, toes pointing inward).

2. Establish Tai Gung

Think of drawing upwards from the anus as if delaying emptying one’s bowels. This may involve a gentle lifting
of the anus but should be done just with thought rather than muscular tension.

3. Release muscular tension throughout the body

Relaxation should be considered as a type of expansion, an open relaxed hand, rather than a tense gripped fist.
As one relaxes correctly, there is a feeling of more room in the body, as if all muscles, tendons and bones etc.,
have moved apart from each other; as if the body has unravelled and inflated in all directions. The alignment
between opposing muscle groups will adjust slightly. The quadriceps may rise slightly and the hamstrings may
feel as if they move downwards. One’s body-weight should feel as it is dropping downwards.

4. Relax coccyx
Try to feel your tailbone and relax the muscles around it. Imagining the hip joints as small spheres rotating
inwards to concur with your feet pointing in will help to release tension in this area.

5. Point coccyx downwards

When the coccyx is sufficiently relaxed it will feel like a tail. Think of it pointing downwards.

6. Rotate coccyx
Bring your mind to the tip of the Coccyx and imagine it turning inwards and upwards, as if it was looked
upwards through the spine to the Nim Tau Point, (the point at the top and back of one’s skull where the spine
would go if it reached all the way to the top of your head). Once again this must be done with just thought. A
common mistake is to do this physically and cause tension. When the tip of the tail-bone and the Nim Tau Point
come into line you will feel a connection.

7. Expand and raise the spine

Allow thought to travel up through the spine to the Nim Tau Point. When done correctly, this will cause the
spaces between the vertebrae to expand. It is not easy to do and the process cannot be forced. The expansion
is something that happens by itself when the correct thought is established.

8. Activate the Nim Tau Point

I particularly like a quote from Chu Shong Tin regarding this aspect as it demonstrates his common sense
approach and wish to demystify the learning process. He said;
“If you can do this well, you can feel that there is something, maybe it’s called Chi or whatever, I don’t
quite know how to describe it. So let’s say we call this Chi.”
When the entire spine has been raised the energy or ‘chi’ will travel right up to the Nim Tau Point. The
practitioner will feel taller and may also feel a gentle pressure at the Nim Tau Point, as if something was
pushing up from the spine onto the inside of the skull. At this stage the student will be able generate
considerable force without using physical force. He or she will be able to control muscles that cannot be utilised
in one’s normal state. In this ‘Nim Tau’ condition the thought of using brute force for power will seem
unnatural and inefficient.