Maipayat

"The stillness in stillness is not the real stillness, it's stillness in movement where the universal rhythm manifests." - Bruce Lee ^[1]

Maipayat (also spelled Maipayattu) is the is associated with the emergence of knowledge concerning achieving meditative and prescriptive exercises. Originally recorded late in the Vedic period in conjunction with Vedanta and Yoga working from a full deep yogic breathing initiating set movement patterns nurturing creative and feeding the body with breath energy. This energy is taught in Maipayat to be of the divine energy. The teachings of Maipayat are within many different branches of Tantra, Yoga & Martial Arts. Similar exercises are taught in t'ai chi although Maipayat exercises more fluid movements while attempting to align the chakras.

Practitioners of Maipayat seek to ritually appropriate and channel their harvested energy through practical training and development of breathe and progressively more intensive rapid movements.

Proponent practitioners report the method improves body-mind balance and coordination, a rejuvenation of spirit and assist creative potential. As the oldest health art of breathing known from Ancient India. It is also instructed as a self-healing yoga therapy in Ayurveda.

Subsequent off-shoots of Maipayat have been the basis of various transplantations of sutras, such as late into the Han dynasty dealing with breath control and mystical concentration. Bodhidharma is said to have transported to China in the fifth century, Buddhism combined with mind, body & breath training in the form of Maipayat.

"The foundation of Kalaripayattu, like all other martial arts, is structured movements called maipayat, which are based on certain foundational stances drawn from the stances of animals like the elephant, horse, crocodile, boar, fish, peacock, snake and lion. Maipayat practice is associated with a lot of jumping and kicking movements that are typical to the practice of the Kalaripayattu." ^ref

^[2]

Thus, in China it customarily utilized Taoist vocabulary to make the Indian techniques intelligible in Chinese and evolve into what we know today as Martial Arts. Beneficiaries of the Shaolin Temple learned it to defend themselves and strengthen their bodies from these foundations. It shares many basic principles with Qigong and Kung-Fu.

In modern times, it is proving popular among yoga instructors, dancers, singers and athletes as a tool to improve their energy levels.

References

1. ^ From the Tao of Jeet Kune Do
2. ^ Mathew Varghese Cross-Cultural Relations between Dravidian India and Central China: New Evidences from the Tradition of Martial Art [1]