When the ink is ready and your feeling is calmer,
you would begin with MARU Circle Practice 1.
This is to warm up your senses, connection between body and mind as well as to get used to the brush and check the condition of brush and ink.
It helps to focus on "the contact surface".
For the beginner, just fold your norm sized calligraphy paper into two section in
order to make a subtile line.
Flow your attention again to your position, posture, hold your brush correctly
and then first time your brush starts to make a circle.
Always make sure that the you hold brush upright, straight.
Circle 1.
- start from the centre clockwise ( if you are left hander, often non-clockwise would be more natural movement )
- concentrate on the contact surface between the hair of brush and the paper
and try to keep the contact area as same as possible so the thickness would stay even.
- try to flow with the brush slowly and lightly
- Don't you worry about the form or roundness, just focus on the movement of hair of the brush and observe how the hair moves each curve.
- Consciously relax your shoulders-elbow-wrist area and most importantly breathe.
- keep the brush always upright
- At the end, try to slide out lightly.
- Try a few circles, you would notice the movement and the flow get lighter and your "connection" get closer.
*images are from a student Otto-san
MARU Circle Practice 2.
This practise is another stage to sharpen the senses.
It is recommended only after you feel very comfortable with the MARU circle 1.
Mainly it helps to become conscious of "up und down" movement of your Qi energy and to focus on the energy flow of the Navel Chackra.
You would learn to concentrate on the navel chackra and to conduct the energy going up and down on the middle.
Circle 2
- Begin with very thin small contact, try to have as thin contact as possible with the paper.
- start from the centre clockwise ( if you are left hander, often non-clockwise would be more natural movement )
- As you circle, try to deepen and make a bigger brush contact on paper without physical pressure.
- try to flow with the brush slowly and lightly
- Don't you worry about the form or roundness, just focus on the movement of your Qi energy via Navel chakra.
- Consciously relax your shoulders-elbow-wrist area and most importantly breathe.
- keep the brush always upright
- At the end, try to slide out lightly.
- Try a few circles again, you would notice the movement and the flow get lighter and your "connection" get closer.
*images are from a student Otto-san
Those two MARU practise 1+2 are very useful to bring the high concentration
and to have an effective learning process with the text of the day directly
afterwards.
I normally choose the size of the Maru practise paralleling to the type of text.
You can practise with 2 sections / 4 sections / 3 sections / 4 sections on one
paper.
Each case, you can lightly fold the paper to mark the measurement lines.
Now we are moving to the SHIKAKU Square Practise 1+2+3.
