Certainly internal mechanics are great for resolving issues of the tissue (精), but if issues of the mind are not also addressed then I would argue that you are just doing mechanics. Most of the dismissal of the internal-external issue on this board has come down to only the meat, so of course there is little difference. I would argue that internal is about the mind, and if the way you think is not part of your training you are not doing internals now matter what your style.
Kevin_Wallbridge wrote:What is the process of alchemy if it not the alignment of our acquired selves with our innate potential? .... I would argue that internal is about the mind, and if the way you think is not part of your training you are not doing internals now matter what your style.
Kevin_Wallbridge wrote:Bhassler, sure working the tissue changes the mind, but why then can person with decades of "internal work" still be an interpersonal and emotional mess? It doesn't make buddhas automatically. The issues of pathology that arise in the mind may or may not become resolved if the issues of the tissue are corrected. Your flesh always is what it is, but your mind is what it thinks it is as well. If cognitive issues are not directly addressed explicitly they likely will never resolve. We just create adaptive coping mechanisms which help us blunder through our lives with greater or lesser degrees of stability. The physical training helps, and it just might do the trick, but its still just rolling dice and hoping it works. The argument that changing the physical substrate is enough is really the same one used in pharmacology, I remain unconvinced it is enough.
The Shen is the Looney Toons character that you make up for yourself as you struggle with existence. Every psycho-emotional scar that we carry is what takes us out of alignment. Being the most Yang it is the Shen that is the most able to change, but those changes call us to address issues of our own identity. That's what the alchemy is, bringing it all into the same speed and direction. Fixing the Jing is relatively simple, its just training the basics; its powerful because you are maximizing your physical potential (Po), but at a certain level its still just mechanics.
Aligning the Hun and Shen is often an uncomfortable process. Its not enough to get a grip on your temper and be calmer than before you were training, or that sort of thing. Its getting at the deeper experiences that you to build your buttons in the first place. In Chinese medicine there are no positive or negative emotions (fright and oppression 惊忧 are kind of special cases), the issue is one of intensity and duration. When you experience and emotion that has too much intensity or goes on for too long a duration, what lies below that in who you think you are?
Kevin_Wallbridge wrote:TrainingDummy, its the exact opposite. The Hun aligns the Shen. The Hun is the truth of who you are. The Shen is the Looney Toons character that you make up for yourself as you struggle with existence. Every psycho-emotional scar that we carry is what takes us out of alignment. Being the most Yang it is the Shen that is the most able to change, but those changes call us to address issues of our own identity. That's what the alchemy is, bringing it all into the same speed and direction. Fixing the Jing is relatively simple, its just training the basics; its powerful because you are maximizing your physical potential (Po), but at a certain level its still just mechanics.
Aligning the Hun and Shen is often an uncomfortable process. Its not enough to get a grip on your temper and be calmer than before you were training, or that sort of thing. Its getting at the deeper experiences that you to build your buttons in the first place. In Chinese medicine there are no positive or negative emotions (fright and oppression 惊忧 are kind of special cases), the issue is one of intensity and duration. When you experience and emotion that has too much intensity or goes on for too long a duration, what lies below that in who you think you are?
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Kevin_Wallbridge wrote:I fear that what I have written is being read as a "mind only" approach to the concept of internal work. This is not what I'm saying. I have reacted to a stand that has become accepted on this board that internal mechanics is internal and that, since most systems well studied lead to internal mechanics, the idea of 内家 internal school is irrelevant. I am a believer in the power of internal mechanics and I agree that there are many paths to these skills that lie outside the so-called internal styles. To my understanding what makes a style internal is that it includes the training of the mind in an explicit rather than implicit way. Its not a question of "or" its a question of "and."
Back in the 12th century, Chen Yan wrote the Prescriptions on the Premise Diseases Have Three Causes 三因极一病证方论. It lays out external causes (pathogens), internal causes (the seven emotions) and neither (diet, fatigue, parasites, sexual intemperance, etc.). This frame work has been largely been standard thinking since that time. To state it clearly, the internal cause of disease in Chinese medicine is the mind. The 内 in 内因 refers to the mind and emotions. I don't see this any differently in martial arts.
One of the ways that can come up for us in the martial arts is sensitivity training with a partner. When I first touched internal stylists they tossed me around like a doll. All of my previous martial arts training; my strength, speed and fitness, was irrelevant. What I was taught was to look at what was happening when I was trying to win, or succeed, or score a point. What was my desire doing to my body when faced with the stress of another contrary will? It was not easy to begin to become honest with myself about what I was trying to do in push-hands.
In a nutshell that is all there is to any of this, honesty. A brutal honesty with yourself when under stress. What am I unwilling to accept? One teacher I had said "you are trying to conquer me and I am trying to conquer me, that is why you will never win." As Bhassler alluded, you need to kill your own ego first. So, for me at least, the place where I practice this is in the experience of touch.
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