by XiaoXiong on Thu Jul 24, 2014 1:19 am
There's been a surge of internal stuff going on, and I want to bring the discussion about what is different about my view, and probably others as well, on internal methods here. So I thought I'd go ahead and explain another layer of the internal methods I am training. This stuff is my own work, but does come by way of Wu style and Yang style taiji.
So in the internal arts there tends to be a clear separation of weight. So the ideas everything is clearly on one side, then the other right? The thing is that this is not just the weight, but the intent. It needs to fill the supporting leg and empty the other, but also the upper body as well. The low hand is the full one in San ti and circle walking also. So if you think about getting everything over to one side or the other, clearly, then you designate a center for yourself. It's important that you consciously designate it or it will be random and unknown mostly. So if you start with right and left as in walking, then you can get an idea how to separate the energy and move it inside of you. The hips and the waist guide it, and you can steer it like a rudder on a sailboat. So if you put your focus on a point of contact and receive force into one side only through that point they get the feeling that they are hitting something solid. The thing is that you are not resisting the force at all, you are guiding it into you, essentially taking it from them, without giving them anything to work with. Like your whole body is a catcher's mitt. So when you feel the persons center and you know where it is, and where their line of intent is you can do many different things with that information. You can empty the side they were hitting and hit their exposed center from the other side so that essentially all of their power is somewhere where nothing is really happening that is useful to them any more, and they have nothing to defend with. So left and right is the first stage. Think grasp the birds tail, IMO the most important part of taiji, btw. Front leg, back leg, palm up, palm down, inside arm, outside arm, etc. Yin and yang constantly transforming into one another right? Spc and Wu Xing do the same thing. So so far what I have figured out from my own experiments and what I've learned from taiji folks, is that there are pairs that switch all over the body. Left+right, front+back, high+low, inside+outside. These are the main ones, as demonstrated by the three anatomical planes plus inside and out. Then you get into the extremeties, so the thumb, and the fingers have separate lines, so two lines in each arm, so you can get in by finding the full channel and going up the empty, so your power doesn't crash with theirs, but takes another pathway to the center. The legs have more going on. Mostly though it's seems best at first not to think too deeply about the legs, but you have to be able to go from front and back of the leg and inside and out for basics. There is open close of the hips and flex and extend the spine at all the joints.
As far as energy is concerned there is recieving or magnetic energy, and there is emitting or electric energy as Mr. Rasmus says. Yin and Yang as Chinese say. So if you have all your weight on one side but the connection is not clear in the waist you can be double weighted on one foot. Because there can be energy moving around in the unstable Dan tian that hasn't been stilled enough to control your balance. This is where we all start I think. So if you can first get all,your weight stably one one side, and then put everything in your intent over to that side then you have something to work with, called a center. Then you can switch it around. That is the basic level.
Beyond basic, there is then dissolving the energy you recieve so it just hits you with no power. It's like there is no wind in the sails and the power just hits the floor. This is done by knowing the others center and having it before contact begins. You sense the direction of intent visually and know the center as it is revealed by their movement. So when the power comes in you already emptied the side they want to hit and you are ready to hit from the other one. So you don't even worry about the power coming in you just go through the empty meridian to hit the center before they even get to contact. This brings in to play the theory of orbits in internal mechanics.
Each orbit is a circuit, and for a technique to be delivered in an internal manner, the circuit has to be closed. In the case of many techniques involving only one contact point it's the mind that completes the circuit. This is highly counterintuitive and difficult for many people to understand and is one of the big places where internal and external depart, and where understanding, teaching, discussing etc becomes harder. The mind has to not only permeate the inside of the body, but the empty space around it. You lead the power into the empty spaces at first, so you can be sure it doesn't hit you. Then later you start to take it inside you and move it. Then you learn to put it into the ground, or just not accept it so the force just returns to the other and they push themselves out. This is done by knowing which meridians are active and which are passive, and only engaging the passive ones when the opposite is active. Otherwise the passive ones are able to be used to take your energy while the opposite but also passive meridian can be activated freely to attack the center. This is why we stay relaxed. So we can hide the center as well as possible and move it without the movement being easy to follow visually or through tactile senses. It's tension that tells you what meridians are active and what's coming from a person. It's relaxation that allows the power to flow smoothly from the center like a machine. Machines don't have eccentric contractions of antagonist servos or motors that are proprioceptively programmed to protect their joints from hyper extension, and relaxed movement allows you to make the power clear in one direction, with out needing to put the brakes on it with the antagonists and holding back the power, essentially crashing with your own energy. So don't crash, but instead know the other and take the easy road. This is the essence of internal arts as I see it. It's not revolutionary, and it jives with the classics apparently. But ask yourself if this sounds like what you are doing? Are you distributing your qi consciously and moving it with the mind? Are you able to receive energy and not resist? Do you know how to create a defined center and how to move it? Can you take power to a plane, a line, or a point? Can you put a person on that line or that point? That is how I do internal. I use my body and mind like a lense to manipulate the energy of the other, and to focus my own energy when I wish to attack. If you think five elements, then you see easily the planes of attack in pi quan. Zuan is planar and linear combined, one in each hand. Beng is on a point but off the line of power of the other, next to it. Pao is planar like a shield combined with linear like a sword stabbing. Heng is planar, linear, and pointed depending on usage and which part you look at. Now pi can be done like beng, so it goes to a point, and beng can be done like pao, so it's on a line, but essentially that's the breakdown of Wu Xing Jing from an anatomical perspective of movement. So if you think about the focus of beng quan to a point, and then think about how you can put that point instead of in front of you, under a persons feet, then you start to see how they can end up trying to move themselves, when they meant to move you, or trying to hit you but falling as soon as they emit power.
Jess
Truth enlightens the mind, but won't always bring happiness to the heart.
