Wanderingdragon wrote:I was hoping someone could explain, just exactly how to observe the space around my body, at the same level that I observe my body?
I suspect there are different answers, depending on if you want to know from a specific Yiquan perspective, a broader Chinese cultural/historical perspective, or from a western perspective.
I know fuck-all about the first two, but from a western perspective, one might start by understanding that babies learn about their own bodies by exploring the environment around them. This means that the external environment is "mapped" in the brain before the internal environment-- in order for there to be a "you", there has to be a "not you." This is all well researched and documented and I'm sure folks could find lots more detail with a google search. It does, however, validate from a western scientific perspective the need to observe the external space as closely as the internal, and shows that the space around us is already an important part of our physical self image.
From a practical sense, the range of our perceptual field can be refined and extended by things like weapons practice and partner work, with careful attention to things like range, angles, leverage, and timing. So it can get esoteric from a philosophical standpoint, and complicated from the standpoint of scientific explanation. For actual usage, however, the way to accomplish it looks a lot like regular good quality martial arts practice, as long as the practitioner is deliberate about what they're doing.