oragami_itto wrote:After watching this I think I have some problems with it.
I don't believe internal skills are something you can "learn" so much as a state you achieve.
Like a circus strongman can bend a steel bar, there's no trick to it, he just made himself strong enough to do it. Anyone who hasn't gone through the necessary conditioning won't be able to duplicate the feat. .
To become a strongman you first need to know that you must make yourself strong. If you don’t, you can never achieve it. Who can give a better guidance than a strongman? I did like the vid very much, but I’ve problems with people who don’t want to teach a body method. Even if it's about not doing, don't you think there must be ways to achieve what he does ... or what he does not?
C.J.W. wrote:The idea is that once you have developed an internally-connected and dantian-driven body with Peng-jin present at all times, fighting is just a matter of maintaining that state of dynamic balance while physically interacting with an opponent, who will be unbalanced by you on contact if he happens to have weaker structure.
IMO, to develop a certain body and "maintaining that state" is one thing, to be able to bring it together anytime you want is another. "Just be" in it is also something else. It could be said that having a developed body method is already high skill. Bringing it into play anytime you want is an even higher level. But what he speaks about is to not "do" something, but to let go of everything you "do" and "just be". To reach this state, you must know your method so well that it has become the natural state that is just there when you don't do anything. You do nothing and it's there. This state is something I strive for myself, but I am not there yet. To "get into my body" I must remind myself that I am not perfectly relaxed, that my breath is shallow and that I "float". So I must remember myself to relax, sink, empty my mind and do this consciously. Sometimes it goes faster, sometimes I struggle to get there. It depends on what mood I'm in.
I don't believe that you can learn how to "just be" in a state if you haven't first been practicing the body method consciously and have got to know it and understand it well. It could be compared to learning to ride a bike or to play certain instruments. It takes time and conscious effort. But when you have learned it you just do it without thinking or bothering with the mechanics behind it. You just do it.