windwalker wrote:Appledog wrote:If you read the writings of Wang Yongquan on windwalker's blog, you will notice he practices what is said to be a kind of 'Yi gong'. This is spoken of frequently as a basic requirement of Tai Chi. Feng Zhiqiang said it, Chen zhenglei said it, Fu zhongwen said it, and a few others I can't remember off-hand. The practice takes many forms but it is essentially exactly as wang yongquan said in those writings.
The information is out there, but (to comment on something else you said) you get what you pay for. It is a very normal question for someone to ask, how much time and effort are you willing to invest in this, and how much money is it worth to you? I myself have spent decades and tens of thousands of dollars on this 'hobby' as well as significantly interrupting my life at various times go travel and learn.
I mention this because to me the answers to the questions you're asking are not just obvious but seem to be stated everywhere in the literature.
Honestly I don't think it is about secrets and I do not disparage you for asking but I really feel that for most people they just can't be bothered to explain all of these 'simple things' because it can take quite a while and frankly more often than not the answers are blatantly rejected out of hand by the people asking the question.
The truth is out there -- as agent mulder said.
Good post
Written well
Often those asking for answers
Don’t really want answers
They want their “answers “
Yes I do want "my" answer, I want something observable and reproducible with a resistant and non conditioned partner.
I don't see anything unusual in those writings. Practicing form without arms is foundation training, and I often run through my form completely while laying down. It makes for some very interesting energy movement.
But projecting shen, qi, and yi?
I'm not saying that these practices can't produce some results that subjectively seem like this sort of projection but I believe that's all it is, our limited understanding.
Shen, sure, I get it at a gross level and I've gotten some skill in operating effectively here. I don't believe there is a substance leaving my body to affect someone and coming back, I believe it's just their natural response to a multitude of subtle stimulus.
Yi? The idea being our mind projects? Sure, it feels like that, in a dynamic system of forces bumping into and sliding around each other, our intention is expressed in subtle adjustments that can translate into huge movements. We can join with their body and create a system and our superior ting jin means we maintain a more accurate picture of reality. Our superior bodily control means we control that system. When we feel their stirring we can interrupt their movements before they gain power enough to be effective.
Meh that sounds like qi too....
It's jin, the product of that process.
And jin is invisible and I guess intangible. It's what happens when all the science happens.
I have great respect for the Chinese systems of thought but we have to admit that their explanation of phenomena beyond their capacity to observe is limited in usefulness.
Have you ever read Cheng Man Ching's thoughts on gynecology? Cancer treatment? Bruh...
We know now exactly what happens to make a muscle fire. We've observed the chemical changes in nerve gates that guide signals from the brain to the body. We understand the way cells consume energy and how that energy is produced and stored.
We know that mental intention can measurably affect the way the body moves, though it may not be perceptible to our naked senses.
So while I don't doubt the effect, per se, I do doubt the theory behind the phenomena. I think maybe that idea of projection and retraction can be useful in getting the body to do it, but that ultimately we're talking about bodily movement being the engine that affects change in the opponent, even if that movement is invisible externally.
But I'm ignorant, I suck, my taijiquan is crap, I don't practice enough and when I do I practice the wrong things, yes, I understand that
Now, please, tell me what you think is happening. I mean sure "projecting qi" but what is the qi and what is it doing?