Steve James wrote:The statement, however, is an instruction to the practitioner to do something. Sure, the goal might be an experience. But, what is the "experience" of sunken qi?
There are numerous facets. Here is one.
After I'd been studying with my primary teacher for a year or so, for whatever reason, he asked me to push on his abdomen and chest. He stood in a nondescript, high stance. Pushing as hard as I could, he just stood there. He then paired the students and had them try to do the same thing. After about 15 minutes of failed attempts, I asked him the obvious question: "What are you doing that I'm not that allows you to just stand there, when I can't?" He replied, "Sink qi to the dan tian". The next obvious question was, "How do I learn to do that?" He said, "Standing".
Is following the direction to "sink" it the only way to have the experience?
No, which words are used is irrelevant. See below.
Yeah, I get if. If someone has the experience they know. But, they can only say that they know someone else has it. How do we know that someone else experiences blue the way we do? Usually, it's through agreement. I.e., take a red, blue, and green patch, then ask anyone to point out the color blue. Of course, if you ask an English speaker to point to the azul one, they wouldn't do so well. That would say nothing about their experience of the color.
You are loosing sight of the goal of both teacher and student. An effective teacher's goal, ideally, regardless of subject matter, is to help a student be able to do what the teacher can do. There are different teaching styles just as there are different learning styles. The student's goal, ideally, is to be able to do what the teacher can do. If those are not the case, then it is a poor matching of student and teacher and what each wants from the teacher/student interaction.
For an experiential art, such as Taijiquan, the role of an effective teacher is to present a specific, progressive series of "activities" each of which is designed to lead the student towards a specific experience. Knowledge and understanding of and about that art comes from those experiences. If the student doesn't have those experiences, the student will not understand the art. Having those experiences cannot be replaced by academic knowledge, such as obtained by reading about it.
You and a friend come upon an object that you have not experience before. Your friend has and wants you to experience something very specific about it. He cups his hand underneath the object and places his nose very close to the object and inhales deeply through his nose. He then gestures for you to do the same. You cup your hand underneath the object, as he did, place your nose very close to the object, as he did, then you inhale deeply through your mouth. Your friend sees this, shows you again how to do it and grossly exaggerates the inhaling through the nose. Seeing this, you repeat it, this time inhaling through your nose. This time you marvel at your first experience of the smell of a rose. No words were spoken, or needed to be. Regardless, he led you to achieve a very specific experience, one that to experience required a specific physical technique. Sinking "qi to the dan tian" can be taught in much the same way.
Re: imagination, if the sinking isn't in the mind --even as a visualization-- then is anything sinking at all?
Turning it around, if the "sinking" is only in the mind, nothing is sinking.
I can buy the explanation that it's a feeling. But, it just seems like a circular argument.
There is a feeling associated with it, but the feeling is a side effect not the goal.
Anyway, what percentage of tcc practitioners can/do actually sink their qi to the dantien?
All of the ones that have skill, by definition.
The only reason that "sinking qi" seems mysterious or at some high level is due to poor instruction, people filling their heads with lots of made-up interpretations of what it means and/or insufficient diligent practice. It really isn't difficult and is something accessible to beginners.