Internal strength (3) | ||
Internal work/whole body strength | ||
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3. Whole-body power using whole-body movement and whole-body
strength
This third and final level of internal strength pertains to the use of jing.
The student considers the permutations of jing,
yin/yang and other
concerns.
The 13 methods are combined and explored through the study of jing.
Jing represents a journey into the use of
mind to influence the physical
and serves to prepare the student for the syllabus ahead.
Keeping it real
Every jing is the product of the way in which you move your body.
By turning the hips, flexing the spine, shifting the weight and adjusting the
limbs - you produce an outcome.
There is nothing spectacular about this.
Students should be wary of talking about 'qi'. Can you prove that qi produced the outcome?
Perhaps there is a more simple, straightforward reason?
In order to be soft,
you must first relax. In order to be relaxed, your joints must first loosen.
When your joints are loose, you can move your body as one unit and manifest
your jing like a soft whip.
(Yang Jwing-Ming)
Introducing jing
The early grades teach you to express jing in a more or less random manner.
It is hard enough to project power in the first place without
worrying about
which jing it is and how the different expressions should feel.
All we ask is that a student project energy in an effective way
into somebody else. Form(s), stick drills, knife drills and various
partnered exercises train the body to
generate and employ kinetic energy.
13 methods
The 13 methods are the first step towards refining and channelling jing.
To harness your ability to deliver effectively and deliberately, you must
understand how a certain movement produces energy.
You must move past a random sense of jing and be very specific.
8 powers
The 8 powers are your initial concern: wardoff, rollback, push, squeeze, pluck,
split, elbow and shoulder/bump.
Each one is generated by a physical movement but the effect of that movement is
also energetic, not just physical.
Your body stops at a certain point, and the effect continues.
Advanced
An advanced student recognises that tai chi teaches a student how to
store and release kinetic energy using a wide variety of
methods.
Once you can project jing using the art, you
must find ways to do it during
partner work, form practice and combat.
Less overt
The student focuses upon creating dynamic tension within the soft tissues of the
body.
Less and less effort must be made with each action.
The sense of physicality must diminish.
Fluid
The body is still performing complex physical movements.
However, your degree of muscular tension has reduced to such an extent that you can
barely even feel your body move.
The resistance, the blockages are gone.
Your body feels oiled and smooth. Fluid.
Every movement you make is an opportunity to practice cultivating and generating
jing.
Internalising
Consider: when you speak, there are a whole series of internal processes involved
- complex openings and closings within your body.
Yet, your only interest is in the words themselves.
The words are sounds, shaped and projected by an internal mechanism.
Sound energy is launched from your body.
Jing is like this.
The more internally skilled you become, the less apparent the physical mechanism
involved.
The jing is sung, but not sung; it is capable of great extension, but is not extended.
The jing is broken, but the intention is not.
The jing is stored by means of the curved.
The energy is released by the back, and the steps follow the changes of the body.
The mobilization of the jing is like refining steel a hundred times over.
There is nothing hard it cannot destroy.
Store up the jing like drawing a bow.
Mobilize the jing like drawing silk from a cocoon.
Release the jing like releasing the arrow.
To fa jing, sink, relax completely, and aim in one direction!
In the curve seek the straight, store, then release.
To withdraw is then to release, to release it is necessary to withdraw.
(Wu Yu-hsiang)
Page created
18 April 2005
Last updated
16 June 2023
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