I recommend signing up to yoga or mind, body spirit forum next. One with ponies, crystals and tie-dye how-to's. The Bear.
mmmmmm.... I like yoga, sure. It's how I do my stretching. It really does help unify my mind and body. I love horses. Not ponies, though. I'm not really sure of that whole crystal thing. Never got into it, you know? Mostly just eastern type stuff. DIY is good stuff... actually I did visit a commune in Asheville, NC. It was an AMAZING experience. I think you were exhibiting harrassing behavior. I'm not sure though, I could be mistaken.
A: Have you seen God? B: I don't believe in God. C: No. D: I saw him in my dream once. E: I played poker with him everynight. He still owes me $500. I'm the only person who has the luck to meet God in person. Go told me that I'll go to heaven when I die. He also said that you guys will all go to hell because you don't have enough faith in him. My faith is stronger than yours. God is real. If you've felt it and still don't believe, you don't trust yourself. That is a good thing, too. Stop bashing God. God knows where you live.
I had announced in public many years ago that anybody can move me by Qi without touching (Ling Kung Jin), I'll be more than happy to pay that person $10,000 (of course that person has to pay me $10,000 if he fails). So far nobody is able to collect that money from me yet. I'll keep my hope open until the day that I die.
Ummmm.... okay. you want to experience your chi. wonderful. I'll help you. Stand with your feet about shoulder width apart, feet straight ahead, knees slightly bent. Hold your arms like they're a hugging a fat lady. Try to relax as much as possible without letting your arms drop. Breath deeply through your nose, in and out... clear your mind. As you inhale and exhale imagine you are filling your arms with chi, as if they're a bucket.
I do have many ways to feel Qi and I have tried but none of them work for me. The most common one is to hold open palms toward each other. I'll inhale when I move my palms apart, exhale when I move my palms toward each other. My interest in not whether Qi exist, or whether I can feel Qi or not, but whether Qi can move object without touching (combat value - like the Yellow Bamboo clip). I can use my punch to distinguish candle light from distance. I can also generate sound when punch. To me that's the natural flow of air and not Qi. My teacher was the vice-chairperson of the Taiwan Taiji Assoc many years ago. The chairperson name 師爵 (Shi Jue) who knew nothing about Taiji. In one of the annual meeting, my teacher stood up, held a piece of newspaper and said, "I have heard many of you Taiji masters claimed that you can kill tiger from the other side of mountain. Today I'm holding a newspaper 3 inches in front of my chest. If anyone of you can make me feel your Qi without touching the newspaper that I'm holding, I'll knee down in front of you and respect you as my teacher, no matter how old I'm and how young you are." With all the Taiwan Taiji Qi masters in that meeting, not even one person had the courage to accept my teacher's challenge. My teacher told me, "I have tried to find a true Qi master all my life but I could not find any. I believe the chance hat you will find it in your generation will be much less." Today my teacher is not here with me but I'll continue his mission and try to find a true Qi master who can move me without touching. My $10,000 is ready to pay that person any time any place.
Huh.... maybe you're confusing chi with telekinesis? I don't know anything about moving people, or about making people feel MY chi. It was my understanding that a person couldn't feel anyone elses chi... it's inside their body. Jing is different. Jing is the persons presence. Do you practice in uncomfortable or windy areas? Or areas with lots of electrical stuff plugged in (I find it hinders my sensitivity). Ummmm... maybe you're not relaxed enough. I don't know. Sorry you can't experience chi. That sucks.
No, Jing is a person's 'Essence' - in Daoist alchemic practices, Jing refers to sperm. I only share my essence with my wife.
Ummmm.... okay. Great. I know that I do excersizes to convert my chi into jing... and I know that I'm able to apply my jing in push hands to yeild amazing things... like pusing my 220 pound brother back about 4 feet without tensing my muscles using rollback and ward off! I mean... he's not exactly the kind of guy to just "humor" this stuff... he'd rather just ridicule it. But now he's a believer. I don't thing jing refers specifically to semen, although through release we use a LOT of energy. but we all know that! I'm gonna roll back.....
You might be confusing jing and jin. Although they are pronounced very similar in most Chinese accents they are different characters. Sometimes I think also they can be romanticised both ways which further cause confusion. However, rule of them is. Jing refers to essence, if not specifically seamen, which I think it may do, then to ejaculatory mechanism.. Jin refers to a trained force or skill in martial arts. You are doing the latter to your brother, lets' hope so! The cultivation process is not meant to develop qi to jing for martial use. It is to develop qi to jing to shen. You are confusing qi gong and internal alchemic cultivation with martial arts training. Having said that many teachers and famous practitioners of the past included taoist cultivation practice and the more esoteric language that comes with it in with their martial systems. Sometimes to the point, perhaps where they and subsequently their students couldn't tell them apart. trouble is the teacher was already a good fighter by then, but perhaps the students found more confusion than is really necessary. I don't suppose there's anything wrong with exploding on your opponent.. but let's keep it withing reason. Explosive strength training can do an excellent job too..
Seven: Chuck Norris is chi incarnate. (sorry, you open a door like that and Chuck will dive through the window)
Man.... I've got so much to learn... it's daunting. Jing... jin... Jung... shen... qi... jeez. Here we go in good ol fashioned American: Taiji wrestling is awesome. Taiji with breathing on the focused breathing at the beach: equally awesome. Condensing breathing: really weirdly awesome. Chi? Jin? Awesome. Jing? Awesome. Shen? What specifically is shen? I thought it was our spirit? I guess i was confusing shen with jing... never thought jing meant semenal essense, only like, our "essense". I guess essense gives rise to heaven earth connection (transendant shen awareness)? Always kind of thought all this stuff was interrelated? Stuff that could be practiced together? I read the classics... I don't remember reading that you shouldn't follow the chi.... i thought you were supposed to be clearly seperating the substantial from the insubstantial... focusing on pushing up the crown point to bring up your spirit while sinking into your dan tien?
Bag of worms. I really think that as a westerner, living in the year 2010 (or 1987 in Cloudz case) there is no point in reading the classics. You have no frame of reference and can't get past the ambiguous translation. Like trying to explain the attraction of a Ferrari to a 18th century Chinese peasant.
If you just showed them a picture of the car, I'm sure it would speak for itself. better if you could take them for a ride. 1987 eh, cheeky bugger! Practice should be a frame of reference, as is how language is used and translated in other similar texts of the period. You may just be thinking of the classics - which may well be written in more of a poetic/ song form. But there are also other boxing manuals around. I have one that comes from a student of Yang Ban Hou for example, nothing all that ambiguous about it really. I also don't think the classics need be all that ambiguous either if approached a certain way.
Yes shen translates to spirit or "spirit of vitality". Depends what you mean is interelated. for example I don't think jing and jin are all that interelated. How much can you really focus on and practice together all at once? whether the ideas can happen without you paying much attention - then I might buy that, but I think the point of mindfully training any process is to speed it up. It's all in the intent, either you are doing your form with a martial intent and focus or you are compramising it. Same goes for other components. The bit i am refering to is this. the other stuff you mention sounds fine. EXPOSITIONS OF INSIGHTS INTO THE PRACTICE OF THE THIRTEEN POSTURES http://www.scheele.org/lee/classics.html This is the principle I was trying to convey in the other thread. The "I" or "yi" is refering to your minds intention(s). It seems to be saying that if your mind relied or followed your "chi" then it would become stagnant. It seems to be telling us that our mind / intent should follow/ rely on our spirit. * some translations differ in how they put this across - they use different wording, but are essentially saying the same thing. The intent should not be on, should not follow, should not rely on the "chi". I can post more examples of this passage if you wish. Elswehere in the classics it decribes a martial spirit of the form. Saying things like it should be like a hawk about to sieze a rabbit. edit; here we go, it is at the end of that same passage. Notice also how it talks about chin (jin). You are better focusing on this. Imagine the tension of when you pull a bow, you should feel a tension through the back when you are setting up for brush knee for example, then you release (finished posture). This is just my interperatation. Others milage may vary. The translations by Scheele are pretty good. I think there is plenty there to interest today practitioners, as well as those of the future.. i think with some experience and good translations much of it is easily recognisable and understandable in a non mystical way.
The brush knee description was well articulated.... so then jin is more associated with li....? More... like... gross or "crude" energy, as opposed to being a less "subtle" energy? Yes, I can see exactly what you're saying about focusing on the movement within the movement (rollback, snapback of bow catch the rabbit thing) instead of focusing on the pressurized tinglyness with chi.... I haven't been seperating the two sensations. This will help my practice! Thank you for your clear advice.
Glad you found it useful, cheers. I think li describes the direct strength derived from the muscles - untrained li results in "brute strength". By definition trained force/strength is jin. "Li" is just one component of trained force - though it may be argued as the most important. I believe taiji does make use of the deliberate stretching of fascia, muscles and other connective tissues in its body method of generating (setting up) and releasing power - as per the brush knee example. And as is described in the classics via the analogy of the bow. happy training.
