r. Ming Pang – The founder of Zhineng Qigong showed his students how to feel chi through La Chi.

La Chi is a method to gather chi (life energy) between the palms through pulling open and pushing close the hands. Chi collected can be used for healing.

Reference: http://www.youtube.com/user/Yuanjue

Literature:
Life More Abundant: The Science of Zhineng Quigong – Principles & Practice by Xiaoguang Jin, Joseph Marcello, Ming Pang

Peter Ralston push hands at the gathering of T’ai Chi practitioners in Jasnieres, France.

Reference:
www.youtube.com/user/ChengHsin
www.chenghsin.com

Reference:adfeatherstone youtube.com

Chen Zhonghua talks about the principle of “withdraw is to issue” ( Shou Ji Shi Fang ) in his Chen Style Taiji.

Links:
Practicalmethod youtube.com
www.chenzhonghua.org

“Mindful awareness is the supreme tool in training, and is the essential energy of taiji. This energy is classically known in taiji circles as ting jing or listening energy. So what is it that we listen to? Through mindfulness we direct our awareness to the knowing or listening to form, feelings, mind and phenomena. First is form or the material body. Starting with our own body in our taiji forms practice and moving on to the bodies of others in our taiji push hands practice. One directs their awareness to the knowing of the aspects of the body. Structural alignment (alignment of the 9 pearls) weight distribution, relaxation, the stretching and unstretching of the tendons and the presence and placement of the physical centre of gravity. This knowing of ones body when nurtured can be projected to knowing the bodies of others in push hands and martial practice. The mind controls and directs the physical body so there is a mind body connection. Most so called internal arts stop at this level of refined awareness of the body led by mental intent.

Second is mindfulness of feelings, it is at this stage that we work with the chi or fine material energy. The chi is most easily perceived through feelings and this path of practice helps one to bypass the common pitfall of relying on imagination and visualization of the internal energy as this can quickly become a fabricated fantasy rather than a direct knowing of reality in the present.

The student trains in mindfulness of the feeling of the chi as it moves up and down the body or is projected from the body through intent. It is from this relationship between mindful awareness, feelings and body that the saying “mind leads chi, chi leads body” finds its meaning. Moving waves of relaxation through the body with the intent moves the chi through the body, the relaxation acts as a pump to move the chi and makes the body more sensitive to the feeling of the chi, the deeper ones ability to relax the higher the potential for the movement and cultivation of the internal energy. Once again this process starts within oneself and progresses to encompass ones training partner as well.

Third is the training of mindfulness of mind, once again both of oneself and of our training partners. Mindfulness of the mind starts from the courser aspects of mind and moves to the refined. The thought formations in the mind are observed and trained to act in a skilful way, perceptions are observed and purified. This help the martial artist in many ways as our perceptions govern our subconscious reactions. Unskilful mental states such as aggression and fear can be known directly in the mind and let go of and replaces with clear awareness. In this stage of training we a working heavily with the mental intent and how it leads the internal energies and the body. Finally we have mindfulness of phenomena. This stage refers in general to the awareness of the workings of cause and effect in relation to the training of the first three foundations of mindfulness and specifically to the realization of emptiness through direct experience. One trains in mindfulness of body, feeling (chi) and mind. Through direct experience we begin to realize that body, feelings, perceptions, mental formations and sense consciousness are all inherently empty and thus release attachment to them. This is the goal of the training, in this emptiness the duality of yin and yang, yield and issue, self and opponent, taiji and non taiji cease to remain. Everything becomes an aspect of your own mind which in itself is empty. This is the realization we aspire towards.”

Reference:
andymach33’s Channel youtube.com
www.heavenmanearth.com

Taiji Article with Sifu Adam Mizner, BLITZ Martial Arts Magazine Vol. 22 No.11 Pg. 32-35 www.thetaobums.com

Light restrained, a hidden brilliance,
The body one with nature:
There is true peace, won but not pursued.
Script kept forever at rest.

In serenity and beauty: this is perfection!
Body and inner nature, hard and soft,
All is but cinnabar vapor, azure barrens.
One of the highest sages-

Only after a hundred years
The tomb is discovered empty.

Reference:
The Taoist Experience: An Anthology
by Liva Kohn
ISBN 0791415805

p. 215 Xuanzhu xinjing zhu (Mysterious Pearly Mirror of the Mind)

Master Master Cheuk Fung talks about Hun Yuan strength, space & time in Yichuan

“Hunyuan strength refers to oneness, whole body strength or six surfaces strength. It is different from regular strength. The easiest way would be to show you, but, since you’re writing this down the best we can do is compare it with regular strength. In contrast to Hunyuan strength, regular strength would be called sectional, broken or one-sided strength. It is not to say that regular strength can’t be strong and forceful, only that the entire body is not contributing to whatever function the strength is required for. With regular strength the majority of the load is born by the local muscle groups in the limbs. With Hunyuan strength, the majority of the load is carried by the legs, waist and back. Regular strength is delivered directly, like a ram where the force is the inertia of the weight moving forward. Hunyuan strength is delivered indirectly… the inertia of the weight moving away from the target is more than that moving into it. Regular strength dissipates with movement. Hunyuan strength is stored within movement. This stored strength results in torque or martial velocity in each movement. That’s why it’s called oneness or whole body strength because the entire frame supplies torque to the limbs within each gesture.”

“Sensing Strength is an aspect of Yi Chuan training where practitioners take the linkages and feeling states cultivated through standing and learn to maintain and use them in movement. This begins with “searching for strength” within a new orbit or route by using imagery to align the body with space and gravity. When done properly a sensation that feels like magnetic force or pressure appears within the movement. Overtime practitioners will elongate the range of motion within which this feeling can be maintained before condensing it back down into an orbit that subtle enough to be hidden yet actually involves the entire frame.”

“Explosive Strength training teaches the Yi Chuan practitioner to condense his or her expression of Hunyuan strength into a single explosive and spontaneous gesture. In a split second the body preparation learned in standing must combine with the orbits forged in sensing strength, the control of distance gained through footwork practice and the intuitive timing cultivated in push hands. Explosive strength training helps make the strength and skill developed in the other chapters available even under duress or surprise.”

“Sensing Sound practice use tones and sounds to vibrate the body and helps to bring relaxation and awareness to a deeper level. Eventually these tones can also be used as triggers to help link the body and activate Hunyuan strength.”

Reference: www.yichuankungfu.com

with Master Li Jun Feng

Links: www.shengzhen.org

Allow one’s exhalation to flow out naturally and one’s inhalation to enter the body freely.

Exhale so as to reach the far ends of the Universe and inhale so as to concentrate our breath infinitesimally to a point in the lower abdomen.

Reference:
Ki in Daily Life
by Koichi Tohei
ISBN 4889960716

p.68