4👑☸ Cattāri Ariya-saccaṃ 四聖諦

Tàijí quán (太極拳)

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supreme ultimate boxing

(wikipedia): Tai chi (simplified Chinese: 太极; traditional Chinese: 太極; pinyin: Tàijí), short for T'ai chi ch'üan or Tàijí quán (太極拳), is an internal Chinese martial art practiced for defense training, health benefits, and meditation. The term taiji is a Chinese cosmological concept for the flux of yin and yang, and 'quan' means fist. Etymologically, Taijiquan is a fist system based on the dynamic relationship between polarities (Yin and Yang). Developed as a martial art, it is practiced for other reasons: competitive wrestling in the format of pushing hands (tui shou), demonstration competitions, and greater longevity. As a result, a multitude of traditional and modern training forms exist corresponding to those aims with differing emphasis. Some training forms of tai chi are practiced with extremely slow movements. Today, tai chi has enthusiastic practitioners worldwide. Most modern styles of tai chi trace their development to one or more of the five traditional schools: Chen, Yang, Wu (Hao), Wu, and Sun. All trace their historical origins to Chen Village.

Chen style

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Chen Fake



Feng Zhiqiang



Segments from Feng Zhiqiang Workshop 2001

, 7/10-14, near San Francisco

Running translation by Brian Guan, taped by Cheryl Yonker, transcribed by Kenneth Haugan.

Note: During the workshop, the translation refered to Feng and Zhang in third-person's voice. For the purpose of publishing this transcript, the translated speech is modified to refer to them in first person.

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[Feng] Qi can leak out from the perineum, there’s no way you could know, there’s no external sensation... This qi is different from the "exhaust", those coming out from the anus... You should relax the anus and let whatever leaks out leak out. So when you have very low stance, qi leaks out from the perineum. There’s no way you would know. When qi leaks out from the perineum you can never sense it. When you have very low stance the angle at the knee is too sharp. Qi doesn’t flow down very easily. We must differentiate between what is good for us and what is bad for us, and what is damaging our body and what is nurturing our body.

 

... Gentle practice is more effective than forceful practice. Lengthening is better than contracting. It’s not just a simple matter of health, it’s also a very good stretching exercise.

 

[Zhang] Some of us may have noticed Grandmaster Feng has much longer arms than the rest of us. That’s a result of practicing lengthening. Thirty years ago when we took a picture together, I noticed in the photograph that Master Feng’s arm is about one finger longer than mine.

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[Feng] Chen style Taiji didn’t form magically by birth. It is formed by absorbing many schools of martial arts. "Extending is better than contracting."

...

 

[Feng] Gentle is better than forceful. Slow is better than fast. Higher stance is better than lower. That point about practicing with higher and lower stance: When you are practicing with lower stance, yes, your martial ability may increase faster, but you’re doing more damage to your own body, and you’ll never realize that you’re leaking qi. Weight on one side is better than double weighted. Even when you are standing upright, your weight should only be on one leg. When you’re standing you should be relaxed and have your weight shifting from one leg to the other, never stationary and fifty-fifty. But not too obvious, that looks too funny. Don’t let it be visible to an observer, but you should shift your weight from one leg to the other. Same thing with the foot. When you are standing you should never tighten your foot, and you should also flex it gently. Never stay in one position. Practicing in a relaxed manner is better than tensing up. [Demonstration] This is a relaxed walk. This is a tense walk. Bagua practictioners spend lots of time practicing that walk. The technical name for that walking is mud-waddling step. You can only do that stepping if you are relaxed.

 

Curved line is better than straight line. Even when your limbs are lengthened, they should also be curved. The body is the same. It should never be too straight. There should always be a curve somewhere. The Taiji body has five bows [Verbal clarification from translator: as in "bow" and arrow]. One arm, the other arm — two bows. One leg, the other leg, and your spine - your body. So, five bows. There is a Taiji saying that "once the body has cultivated five bows, (and can express the spring-like power) there is no equal opponent under Heaven." [Demonstration] This is one bow as well. Curving the chest is also a bow. Only by practicing in a slow and lengthening manner, you can then cultivate the spring-like energy. Something with springiness is very strong. If you drop it, it will never break. But if you have something that is hard and brittle, when you drop it it will shatter. That’s what the old martial arts masters would say. If your body has five bows and you have this spring-like power, you will have no equal opponent under Heaven. Practicing martial art, you should know the theory. Only by knowing the theory can you grasp the martial aspect of Taiji.

 

Again, Taiji is a long form of martial art, as in lengthening. Xingyi, on contrary, is a shorter form. Even though Xingyi is a short form of martial art, they use their body to complement the strength. They use the springy, jumpy power to complement the lack of reach. Taiji is a long form of martial art. It’s like the body of a dragon. Tongbei, another Chinese martial art, is another long form of martial art, because you are always extending your arms. Taiji absorbs the strength of all these different martial arts and forms its own unique style. This movement in our form [demonstrates], it’s from Xingyi. This [demonstrates] is from Tongbei. This is from Shaolin. This is from Preying Mantis. This is also from Preying Mantis. The elbow strikes in Taiji come from Baji. Taiji is a compound of eighteen other martial art styles. Using the theory of Taoism, I-Ching, and Chinese Traditional Medicine to form its theoretical foundation, especially yin-yang theory and the meridians in traditional medicine.

 

Taiji started in the Ming Dynasty, about four or five hundred years ago. There’s no guarantee if your surname is Chen that you will master this art. The five main styles of Taiji — Chen/, Yang/, Wu/, Sun-, Wu~ —all use Chen style Taiji as the main foundation. Why don’t the other styles have all these power-issuing, forceful movements? The other styles have learned the essence of Taiji, and they don’t have all the forceful movements. Some practitioners of Chen Taiji are getting more and more forceful in their movements. They have not learned the wisdom of the past masters. Yang Taiji [demonstrates] is very gentle, very big. Why don’t they do all that? Wu style Taiji [demonstrates], same thing. Very gentle, very slow. Sun style Taiji: [demonstrates] Slow and gentle too. Why do the founding masters of these other styles of Taiji encourage others to practice slow and gentle? This is evidence to support that Taiji shouldn’t be fast, shouldn’t be forceful. We must understand the basic theory of this art.

 

Another fact for all of us: There shouldn’t be a classification of old frame versus new frame. There is a classification system of big frame and small frame, but not new frame and old frame. Taiji from Chen Village should be classified as big frame. There is a village nearby to Chen Village called Zhaobao. Their style should be considered small frame. Both styles have their strengths and weaknesses. They all have their uniqueness. If you want to call something old frame, there is in fact such a thing as old frame, but it was before the present Taiji was formed, several hundred years ago. That is when the old masters were still experimenting with the form. [Master Feng’s] teacher told him that he is the 17th generation lineage holder of Chen Taiji, and he told him, “I’m from Chen Village, and I’m considered a grandfather generation from the Chen Village, how come people call my style new frame, and their style old frame? I don’t understand.” According to Chen Fake, there is only a differentiation of big frame and small frame, not new frame and old frame.

 

Our style of Taiji is called Chen style Hun Yuan Taiji. It belongs in the big frame family. Why is it called Hun Yuan? Hun Yuan symbolizes the orbital path of the sun, the moon, the constellations, the earth; when everything is moving together, it is Hun Yuan. For example, bicycles, it spins; automobiles, the wheels spin; ships, steamboats, airplanes, rockets; it’s just that they have different directions of spin. Airplanes with rotary propellers, they spin like this. Bullets from guns they also spin. When everything is spinning, it’s Hun Yuan. In our own body there is circulation of qi and blood, and they follow particular meridians. For example, up the inner leg and down the outer side. Same thing with the arms, and also around the belt meridian. When everything is circulating and spinning together, this is Hun Yuan. Nothing can leave this basic foundation. Even when we’re walking, there are also curved lines involved. Curved lines are better. Everything moves in the orbit of curved lines.

 

Let’s stop now. We should rest our bodies, but we should exercise our minds still.

 

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[Feng] There’s definitely no problem, we can finish this form by the end of the workshop. And the fact that we can do it with such quality is a great improvement from what I'm used to.

 

[Cheryl] Thanks to Master Zhang!

 

[Feng] However, we should never be too proud of ourselves. Even though our external movement seems to be ok, this form is very deep. Practice diligently and hopefully one day we can do the form in such a way that whatever shape we express on the outside, the internal will follow. Only when the external and internal are synchronized can we say our form is good. And even then, if we can synchronize our internal and external, there are levels beyond that. For example, we can reach the level where we are one with Hun Yuan, as in you are moving with the universe. When you can reach the level where you are one with Hun Yuan and the universe, it’s moving and you are part of it, so even though you are not actually practicing the form you are part of the movement. What is this thing, so-called Hun Yuan Qi ball? It could be as small as a pill or as big as your body. It could move just in your dan tien or it could move all around your body as one big ball. If you can cultivate such a Taiji ball, then you can say you have succeeded. However there are still levels beyond that. Some students asked me once, "have you reached the level where you can get this one little ball of Hun Yuan qi?" I am not there yet, that’s why I am still working very hard at it. I am at the level where internal and external are synchronized. The level beyond the one concentrated ball of energy is when your three senses combine into one — the three senses are your sense of sight, sense of hearing, and sense of thought — when all three senses combine into one, you reach a spiritual level. I am not saying this to discourage you, but the level we just talked about when the three senses are mixed into one and reaching spiritual level, we may not be able to reach that in one lifetime. Only by working hard nonstop and by making progress all the time will we be able to reach there one day.

 

Some student asked, "what do you mean, three senses combine into one, and what sort of sensations would one experience?" The three senses are the sense of sight, hearing, and the sense of thought. If you have truly reach the level where the three senses are combined into one and become spiritual, (even though you may not get there in one lifetime), if you eventually get there, you reach such a high level that whatever you think about will appear in your sight, or whatever you want to hear you can hear it. It could be thousands of miles away, you could see whatever your heart wants to see, or you can hear whatever your heart wants to hear. This is not superstition. This is achieveable if you work at it. Work at it nonstop and one step at a time and eventually you will get there. This is not superstition, it is my belief that this is scientific. We are all human beings and the fact that we are human beings in this life proves that in our previous lives we have already been working very hard. That’s why we are human beings and not animals in this lifetime. If you stop working hard maybe you will descend down to the level of animals, but if you keep working hard maybe eventually you will get to that level. It’s not something you can buy with money.

 

Early on there was a student, I think it was Dennis, who was asking for some stories about Hu Yaozhen, [Editor's note: who was one of Grandmaster Feng’s significant teachers] so I'm going to tell you a little bit about Hu Yaozhen. Hu Yaozhen and Chen Fa Ke were both my teachers. Both of them reached a very, very high level in martial arts. Their personalities, their way of thinking and action, were very high and virtuous. Chen Fa Ke was from Chen Village in Hunan Province, but his level of achievment, there’s no other person from Chen Village that he has met that reached even a fraction of Chen Fa Ke’s level.

 

[Zhang] Master Feng is very humble, but he has inherited everything that Master Chen Fa Ke taught him — his wisdom, martial arts, and his way of life.

 

[Feng] Ever since I started learning from both of those masters, I have never heard them say anything negative about anybody else, and they never talked highly about themselves either. Master Chen actually had two nicknames. One of them was Chen So-so, and the other was Chen Useless. Because every time somebody praised him he would say, “I’m useless, I’m so-so.” He said it so often that people actually called him by his nicknames Chen Useless and Chen So-so. However, in martial arts publications in Japan they called Grandmaster Chen Fa Ke “the Saint of Fist”. [Translator's clarification: The Saint of Martial Arts]

Master Hu, similarly, never expressed his opinion about other people. He always said, “you’re good, he's good." He always praised everybody else. When somebody’s martial art or life style had some problems, he never said anything about it, he would just say “I don’t know.” When he saw something strong in somebody's martial art or something good in somebody's personality he would always praise them. Master Hu was a master of five arts. He was a master of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Chinese Medicine as well as martial arts. When he meditates, I have seen him levitate for about a foot off the ground. One time he was meditating in the house and I went to visit him with some fellow students. We knew he was meditating, so we stayed outside the house, we didn’t want to go in and disturb him. However, master Hu could somehow sense that we were there, and asked us all to come in. He asked us all to come in, and said, “I’ve been meditating too long, my legs are numb, it’s all crooked, so can you all come and lift me up?” So all five of us said, oh that’s pretty easy, because all five of us were strong young men in our prime, so we said, “no problem, we can lift him up.” We tried, but couldn’t move him. After he saw us struggle, he said “Never mind, I’ll do it myself, I’m no longer numb.” He just walked down from the bed himself. While we were trying, five of us each took a limb and the other took the body, but none of us could move him. Only when he said “I’m moving myself” then he’s coming off the bed. When we were pulling him, it felt to us as if he was almost moving. We felt as if he’s giving, he’s giving, but he’s never quite coming off the bed, and when we’re out of strength he somehow moved back. It’s almost like he’s elastic. We were very puzzled why the teacher was doing this to us. The teacher said, “May be you guys are thinking too highly of yourselves. Are you very proud of yourselves, are you very proud of your strength and your achievements? But look at you, you can’t even move an old man like me, so you must go back and do some thinking. What have you done wrong?” But none of us could find our own fault at first. “I’m ok, I’m very humble, I don’t think very highly of myself.” So we tried to help each other and say, “oh, you are arrogant in this way and arrogant in that way" and we found our problems eventually. My problem was… [demonstrates] When I was young I liked to walk like that (scrowling at everybody else). Another fellow student… [demonstrates] ... full of himself. Another one… [demonstrates] He’s never sincere, he’s always too smiley-faced on the outside. That’s how the teacher taught us to be humble. The lesson was to teach us that “you haven’t learned a lot yet and you’re already so proud of yourself, you already have developed so many problems, how can you move beyond your present level?”

In my memory, both masters have never hurt anybody. Whenever they took on challengers, they always defeat them without hurting them. Other martial arts schools in Beijing gave Master Chen a signboard that said he is Taiji 1, as in Taiji first person, meaning there’s nobody else higher than him in Taiji. Everybody thought he would be happy with such praises. However, Master Chen wasn’t happy at all, he was very upset. He took that signboard and hid it under his bed. People asked him, "You should hang it up. Why do you hide it under your bed?" He said, "I’m not the only one doing Taiji, lots of people are doing Taiji, I’m not the “only one” in Taiji" (a possible literal translation of the words on the signboard). All these stories are quite well-known, widely spread, even in Japan. That’s why they call him the Saint of Martial Arts.

 

Grandmaster Hu, on the other hand was called “the God of Fist” [Translator's clarification: The God of Martial Arts] His level of achievement was also very well known, not only in martial arts, but also in Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and Traditional Medicine. There was an aura... he gave out a visible aura when he meditates. His scholarship in Confucianism was very well known, his definition of Kindness, Righteousness, Way/Truth, Virtue was considered to be the best in the field. His knowledged of medicine is also very, very deep. I have seen two or three patients who came to visit him, and they were so ill they couldn’t walk any more, they basically came in a cart. Master Hu just poked two needles into them and they all walked home by themselves. Those patients called him the God-doctor. He wasn't just using needles when giving acupuncture, he used his qi, and he drove it all the way into the patient. Sometimes he could foretell things before they happened. There are certain things I probably should not tell you today, but I would say one thing: Master Hu is not a normal person. For example, I was introduced to Master Chen Fa Ke by Master Hu. I told Master Hu, “I don’t like Taiji.” But Master Hu said, “His Taiji is good.” So I asked Master Hu, “How come you know his Taiji is good?” Master Hu said, “Well I don’t know him yet.” At that time they didn’t know each other. Then I asked, “In that case how do you know his Taiji is good?” Master Hu said, “I’ve seen him at night,” without saying anything further. My theory is that he was able to do some sort of out-of-body visit when he was meditating. Master Hu basically persuaded me to go and see Master Chen. “You just go and have a look-see. If you like it, I’ll write a letter of recommendation for you.” So I went to visit Master Chen, and I was very, very impressed. So that’s how I meet Master Chen and joined his school. So it was through Master Hu's introduction that I get to know Master Chen Fa Ke. Before Master Chen, the type of Taiji I have seen were what I saw in parks done by old people, which was very soft and not very good. It was only through Master Hu’s introduction to Master Chen that I started doing Chen Taiji.

Questions and Answers session on the last day of the workshop

[Brian] We have a question on standing meditation. Basically, how should we stand? Any tips on standing? Some students have experienced interesting phenomena like uncontrollable shaking, whether that's good or bad, and whether we should do anything about it

[Feng] Everyone, greetings. This is a good question. Standing posture is Wuji, [Translator note: as in "ultimate nothing"]. Standing posture is posture of Wuji. Wuji is the state before Heaven and Earth was formed, when everything was in the primordial soup, when yin and yang were not differentiated. Wuji is silence, not moving, is quiet, whereas Taiji, the name of our practice, is opposite. Even though it looks as if standing posture/standing meditation there's no movement, however inside, just like in the primordial soup, there's always something, there's always something moving. When the internal subtle movement suddenly reaches critical level, then there's a Big Bang. That's when the light stuff floats up and the heavy stuff sinks down. And those that floats up form the heaven, and things that condenses become the Earth. The Big Bang essentially causes Taiji to happen. Taiji is yin and yang, the interplay between yin and yang. Between the interplay of yin and yang, everything else in this world is born. Without Taiji there's nothing, there's not even us. Everything, all life forms. Plants, animals. Human being are at the top of the animal kingdom, we are spiritual beings. The relationship between Heaven, Human, and Earth is the three pillars of the universe. Basically, from Wuji, even though there's no apparent movement, there's always something happening internally. When the time is right, the universe is formed, and Taiji is born. Same thing when we're doing standing meditation. There's no apparent movement, but there's always a little subtle shift. And after you've been doing it for a while you could generate so much energy in your body that you'd just have to move, that's the time for you to start doing your form. Within Wuji, even though the external is without motion, inside there is the beating of the heart, the circulation of blood, the flowing of chi. So within the motionless external something is contained inside that is moving.

From Wuji, (Ultimate Nothingness) the one, Taiji, (Ultimate Everythingness) is born. When Taiji is born, it separates into LiangYi (Two Forms): Yin and Yang. When Yin and Yang is seperated, then we have SanCai (Three Grouping): Heaven, Earth, and spiritual beings like Human. Then, we have SiXiang (Four Signs). Then WuXing (five elements): metal, earth, fire, water, wood. Five Elements can be used as a broad classification of many things, including our internal organs like liver (wood), heart (fire), kidney (water), spleen (earth), lung (metal). In our form the five elements can be interpreted as forward, backward, left, right, and center. The four signs are North, South, East, West. Within our body, the four signs can also signify the limbs, two arms, two legs. After five elements, comes the six harmonies, or the six couplings. The six couplings are: North and South couples; East and West couples; top and bottom couples. That is the generic six couplings. Within our form, the six couplings are: shoulder and kua; elbow and knee; wrist and ankle. There are a lot more numbers with significance beyond six. We probably won't go over all of them, but we can talk a little bit about QiXing (seven stars). Heaven has a significant constellation called seven stars, the Big Dipper, which is used to defined direction of Heaven, but in our form the seven stars can be seven points of contact in the technique Step Up Seven Stars, i.e. the 2 elbows, 2 fists, knee, feet, and your head. After seven stars we can talk about the BaGua (eight trigrams). The eight trigrams is on our logo, each trigram has three horizontal lines. They mark the eight directions. After the four "proper" directions are defined, the four diagonals are therefore differentiated. After we talk about the eight trigrams, we can also talk about JiuGong (Nine Palaces). The nine palaces are the eight trigrams, plus you in the middle as the ninth palace. So on and so forth. From nine becomes ten, and ten is the turning point. It's when the circle goes back to zero, as in, WuJi.

Let's go back to the standing meditation and involuntary movement. Not everyone will experience it. Some people will experience different feelings, different sensations, when your qigong practice is up to a certain level. Movement is one of them. It's normal to move. However, do not seek movement for its own sake. The movement is a side effect. What we want to do is keep our attention, our intention, within our DanTien, and let the movement be. If the movement continues without bothering you, that's fine. But if it gets bigger and bigger, then you should use your will power, your mind, to tell it "look, just stop it; don't move." Usually that will take away or control the movement. However if the movement is so big that it's beyond your control, then it's time to stop. You should do the DanTien turning exercise, gathering all the Qi that is wandering about back into your DanTien, and stop doing QiGong. Some movements are actually good phenomena. However we should not seek the phenomena. We should just focus on practicing QiGong. So some of the good phenomena are: If you are doing qigong and breathing, it is as if your whole body is expanding and contracting, as if you are breathing with your whole body. That kind of movement, regular movement, is good for your. Another type of good movement is, when you are breathing in, you are feeling as if your stomach is going in so flat it is almost touching your back, and when you are breathing out, your stomach is going forward. And again, this controllable, regular movement is good for you. Those are good movements. Another good feeling is, when you are breathing in, you feel as if all the blood and all the energy in your body get concentrated into you dan tien, and when you're breathing out all the energy goes all the way out to the tip of your limbs. That's also a type of movement sensation that is good. Other types of feelings are sensations, as if you can see, even with your eyes closed, as if the sun is in front of you, or a bright light. Or in your stomach, a bright ball. Or if you feel as if your whole stomach is transparent. Those are good feelings, well-known good phenomena. Whether it's Wuji-standing causing that kind of feeling or doing Taiji and getting that kind of feeling, it's all caused by the inner light, and is also a direct result of your practice. It's good.

[Brian] The next question is about breathing. How should we breathe, when standing, when doing the form, when doing qigong?

[Feng] Breathing when doing standing meditation: What we should pay attention to is not the actual action of breathing. You shouldn't be trying to breath, like draw in lots of air and breathe out lots of air. That's not the main thing. What you should be doing is thinking about breathing. So you use your mind and intention to focus on breathing, and not the physical action of breathing. When we are doing qigong we should be breathing in when we are opening, and breathing out when we are closing. It should be gentle with very, very light breathing as if you are breathing in a thread of air. You are breathing in through the nose, and when you are breathing in the tongue should be touching the upper palate. When you are breathing out, the tongue shoud come down and touch the lower palate, and again, breathe out through the mouth as if you are breathing out a thread of air. However in some movements in qigong the the opening and closing is not that obvious, or one side is opening and the other is closing, so it's not that obvious what to do with breathing. In those movements you shouldn't be focusing on the breathing. You should think about the movement itself. [demonstrates] That was an example of one of the movements in qigong that has no obvious breathing implication. So what should your mind be thinking? Your mind should be thinking of the action, as well as visualizing that you are gathering energy from your surroundings and depositing it into your dan tien.

[Brian] Next question: If we've learned Taiji for awhile, we cover lots of material. And we being normal people, we have a life, so we never have enough time to practice it all. So can Master Feng suggest some sort of timetable, schedule, or exercises for various lengths of time, like if you only have five minutes a day what do you do? If you have ten minutes a day, thirty minutes, one hour, what do you do? And related to that, classic textbooks tell us that the old Chen masters did their forms thirty times a day. Is that possible? How did they do it?

[Feng] Good question. Yes we are all normal people, we never have enough time. However, we are more than normal people, even though we are normal people. Even though we are normal people, we are practicing Taiji, which is part of DaDao (the Grand Way) of Heaven and Earth, of Yin and Yang. Therefore we are more than normal. No matter what exercise we do, within all those things we've learned, what we're doing is cultivating and nurturing our body and our mind.

If we have limited time, what should we do on a daily basis? You should at least cover two things: One is qigong, as many movements as you can do, and then the 24-form. However if you don't even have time to cover those two things, what you can do is, put the 24 aside and concentrate on a subset of qigong exercises. And those examples he was showing us, "Heaven open, Earth close," or "Earth open, Heaven close," that's one. Or "double hand open-close," that's another one. So if you do those, that's ok. But you need to do more than nine repetitions if you just want to do one thing. And he's suggesting a few hundred repetitions. At least a hundred times or two hundred times. He's saying that because qigong is the foundation, is the core of our practice, if you don't have time for anything else, then do the core. However, it's best that you try to put aside at least an hour a day to do qigong as well as the 24.

An example of somebody who benefited from qigong is a forty-something year-old rich businessman in ShanDong province. He had liver cancer, and modern medicine couldn't help him. He went and visited lots of sacred places - Shaolin Temple, Wudang Mountain - seeking out priests and wise men all over the place, and it wasn't helping. However, he met me and started practicing Hun Yuan Qigong, and he did it very diligently, more than an hour a day - he practiced qigong and form everyday, and within a year he got rid of his liver cancer, and his doctor was amazed and shocked. He told the doctor that he didn't do it with medicine, and the doctor didn't want to believe him. Anyway, we visited him, Chen Xiang and I visited him only recently. Next time if you ever get to Shantung Province, I think we can all visit him. He has a factory. In his factory he has about two thousand workers. He's telling all his workers to practice qigong at the beginning of the day every day. If they don't do it he doesn't allow them to get to work. I said to him, "You shouldn't have to force people, it should be on a voluntary basis," but the guy said "No, no way, I'm going to force all of them to do it. Because by doing that, I'm saving on medical benefit bills by several tens of thousands of dollars every year!"

[Brian] Next question is about women and Taiji. This question is for Grandmaster Feng, as well as Master Siu Fang. How should women practice Taiji, and what is the difference between women's and men's practice, and whether Master Siu Fang has any words of wisdom or perspective about women doing Taiji.

[Siu Fang] In principle there's not any big difference. So if body permitting, you should practice more, as much as men. But if you're not feeling well, you can reduce the amount of practice.

[Feng] Men are yang and women are yin, and we are different in that way. The left side of our body is yang, and the right side of our body is yin. And men, being yang, we have much more yang than yin in general, and women the opposite. What we are doing, we want to balance our yin and yang within our body, and that's the purpose of our exercise. So for example, when we are doing the turning to gather and collect chi back to dan tien, men want to draw from our side with excess, and use it, guide it to supplement the deficient side, which is the yin side, the feminine side. Women are spinning the other way for the same reason. Your yin is stronger than your yang, therefore you want to draw from your yin side to supplement your yang side.

The location of dan tien for women is slightly different than men. For men, the upper dan tien is in our skull, right behind this point in our forehead. The name-there are several names- ZuQiao could be translated as ancestors' cavity. And if you draw a vertical line from BaiHui, which is the top of your head, and where they meet, inside of your skull, is the location of your upper dan tien. This point is also called, in Buddhism, the "eye of wisdom", and that's why some Buddha's have three eyes, and some people giving initiation ceremonies want to draw a dot on that point.

Yesterday we talked about the three senses becoming one, when your Taiji or your practice is at a very advanced level. The three senses are the sense of hearing, the sense of sight, and the sense of thinking. When these three senses are combined into one and reached a spiritual state, then your third eye, or your eye of wisdom, will be opened. You can basically see whatever your heart wishes to see, or whatever your heart wishes will happen. At our level we shouldn't spend too much time training and cultivating the upper dan tien. If your foundation is no good and you try to do a lot of head dan tien, upper dan tien work, it's very easy to cause damage, and the types of damage you can cause basically affects your mind, or you can simply just have a big headache. At our level, the Upper DanTien is still useful to us, when we're doing qigong we use it as a gateway. For certain exercises we use it as a gateway to collect qi and use it only in that manner, because after passing through that gateway we want to store the collected qi in your dan tien, your middle dan tien. And you should never, at our level, use it as an energy storage area. That's why every time, at the end of certain sets of movement or the end of the form, we do this a lot. [Demonstration] We want to make sure no wandering qi lingers in the upper dan tien, and we want to guide it down where it should be, which is the middle dan tien, the reservoir of energy. The upper dan tien should be the house of your spirit. It shouldn't be the reservoir of your qi at our level.

The middle dan tien, however, could be worked on as often as you can. You can use it to store qi, you can use it to nurture your qi, basically you can use it to collect qi. And when you have good collection of qi, like big amount of energy in your dan tien, it will naturally become a big source of spirit that you can use. That is why we talked a lot about the three dan tiens, the upper dan tien being the dan tien for spirit, the middle dan tien being the dan tien for qi energy, and the lower dan tien being the dan tien or reservoir for essence, as in bodily fluids i.e. semen. That is why the ancients say, if your lower dan tien is full, as in you have good collection of essence, then your energy will naturally be full, and if your energy is full, then your spirit is full. It's a natural progression, so the old Taoists would train or practice or meditate to make sure that their essence could be abstracted into qi and qi abstracted into energy.

For men, the location of our middle dan tien is right behind our navel. It's about an inch and a half. The location of lower dan tien is at the perineum, it's between your genitals and your anus. And from that soft spot go up about about one and a half inches. That's the location of your lower dan tien. Those two locations are for men only. The location for upper dan tien is the same for both gender. For women the location of your middle dan tien is not behind your navel. Rather, it's in the middle, in the center between your breasts. Your lower dan tien is in your womb. However, for women, you don't want to store qi, and collect qi directly to your middle dan tien. It is safer to collect qi behind your navel still, and when you have good collection, when the qi is full, it will naturally rise up to the location of your middle dan tien. If you start by building up the female middle dan tien, it will affect you negatively, you will have some sort of pressing sensation on your chest. In Taoism, men are considered yang creatures and women are considered yin creatures. However, the finer point is that men are yang on the outside but yin on the inside, and women are yin on the outside and yang on the inside. So in theory, in terms of speed of progression in QiGong, women should be faster than men. So under the same conditions and circumstances, women in general will progress much faster than men, and usually will live longer life than men. Women have yang on the inside, that's where the draw their power from, so if they really train as hard as the men, they'll get there faster than us.

[Brian] This next question. At first I tried to censor it. I thought well, some guy was just asking, you know, a stupid question. However, I got the same question more than a few times. So I said, well, enough people are interested in this topic, we should then ask it. It's about sex and Taiji. Should you do it? Is there a need for moderation? Is there a difference between men and women?

[Feng] If you are a young man and you don't practice qigong, well you do it once every two or three days, that's fine. However if you start practicing qigong and you are serious about your qigong, then at most you do it once every ten days, and in theory you should stop three days before it and five days after. So basically you shouldn't do any serious qigong practice for three days before it, as in you have to plan for it, and then five days after you don't do it. For women it doesn't matter as much. But they should avoid doing QiGong three days before and five days after their menstrual period.

[Brian] How about if you retain your semen?

[Feng] If you can do that, then yes, you don't have that restriction… If you are able to retain your semen, if you have that ability, what you should do after sex is to massage your lower abdomen and rub it or wash it with warm water to calm down the buildup. Otherwise there will be some sort of blockage.

[Brian] Ok, now the last question, and I think after the last question we should call it a day, because there are too many questions. The last question or request is, we want Master Feng to recount when he first met Master Zhang.

[Feng] Whatever Zhang told us, it's the same thing. [laughter]

[Feng] When I first met Master Zhang, I heard that he's from Shantung Province. My impression of ShanDong people is, ShanDong is a province full of warriors, because Shantung people are always very martial. ShanDong men are usually straight shooters. Their mouth will say exactly what their heart thinks, and it's very fast. Whatever their heart thinks, they will say it immediately. And usually, they are good people, too. I met Zhang through Zhang's old teacher's recommendation, Chen Zhaokui, and another teacher Li Rui Yen. LRY is the god-daughter of Chen Fa Ke. When we first met, we bonded very well. We like to go to little street-side stalls and eat spicy tripes, spicy pork stomachs, and drink some. My impression of Zhang was very good. We use to hang out together and practice together. However, afterwards he came to America, then we have less contact. However, I like what he has achieved here - you are the result of his work - I'm very happy to see the result of his work. I hope you can all stay united and advance the teaching of Taiji, and contribute to the well being of man kind.

[applause]

[Feng] This workshop is almost like for family. You are very close. You tried very hard to do cost containment. When I visited Japan and Europe the workshops had several hundred people, sometimes even thousands, so there's not much time for such intimate talk and practice.

[Zhang] This workshop is essentially for my students only. And a lot of material we cover and a lot of opinions we express, is only for us only. Usually Master Feng doesn't want to talk about such things in normal, open workshops. When he gave lectures in Hong Kong and Japan, it's for thousands of people, and the organizers sell tickets to such events. When he was giving lectures in China, sometimes even in universities, well-known universities like Beijing University, QinHua University… These are top universities in China, and he was invited there as a guest speaker, and he just went there without a prepared speech written up, and he just stood up there and talked for two hours nonstop. So he shocked all the university lecturers, they were frantically taking notes. I wasn't there, but Feng's third daughter told me, "my father was incredible, he just stood up there and talked to university lecturers for two hours nonstop."

This workshop is very unique, very special. We've been hoping for Master Feng's visit for more than four years, and planning for it, and there were lots of reasons it didn't happen before in the previous years. We don't want to talk about those reasons. Now that he's here, we are all very happy. However, Grandmaster Feng is a very busy person. He has many titles and many responsibilities back in China. For instance, he is Vice President of the Chinese Institute of Martial Arts. And they have lots of events to attend like meetings, and meetings, and meetings. I understand the situation, and that's why every time we have students who want to go to China and ask to visit Master Feng, I always told them not to. Basically, Grandmaster Feng is so busy, I don't want any of my own students to go and disturb him. Sometimes we have students who go and visit Master Feng somehow, and basically just sit there and overstay their welcome sometimes, and disturb his rest, I don't want that to happen. That's why this workshop has been planned in such a way that we have lots of material to cover, but we have ample rest in between. We want to preserve not just the living treasure of China, but the living treasure of humanity.

[Feng] All things in the universe conform to the theory of Hun Yuan. It's circulation, it's everything.. That cannot escape the principle. Our form of Taiji reflects that. And also, our form of Taiji is trying to show the original face, the root of Taiji.

[Zhang] I want to add to the last question that you've asked. I know Master Feng for about forty years, and over the past forty years we have been great friends, and the relationship has always been good. Even after I left China to come to the U.S., my heart is still in Beijing, and I always thought about going back to China. However, my work here is not done. Master Feng cares a lot about his students. Every time I visit him in China, he always sends his greetings to us.

Basically that's it, that's the end of the workshop, however, I want to add that I am very happy that you've learned a lot, and you've shown great improvement over the last few days. However, I feel that my burden is heavy, because you've learned all these materials, and you need to "keep and remember" them. And when Master Feng's left America and gone back to China, it will be my work to basically help you out.

The reason why we want to form the American chapter of the Feng Zhiqiang Taijiquan Academy is that when Master Feng is not in the U.S., we as an organization, can continue to work on studying this body of knowledge, and we should all help each other in our studies.

Well, that's it for the workshop, and I wish everybody good health and happiness!

  

Yang style

.	.

Yang Cheng Fu



Yang Cheng Fu`s 10 Essential Points

1. Xu Ling Ding Jin - Elevate the Crown to Lift the Spirit

Emptying the thoughts and raising the head as if the crown of the head is pressed up against the

heavens. The neck must be straightened to allow the head to be raised and vertical. This allows the

spirit and chi to arrive at the crown of the head. No physical strength should be used, as physical

force will cause stiffness and also hinder the blood and chi circulation. One must have natural intention

of emptiness in the mind.

2. Han Xiong Ba Bei - Hollowing the chest to raise the back

Hollowing the chest will help to sink the Chi down to the Dan Tian point. It is imperative not to expand

the chest as this will raise the Chi to the chest, causing top heaviness and the heels to lift. To

raise the back is to allow the Chi to adhere to the back. If one hollows the chest the back will rise

naturally. With the back raised, one can project the Chi from the spine.

3. Song Yao - Loosening up the waist

The waist is the commander of the body. When one is able to loosen up the waist, this will increase

Chi energy in both legs and thus provide a stable base for firm rooting. Changes from substantial to

insubstantial or vice-versa are derived from the movement of the waist. There is a saying that the

source of Chi energy is from the waist, therefore if one lacks strength, one should pay more attention

to the waist and the lower limbs.

4. Fen Xu Shi - Distinguishing between substantial and insubstantial

When one`s weight is on the right, the right leg becomes substantial and the left leg insubstantial, or

vice versa. When one is able to distinguish the difference, one will be able to turn and move with

lightness and effortlessness. If not, any steps will be sluggish and unstable and can easily be unbalanced

by others.

5. Chen Lian Zhu Zhou - Sinking the shoulder and weighting down the elbow

Sinking the shoulder is to let the shoulder loosen up and drop downwards. If not, both shoulders will

rise causing Chi to rise with them. No strength can be exerted from the body if this happens. Weighting

down the elbow is to let the elbow drop and hang loose. If the elbow is raised, the shoulders will

have great difficulty in sinking, thus affecting the strength of your internal power, and you will not

be able to throw the opponent away. This is similar to what is known as `stifling the power` in external

martial arts.

6. Yong Yi Bu Yong Li - Using Yi, or intention, and not physical strength (Li)

For practitioners of Tai Chi Chuan, the whole body must be relaxed so that no physical strength remains

within the sinews and bones to restrict one`s power. Only then will one be light and flexible,

and move accordingly. One might doubt how one could develop such power without using physical

strength. It is because the human body contains meridians, which enable the flow of Chi. When

physical strength is used, this will cause the blockage of Chi in these meridians and result in sluggish

movements. Any movement in a small part of the body will affect the whole body. Using the mind or

Yi, Chi will flow to where it is directed. It also helps the flow of both blood and Chi circulation and

strengthens the body.

7. Shang Xia Xiang Sui - Co-ordination of both the upper and lower body

In accordance to Tai Chi Chuan theory, rooting is from the legs, the command from the waist, and

expression through the hands. From legs to waist, there needs to be unison of movement. The movements

of hands, waist and legs will also be followed by the intention in the eyes. This is regarded as

the complete co-ordination of above and below. If one of these is missing, the move becomes fragmented.

8. Nei Wai Xiang Ge - Internal and external in togetherness

The training of Tai Chi Chuan is in the spirit, hence spirit is the commander-in-chief and the body

will move as directed. When the spirit is raised and movements become light, the form consists of

open and close - open means not only opening the hands and legs but also includes the mind within

it. When closing, it should be the same. Therefore, there is no gap between the external and internal

and they should be in unison.

9. Xiang Lian Bu Duan - Continuity without breakage

In external martial arts, the power used is only physical strength and therefore there is a start and finish

to it. In between is the break where the strength from the previous move is finished and before

new force is issued, which is the weakest point and can be easily exploited by the opponent. Tai Chi

Chuan uses Yi and not physical strength, hence the move becomes continuous without ending, like a

roaring river without ceasing. When in circulation, the Chi is described as like drawing silk from a

cocoon, to signify the continuous flow of movement.

10. Dong Zhong Qiu Jing - Seeking stillness within movement

In external martial arts, power is generated by jumping, punching and kicking as hard as possible.

Hence after prolonged practice, one is panting for breath and at times the blood vessels are enlarged.

By contrast, Tai Chi Chuan emphasises stillness over movement. Even though in motion, the form

appears to be tranquil. Therefore when practising, the slower the better, with long deep breathing, to

allow the Chi to sink to the Dan Tian point and thus prevent one from over-exerting oneself physically.

THE TEN ESSENTIALS OF TAIJIQUAN

   

Narrated by Yang Cheng Fu (Recorded by Chen Wei-ming)

    (1) Straightening the Head

Stand straight and hold the head and neck naturally erect, with the mind concentrated on the top. Do not strain or be tense; otherwise, the blood and vital energy cannot circulate smoothly.

(2) Correct Position of Chest and Back

keep chest slightly inward, which will enable you to sink your breath to the dan tian (lower belly). Do not protrude your chest, otherwise you will feel uneasy in breathing and somewhat "top heavy". Great force can be launched from the spine only when you keep the vital energy in your lower belly.

(3) Relaxation of Waist

For the human body, the waist is the dominant part. When you relax the waist, your two feet will be strong enough to form a firm base. All the movements depend on the action of the waist, as the saying goes: "Vital force comes from the waist." Inaccurate movements in taijiquan stem from the erroneous actions of the waist.

(4) Solid and Empty Stance

It is of primary importance in taijiquan to distinguish between "Xu"(Empty) and "Shi" (Solid). If you shift the weight of the body on to the right leg, then the right leg is solidly planted on the ground and the left leg is in an empty stance. When your weight is on the left leg, then the left leg is firmly planted on the ground and the right leg is in an empty stance. Only in this way can you turn and move your body adroitly and without effort, otherwise you will be slow and clumsy in your movements and not able to remain stable and firm on your feet.

(5) Sinking of Shoulders and Elbows

Keep your shoulder in natural, relaxed position. If you lift your shoulders, the qi will rise with them, and the whole body will be without strength. You should also keep the elbows down, otherwise you will not be able to keep your shoulders relaxed and move your body with ease.

(6) Using the Mind Instead Of Force

Among people who practice taijiquan it is quite common to hear this comment: "That is entirely using the mind, not force." In practicing taijiquan, the whole body is relaxed, and there is not an iota of stiff or clumsy strength in the veins or joints to hinder the movement of the body. People may ask: How can one increase his strength without exercising force? According to traditional Chinese medicine, there is in the human body a system of pathways called jingluo (or meridian) which link the viscera with different parts of the body, making the human body an integrated whole. If the jingluo is not impeded, then the vital energy will circulate in the body unobstructed. But if the jingluo is filled with stiff strength, the vital energy will not be able to circulate and consequently the body cannot move with ease. One should therefore use the mind instead of force, so that vital energy will follow in the wake of the mind or consciousness and circulate all over the body. Through persistent practice one will be able to have genuine internal force. This is what Taijiquan experts call "Lithe in appearance, but powerful in essence."

A master of Taijiquan has arms which are as strong as steel rods wrapped in cotton, with immense power concealed therein. Boxers of the "Outer School" ( a branch of wushu with emphasis on attack, as opposed to the "Inner School" which places the emphasis on defense) look powerful when they exert force, but when they cease to do so, the power no longer exists. So it is merely a kind of superficial force.

(7) Coordination of Upper and Lower Parts

According to the theory of taijiquan the root is in the feet, the force is launched through the legs: controlled by the waist, and expressed by the fingers; the feet, the legs and the waist form a harmonious whole. When the hands, the waist and the legs move, the eyes should follow their movements.This is what is meant by coordination of the upper and lower parts. If any one part should cease to move, then the movements will be disconnected and fall into disarray.

(8) Harmony Between the Internal and External Parts

In practicing taijiquan, the focus is on the mind and consciousness. Hence the saying: "The mind is the commander, and the body is subservient to it." With the tranquility of the mind, the movements will be gentle and graceful. As far as the "frame" is concerned, there are only the Xu (empty), shi (solid), kai (open) and he (close). Kai not only means opening the four limbs but the mind as well, and he means closing the mind along with the four limbs. Perfection is achieved when one unifies the two and harmonizes the internal and external parts into a complete whole.

(9) Importance of Continuity

In the case of the "Outer School" (which emphasizes attack) of boxing, the strength one exerts is stiff and the movements are not continuous,but are sometimes made off and on, which leave openings the opponent may take advantage of. In taijiquan, one focuses the attention on the mind instead of force, and the movements from beginning to end are continuous and in an endless circle, just "like a river which flows on and on without end" or "like reeling the silk thread off cocoons."

(10) Tranquility in Movement

In the case of the "Outer School" of boxing, the emphasis is on leaping, bouncing, punching and the exertion of force, and so one often gasps for breath after practicing. But in taijiquan, the movement is blended with tranquility, and while performing the movements, one maintains tranquility of mind. In practicing the "frame," the slower the movement, the better the results. This is because when the movements are slow, one can take deep breath and sink it to the dan tianPractitioners of taijiquan will get a better understanding of all this through careful study and persistent practice.

Li YaXuan



The Key to Practicing Taijiquan’s Skill & Form

From a speech on February 1956 by Master Li Ya Xuan

“So subtle; so subtle; as if there is no sound”

“Immortal; Immortal; as if there is no shape”

Prior to producing momentum, the body gesture should be stable and the balance completely centered. The mind and body should be relaxed. There should be no hesitation, no rigidity. Remove all distracting thoughts from the mind and allow the return of the body gesture to that state of being natural. With this, you can start to move.

When moving, use your heart/intention and qi to do the moving, to do the operation. Use your spine and waist as an axis in producing the boxing sequence. Your moving momentum should be like that of a moving cloud, like running water, like pulling a thread, and like a hanging thread. Usually twenty minutes to a half hour is about right to complete the frame. After practice your mind and spirit should feel uplifted; your mind and perception, clear. This will show that your practice is on the right track. Once you reach this level, you should quietly reach awareness. Reaching this level is really not difficult. Avoid rigidity and hardness in the body. Avoid moving the four limbs independently, by themselves. Use your intention and qi to carry the movement. The whole body should be relaxed. Sinking your qi and momentum to the lower place is taiji's correct rule. I (Teacher Li) have often seen taiji practitioners allowing their four limbs to move completely by themselves and to move without guidance. This may look fancy but it is a mistake.

 

After practicing awhile you should feel your palm and the inside of your fingers, i.e., the belly of the fingers, should feel the fullness of qi and intention. This proves that qi and blood have already reached the tip, the recesses, of your body. Based on this achievement, if you continue to practice your skill, you will eventually, spontaneously reach the level of awareness and connection. If you practice for a lengthy time without being able to feel this sensation, that means that your qi and intention and skill frame are incorrect. In that case, you should immediately seek a good teacher to guide you further, otherwise, if you continue to practice incorrectly too long, it will not be possible to ever make the corrections needed.

Use your mind to operate your qi. Use your qi to operate your body. Use your eyes to look inside, to sense how the body and the mind are connected; to see how your spirit and qi are relaxed. After awhile, you will automatically reach the level of unity of inside with outside; unity of upper with lower. If you pay attention only to the external skill movement, you are focusing only on external skills. Your spirit and intention should stay inside to facilitate, to reserve the quiet energy. When you use energy, the correct method is to have a harvest before you start. Remember, every movement should be clean and relaxed. With this your perspicacity, alacrity, and flexibility can grow. Avoid becoming angry and displaying combative signs such as clenching teeth and staring angrily with your eyes. Those intentions and mannerisms are harmful; avoid them.

 

Some may ask, "If you do not have intention during the practice, when you need it during combat, how can you then use it?" Actually, practice is the time for building and accumulating your qi and spirit. If you consolidate your qi and spirit, when you need them, they will easily come out. If during practice you become extremely angry and show such energy and qi externally, you will exhaust your qi and spirit. In this case, since your qi then cannot accumulate when needed, you will not have a sufficient supply to be able to make a truly surprising movement.

Your upper body should have an empty and flexible spirit. Your middle body should have the energy of the waist and spine. Your lower part should have the qi of the dantien. These three parts are combined. The external and internal are connected. With these your movement will be appropriate. Everything should be natural. Do not pay attention to any single, particular part of your body. If you think only of sinking your qi then your qi will hesitate. If you think only of making your spirit higher, of lifting up your spirit, your spirit will be restricted. That is not a Taoist natural quality.

What do we mean by empty, flexible, top of head energy? This means when your body gesture is comfortable and straight, settled, your empty, flexible qi will automatically reach the top. This is not something you can simply, intentionally cause by thinking a force to the top. If you intentionally use force to reach your top, you will have the characteristic of being straight and hard but without the empty and flexible. Intentionally, trying to force a quality is something that must be avoided in acquiring taiji skill.

To practice taiji skill, you should first rely on a good teacher to show the use of these skills. Secondly, you should understand the theory of the great Teacher Chang San Feng and Wang T'sungYueh. You should have no distraction during the practice, otherwise, you will go the wrong way. In addition, when you do taijiquan you should not practice external skill boxing, otherwise, your effort will be without achievement.

This skill is called "relaxed and flexible energy". Therefore, when you use this energy there is no sound. When a person is hit, externally there is no sign but internally, the penetration has already been made. The external skill is a so-called tense and hard energy. When this is used, you hear a "thump", "tung", "whap" sound. When a person is hit, externally they show a red welt, or a red and blue wound but internally there may be no penetration. Some say that the taijiquan skill must be combined with other skills in order to be useful. This really shows their lack of true teaching, of true learning of taijiquan. This person does not understand taijiquan theory and really is showing ignorance.

When people first learning the boxing frame, within a few days they will feel muscle pain in their legs. After a month, they may feel knee pain. After that they may feel some shoulder soreness. Learners should not be surprised with this. This is a natural process. This also is how a good teacher gives correct guidance. Continue the practice and the soreness and pain will heal. Later, your skill will be much improved. If people fear soreness and pain and then stop practicing, only to re-start after the pain goes away, thus are only doing a sporadic, start and stop practice, they are really wasting their time.

 If you learn taiji boxing but never feel any leg pain, knee pain, or shoulder soreness, then the teacher is not giving correct guidance. You must select another teacher, a good teacher.

When you relax, first relax your mind. This is most important because the mind is the host of the entire body. After the mind is relaxed, the whole body then also is relaxed. If you use your mind to influence the body after awhile you will automatically achieve real relaxation. This will allow production of your internal energy.

The whole body, the qi, and momentum should be relaxed and open. With this the empty and flexible can reach the top. Every movement is like that of a river and the sea. Every step is like that of a cat. The lower and upper should follow each other. Inside and outside should cooperate completely with one another. With this, internal energy will be produced.

When doing the skill, do not just move your four limbs. Rather, use your mind to move them; use your qi to carry them; use your waist to guide them; use your intention to induce. With this the upper, the lower, the internal, and the external can become connected by one qi; this is needed.

If you make even just a single gesture, not only must your four limbs open but also your mind, your intention, your chest, should be closed first; then all open together. All movement always starts from inside and goes towards the outside. This is why taiji is called an internal skill, an internal kung.

Internally you should use your mind and intention as the host, the head. Externally you should use the waist and the spine as the axis; be completely centered. Internal/ external, upper and lower parts all become one. With this there is something whose wonder is beyond understanding.

Seek coordination of the upper and lower. This is the beginning step of practice. Next, try to sense gingerly, look for something very light, flexible, like cotton - soft. This is the middle level skill. Finally, seek the empty and nothing in there. This is the last research focus. When your body is light and flexible, there is still something there. If you reach the level of empty and nothing, then actually everything will follow your intention. This really is reaching the most wonderful, mysterious level.

When Teacher Chengfu pushed hands and used his launching energy, his eyes would give a certain extremely stern and dark look that caused fright. The opponent then would feel stunning surprise and deep fear of loss of life or eminent death. This shows how the spirit and body can become one within a moment, how the whole body force can be mobilized, concentrated, focused and produced within an extremely short period of time. Because this happens within the briefest of moments with the quickness of a thought, so suddenly, the opponent is not able to make a defense. Besides that, there is no way to defend against this.

 

Everyday, when we practice, we practice slowly. This slow practice helps accumulate the spirit, qi, and intention. This is how the internal and external cooperate to show such wonder. If you practice too fast, not only will you not accumulate spirit and qi but, internally and externally, the parts cannot cooperate to the appropriate degree needed. Therefore, even if you do the launching energy, it will not be full. In addition, neither will your force be capable of surprise.

When the whole body relaxes, the upper and lower parts must be completely relaxed. This is one of the necessary conditions of taijiquan. If your movement is not complete, or is complete but not relaxed; or if you only relax your shoulder but your waist, kua, belly, and back do not know what is relaxed; or after practice, your palm does not feel inflated, then this shows you did not have the right teacher. I have often seen practitioners shake their body and make lots of sounds. Their heads are like those of sale-pitching people, swollen, manicured, proper, everything in place, and with a look of arrogance and a condescending attitude. They think taiji only "talks" about being soft and does not "speak" of force. Actually, these types of arrogant, over-confident people do not know that taijiquan has it's own theory and can only be learned from a teacher. It is not something you can learn by mere observation. Taijiquan is not something you can just figure out by yourself at home.

In the practice, you should feel the whole body relax and also feel the movements being clean. If the whole body is stable and sunk then the whole body will be comfortable and connected. In every movement you should quietly think of how to use your intention, of how to send your intention to the other's body, and of how to enter inside the other's body. With this method, after a long period of practice, you will see progress.

When your spirit and qi return inside and are reserved in your bones, the whole body will be full of empty and flexible qi. If you then want to be light, you will be light; if you want to be heavy, you will be heavy. For skilled people who feel light - it is as if there is nothing there. For skilled people who feel heavy - it is as if the weight would break a mountain.

This is how you should practice your essence and transform your qi; this is how you then practice your qi to transform your spirit. Upon reaching the spiritual, you can reach the level of emptiness. To reach the level of empty and flexible, you must start with being solid. If you want to be light and quick, you must start with being heavy and stable. After you practice the skill for quite a long time, you can then reach the level of extremely light, extremely quick, empty, and flexible.

In the very beginning, if you try too soon to acquire the empty and flexible, light and quick, then your whole body movement will be full of confusion. If at the very beginning, you talk too much of empty and flexibility you will then acquire floating and be of no use. In taiji these types of people are the so-called "those who do not go out of their house for ten days." Actually, if you do not have a true teacher, a truly good teacher, ten years, or even after all your life you will not be able to "go out of your house" with the skill.

 

Taijiquan is a skill of reaching a maximum result via a minimum movement. When they move the hand, there is no comparison. They are empty and wonderful. All phenomena are incorporated therein. Regardless of how the other attacks, I rely on my empty and flexible qi.

I can change according to any opportunity presented. I can follow the momentum and respond accordingly, appropriately. Each and every response is just right. People should not focus merely on just one gesture, just one hand. If they do that they will miss the larger picture. If you use the great Dao (Tao) to connect every movement, to learn just one thing really, really well then everything will be okay. If you only think of using one gesture, one momentum, one qi, then the 10,000 changes are always possible. The intelligent person will do that.

 

Li YaXuan

Teacher Li YaXuan was senior, early disciple of the profound master Yang Chengfu. Teacher Li later taught government and military officials frankly and was highly respected by all for his unselfish attitude, high martial ethic, and high level skills. When reading the late Teacher Li's descriptions, his excellent martial ethic, a critical key to receiving profound knowledge, soon becomes crystal clear. In fact, in one descriptive story to be shared later, his ethic and morality is both emotionally touching and nearly beyond normal comprehension.

Within the following explanation Teacher Li discusses the highest levels of achievement in taijiquan, namely, acquiring levels of awareness, achieving the light and flexible skills, and finally, acquiring the empty and flexible qi. In earlier times, taiji at these levels was also called "qi boxing" or "spirit or immortal boxing". Li YaXuan was born in 1894 and died in 1976. He was an ardent, devoted student of Yang Chengfu and, although much lesser known in the west, he was actually senior in all aspects to better-known non-family students established in the USA after 'liberation'. Teacher Li also knew and taught in association with Yang ShaoHao and was associated with and taught at the highest level of martial art in China

 

 

There are five taboos of practice in the acquisition of this skill:

1. Those not selecting the right teacher enter the wrong school and the external skill tops and is dominate. Once acquired, this habit, even if the learner later meets a truly skilled person, will be ingrained and not be correctable for internal use.

2. Those not believing their teacher strongly, completely enough. They do not completely follow the teacher's theory of practice. These people pretend they are smarter and think east, think west, and attempt to use other theories in combination with this skill. Their minds and spirits become a mess. All sorts of problems manifest. These problems are extremely difficult to correct.

3. Those who indulge in bad habits like smoking, gambling, and prostitution. These exhaust energy, qi, and spirit. They confuse minds. These people will never understand and can never reach a good level of awareness.

4. The over-practice of external family skills, hard skills, like breathing qi, making strong, exertion and effort, and the clinching of teeth. Intense staring with the eyes, making the belly full and then striking the belly. The use of an instrument to hit the body or the use of a hammer to hit the head. These hard, external practices and abuses severely harm and deaden our most valuable nervous system. This causes parts of the nervous system to become numb, deadened, and to be without awareness. People who have done this type of training cannot reach good levels of taijiquan practice.

5. Those people who only learn a little bit of taiji then leave their teacher and go out and show off in front of other people in an attempt to falsely gain respect. These types of people are often induced into learning other types of skills. Theirs is a show of mere ego, not skill. After they start on the wrong path, they can never be corrected.

The above five types of people are those who cannot reach the awareness level of taji. The true skill, the main skill, is to make your mind clear, and to focus your mind. But in order to clear your mind and to concentrate, to focus, you should first become very stable and very quiet. Only after becoming quiet can you become clear. At that point you can focus, meditate. This is the way to reach awareness. After achieving beginning awareness, you can reach an even higher level of awareness. You can then reach understanding. Later, you can reach the level of precise understanding. So, if you want to clear your mind, before settling your mind, you must have the intention of restoring your mind to the state of being without thought; your body without action; to feeling no body, no mind. Once reaching this state of "no action" your mind is able to become enlightened.

After reaching enlightenment, any awareness, any sensation, any perception of conscious is that claimed by the scholars of Confucius. That consciousness does not come from continual thinking. If you use your mind to think of penetrating a wall without a door, you just visualize going through the wall; if you think of working in poison ivy, you visualize just passing through as if there is no road - if you practice in this manner, the more you practice this way, the farther you will be from taijiquan. A true teacher is needed.

In practicing taijiquan, you need to be quietly contemplative while practicing the operation. If not, you will not be able to understand what is correct. If you do not practice, then your arm, your whole body, will not be able to follow the mind to move. Therefore, the two aspects must be done together. This means you cultivate both your mind and your body. If you just spend time vigorously, physically practicing, working the body, even if you make your tendons, your bones, your skin, and your flesh suffer, your mind and spirit will only be confused and, although you may sweat profusely, you will be wasting your energy, your qi, and your spirit. You will only harm your attempt to acquire the internal skill. You will receive little real benefit.

Cultivating the empty and flexible produces a high spirit, alertness, readiness, eagerness, perspicacity, high energy, and profound judgment. This keen judgment then used to acquire awareness of internal boxing's method. If you use these methods to defend yourself, you will have an excellent self-defense and you will also be able to handle any bully. If you use this skill in business, you will understand the business very clearly, with perspicacity, and will always succeed. If you use this method to cultivate your body, you will achieve longevity beyond that normal.

This skill is made up of three aspects: your spirit, qi, and body. The main emphasis is on enhancing your spirit. Afterwards comes the practice of qi. Last in importance is the practice of your physical body.

What is the meaning of spirit? Spirit here refers to something in addition to our whole body, it is empty, it is flexible, there is momentum, a function of mind, and controller of intention. The movement cannot be predicted, thus, in addition to the flexible, there is quickness and the concept of changing. Spirit is really not involved with clenching of teeth, intensely staring, or the use of physical effort to produce qi.

What is the meaning of qi? qi may refer to breathing. It is that that sinks downward when you acquire stability. It is not something seen in muscle or use of effort to breathe. The body is stable and comfortable. Movement should be flexible and light. Merely taking a standing position to strike sand bags, beating the body, or striking objects with the hands will enhance neither spirit nor qi. Those people who practice the spirit cannot be without qi and the body - they have all three. Rather, there is merely an emphasis on spirit development. For those people who merely practice qi, they may have some qi, they may have some body, but their spirit is lacking. Those who only practice the body aspect also have some spirit and some qi, however, they cannot completely know the wonder of the spirit.

In the practice, if your intention does not completely reach the breadth of your mind, your body gesture cannot be relaxed. Without proper relaxation, the upper and lower will not follow or be coordinated. Thus, your internal and external cannot match. Then your breathing may not be comfortable. At this point, with these problems, you should seek a good teacher for guidance otherwise, you will harm and worsen your practice.

 

If the mind thinks of relaxing after awhile the body gesture will also relax. Every movement should be followed by heart and qi. Then your four limbs will follow nature and the internal/external will become fit. With this your boxing intention can reach your hand. Stillness and contemplation will allow you to reach the level of your mind controlling everything. Everything should follow slowness, being stable, being quiet, and reaching stillness. If the mind is not clear and the qi floats, the more you practice with these illnesses, the farther you will go from boxing's intention. In this case, even if you practice like this for your whole life, you qi will not reach your hand. Learners should persevere, should have talent, and should have a true teacher in order to achieve success. Even with these qualities, in addition, the teacher and theory must be respected. With all these present, perhaps in one or two years you may reach some success. However, if you leave the teacher too early, you may have some problems and attain no awareness. One way to avoid this is to be open, to sense how the body and mind are connected. Quietly think about what the teacher advised you about the practice. Also, think of and visualize how the teacher practiced the gesture. With this your problem may not become too deeply rooted. Otherwise, if you make just a small mistake early there will be no end. It is like a horse without a rein, it cannot be guided.

People's practice problems may be visible or invisible. The visible problem is easily corrected, however, those invisible are very difficult to rectify. For example, some of these types of problems may be the hand and the feet being high or low, or not in balance, or not matching, or the direction is not correct, or the waist or kua are not straight, not horizontal, or the spine is not relaxed. These are visible problems. They are easily corrected. But, if your mind and intention are in the wrong way and, thus, your movement and spirit do not follow one another and your mind and body, internally/externally, do not match; these are invisible diseases. These diseases sometimes appear, sometimes do not appear. You can sense it but it is difficult for you to describe or pin down. It is very difficult to correct and eliminate these problems.

For people internally ill, regardless of how they spend their practice, the gesture and momentum will always show ugliness. That is because they do not listen to the teacher's words of how to practice. Again, they spend too much time thinking of east, thinking of west. That is how they go down the wrong path. Learners, in particular, should be aware of these problems.

I have often seen people who already have practiced for many years but still cannot produce internal energy. They cannot respond appropriately. Their hand is confused; their feet do not know what to do; they are unable to sense. Their eyes show hesitation or hastiness and they just fight without preparation. These are further examples of the internal diseases. They are very difficult to cure.

Every movement should follow the breathing. Use breathing to facilitate opening and closing. This is the so-called "using the qi to move the body". Every movement should have "quan" (martial) intention. For example, when the fist comes out, carry the fist with intention. When pulling the fist back, use intention to take it back.

Practice with the saber, sword, or spear should also follow this advice. You cannot throw away your intention and simply allow your four limbs to move independently. Internal movement is a combination of mind controlling the body and the body controlling the hand. Every hand and leg movement starts with your mind. From first the internal the external is reached. This is the so-called "internal skill".

Once expertness is reached then a mere thought, i.e., the mind just thinking in one direction is able to cause just single movement that starts and instantaneously encompasses the whole body. With this, the whole body force will be permeated completely throughout the body. Yet, without a good teacher people cannot reach this level. External skill only heeds external gesture; it is external movement. Their gesture and frame often may be very big and often may look very quick. In reality, however, it may not be so quick.

Internal skill emphasizes awareness based upon understanding energy. Understanding energy internally makes awareness go inside. Although movement may appear slow, actually, it may not be slow. In addition, in combat we decide how big the energy is, the appropriate time, the movement--low and quick, and the target. Since everything, including direction, is calculated, this calculation is based on hearing energy. This hearing energy comes from relaxed, soft, sinking, stillness, and slow practice daily. Boxing skill is an individual, barehanded strategy. The mind and head represent the headquarters. The waist and chest are main but smaller fighting groups. The hands and feet are the smallest and lowest level of the fighting groups. The skin may be comparable to guards. The nervous system may be considered the system of communications.

Once you have contact with the enemy, the nervous system will pass the news to the head and heart. The head and heart make a decision, according to the situation, to guide the waist and body; to guide the four limbs and head and legs. If the nervous system cannot transfer this information, it is impossible to know from which direction the enemy is coming from or his magnitude. An appropriate response will then be impossible. Even if you have great force, if you do not use it appropriately you will be defeated. Use your hands and feet to protect your heart and body. If you cannot use your gesture appropriately you will not be able to reach your goal. The waist and spine are the axis for the use of the hands and legs. If transitions are not done flexibly a good result is not possible. The head and heart are the headquarters of the whole body. Therefore, awareness must be very clear and flexible; otherwise, a good command cannot be made.

During combat, if you need to be quick, you must be quick; if you need to be slow, be slow. In this art not even a single mistake is allowed. Move forward, move backward, left, right, you can not have even one hesitation, otherwise, all may be lost. So we can see the importance of the nervous system being clear. Therefore, taiji skill mainly emphasizes making your mind quiet and your temper concentrated and focused. This keeps the nervous system clear. Some do not understand this and place strong emphasis on the exercise of their muscles. Actually, this also damages the most valuable nervous system. This is a tragedy.

 

Those who like large muscles and strength probably have only two chances in combat. First, during an attack, regardless whether moving back or forth, they must be very quick. They will want their muscles to respond very quickly. The question is whether or not their muscles are very sensitive; yet even if they are quick, they cannot attack at the correct time. This may only create confusion.

Secondly, when these people hit others, they obviously hope the other feels great pain. In addition, these people often want their muscles large enough and strong enough to absorb the pain of being hit by others. The question here is during the attack, if the timing is not correct, they will use a lot of strength but will hit empty space. If you make a defensive gesture at the incorrect time, this only shows weakness to others. This results in much more harm. So then, what is the use of having large, strong muscles? Further, when you are attacked, you must be very quick. You must move with suddenness. In combat there is not enough time to think of producing strength in your muscles. Finally, when others attack the most vulnerable parts of your body, strong muscles are of no use for defense or to respond.

Taijiquan is a skill with shape and without shape. Although it has shape when an opponent attacks you, your whole body must be very reserved and display nearly nothing in there. This will make the opponent catch an empty shadow so to speak and, thus, not harm you. If the enemy thinks you are empty and, on the other hand, if you show your emptiness but can suddenly attack like thunder, thunder so quick and strong that people must duck and cover their ears, so as to make them totally scared, scared for their life, then this is enticing into emptiness. Taijiquan is a skill based on unpredictable opportunity. If the other thinks you cannot attack, you should just move your mind suddenly to attack. If others think you will come then you should transform as if you have nothing to attack. This is the so-called "being suddenly visible; suddenly invisible".

The practice frame was designed to cultivate your mind and qi. Push-hands is done to acquire listening energy. Scatter-hands is practiced to acquire skill of hand, eyes, body, and the step method. So, this boxing practices heart, physical essence, qi, and spirit. When you practice the skill, your qi must be sinking. Do not intentionally sink it, that is, do not think of sinking the qi. Rather, use true, fundamental intention to infuse the qi during your breathing.

Emptiness is so empty it's as if it is solid. Being solid is so solid it's as if it is empty. There is something there but it's as if there is nothing there. Relax, let go, softness--use these to produce the empty and flexible qi. This will enhance your perspicacity. Place your mind and body in the right place to establish the fundamental source. With this you can show gesture and seriousness. If your body and mind are not correct, your gesture will show shallowness and be overly light, floating. These qualities too easily tempt bullies.

Emptiness and flexibility are the first key to the skill. Understand this theory like a genius then in one or two years full awareness may be reached. An unintelligent person may spend their whole life in practice and study but will still not be able to reach this level

Thus, a person's achievement, deep or shallow, is also a function of a person's innate talent and intelligence. Not everyone can be placed in the same category.

Practice the skill in the early morning or in the quiet of the night without disturbance from others practicing. Do not show off in front of other people. A poem entitled, "Poem of Movement" explains, "The Great Dao (Tao) cannot be removed from even the smallest, lowliest piece of ground."

Do not have intention. Do not have the mind. Do not rely on your chest to move the energy and qi. Your mind should completely relax and follow nature. Allow all parts of the body to naturally rely on one-another. Once you are without intention, once you are without mind, the true mind is then in the place where there is no mind. Once you do not have mind in the middle, you will not have a shape. At that time, emptiness will produce the true empty and flexible. Feel the connection with the universe. Everything comes from nature.

In a discussion on boxing, while there are many different schools, it is noteworthy that they also have many similarities. Externally they practice the hard and quick and use force; they attempt to make qi strong, leave the spirit and talk about severity. For those people, however, who place emphasis on the quick, hard, their mind can hardly be still, can hardly be quiet. For those who use qi to try to inflate their qi, their breathing cannot be comfortable. For those who emphasize severity, they cannot cultivate a harmonious qi. These methods really will harm the tendon, harm the flesh, and will exhaust the spirit and qi. These practices will harm the empty and flexible skills and prevent their acquisition. That kind of boxing cannot cultivate longevity.

When practicing be stable and quiet, comfortable and relaxed, in order to cultivate the empty and flexible qi. Thus, when you use this qi, it is cold, it jumps, it is sudden, it is quick, as if you spit out the energy from your dantien. Always sense the empty and flexible qi and momentum. Then, during combat you can be fully aware of the other's force. With this, the road to victory is already half traveled. Without the empty and flexible qi and momentum, if someone attacks, you will have no awareness of his situation. In this case, in the confrontation your movement will create confusion and you will attempt to hit the other without any plan. This is not taiji skill.

If you have the empty and flexible qi, momentum; if your waist and legs are light and wonderful; if you have spirit and qi, if they are full; then externally you will be able to show the qi gesture. Then, if your movement is also cold and quick; then, if you then use this qi to cultivate the body, you will have longevity. If, on the other hand, you use these internal skills to defend yourself, you will be able to do so. With this awareness and these high skills, challenges in both your personal life and business life may be handled easily.

---------------------Li YaXuan, From a speech on February 6, 1956. Translated by Key Sun, Ph.D., private student of Master Yang SongQuan born and raised in Chen Village.

Crouching Tiger...

Crouching tiger, hidden dragon is not merely the title of the recent blockbuster movie. This expression actually is borrowed from the Chinese language. In Chinese it refers to coming across a heretofore, unknown, 'hidden' individual of high skill; hidden, crouching, ready to pounce on the over-confident, innocent. In one sense, the late Li YaXuan could be considered to be a crouching tiger, hidden dragon in the west. This is because he is so unknown here. In China, however, Teacher Li's work and words are far from hidden. In fact, he was well known and widely respected in China prior to his death in 1976. His story and advice merit careful reading. The Yang's divided their teaching into three basic phases: learning the external, learning the internal, and finally training the mind. Teacher Li hits all three in his discussions and even touches very briefly on the last, the most advanced training methodology.

Tung Ying Chieh



 Words of Experience by Tung Ying Chieh

Translated by Albert Tang 

  1. Tai Chi Chuan is an internal martial art exercise. Strength is produced in the bones. Power is reserved  at the muscles. It does not require one to have tough skin or thick muscles, but sunken "chi" and strong bones are required. Therefore, learners have no suffering of broken bones and hurt muscles, and the tiredness of jumping, but just move naturally to find the potential of power of origin. It is an exercise to develop the your original power.

2. The three main points: spirit, intention, and posture (likeness of the movement's names) have to be there.If the posture is correct, then the spirit and intention are there, and you will have good progression. Also, you will feel differently every day. Learners should try to feel the differences intentionally.

3. If the posture is not correct, then spirit and intention are not there. The result will be just like cooking an empty pot, even after many years of practice you will not be successful. There is a tease saying that ten years of Tai Chi Chuan practice is not as good as three years of kung fu. Therefore, for good Tai Chi Chuan practice: first you have to practice diligently; and secondly you need to have good understanding. Also, the result is dependent on your intelligence, but hard practice can help stupidity. So you should always encourage yourself to practice harder.

4. Breathing during practice - to breathe naturally. Do not force your breath deeply. After many times of practice, your Tai Chi Chuan will reach the natural point. By that time, the breath will be balanced automatically.

5. Originally the thirteen movements of Tai Chi Chuan are the guiding methods of "chi". Guiding means leading the circulation of "chi" and blood. Therefore, when you do a good job of guiding, the "chi" and the blood will have a good balance. All sickness will be gone, but don't misunderstand the method, and try very hard to obtain that balance. If you practice hard and naturally, you will get it when you reach maturity (when the time comes).

6. Loosen the shoulders and drop the elbows means don't hold the strength on the shoulders. Don't try to make the hands heavy, but move smoothly and lightly.

7. Suspend your top (of your head), and hold the bottom (anus). To suspend the top, the head has to be held naturally. If you hold the bottom, the "chi" will come up from there automatically. To withdraw the power, the breast has to be a bit vacant, but don't hold your breast and bend your back.

8. Every time when you practice the form, there are at least three things you must do. The first one is to relax your muscle. The second one is to adjust your postures. The third one is to concentrate more on intentions and spiritual styles. When you can master all the movements, then the spiritual style will appear when you move. When you reach this stage your improvement will be better and quicker.

9. Feeling and understanding of power - To learn these you have to practice more of the push hands, then you will get the benefits of stick, hold, touch, and follow. If you don't have a partner, you can always practice the form diligently, and always use two arms to feel the power. Try to imagine that your opponent is attacking you, and the way in which you are using to control him. If you keep on practicing like that for a long time, certainly you will learn the power too.

10. When you are doing push hands, the most important thing is to study the feeling of power, not trying to knock down your opponent. Try not to let your opponent discover your center, and always control your opponent's center.

11. You can practice Tai Chi Chuan while you are walking, standing, sitting, and laying. The method is to use your mind to circulate the "chi", and find the feeling. For example: to feel the difference between holding a tea cup with strength, and without strength; to feel the difference of walking with heavy steps, and with light steps. When you are standing still, try to feel the difference of straightening your legs, and bending your legs; one leg, or two legs on the ground.

12. During the early stages of practicing Tai Chi Chuan you might experience sore muscles, but don't worry, as this will pass and you will feel good later.

13. Basic steps to learning push hands is to know the power. There are many different types of power such as: stick on power, follow on power, internal power, suspending power, rubbing power, tendering power, fastening power, holding power, touching power, and pushing power. As well there are types of power such as penetrating bone power, shaking power, crisp power, sudden power, tenth of an inch power, shooting arrow power, and even power. In general the above powers are learned from the feeling developed during practice. It is harder to learn the power by oneself, but easier with two people, as people are alive. Additionally, you can use your own adjustment and feeling when you are enforcing the power. Of course, all the types of power are learned and discovered from body movements. If you have no partners, you can learn the power from the AIR.

14. The principles of Tai Chi Chuan: The root is on the feet; enforced from the legs; controlled by the waist; and expressed by the fingers. These are the principles of enforcing power: never let the knees come over the toes; never stretch the hands over your nose; never raise over your eyebrows; and don't press down below the center of the chest. All these are traditional rules. If you break these rules, then the power will not be as good. The variation is controlled by the waist. For example: If you push someone to the left with your right hand sideways, and your hand is over your nose, then the power will not be there. But if you let your left chest withdraw backward a little bit, and turn your waist to the left a little bit, then the power is there again. So this variation is on the chest, and controlled by the waist, and finally shows on you fingers, If the whole body is relaxed and sensitive, then strong power will show on the fingers.

15. People are animals, but with senses. For example: if I hit someone with my fist, the opponent certainly will use hands to block, or move his body to avoid the attack. It is the natural reaction of people, but materials are different. An example of this is a hanging sandbag. It is motionless hanging there. If you punch it, it will move forward and backward. The way it moves is on a fixed route. If you punch it to the left it will move back to the right. It is the reaction of materials. But people are different, the opponent will have various reactions for a punch. Therefore, a boxer has three words: steady, accurate, and fierce. If I don't have these three qualities, I cannot enforce the power. If I do, then the power has to be powerful. So, how to get steady, accurate, and fierce? First, you have to have sense. So, how does one get sense? Don't move if the opponent is not moving. If the opponent moves, you follow and finish the movement before he does. So you will have to fight for that second to finish the movement. Then you will be unbeaten.

16. Before learning Tai Chi Chuan, The strength might be dull strength. After learning Tai Chi Chuan the whole body is relaxed, and with good circulation of the "chi" and blood. But you must get rid of all the nervous tension, and keep the original dull strength. Because when you are relaxed, dull strength can be turned into real power. An example of dull strength is what some people call shoulder power, as the strength is held at the shoulder, and is not controlled by the waist and shown on the fingers. Therefore, dull power is the capital. Relaxation is the Method. If you know the method, then even small capital can achieve great success. if you don't know the method, then even with big capital you cannot be successful. That's why if you understand the principle of Tai Chi Chuan, it will benefit you for all kinds of sports. 

ZMQ bio

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https://taiwantoday.tw/news.php?unit=12%2C20%2C29%2C33%2C35%2C45&post=23405&fbclid=IwAR1UbB1a0UIB_pKyaKjAHmfHU4bBCy5xXRcDbr2SFMpZVx7dQGYGNFB7zkA 2019/01/15 Taiwan Today New Year PoliticsEconomicsSocietyEnvironmentCulturePhoto Gallery SUBSCRIBE LANGUAGE Home Society Taiwan Review Taiwan Review Tai Chi Chuan—Boxing for the Gentle Publication Date: January 01, 1963 | A- A+ Cheng Man-ching is also a painter (File photo) Robert Smith was beaten. The short, thin Chinese in his late 60s had let Robert punch him in the chest, abdomen and even the kidneys as hard as he could. The Chinese had only smiled and called for even harder blows, but Robert gave up. He had hurt his knuckles in trying too hard. The old man smiled broadly, as he had so many times before. Robert smiled ruefully. It was his first time to be beaten by a man who had done virtually nothing to win. Robert was not a weak man. In fact he was very strong. Back home in the States, he was a boxing coach. He learned judo in Japan, made the Third Order, Black Belt, and wrote a book about it. He was schooled in the Pai-kua, Shao-lin and Chin-na systems—the hard school of Chinese boxing that specifies force and violence. He weighed close to 200 pounds, mostly in bone and muscle. But this old man was a Tai Chi Chuan practitioner who draws power and strength from deep abdominal breathing and bases his boxing skill on the principle of yielding. He had proved that force and drive are no match for ease and flexibility. Accent on relaxation has made Tai Chi Chuan more than an art of self defense. It has become known as an excellent exercise for achieving mental relaxation through physical movement. The power of nature is found in grace and ease, the Tai Chi Chuan exponents say. In Chinese, Tai Chi means "The Ultimate," the reason for all beings and the epitome of life. A principle so complicated and yet so simple is not easy to conceptualize. It differs from what we are brought up to believe. Health and strength are not found in bulging biceps and hard muscles. A young lumberjack can be roundly defeated by an elderly scholar. To make the first move may be to lose the margin of victory. All this has to be seen to be believed. Even then, it is easy to suspect that some malarky is involved. On Taiwan today, the best man to disprove this is Prof. Cheng Man-ching, 61-year-old Chinese scholar who has been a master of Tai Chi Chuan for more then 30 years. He is one of the top disciples of Yang Cheng-fu, the reigning authority of his time. The name of Yang Cheng-fu may not mean anything to those knowing nothing of Chinese boxing. But in the annals of the pugilism of China, he was among the most illustrious. His fistic feats have become legends. He was known to subdue his opponent even before he was even touched. Chen Man-ching would not have learned the orthodox Tai Chi Chuan from Yang Cheng-fu had it not been for the revolution of 1911 that overthrew the Manchu Dynasty. Yang had been instructor in the imperial court, a most honored post for any pugilist in those days. His teaching was monopolized by princes and members of royal families. Revolution made him jobless but it also gave him an opportunity to teach commoners. His fame spread far and wide. Cheng at that time was a weak young man who had distinguished himself only in Chinese herb medicine practice. But he was suffering from T. B., which his herbs had failed to cure. He spat blood and had fever in the afternoon. Peptic disorders further enervated him. He was so weak that he could not sleep at night if he had walked more than a hundred paces during the day. He had almost given up his case as hopeless. Yang Cheng-fu did not take a disciple easily. As a well-known doctor, Cheng one day was invited to treat Mrs. Yang, who was seriously ill. The diagnosis was brilliant and Mrs. Yang soon was well. Out of gratitude and impressed with Cheng's talent, Yang Cheng-fu taught Cheng the secrets of Tai Chi Chuan. It took seven years for Cheng to learn them all and go out on his own. Cure Attested In relating his past, Cheng never hesitates to reiterate his conviction that Tai Chi Chuan is a cure for T. B. "My internal hemorrhages stopped and my temperature returned to normal within a few months of practice," he said. "In less than a year, my coughing was gone. But it took six or seven years to end headaches, loose teeth, dim eyesight and failure in concentration. I am now over 60 years old, and I can do everything anyone else is normally able to do. My eyesight is better than it was 30 years ago and I read small letters without the aid of glasses. My teeth are stronger than before. Cheng's day is full of activities. A many-talented man, he divides his time among poetry, calligraphy, and Chinese painting in addition to herb medicine and Tai Chi Chuan. For years, he has been tutor of Chinese painting and calligraphy for Madame Chiang Kai-shek. His is the story of rebirth. His primary purpose in learning Tai Chi Chuan was to improve his health. He said he never dreamed then that one day he would be able to beat nationally known pugilists. Chinese pugilism is a tough and serious business. No hold or blow is barred or overruled. Boxers fight with fists, elbows, shoulders, knees, edges of the hands, fingers and feet — in ways designed to inflict different wounds on certain parts of the body. A Chinese pugilist gives no quarter and gets none. In his career as Tai Chi Chuan authority, Cheng has been challenged many times. For years he was the director of the Pugilists' Association of Hunan Province. Hunan was the mecca of Chinese pugilism. It was there that he met the toughest opponents of his life. Chinese boxers of all sorts came to test his mettle. They left with glowing respect. Prof. Cheng doesn't close his doors to curious visitors, even now. Among them was a man called Liang, champion of the Shao-lin school. Liang was a strapping man with, over-sized hands. He was ambitious. He had beaten too many to be modest. And now he must challenge Cheng Man-ching to prove himself. Through a common friend, Liang invited the old master to dinner. After a few drinks, he dropped his gauntlet. But Cheng Man-ching smiled and said it was not his custom to show his boxing skills at a restaurant. Nevertheless, he would welcome Liang to have a "friendly bout" at his house. The Challenger At his unpretentious home, the master waited. Liang turned up on the second day. He was aggressive and refused to call it a day after he had lost in some minor contests. This taxed the patience of the master. "Attack me any way you want," Prof. Cheng said. "If I am seen moving my hands in defense, call me a man without a family name." To lose one's family name is worse than death to an honorable Chinese. The witnesses were momentarily worried. The Shao-lin pugilist used the most deadly fist-and-leg onslaught. But at the point of contact, he bounced off as if he had been electrified. He crashed through a door yards away. No one on the scene saw Prof. Cheng move his hands. The fall was not all. That night, Liang's head was swollen like a watermelon. As a boxer, he knew it was an inner wound and that no one except the man responsible could do anything about it. So he went back with humbled heart and Prof. Cheng gave him treatment. Liang wound up becoming a Tai Chi Chuan convert and began to take lessons from Prof. Cheng. Eliminates ear It is inconceivable to the uninitiated how a Tai Chi Chuan boxer trained only in physical and mental relaxation can fight a man of muscle. Relaxation is, in fact, the secret, and the degree of accomplishment is measured by one's ability to relax. The most advanced achieve a mental calm that is a great force in itself. Prof. Cheng often says that Tai Chi Chuan is a mental process that eliminates fear, which is man's biggest enemy. Fear makes a man rigid, deprives him of flexibility and paralyzes both body and mind. When a student practices Tai Chi movements, he is taught to deal with an imaginary enemy who is strong and fierce. But when he is actually facing an opponent, he must imagine there is no one in front of him. The appearance of Prof. Cheng as Tai Chi Chuan master is deceptive. He wears sideburns and whiskers. Chinese long gown and cloth-soled shoes are his everyday attire. On occasions, he puts on the gown-like dress he designed himself. He is more than unobtrusive; he looks sluggish. That was the way he looked to me when I called upon him one autumn evening three years ago. He came to answer the door himself. His speech was relaxed and relaxing and he moved slowly. I wondered if I had made a mistake. It was not until I had known Tai Chi Chuan for a year that I understood why the master walked the way he did. He was not walking, really. He was moving in the unhurried, continuous and relaxed way of Tai Chi Chuan, which had become a part of his living. Footwork is of paramount importance to a Tai Chi Chuan practitioner. It is to his feet, or rather to his soles, that his weight and strength must go. From his soles spring his power and momentum. His push is designed to "uproot" his Opponent or to unbalance him so that he loses his mental equilibrium. But such "pushes" cannot be administered unless they come straight from the soles. To be "pushed" by Prof. Cheng is unforgettable. I first had the experience in a friend's house where four Americans were also present. By way of explanation, Prof. Cheng asked me to stand about a foot and a half from the wall and place my hands on his arms to push him. I was no novice in Chinese boxing. I had devoted years in my school days to learning "crane boxing," and I had been pushed by strong men many times before in my life. But before I could exert pressure on his arms, I bounced off and hit the wall with a thud. It was a horrifying loss of balance. Failing to steady myself, I lurched to the right and smashed into a glass door three feet away. That was one of his gentlest pushes. Now that I have studied Tai Chi Chuan for three years, I know it was not merely his strength that gave me such a strong push. It was my own force reflected on his sensitive hands. It was the desire to win and to muscle in quickly that undid me. Ideal Exercise Many Chinese learn Tai Chi Chuan for its health giving aspects. It is an exercise for all, young or old, male or female. Because of its complete emphasis on relaxation, it is almost effortless. Progress calls for more relaxation and concentration. Advanced Tai Chi pugilists learn to fill their "Tan Tien," the spot a little below the navel, with abdominal breathing. Prof. Chen says "Tan Tien" is the reservoir of vigor and vitality. For one in search of an exercise that takes the minimum physical exertion but produces maximum effect, Tai Chi Chuan is ideal. I have watched men and women in their 60s take up the exercise with excellent results. After some time, they even managed to do such difficult movements as "the Snake Slips Downward", which calls for sitting on one foot in a squatting position while stretching out the other leg. All Tai Chi Chuan movements have descriptive names. You have "Brush the Tail of Sparrow", "Golden Cock Stands on One Leg", "Embrace the Tiger to Return to the Mountain", "The Crane Spreads Its Wings" and many others. The set Cheng Man-ching learned from Yang Cheng-fu consisted of 128 movements. Prof. Cheng believed many of the repetitive movements could be cut out, so he spent years in shortening the set to 37 movements. His simplified version takes less than 10 minutes. To go through the movements both in the morning and before going to bed is more than enough to keep one fit and healthy. Power of Passivity The origin of Tai Chi Chuan dates to the time of Huang Ti, one of the earliest emperors of recorded Chinese history. It then was blended with the philosophy of Laotze, who believed in the power of passivity. The movements of Tai Chi Chuan were not organized until toward the end of Sung Dynasty, some 800 years ago, when a Taoist leader named Chang San-feng devised the whole set. Tai Chi Chuan—Boxing for the Gentle The power is mercurial yet explosive (File photo) The Taoists in those days spent most of their waking hours in contemplative sitting. Chang realized that lack of physical exercise might be harmful to health. Once he watched a snake fight a bird. The bird was jumping around and crying excitedly while the snake waited silently, its head poised for attack. The snake struck swiftly and surely and killed the bird instantly. Inspired by the ease of the snake's attack, Chang established the fundamental principle of Tai Chi Chuan that softness overcomes hardness. Chang's disciples formed the school of Wutan Mountain. Temple feuds were common in those days and pugilism became an important institution among the monks. These were men without mundane cares who could afford to devote years to hard training and spartan living to become good boxers. Rivaling the Wutan boxers of that time were the Buddhists at the Shaolin Temple, the seat of worshippers of brute force and physical impact. They were trained to split a stack of bricks with one blow of the hand and to send a man flying with a kick of the foot. A Shaolin trainee "graduated" by fighting his way through a tunnel equipped with boxing automatons. Despite all the training of brawn, the Shaolin pugilists proved no match for the Wutan Tai Chi boxers. The vendetta has been a source of innumerable stories for China's writers on pugilism. Like other arts and feats, Tai Chi Chuan has different sects. The school to which Prof. Cheng belongs is called Yang, the name of its founder. Yang Lu-shan was a rich farmer in Hupei province in the middle of the Ching Dynasty, the last before the 1911 revolution. A man of good nature, he was constantly mauled and mistreated by local bullies. So he sought to defend himself by learning Tai Chi Chuan. He proved to be a genius and soon became the scourge of the bullies. As the years passed, his fame spread. It reached such a peak that the court of the Ching Dynasty offered him the post of boxing dean at the royal palace. It meant he would be teaching members of the royal family exclusively, and so would be his sons and grandsons. The secrets were not to be handed down to daughters, in the tradition of the times, because they would not remain in the family. Many Stories The pugilistic feats of Yang Lu-shan made incredible stories but are alleged to have been true. Prince Dwan was skeptical. So in Yang's first evening at the imperial court, the young prince set loose two ferocious hounds. The dogs came at his legs but suddenly howled in retreat. Yang walked on as if nothing had happened. Next morning the dogs were found in their kennels, refusing to eat. Other boxers at the court found their lucrative posts in jeopardy because of Yang's presence. They ganged up against him. One evening as Yang passed a deserted alley outside the court, more than a hundred embittered boxers attacked him with rods, stones and bricks. Yang squatted and covered his head with his hood, making no attempt to defend himself. To everyone present, he was beaten to a pulp. But he wasn't. The next morning he went about his business at the court as usual while those who beat him groaned in bed, their bodies bruised and painful. Fantastic as the stories may seem, they aver the cardinal principle of Tai Chi Chuan: that force and violence used to hurt another hurts only the attacker. Tai Chi Chuan practitioners are so wary of the backfiring nature of force that they develop a touch so light and tentative it seems to come from a hand without bones. All the movements of Tai Chi Chuan train the pupil to be as supple as a child. The hands of an accomplished Tai Chi boxer are usually fair-skinned and smooth. It is the "chi" that does it, Prof. Cheng would say. His hands are as fair as those of a maiden. "Chi" is hard to explain. It is breath but it is not. It is blood circulation but not quite. It is mental concentration, perhaps. It could be an inner power moved by will. Nobody knows for sure. I am certain of only one thing. The more I know about Tai Chi Chuan, the less I care to subject it to scientific analysis. No scientist himself, Prof. Cheng still has used physics to prove his points. He believes Tai Chi Chuan is one of China's greatest inventions and should be introduced to the West. During World War II, he staged two impressive demonstrations at the British Embassy and the American military mission in Chungking. In both cases, sturdy stalwarts experienced in Western boxing were selected to disprove his strength. None of their blows even landed. Instead of hitting him, they were sent lurching many feet away. One towering giant of some 230 pounds tried twice. He was obviously perplexed by the inexplicable power of the small Chinese. Frustrated in the first attempt, he attacked even more violently. But force again undid him. He was tottering perilously toward a serious fall and the spectators were watching with apprehension. Before anyone knew what was happening Prof. Cheng had darted to his side to steady him with a soft hand on the elbow. None would believe it as easily as Robert Smith. After studying Tai Chi Chuan under Prof. Cheng for almost two years, he still needs that tender and kindly hand to check his fall.

misc.

.	.

John Chang

'Magus of Java’ fame. Passed away a few years ago, around 2015 

demo of moving vhs empty boxes with yang qi

starting around 8:20, 🔗demo of moving vhs empty boxes with yang qi (john chang supplies yin qi)

taobums interview with Kosta 2011

OK, folks, I am going to do this via pdf so that everyone can download the Q &A. My answers

are in blue. Most questions are legit and I wouldn't mind having a conversation with the

people who posted them. Some are not, and I have answered appropriately.

My apologies for this format but time has become the most precious commodity we

possess.

anamatva, on 26 October 2011 - 06:50 AM, said:

1. does internal power such as can perform miraculous physical actions (chopsticks, knives,

pyro, telekinesis, etc) have uses in realizing spiritual truth. In other words, can the robust qi

of a practitioner be used to gain insight?

Answer: It can, though not necessarily. Internal power is a tool like anything else; if you

misuse a hammer, you can break your hand, if you hit yourself on the head with one, well,

good luck to you. Internal power is just an added physical medium, nothing more. I have

met far more people that had realized spiritual truth without internal power, than with

internal power.

If internal power is used under monastic discipline, as with the Tibetan Naropa yogas, then

the chances for realizing spiritual truth are greater. If I am distracted on a daily basis by

the image of Zoe Saldana ( guilty) , the odds of my achieving spiritual truth are greatly

diminished.

2. does it have usefulness for longevity, or does it cause excess wear on the body, and

energy body, to start fires with ones qi and do similar things?

Answer: If you use it with the intention of generating power, it is more likely to cause

harm to you that not. If you use it for longevity, the approach is different and more

balanced. To quote Philip K. Dick, the light that burns twice as bright lasts half as long.

thank you

You're very welcome.

Kali Yuga, on 26 October 2011 - 09:56 AM, said:

I want to know the answers to 2 specific questions which only Kosta is capable of answering.

1. What is the nature of your disbandment why John Chang and you did not get along? Jim

McMillan, also former student of Chang, has told me that John refused to teach him any

further due to the "Headmaster Spirit" being angry there being foreigners in the school? Is

this relevant in your case? What is the real reason why you are a "former" student of Chang

and not a "current" student pursuing fusion and beyond? As anyone on this forum would

give their left gonad to be a lifelong student of that man.

Answer: From the very beginning, Sifu John told me that non-Chinese could not be

students of the school. At the time, he seemed to waiver from that commitment for

personal reasons of his own; perhaps he did not expect that we Westerners would

progress so rapidly. When the Magus of Java came out, there was a backlash from the

Chinese students; right or wrong, the rules of the school had literally been written down.

So we were told that we could not progress beyond a specific level. I refused and resigned

from the school. I have searched after many spiritual disciples of both the East and the

West, and cannot consent to racism as a basis for any type of spirituality, though I will

freely admit it exists everywhere. Having rejected the spiritual base of the Mo Pai, I no

longer wished to be involved; neikung is too much work.

I never "disbanded" with John Chang. I have not talked to him in years, but he always

inquires about me and I about him when visitors go one way or the other. Perhaps one day

we will meet again.

2. As to your knowledge, has there ever been any Indonesian to ever complete the base

training of mopai to the point of "Fusion of Yin & Yang"? or not? Is there anyone in the

Indonesian school to have achieved likeness like Chang with electrogenesis and pyrokinesis

etc, or have all the students not been able to fuse their yin and yang?

Answer: No. There are some who have developed very unusual abilities, extraordinary

abilities, as did I when I was training, but none like Sifu John. Please understand, this is

completely logical. In the history of this lineage, there were only ever one or two students

in each generation, with the Headmaster recognizing the latent talent of the newcomer

when he appeared. Sifu John was not at a level where he could see this, so he opted for a

democratic approach, figuring he would let Nature sort things out. But you cannot be a

fighter pilot unless you have perfect eyesight. It may be (and is likely) that no one will

follow him, that instead the lineage will continue in a different form. And this is

completely OK.

Peace Profound.

And to you.

orb, on 26 October 2011 - 01:18 PM, said:

I believe that a big problem that appeared since the publishing of the book was something

along the lines:

Here is an amazing valid system that many people would love to practice but they can't

because the access has been denied (the reasons are irrelevant)

So I have a question with two kinda ramifications:

Since Kosta (and westerners in general) cannot be taught past level 3(or 2b), what form of

Qigong/Neigung does he continue to practice?

Answer: I do not. I practice meditation every so often and breathing every so often to

secure the flow, but not rigorous qigong as it is popularly perceived and most certainly not

neigung (having rediscovered sex with my wife in my dotage). I seem to retain most of my

abilities however (though not all); I do not know if that is because during the eight years I

practiced strenuously, my internal make-up was changed by virtue of the training.

Or is there any other school that he would recommend since Mopai is inaccessible to

westerners?

Answer: If you are interested in achieving transcendence of the spirit via a method similar

to the MoPai, then I would counsel following the path of Tibetan Buddhism from a good

teacher of the Naropa yogas, though you must be prepared to dedicate twelve years of

your life. If you are interested in martial arts, I would suggest the lineage of Chen

taichichuan as taught by Chen Xiaowang, who is a great master. If you are interested in

power, I am personally very capable with both a Glock 17 and a Ruger .357 Vaquero, and

can recommend both these firearms without hesitation.

Thank you Mr. Becker for doing this.

Thank Spiros the pilot - he is the one who was surfing on taobums and got me to read

through the Danaos topics, bribing me with beer. Mr. Becker of course had told me all

about this site in the past, even referencing specific links, but he being in China and I in

Greece, he could not physically grab me by the scruff of the neck and set me down in front

of a keyboard as is his practice. In any case, when I became interested in doing this I

dumped on Mike because he is my friend.

Sinfest, on 27 October 2011 - 06:25 AM, said:

6) Is it possible to channel energy directly from from the universe for energy work (like

healing, sidddhis, etc) - or do we have to absorb it, store it & convert it to a more usable

form (like an electrical transformer) first before we can use it? (from post 42)

Answer: Both. Think of piping and reservoirs and access to a river to get the proper

mental picture. The larger the reservoir, the more water it can store, the larger the

diameter of the pipe, the more flow it can contain. Channel energy is literally like that.

5) Advice?

Based upon your long study in MoPai, qigong, martial arts and life in general - do you any

key tips (like referred to on p 36), precautions or wisdom you'd like to impart to us?

Answer: I don't think my study of MoPai neigong or qigong in general was terribly long; I

studied for eight years, however diligently it may have been. The key tip I can offer is to

strive for balance in your life between material demands and the pursuit for spiritual

truth. My own preoccupation with the MoPai was because I thought it could offer a return

to more primitive practices in the pursuit of spirituality and a means to combat

materialism; I fear what is coming ahead for all humanity, you see, should greed and

ignorance continue to prevail. That having been said, I counsel balance and very deliberate

actions in your future; trust in Allah but tie up your camel.

More_Pie_Guy, on 27 October 2011 - 07:49 AM, said:

1. The twin goals of "enlightenment" & "immortality" are often listed as the ultimate neidan endgames.. However, "enlightenment" is often described as the transcendence of all duality

(including Self)...whereas "immortality" would be the eternal preservation of "Self," no? It seems almost contradictory, but I suppose this "immortal self" that does goes on would be a

transcendence of life/death (belonging not quite wholly to either state) as Sambhogakāya?

Or no?

Answer: Damn, these are good questions! Give that man a cigar. It is no coincidence that

George Lucas chose just these archetypes as the foundation of the Jedi and the Sith

respectively: the Jedi dissolve into the Universe and become one with it; the Sith endure

and promote their own "immortal self". Having studied Buddhism before the MoPai,

these are questions that bothered me as well. Then there is the stanza in the Tao Te Ching

that states (my translation) "those who retain their center endure, those who die but

continue to exist are immortal".

I'm afraid I cannot really answer your question - I can offer an opinion , but not an answer.

My opinion is that the Mass Unconscious, the Overmind if you will, resides beyond space

and time in what the Chinese call yin, and what we today are calling gravity wells and dark

matter. The more of our conscious mind that we pour into this Overmind, the more that is

retained, until in the end you become a fully-fledged and voting member of the Board of

Directors. I think that is what the fuss is about regarding the union of yin and yang. The

Buddhist approach, as you know, involves essentially "melting" all the yang chakras so

that the knots are freed and one's personality merges with Mind.

Which approach is correct? Who knows? I'm afraid I'm not really qualified to offer more of

an answer, but thank you for the question - it was a good one.

2. My personal question to you is with your background in engineering, what do you believe

Qi or Chi really is.

Answer: What I have stated repeatedly. I believe yang chi is the force that is driving solar

nuclear fusion, the expansive positive force of the universe, and that yin is its

dark/gravitational counterpart, the contractive force of the universe. The effect of

observation (Mind) on particle reality is well documented; I would study the works of

Penrose, by example.

In the Greek Orthodox church, there is the example of St. Spyridon , who reportedly

converted a pagan philosopher to Christianity by using a potsherd or brick to illustrate

how one single entity (a piece of fired clay) could be composed of three unique entities

(fire, water and clay), a metaphor for the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. The potsherd is

said to have miraculously burst into flame, water dripping to the ground, and only dust

remaining in his hand. My personal belief is that everything is like this: the spiritual is not

separate from the physical or the mental. This is how I view chi- as part of physical theory,

but a part of physics as yet defined.

kundalini, on 27 October 2011 - 08:22 AM, said:

1) What is your level?

Answer: Ah! I take pride in stating with humility that, after a year of painstaking effort, I

have finally reached Level 50 in Fallout New Vegas, and can go no further because no new

DLCs are being produced.

2) Could you explain completely what you know of the MoPai level 4 technique?

Answer: I already have.

Harmonious Emptiness, on 27 October 2011 - 08:29 AM, said:

I haven't read The Magus of Java, but Mo Pai is no less intriguing by what I have read on TTB.

My questions are:

Since the goals of Mo Pai make it somewhat of an "Enlightenment practice," is there a

philosophical foundation of Mo Pai which helps to bring students towards a supreme

understanding of Reality?

Answer: I suggest you read the Magus of Java to answer these questions; I understand it is

on pirate websites as a torrent, though I cannot legally advocate that you download it

from there. But in summary the philosophical principles of the school follow the line of Mo

Tzu, though what I witnessed in Java was more along the line of shamanism and ancestor

worship.

Are there scriptures or texts in particular, Taoist, Buddhist, or others, that help to reach this

goal, or are philosophies of Mo Pai all learned directly from a master, and through one's

perseverance in the practices Mo Pai?

Answer: Sifu John has a book given to him by his master with the practices of the school

outlined in medieval Chinese all the way up to Level 72. I have seen it, but of course could

not read it.

Yuen Biao, on 08 November 2011 - 09:07 PM, said:

I have two simple questions:

1. What type of meditation does Kostas prefer to practise in terms of what he believes gives

him most benefit; for instance would that be standing (wu ji, Zhan Zhuang) or seated for

instance (lotus, seiza).

Answer: Even though I have practiced other forms of meditation, most likely due to simple

repetition, I still like to practice the MoPai seated method, sitting in a half-lotus because of

creaky knees. It seems I can reach deeper states of meditation with this practice. Bear in

mind though that such choices are very personal.

2. Does Kostas agree with Bruce Lee in regard to his famous quote: "It's not the daily

increase but daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential." And can we also follow this

philosophy in terms of spiritual practices and internal martial arts?

Answer: Yes and no. I certainly would not counsel wasting one's time with

overcomplicating things. On the other hand, I firmly believe that ability equals the definite

integral of effort put in over time, dt - the more time you put in, the more efficient you will

become as well.

*Edit - to say thank you!

You are very welcome.

Trunk, on 08 November 2011 - 10:51 PM, said:

two questions:

1. In your view, are there some few fundamental principles / mechanics pertaining to

cultivation in general that we should keep in mind?

1. In your view, are there some few fundamental principles / mechanics pertaining to

harmonizing essence that we should keep in mind?

Answer to both: Remember that we are complex entities, and yet, like St. Spyridon's brick,

all one unit. Neither cultivation nor harmonizing essence are independent of one's own

nervous system or metabolism, nor are our actions independent of the consequences of

our own lives. If your nervous system is unhealthy, your mind will suffer as well. If your

metabolism is unhealthy, so will your practice become unhealthy. Be deliberate and

responsible, and accept that one plus one equals two. Keep this in mind and you will do

well.

vortex, on 14 November 2011 - 10:21 AM, said:

1) Do Yin & Yang qi attract or repel each other? (Your book seemed to contradict itself on

this?)

Answer: Both. They are not friends but business partners. As solar nuclear fusion contests

the force of gravity and hence shapes space and time, and vice-versa, so do yin and yang qi

compete. Where one goes, the other inevitably follows, vying for supremacy.

3) How exactly does the fusion of Yin Qi and Yang Qi in Houtian neidan (like MoPai) lead to

enlightenment and/or immortality?

Answer: I have tried to answer this to my best ability time and time again; unfortunately,

being neither enlightened nor immortal, I cannot do better than I have already done.

Thank You

You are welcome.

MJJ Becker: Further to the above, there were of course a bunch of other questions asked. I

leave it to your discretion whether you wish to take up the option of addressing any of

these and have copied them below:

Enishi, on 26 October 2011 - 05:31 AM, said:

In The Magus of Java, is the description of the fight between the two masters that included

phrases such as 'it was as if bombs had been dropped' intended to be literal or partly

symbolic/figurative? Although I have experienced things like remote viewing and spirits, I

found this part of the book a bit hard to swallow.

Answer: Then by all means do not swallow it. I do not think symbolism is implied, though I

could be wrong. Sifu John told me the story, and I being a Westerner, recorded everything

on tape for posterity and to prevent accusations of embellishing and/or fantasizing. I am

responsible for the literary depiction, not the content of the story; that, you will have to

take up with Sifu John.

Warrior Body Buddha Mind, on 26 October 2011 - 07:03 AM, said:

Q: How does one sever the Dan Tian chords in Mo Pai - is it mental or physical?

Answer: Both; the two are inseparable. Tell me you can have a thought without

simultaneously firing up a matrix of neurons and neural synapses in your brain. One

indication that you have severed a chord is that you briefly pass blood in your urine for

one or two days upon severing each one; this quickly passes. When the chords are

severed, you can actually feel the "ball" move in your belly at your command.

-K-, on 26 October 2011 - 08:07 AM, said:

Great! Thanks for doing this Mjj!

I'm curious about what changes need to take place in a person in order for them to be able

to do things like John Chang is able to do (supposed to do, because I have to admit to being

unable to believe it )

thanks!

Answer: Since everything is fractal, I believe the changes reach all the way down to the

structure of our DNA.

Gren1o1, on 26 October 2011 - 01:02 PM, said:

I am in China teaching english, and wondering if Kosta knows where Mo Pai originated from?

The exact origins/location of where it was founded, head quartered or anything alike. There

could be remnants of when the tradition branched off that might accept students.

Answer: When I was studying Chemical Engineering, I used to have a professor who fielded

off questions with the blanket statement: "It's all in the book!", given that he had written

the textbook we were using. I went through all that in the Magus of Java, and have to beg

off doing so again here. I have no idea whether or not there may be another lineage

accepting students, but I doubt it.

suninmyeyes, on 27 October 2011 - 03:36 AM, said:

Could WarriorBBM or anyone else who understands what Dan Tian chords are and severing

them means explain it to me please? I am courious and have tried to google it but found no

answer.

I saw this chord severing recently around TTB and am not familiar with the concept in this

kind of context.

Is it something akin to passing through the gates of fear, psychological and emotional

,spiritual detangeling ? Or?

What are the chords? How could someone severe it physically?

Thanks

Answer: I think I answered this question previously.

Ish, on 12 November 2011 - 09:37 PM, said:

I figure it might be too late, but it's worth a shot.

1. In terms of energetics and nei kung, what effects do the typical Buddhist practices of

Vipassana (Insight) and Shamatha (Concentration) have?

2. Were there any practices more focused on the "mind" level rather than the energetic level

in the Mo Pai system? What were their aims?

Answers: Good questions!

1. Since similar neikung disciplines are found in Vajrayana Buddhism, I believe both

Vipassana and Shamatha practices can help you quite a bit. I personally believe that MoPai

neikung derives from the lost tradition of Amoghasiddhi, though I will not elaborate on

this for lack of concrete proof.

2. MoPai neikung is strictly energetics. It was primarily developed for combat after all.

vortex (again) on 14 November 2011 - 10:21 AM, said:

2) Does MoPai pose any particular health risks? And if so, how much of this is due to

malpractice vs detoxing?

Answer: I know of no one who has not suffered some kind of complication. I believe that

this is because the techniques were originally developed for use by hermits/monks.

4) Did you really see John Chang levitate nearly a foot off the carpeted hotel floor like you

wrote in The Magus of Java?

Answer: Ah, the Jim McMillan controversy! I was told about this. Can anyone else see how

much of an oxymoron this question is? Jim asserts that I am embellishing because John

cannot really levitate, but instead is able to "merely" step on a vertical cigarette, whereas

the evil Kostas says he has seen him completely nullify the force of gravity. Surely this is

simply a matter of degree, or am I misreading the situation?

Oh, and by the way, Batman beats Spiderman every time.

5) Jim McMillan said that John once had a friendly encounter with Mike Tyson and demo'd

some ability on him that Mike apparently had trouble resisting. Do you know exactly what

happened in this incident?

Answer: Uh... blink? Blink again? (Vague uncomprehending look on face).

rodgerj, on 14 November 2011 - 10:48 AM, said:

Seems I'm late on this one. If I could ask though I'd ask;

1) Why do you think Pak John was so unhappy about your books

2) Why do you think Hollywood refused the proposal to make a movie?

Answer: When I was a kid, I kept a goldfinch in a cage. It used to ruffle its feathers and

puff up to twice its size in an attempt to appear fierce, not realizing that the loud

mammalian sounds that accompanied that effort, were quite simply the laughter of

children.

To answer your questions then:

1. He wasn't unhappy about them. Your perception of the matter is skewed.

2. I don't think, I know precisely, since I was the one who was talking to the producers in

the first place (and very serious producers they were). Moreover, Hollywood did not

refuse; I did. The book was deemed to be un-cinematographic (in other words, of

insufficient interest for the broad public); the scene that produced the most interest was

the battle of Pai Lok Nen with Lim. As a consequence, they wanted to rewrite the whole

thing, with scenes of me flying through the air à la Crouching Tiger and battling the evil

Maoshanpai dudes who had come to prevent the white apprentice from ascending to the

Jedi council halleluiah. So I ditched the option.

Give me a break.

Cameron, on 14 November 2011 - 04:00 PM, said:

I am late in the game on this so no worries if it doesn't make the cut.

I just have one question.

Have these practices made you a happier person?

Answer: Not the practices themselves, but a by-product of same. In practicing the MoPai

techniques, my heart chakra or whatever was inadvertently opened; I have a burn mark in

the center of my chest that has not gone away for seven years and seemingly never will.

Since that time, I have also suffered the tribulations of life: illness and health, wealth and

scarcity, friendship and animosity, love and hate. All these have served to make me a

happier person.

Taoist Yoga notes



Vitality quantified from birth to death.

64 chu (in weight)  = 1 unit positive (yang) principle.

Vitality dissipates (harms real nature) through desire and passion , quest for fame and wealth, cunning + artfulness, tricks.

The formula for natural gain and loss through aging

Vitality increases by 64 chu every 32 months until age 16yr.

Vitality decreases by 64 chu every 8 years after age 16. 

Age

Vitality (in weight)

At conception

24 chu inherited from parents

2yr + 8mth

1 unit = 64c chu

5yr + 4mth

2 unit = 128 chu

8yr

3 unit = 192 chu

10yr + 8mth

4 unit = 256 chu

13yr + 4mth

5 unit = 320 chu

16yr

6 unit = 384 chu = 1 catty [MAX VITALITY]

24yr

5 unit

32yr

4 unit

40yr

3 unit

48yr

2 unit (hair and beard turn grey)

56yr

1 unit (liver weakens, sight becomes bad, memory fails, consitution withers)

64yr

0 unit (white hair, energy exhausted, features emaciated, death fast closing in)

If the proper kind of meditation is done, gathering generative force…

For 100 successive days

+1 unit positive principle (64 chu vitality gained)

For another 100 days

+2 unit. Body is strong and all ailments vanish

For another 100 days

+3 unit. All cavities in body are cleared for rejuvenation, steps are light and quick, clear sight and good hearing

For another 100 days

+4 feel very comfortable like wealthy man who has all means to enjoy life, skin lustrous and white hair turns black

For another 100 days

+5 spirits very high, new teeth grow to replace fallen ones

For another 100 days

+6 enjoy cream of life life while restore body fully to its all positive state in early infancy and regaining circle of taiji (supreme ultimate) wheren real positive vitality and essential nature unite to emit he precious cauldron (in the head) and that of true life in the stove (in the lower abdomen).

Overcoming lust: can be achieved by mastering the first 6 phases of taoist alchemy, after which jing is full, penis retracts.

5 pungent roots: garlic, onion, 3 kinds of leeks: are an aphrodisiac which cause extra production of generative fluids

Overcoming gluttony : vegetarian diet, avoiding 5 pungent roots.

The perfect man is free from dreams.

Method: coiling up body into 5 dragons. Purpose: banish dreaming, hence eliminating nocturnal emissions which occur from erotic dreams.

1

Composing one's head (i.e. put it in comfortable position)

2

Curve and recline body on either side, like coiled length of a sleeping dragon fr the curved body of a dog

3

Bend one arm for a pillow 

4

Other arm stretching to place hand on belly

5

Straighten one leg

6

Bend other leg

7

Even before heart is immersed in sleep, pupils of both eyes should be drawn close to each other for pointed concentration on the great emptiness so that in the condition of utter stillness the vital principle returns automatically to its source (under the navel)

8

Breathing is normal and self-regulated, and the (vital) breath is brought under perfect control

In both seated meditation and sleeping,

1

Exhale out impure air

2

Inhale in fresh air in order to set heart at rest

3

See and hear nothing (disengage all 6 senses)

4

Close mouth and touch palate with tip of tongue

5

Empty mind of all thoughts

6

Drive down air breathed in (into lower dan tien 3 inches below navel)

7

Abstain from moving limbs

8

Concentrate on spirit (between and behind the eyes) and drive it down into the cavity of vitality (lower dan tien) where spirit and vitality become inseparable, like slow fire kept in a stove.

9

As time passes his spirit becomes stronger and he will even forget about sleeping; his vitality will be full and cause him to forget about eating; his generative force will be full freeing him from all sexual desires and causing his body to be strong and light; his heart will be pure and spiritual; his vitality will be genuine; his spirit will be perfect and divine; thus he will enter upon the path of immortality. This resting breath is far more advanced than the foetal breath.

Why does nocturnal emission occur?

When a man is awake, his consciousness I seated in his eyes, but when he sleeps at night, it is lodged in the lower abdomen. So when he sleeps his breathing disturbs all 6 senses and arouses the generative force which will drain away. 

Method 10: Gathering Vitality and stopping nocturnal emissions

Each evening before going to bed, relax your heart and sit in meditaiton.

When (vital) breath vibrates and penis erects:

1. press left  middle finger to left palm (dragon cavity - linked to heart and lower abdomen via artery)

2. press right middle finger to right palm (tiger cavity - linked to heart and lower abdomen via vein)

3. place right palm on left pressing 

4. raise tongue to the palate to make a bridge linking microcosmic

5. look up and to the left

6. breathe in to raise (vitality) to region of the brain (ni wan)

7. breathe out to lower it ot the mortal gate (at root of penis).to prevent generative fluid from draining away

8. After several cycles, penis will retract

Method 9 transmutes generative force and vitality into immortal seed, but before it matures it tends to vibrate at night and drain away of itself even in the absence of thoughts and dreams, hence the need for method 10. 

If cultivator has previously given rise to perverse thoughts while gathering the generative force, to sexual desires when seeing attractive women or to disturbance at licentious talk, the arousal of the genital organ indicates that he will lose the 'precious thing' at night even in the absence of thoughts during his sleep! 

 

Hu yaozhen beaten by Zhang Qinlin



WANG YEN-NIEN TALKS ABOUT ZHANG QINLIN

An interview by Sam Tomarchio

Translated by Julia Fisher-Fairchild

(Volume 4, NO. 1, SPRING 1996)

After moving to Shanxi province, Zhang Qinlin earned his living by buying and selling furs and skins. He did not hang out a sign and start teaching taijiquan. No one knew that he had been taught taijiquan. During this time he entered the Gold Mountain School of Daoism (Jin Shan Pai). Zuo Yifeng, who was my daoist teacher's teacher, was Zhang's daoist teacher. With Zuo, he began learning neigong and daoist gongfu. As his internal alchemy, neigong and daoist breathing improved, his taijiquan and gongfu took giant leaps forward. It was then that he began to be on the lookout for young potential martial artists - and accepted his first student: Wang Shanzhi.

Even though Wang Shanzhi was a pretty good student, Zhang Laoshi did not teach him Yangjia Michuan Taijiquan. He first taught him the 81Step3, using this time to observe Wang's character, how he practiced, and what type of person he was. Zhang wanted to see if Wang was the right "material". He saw that Wang Shanzhi was good, but not exactly what he was either looking or hoping for, and Wang remained at the level of the 81-Step. So Zhang Qinlin was still on the lookout for young people with good potential. It is said that not only do students look for a good teacher - teachers also look for potential students.

Then he found a man named Hu Yaozhen. Hu, already an accomplished Xingyi practitioner and teacher, had a strong physique and worked hard. Hu had heard of Zhang Qinlin and knew that his gongfu was great. Zhang Laoshi saw that Hu was not afraid to train hard, and Zhang was willing to accept him as a student. But before he actually entered the door", Hu said he wanted to challenge Zhang. If Zhang beat him, then Hu would become his student. [To understand this, we must remember that] Hu Yaozhen was not only very skilled, but a well known master of Xingyi. He was the "king" of Shanxi, Hebei and Sulyuan provinces -and was known as the best xingyi master. No one in these three provinces had ever defeated him. He was also about five years older than Zhang Qinlin and so felt he had to challenge Zhang -- and be beaten by him -- before he entered the door. Zhang Qinlin said, "Are you sure you want to do this? You are not going to bow to your laoshi unless we do this?" Then Zhang told Hu that if he (Hu) lost, he would not take him as a student. Hu replied: "Who are you anyway? You just arrived in Shanxi province. Nobody knows you. You must be dreaming to be saying this to me." Then Hu said, "If you win I'll be your student." Zhang replied, "If you lose I am not going to take you." They decided to go ahead with the challenge.

One of the key movements in xingyi is Pi (splitting) and this was the move that Hu made toward Zhang Laoshi's face. Zhang Laoshi made a Cai and caught his hand. The Cai was so fast and with so much energy, that Hu fell to his knees. In xingyi, this move is made with the weight on the front leg. Because Hu's weight was on the front leg, the cai pressed Hu forward so that he fell onto his knees in front of Zhang Laoshi. On his knees, Hu had to look up at Zhang Laoshi and gave up. Zhang Laoshi said, "You were defeated, now go home." Hu quickly shouted, "No, no, no! I want you to accept me as your student." Zhang said, "I told you, if you lose I am not going to take you." Hu pleaded, saying, "You must take me, I am already on my knees. I am not leaving until you take me as your student." Zhang Laoshi replied: "If you want to kneel there, that is your business, but I am not going to take you." Zhang then walked away.

Hu stayed there, kneeling and waiting for almost three hours. Mrs. Zhang said to her husband: "Hu is older than you. How can you let him stay on his knees for so long and ignore him?" Zhang Laoshi replied, "I did not make him kneel there, he is doing that by himself." Zhang's wife, realizing that things were at an impasse, wondered what to do. She thought perhaps that finding a sponsor to intervene, rather than have her husband and Hu deal directly, would be a possible solution. She knew everything would depend on who Hu found to be his sponsor. If the sponsor was good at talking with Zhang Qinlin then things might work out. So Mrs. Zhang suggested this, and hearing of this possibility, Hu bowed to the floor and went off to find a suitable sponsor.

Hu Yaozhen, also a member of the Jin Shan Pai (Gold Mountain School) went to a member of the older generation - someone who would have influence over Zhang Qinlin - to ask him to be his sponsor. Because Hu's sponsor was an older brother of Zhang Laoshi's and was willing to introduce" Hu, Zhang said, Yes." After the formalities were over, Zhang told Hu to practice only taijiquan, but Hu was not really able to let go of his xingyi. He was already a great master, and thus it was very difficult to "throw it out the window". Zhang kept telling Hu that his jin (internal energy) was wrong - it was a xingyi type, not a taiji type of energy. Hu said that there was nothing he could do because he had been practicing that way for so long. Zhang decided to teach Hu the 81-Step form of taijiquan, realizing that unless Hu was able to let go of his xingyi it would be quite difficult to teach him Yangjia Michuan Taijiquan.

Jiu Zhiliang4 from Shanxi province and in the army, was accepted by Zhang as his student. Liu was a good person with many good characteristics, but was not able to truly relax. Being able to relax in the 81-Step was a necessary condition to move on to Yangjia Michuan Taijiquan. So Zhang Qinlin still had not found the person he was looking for.

 

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