Audi, you've now mentioned twice your deeper understanding of "sink the chi." Hmmm--why not try to voice it in detail, for those of us with no understanding at all!--maybe in a new thread?--fol</font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
How to put feelings into words? How to express what is already better expressed in the classics? I think that everyone has there own approach, and so I fear my own words will not resonate with many others. Basically, I feel that my preparation for ranking led me to put in a reasonable amount of work, and that work paid off as a bunch of different things came together in concrete bodily sensations. As has been said before, enlightenment comes only as an accident, but hard work can help make you accident-prone.
One of the things that excited me at last week's seminar was Yang Jun's repeated mention of Yin Yang pairs. As I recall, the first mention was of "Theory and Application" (Ti3 Yong4)as mentioned in the title of one of Yang Chengfu's books. Louis has talked about this concept many times before. The very idea of a lecture as a prelude to a seminar on form movement seemed itself to embody and respect this principle.
Yang Jun also mentioned what I understood to be the complementarity of "wen2" (the civil) and "wu3" (the martial) in Taijiquan and that to truly know the art, you needed to grapple with both sides. For more on this, you can read chapter 19 of the "Yang Forty Chapters."
Yang Jun also discussed some of the Ten Essentials and how they related to sinking the Qi. In particular, I recall him talking about how external structure was needed to support internal structure, bringing up yet another Yin Yang pair. He made things very concrete, mentioning for example, that exhaling can make it easy to sink the qi and that is why people naturally do this when needing to expend great effort. His main focus, however, was on "Containing the chest," "Lifting the crown of the head," "Loosening the waist," "Tucking in the tailbone," etc.
At times, I have been exposed to approaches to Taijiquan that exalt the "internal" over all else. At the seminar, I found the idea of "external being necessary to support internal" to be liberating, clarifying, and much more consonant with a unity of external and internal. I feel this is actually embodied in one of the 10 Essentials, but many seem not to feel that this idea is of such importance.
Yang Jun also made reference to the Twenty Character Motto and this made me reconsider whether I was truly acting on this within my form and whether there was truly a tight link between sinking qi and the expression of energy. Low and behold, I found that there was. Theory and application came together as one!
In the weapons forms, the vibration of the weapon tips can give rough feedback about your ability to transfer energy to the tip. When I combined this feedback with the feeling in my body, even during the barehand form, I began to feel quite clearly the link between the bubbling well (yong3 quan2), my legs, waist, torso, and arms. I could feel springiness in my legs and feet and feel this springiness transfer through my torso to my hands. When I was not extended and loosened up (i.e., song) and did not observe what is set forth in the Twenty-Character Motto, I could feel the force dissipate uselessly between my torso and my arms. There is, of course, nothing new about this. I was mere surprised to have such immediate access to the principle in action.
In chapter 17 of the "Yang Forty," there is a discussion of the Theory of Yin-Yang Reversal. I am not sure I understand what is being referenced, but I have taken it to be referring in part to how "work" gets done in Taijiquan. If you want to put qi to work in your arms and hands, you need to first store it in your dantian. If you want to close effectively, you must first open. To go right effectively, go first to the left. To understand the martial in Taijiquan, make sure to pay attention to the philosophy.
Why sink qi to the dantian and not all the way to the legs and feet? I believe it is because the dantian is where qi actually has the least to do in generating jin (i.e., power). There are no joints in the dantian. If you sink qi here, it is most available to "travel" up and down your body to power joint movement.
What does this mean for someone who is just trying to do the form better and to enjoy Taijiquan to the fullest? If I do form according to the Twenty Character motto, I feel my torso pull my arms in "pulling" movements, such as Cloud Hands, and push my arms with pressure in pushing movements, such as the final punch in Deflect Downward, Parry, and Punch. Since the torso is moved by the legs and "aimed" by the waist, such movement gives a wonderful sense of body unity, especially if you concentrate on limb and joint extension in order to unify the body. If you can get the feet to feel right (i.e., the bubbling well), you get more power to play with. You feel how each of the joints change at different rates, but miraculously seem to calibrate their change together in a natural synchrony that is just beyond conscious control. It feels organic, rather than mechanical.
What can someone do simply to capture the feeling? Well, I recall Yang Zhenduo once advising to concentrate on the orientation and movement of the upper arms. If these are right, the hands must follow. To get them right, you need to get the torso, waist, and legs right. If all this is right, it is easy to sink qi to the dantian. If you do not trap the qi there by making your abdominals rigid, it will be available to support power in the upper body and legs.
I hope this helps.
Take care,
Audi
Because the whole body is connected, the arms just naturally go with the flow without effort...I love this feeling~