Hundun
To simply answer your question yes it made me aware of things there was an in the zone feeling that is the same as I have achieved in meditation or standing. But I want to heavily Caveat that by saying that it made me aware of something but when I was first experiencing it did not change me it allowed me see myself as I was then, the state alone is not going to enlighten you as a whole human being.
The experience of this allowed meditation and alchemical practises to be understood and experienced quickly, making progress faster.
To explain what I mean, it is better if I share an example of this with you, after looking for more and trying to understand things that I had seen. I set off to find exercises to make me stronger and more powerful, some of the senior ranking people I came across practised these exercises (most did not know what it was). So then my training in pushing out my hands and breathing funny began the result was realised very quickly.
Well within the 100 days I was stronger and had solid palms, cool, so like every sensible and worldly wise youth I started to double the level of practice as obviously twice as much made me twice as hard (ok not the greatest logic but i was naive).
The result I could hit really hard but the palms of my hand and soles of my feet were a strange red sometimes really dry, coupled with occasional burning feelings when I trained, not a pleasant experience but the state was becoming easier to achieve and for some reason I became aware of what I can only call disconnects and barriers to me the real me and forms of programming that seemed to over ride.
By this time the people that taught me this stuff were gone and like most sensible people I had ignored all their advice about meditation and emotional balancing. I had worked out that the burning was an excess of aggression and repressed hatred and began to see that in a real way it was killing my life. (not saying I was going to drop dead but I was losing me to the me I had created to deal with the experience I had had in my life.)
With the practice I was building energy and reinforcing destructive patterns so I had to change what I was doing to look at solving the imbalances in me.
So as a result of this I became a better person, not necessarily a good person (enlightenment is not the same as good) but more genuine, I became more in control of my response to the world and closer to the Tao. Years later the burning has stopped and my hands are fine but I want to stress years later.
The situations taught me to see the world and not get hung up on the false sense of how things should be but on how they are. When I was on the door you learned to notice the patterns in others that let you know they were going to kick off or respond in a different way. You could see it first because of the Tai Chi and you could feel it as well, understanding it you could respond better the pattern was no longer in control it was really just a pattern that was created by false beliefs.
This is the same when you meditate it allows you to see the post birth that is created as a response to the environment to protect the real you rather than allowing you to act genuinely as you would want to.
Ok I have waffled a lot and what I am really trying to say is that the martial arts taught me to see things and understand them but it was a combination that has meant that I have progressed. The danger is the martial element gives clarity and speeds progress but if the steering is not there then it can easily reinforce patterns and move you further away from you.
