The importance of Softness

[spiraltao]

yeah we are , but not so easy for everyone else.

it is harder to be soft than it is to be hard. if one is soft they can also be hard.

but being hard is no guarantee of being soft.

being hard only is being stagnant and dull.

being soft is being agile, swift, flexible and sharp.

only a softie can manifest proper fa jin.

most folks never ponder, play, or grasp the secret of softness.

 

 

 

Excellently expressed.

 

 

 

an old chinese proverb that sifu liked to use was "The sapling will weather the storm, it will bend with the wind. The old hardwood tree will break instead of bending. Be like the sapling" -that is very rough paraphrase from when I was nine.

 

 

 

understanding softness continues to be an education for me, but I do understand that we have to be soft in our bagazhang fa jin, otherwise it is far too "chunky" to express the heart.

[ChiDragon]

Question to all Taiji practitioners....

 

What is the purpose for standing softly all day long.....???

 

If softness is wuji, then what is taiji....???

[dwai]

Question to all Taiji practitioners....

 

What is the purpose for standing softly all day long.....???

 

If softness is wuji, then what is taiji....???

Softness is what will get us to taiji.

Without softness it is not possible to tell between yin and yang....without knowing that how can one enter taiji?

 

Like my teacher said...soft not like a wet noodle but sof like a green branch...alive and yeilding...to a point that keeps getting finer and finer...

[ChiDragon]

If softness is wuji, then is hardness taiji.....???

[Taomeow]

Question to all Taiji practitioners....

 

What is the purpose for standing softly all day long.....???

 

This is not normally used by "all" taiji practitioners, to my knowledge. ???

 

I did it once though (not all day, but all night), so I can tell you what my personal purpose was. My circumstances were such that I was terrified out of my mind and yet I needed to act, clear-headed and efficient as never before, so this standing softly and waiting for something to change inside came to me spontaneously. The purpose was to find inner strength to deal with the most devastating crisis. It worked. I found (or maybe formed while doing it) my "diamond axis." The strength to match my circumstances, something that would never crumble, under any kind of pressure, no matter what.

 

If softness is wuji, then what is taiji....???

 

Wuji does not equal something else (e.g. softness) and isn't anything but itself. Softness is softness, wuji is wuji. Wuji in stillness is wuji, wuji in motion is taiji. Softness helps, leads, develops, facilitates wuji perceptions and states.

 

So, taiji is wuji in motion. What I described as "microadjustments." When things get subtle, they don't respond well to verbal labels though, it's all experiential. Words merely hint at the general direction of your pursuit.

 

You can fairly easily tell the difference between "hard" and "soft" on a gross level. On the level of "microadjustments," however, you can only follow and/or direct the flow of "open-close-up-down-rotate-contract-expand-peng" and so on. "Hardness" is in there but if you stop to dwell on it, even for a microsecond, it's like you've thrown a hard boulder into the flow and perched there. That's when the whole stream gets out from under your awareness and control and leaves you far behind.

 

It happens faster than you can say the word "hard." The "hardness" within taiji "softness" requires astonishing inner speed. It's not unlike what a chess master does in a blitz match when he or she assesses the situation fifteen, twenty, fifty moves ahead in a second, and makes the only "winning" move instantaneously. Anyone who doesn't have this speed of processing would have to spend months on finding and analyzing those fifty moves, mind you. In taiji (of the high skill kind), this is something that happens throughout the body -- at all times. So, I repeat... taiji is wuji in motion, and this motion is stupendously fast. Faster than the speed of light, if it needs to be.

[mYTHmAKER]

This is not normally used by "all" taiji practitioners, to my knowledge. ???

 

I did it once though (not all day, but all night), so I can tell you what my personal purpose was. My circumstances were such that I was terrified out of my mind and yet I needed to act, clear-headed and efficient as never before, so this standing softly and waiting for something to change inside came to me spontaneously. The purpose was to find inner strength to deal with the most devastating crisis. It worked. I found (or maybe formed while doing it) my "diamond axis." The strength to match my circumstances, something that would never crumble, under any kind of pressure, no matter what.

 

 

 

Wuji does not equal something else (e.g. softness) and isn't anything but itself. Softness is softness, wuji is wuji. Wuji in stillness is wuji, wuji in motion is taiji. Softness helps, leads, develops, facilitates wuji perceptions and states.

 

So, taiji is wuji in motion. What I described as "microadjustments." When things get subtle, they don't respond well to verbal labels though, it's all experiential. Words merely hint at the general direction of your pursuit.

 

You can fairly easily tell the difference between "hard" and "soft" on a gross level. On the level of "microadjustments," however, you can only follow and/or direct the flow of "open-close-up-down-rotate-contract-expand-peng" and so on. "Hardness" is in there but if you stop to dwell on it, even for a microsecond, it's like you've thrown a hard boulder into the flow and perched there. That's when the whole stream gets out from under your awareness and control and leaves you far behind.

 

It happens faster than you can say the word "hard." The "hardness" within taiji "softness" requires astonishing inner speed. It's not unlike what a chess master does in a blitz match when he or she assesses the situation fifteen, twenty, fifty moves ahead in a second, and makes the only "winning" move instantaneously. Anyone who doesn't have this speed of processing would have to spend months on finding and analyzing those fifty moves, mind you. In taiji (of the high skill kind), this is something that happens throughout the body -- at all times. So, I repeat... taiji is wuji in motion, and this motion is stupendously fast. Faster than the speed of light, if it needs to be.

 

Wuji =Earlier Heaven Bagua

Taiji = Later Heaven Bagua

Before taiji we have wuji - stand in wuji -then off we go onto action taiji

Wuji = non action - being

Taiji = action

But of course you already know this

[mYTHmAKER]

Question to all Taiji practitioners....

 

What is the purpose for standing softly all day long.....???

 

If softness is wuji, then what is taiji....???

 

Is this a trick question?

Are you testing us?

[dwai]

When you Fa Jin, it was considered to be the extreme hard part....

 

Fa Jin is not hard...the effect is...

Edited May 30, 2012 by dwai

[Taomeow]

Wuji =Earlier Heaven Bagua

Taiji = Later Heaven Bagua

Before taiji we have wuji - stand in wuji -then off we go onto action taiji

Wuji = non action - being

Taiji = action

But of course you already know this

 

Never hurts to reiterate the basics.

 

 

Fa Jin is not hard...the effect is...

 

Yup, it's about as hard as a bolt of lightning.

[ChiDragon]

Is this a trick question?

Are you testing us?

 

Yes, it's all depend how you answer it......

 

I got you wondering. That is the kind of response I was expecting. Do you know something that you might want to share....???

[dwai]

Never hurts to reiterate the basics.

 

 

 

 

Yup, it's about as hard as a bolt of lightning.

My teacher refers to fa jin process like throwing a stone....or shooting an arrow...in that the jin is directed and let go off...its easy to conceptualize but hard to do.. Do you have any thoughts on this you wouldnt mind sharing?

[mYTHmAKER]

Yes, it's all depend how you answer it......

 

I got you wondering. That is the kind of response I was expecting. Do you know something that you might want to share....???

 

I have shared

We are waiting to hear from you

[Taomeow]

My teacher refers to fa jin process like throwing a stone....or shooting an arrow...in that the jin is directed and let go off...its easy to conceptualize but hard to do.. Do you have any thoughts on this you wouldnt mind sharing?

 

Some... nothing particularly brilliant I'm afraid.

 

I can do what they call the "long jin." I was (accidentally) the recipient of the "short jin" on one occasion (o u c h). Between the two lie many years of practice and they're not in the same qi category. A long jin is indeed thrown like a stone (or, as my teacher put it, your release your arm as a chain with the metal ball attached to the end -- with power but a loose, explosive kind that you won't pull off if your arm or anything else tenses up! One would find plenty of that even at the beginner level in Chen Laojia Er Lu (well, not "absolute beginner," but if you do it after Yi Lu), aka Cannon Fist -- the name speaks for itself, you can't shoot a cannonball by tensing up anything in its way, the explosion comes from inside and the trajectory the cannonball travels is open all the way until it hits its mark. This is accomplished only by sung, or it won't have the explosive speed. Hard MA punches and kicks are like something you do with a mallet, and regardless of the strength, hardness, heaviness of the mallet, the speed of such a blow is very limited. A sung taij player can dance three pirouettes of polka around it instead of waiting for it to land. A long jin blow is exponentially faster, and that's where simple physics shine -- a bullet does as much damage as it does due to its speed, not its weight, hardness, or any of the other li goodies.

 

But then the short jin (what I referred to as "a bolt of lightning")... that's a different category. It transcends simple physics. In my case, it hit me in the "core of my being," for lack of a better term. It didn't hurt much, but it rendered me, instantly, drained of the will to live down to the last drop. I felt demolished, canceled out. There was no physical damage whatsoever. This state lasted for about an hour. Then I cried for another hour, and the effect gradually disappeared. I can very well imagine that a similar blow but executed with intent and the will to kill would absolutely succeed, no question. The master who accidentally hit me used one finger.

[ChiDragon]

Does anybody know why is Tai Ji Chuan, 太極拳, called Tai Ji Chuan.....??? Or what is the concept behind Tai Ji Chuan...???

[zerostao]

"This state lasted for about an hour. Then I cried for another hour, and the effect gradually disappeared."

sounds very purifying.

 

lightning calls the thunder.

[mYTHmAKER]

Does anybody know why is Tai Ji Chuan, 太極拳, called Tai Ji Chuan.....??? Or what is the concept behind Tai Ji Chuan...???

 

what is your idea on this?

[dwai]

Some... nothing particularly brilliant I'm afraid.

 

I can do what they call the "long jin." I was (accidentally) the recipient of the "short jin" on one occasion (o u c h). Between the two lie many years of practice and they're not in the same qi category. A long jin is indeed thrown like a stone (or, as my teacher put it, your release your arm as a chain with the metal ball attached to the end -- with power but a loose, explosive kind that you won't pull off if your arm or anything else tenses up! One would find plenty of that even at the beginner level in Chen Laojia Er Lu (well, not "absolute beginner," but if you do it after Yi Lu), aka Cannon Fist -- the name speaks for itself, you can't shoot a cannonball by tensing up anything in its way, the explosion comes from inside and the trajectory the cannonball travels is open all the way until it hits its mark. This is accomplished only by sung, or it won't have the explosive speed. Hard MA punches and kicks are like something you do with a mallet, and regardless of the strength, hardness, heaviness of the mallet, the speed of such a blow is very limited. A sung taij player can dance three pirouettes of polka around it instead of waiting for it to land. A long jin blow is exponentially faster, and that's where simple physics shine -- a bullet does as much damage as it does due to its speed, not its weight, hardness, or any of the other li goodies.

 

But then the short jin (what I referred to as "a bolt of lightning")... that's a different category. It transcends simple physics. In my case, it hit me in the "core of my being," for lack of a better term. It didn't hurt much, but it rendered me, instantly, drained of the will to live down to the last drop. I felt demolished, canceled out. There was no physical damage whatsoever. This state lasted for about an hour. Then I cried for another hour, and the effect gradually disappeared. I can very well imagine that a similar blow but executed with intent and the will to kill would absolutely succeed, no question. The master who accidentally hit me used one finger.

 

Hi Taomeow,

 

Thanks for the anecdote.

 

How did your teacher accidentally fa jin you?

[Taomeow]

Hi Taomeow,

 

Thanks for the anecdote.

 

How did your teacher accidentally fa jin you?

 

He was my taekwondo teacher, but he had (not taught, just had) all the inner goodies too, he was trained since age 2 or something and I have no idea what else he could do besides TKD because his English was barely comprehensible, so if he ever mentioned any internal work, I may have missed it. But I've seen him do things that defy "simple physics." Not just physical (which were amazing in and of themselves -- e.g. he could jump and stay put in the air for a long long time, with a mischievous glint in his eyes -- never mentioning of explaining levitation, just showing... Or he would punch the TKD dummy in passing, very slightly, nothing happened till a full minute later and then the dummy would start shaking and rocking in an ever-increasing amplitude -- and again that glint in his eyes... the master's that is, not the dummy's). I remember going to a restaurant with my husband and meeting master Ho. We had an argument shortly before going out, but "got over it" and definitely weren't showing any signs of it on the surface. I introduced the men, and master Ho fixed my husband with the gaze of a cobra about to attack. (My husband later told me that he had a feeling he was done for, and asserted that "this master of yours has the eyes of a cold-blooded murderer who kills for fun." Which was absolutely correct.) Then he smiled like a Cheshire cat and said, in his funky English, "yes, hello, you be very careful with her now, she's getting good!"

 

So anyway, he was, in my assessment, someone who taught what he taught to the public and kept the rest to himself, but sometimes "the rest" just broke through. He was bursting with yang power, his qi was thunderous, so was his voice -- he always gave instructions in a tiger's roar that shook the ground. So, at one point he was teaching me how to punch "to the very center of the enemy" and I was trying to do what he told me to, and he goes, no, not here, to the center, no not here, not here... and then he touched me with one finger, pointing it at the solar plexus, and roared, Here! Voila... short jin. He immediately realized what happened and kept apologizing for the rest of the hour. I just glared at him. No apology accepted. I could never forgive, forget, trust again. This, like I said, lasted for an hour. I'm absolutely certain he did this accidentally, he wasn't going to hurt me, but that was his nature, he had more power than control...

[zanshin]

 

You can fairly easily tell the difference between "hard" and "soft" on a gross level. On the level of "microadjustments," however, you can only follow and/or direct the flow of "open-close-up-down-rotate-contract-expand-peng" and so on. "Hardness" is in there but if you stop to dwell on it, even for a microsecond, it's like you've thrown a hard boulder into the flow and perched there. That's when the whole stream gets out from under your awareness and control and leaves you far behind.

 

 

 

thought it said "grass level" instead of gross level, read it 2 or 3 times trying to understand where the grass fit in. Still think grass might be helpful in trying to understand. Taiji barefoot in grass helpful for understanding microadjustments too.

[dwai]

He was my taekwondo teacher, but he had (not taught, just had) all the inner goodies too, he was trained since age 2 or something and I have no idea what else he could do besides TKD because his English was barely comprehensible, so if he ever mentioned any internal work, I may have missed it. But I've seen him do things that defy "simple physics." Not just physical (which were amazing in and of themselves -- e.g. he could jump and stay put in the air for a long long time, with a mischievous glint in his eyes -- never mentioning of explaining levitation, just showing... Or he would punch the TKD dummy in passing, very slightly, nothing happened till a full minute later and then the dummy would start shaking and rocking in an ever-increasing amplitude -- and again that glint in his eyes... the master's that is, not the dummy's). I remember going to a restaurant with my husband and meeting master Ho. We had an argument shortly before going out, but "got over it" and definitely weren't showing any signs of it on the surface. I introduced the men, and master Ho fixed my husband with the gaze of a cobra about to attack. (My husband later told me that he had a feeling he was done for, and asserted that "this master of yours has the eyes of a cold-blooded murderer who kills for fun." Which was absolutely correct.) Then he smiled like a Cheshire cat and said, in his funky English, "yes, hello, you be very careful with her now, she's getting good!"

 

So anyway, he was, in my assessment, someone who taught what he taught to the public and kept the rest to himself, but sometimes "the rest" just broke through. He was bursting with yang power, his qi was thunderous, so was his voice -- he always gave instructions in a tiger's roar that shook the ground. So, at one point he was teaching me how to punch "to the very center of the enemy" and I was trying to do what he told me to, and he goes, no, not here, to the center, no not here, not here... and then he touched me with one finger, pointing it at the solar plexus, and roared, Here! Voila... short jin. He immediately realized what happened and kept apologizing for the rest of the hour. I just glared at him. No apology accepted. I could never forgive, forget, trust again. This, like I said, lasted for an hour. I'm absolutely certain he did this accidentally, he wasn't going to hurt me, but that was his nature, he had more power than control...

 

Amazing! I'm sure that wasn't the way you wanted to learn it...

 

A japanese girl who was my physiotherapist was also a black belt karateka. She would talk about her teacher having extreme yang power that he wasn't completely able to control. So, he would sit in a room in middle of chicago winters with windows wide open, sweating and red (i forget the sensei's name).

Edited May 31, 2012 by dwai