Secrets of Building Internal Force: 10 Questions to the Grandmaster

[barrys]

sifu sage.jpg

[Matthew]

Thank you Sigung.

Dear Sigung,

Thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom so generously, clearly and succinctly. You are truly inspirational, and this thread, the forum and your website are absolute treasures. I look forward to Summer Camp with excitement.

Thank you also Barry sisook for this thread and my brothers and sisters who posed questions.

[barrys]

Question and Answer - 10 - Part 1

Wow - this whole thread is becoming a manual of what and how

Question and Answer - 10 - Part 1

Question 10

From past experience crossing hands with some of my seniors within our school, I have had the privilege to receive some glimpses of differing manifestations of force:

a) a sensation of 'prickly needles' entering the body
b) electric burning entering the body
c) an impenetrable tube with a core of iron that cannot be properly grasped by the hand, i.e. the hand does not feel it has made contact with the other exponent's skin
d) the exterior feels physical and muscular, but deep inside there is something solid and impenetrable
e) something 'alive' (without mercy) that is being held tightly on a leash, ready to attack if released
f) solid, soft, gentle, absorbing in a way that drains one's power and stamina

Which of the two categories of 'consolidated' and 'flowing' force do these descriptions fall under?

Why are there so many varying manifestations of force?

Which is better to use to manage the above manifestations, consolidated or flowing force?

Sifu Emiko


Answer 10


Classifying force as consolidated and flowing is for convenience. Sometimes there is overlapping, sometimes it is not clear-cut which classification a particular manifestation belongs, or the same manifestation may be classified differently in different situations. Nevertheless, the following manifestations may be classified as follows:

a sensation of 'prickly needles' entering the body -- flowing force.
b) electric burning entering the body – flowing force.
c) an impenetrable tube with a core of iron that cannot be properly grasped by the hand, i.e. the hand does not feel it has made contact with the other exponent's skin – consolidated force.
d) the exterior feels physical and muscular, but deep inside there is something solid and impenetrable – consolidated force.
e) something 'alive' (without mercy) that is being held tightly on a leash, ready to attack if released – flowing force.
f) solid, soft, gentle, absorbing in a way that drains one's power and stamina – flowing force.

[Emiko H]

Dear Sifu,

Thank you for the clarifying and 'releasing' answers. Every answer in this thread has been very beneficial for my training.

Regarding question #10, thanks to Sifu's answer, it is most relieving to experience the freedom to let everything simplify into two categories of 'flowing force' and 'consolidated force', then to further let everything simplify into just 'internal force', and then to let it simplify into just enjoying 'following instructions'.

(shaolin salute) Thank you, Sifu.

With joy, love and respect,

Emiko

[barrys]

Question and Answer - 10 - Part 2

Question and Answer - 10 - Part 2

Question 10 (Original question)

From past experience crossing hands with some of my seniors within our school, I have had the privilege to receive some glimpses of differing manifestations of force:

a) a sensation of 'prickly needles' entering the body
b) electric burning entering the body
c) an impenetrable tube with a core of iron that cannot be properly grasped by the hand, i.e. the hand does not feel it has made contact with the other exponent's skin
d) the exterior feels physical and muscular, but deep inside there is something solid and impenetrable
e) something 'alive' (without mercy) that is being held tightly on a leash, ready to attack if released
f) solid, soft, gentle, absorbing in a way that drains one's power and stamina

Which of the two categories of 'consolidated' and 'flowing' force do these descriptions fall under?

Why are there so many varying manifestations of force?

Which is better to use to manage the above manifestations, consolidated or flowing force?

Sifu Emiko


Answer 10 (Contd.)

... Because there are many different situations and conditions, there are many varying manifestations of force. When a situation or condition changes, the manifestation may also change.

For example, a sensation of “pricking needles” entering the body is described as flowing force. When we lower our arms in Lifting the Sky, we may have this sensation. As we continue performing Lifting the Sky, the flowing force and pricking sensation increase.

But if we stop the movement and let the arms hand down leisurely, the flowing force may turn into consolidated force, while the pricking sensation may continue for some time. If we stay at this static position long enough, the consolidated force accumulates, and the pricking sensations may change into something solid.

In the second example above, electric burning entering the body during crossing hands is classified as flowing force. The force of your sparring partner flowed into you. But if he focuses his force to consolidate it, the burning electricity may become an impenetrable tube with a core of iron.

We can use consolidated force or flowing force to manage the above manifestations. The choice depends on our ability, i.e. whether we are better in applying consolidated force or flowing force, or it depends on the situation. i.e. whether consolidated force or flowing force will overcome the situation more effectively.

When a sensation of prickly needles of an opponent flows into you during crossing hands, you can force him back using consolidated force, or fell him onto the ground using flowing force.

When the flowing force of electric burning of an opponent enters your body, you can strike back using consolidated force, or you can deflect his attack using flowing force. In this case, unless you are overwhelming more powerful than your opponent, it is better to use flowing force, as striking back with consolidated force may not stop his flowing electric force enter you.

Instead of grasping or gripping him, you can strike his arm which is like an impenetrable tube with a core of iron if your force is stronger. If your opponent is stronger, you can lead his arm to futility using flowing force.

You may use consolidated force to break both the muscular exterior as well as the solid interior of your opponent if you are more powerful. Or you can use your flowing force to penetrate his exterior and interior hardness, like electricity penetrating a bell. Otherwise use flowing force to lead his attack to futility.

Against something being held on a leash, striking it with consolidated force is recommended. However, if your consolidated force is inadequate, you need to escape using flowing force.

Use consolidated force to intercept an opponent’s solid yet gentle way, and break its flow. If you use flowing force, you have to first flow with the opponent, then turn the momentum back on him.

The examples show that consolidated force is recommended when you are stronger. If the opponent is stronger, flowing force can neutralize him and then counter attack.

[barrys]

sifu double dragons.jpg

[barrys]

Question and Answer - 11 - Part 1

Question and Answer - 11 - Part 1

Question 11

After 60 years of experience, what would you say are the most important "secrets" of building internal force

Many people reading this won't be Martial Artists and could dismiss the idea of "building internal force" as being not for them. Could you explain:

• what the benefits of building internal force are for someone who isn't planning or wanting to practice a martial art

• what are the most cost-effective ways of building internal force for someone like this?

Sifu Barry


Answer

From my experience the most important secret of building internal force is chi flow. Without chi flow in the first place, no internal force can be built. It is a secret, I believe, that even masters who were successful in building internal force, did not know.

If the internal force masters did not know this secret, how did they build internal force? They did so when there was chi flow in themselves, but they did not consciously know it. Hence, they took a long time to build internal force, which was built only when chi flow happened haphazardly without their conscious knowing.

In our case in Shaolin Wahnam, we take a faster time to build a similar amount of internal force because not only do we know the underlying philosophy, we purposely generate a chi flow before building internal force. Moreover, we have many internal force building methods, from which we choose the most suitable. Most past masters had only one method. Thus, we can build in a month a similar amount of internal force what past masters would need more than a year.

It is understandable that other people outside our school would think we are boastful or arrogant. But some quantification can make this point clear. The explanation is mainly for our own family members, though others outside our school will benefit from it, but most of them will not appreciate it, and even if they secretly agree they will still deny it in public due to their prejudice, misplaced pride or other reasons. This, of course, is their business, and we do not want to waste our time arguing with them. Yet, slowly the philosophy will be confirmed more widely by actual practice, and revolutionize internal force training in the future.

Suppose one can build 100 units of internal force in one successful training session, and he needs 10,000 units to be regarded as having internal force. Actually any number can be used to explain the underlying principles, but using 100 and 10,000 is easy for calculation.

So this practitioner needs 100 training sessions if the internal force is progressively accumulated. In other words, having accumulated 100 units in his first successful training session, his second successful training session must be close enough so that he can add the first 100 units of internal force to the second 100 units to make a total of 200 units, and so on. In this way, if he trains everyday and is successful in accumulating internal force everyday, he will need 100 days to build 10,000 units of internal force to be reasonably successful in his internal force training.

However, even when the practitioner trains everyday if any two successful sessions are far apart, some or all of the internal force built in the first session will be lost. The further apart the two successful sessions are, the more force will be lost. Suppose they are 3 days apart, and 30 units of the original 100 units are lost. So, after his second successful session, which is the 4th day after his first successful session, he will have 170 units of internal force, not 200 units because 30 units has been dissipated.

If the two successful sessions are 10 days apart, assuming that 10 units of force is lost per day, the practitioner will have only 100 units of internal force after the second successful session, which is 20 days after his first successful session, because the original 100 units which he acquired in his first session has been lost. So, for him regardless of how long he may train, he will not be able to accumulate the 10,000 units of force to be regarded as successful in his internal force training.

[barrys]

10 more days to Summer Camp - five more answers to post - one every other day - perfect

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[barrys]

Question and Answer - 11 - Part 2

Question and Answer - 11 - Part 2

Question 11 (Original question)

After 60 years of experience, what would you say are the most important "secrets" of building internal force

Many people reading this won't be Martial Artists and could dismiss the idea of "building internal force" as being not for them. Could you explain:

• what the benefits of building internal force are for someone who isn't planning or wanting to practice a martial art

• what are the most cost-effective ways of building internal force for someone like this?

Sifu Barry


Answer (Contd.)

... We should also take note that the first successful training session may not occur on his first day of training. For most practitioners it may occur after many months. For some it may never occur.

But for our students it occurs on the very first day, and everyday. Why is it so? It is because we know the underlying philosophy and put it to work in a simple, direct and effective manner. Thus, our students training everyday will acquire 10,000 units of force in 100 days.

Let us compare how long a past master would take to acquire a similar amount of force. Do not forget that this past master when he was a student learning from his own master did not learn internal force on the first day he started learning from his teacher. Usually it would be a few years before his teacher would teach him internal force training.

As this student, who would later become a master after he had successfully developed internal force, did not know that chi flow was necessary, and flowing force and consolidating force were the skills to build internal force, his building of internal force happened haphazardly only when without his conscious knowing conditions had became ideal that these processes occurred.

The first time these processes occurred could be many months after he had started his training. Let us be very generous and presume that they occurred only 5 days after the start of his training. So on the fifth day he had his successful session and acquired 100 units of internal force. For easy calculation, let us presume that his successful sessions occurred every five days, though in reality the number of days between his successful sessions varied.

So on the 10th day he had another successful session and acquired another 100 units of internal force. But 50 units of his original internal force acquired on his first successful session had dissipated, leaving him the remaining 50 units. So on the 10th day he had a total of 150 units. Working progressively in this way, we would have acquire 300 units after one month.

Again for easy calculation, based on the above estimation we may assume that his average accumulation of internal force is 300 units per month, or 9900 units in 33 months. It would therefore take him nearly 3 years to accumulate 10,000 unites of internal force, which our students could accumulate in 100 days or slightly more than 3 months.

Although the figures in our estimation are not exact, they are fair estimates, and provide us a clear picture why our students can achieve in a month what past masters would take a year! Indeed, to estimate that past students took only 3 years to build sufficient internal force to be called masters is very generous in our estimation. In reality they would take at least 10 to 15 years. It took me 17 years before I had my first experience of internal force at the receiving end. I spent two years training internal force in a school famous for internal force, yet I felt nothing – due to my own inability.

Many people think, wrongly, that internal force is only for martial artists. If they know what internal force can do for them, they will learn it. If they know how effective our school is in teaching students attain internal force, they will learn from our school, provided they are sensible and kind to themselves, and are not stubborn, prejudiced or deluded by false pride. As I have often said, that is their problem, not ours. We don’t have any problems, but our task is to help sincere and deserving students attain internal force and enjoy its countless benefits.

[barrys]

Question and Answer - 11 - Part 3

Question and Answer - 11 - Part 3

Question 11 (Original question)

After 60 years of experience, what would you say are the most important "secrets" of building internal force

Many people reading this won't be Martial Artists and could dismiss the idea of "building internal force" as being not for them. Could you explain:

• what the benefits of building internal force are for someone who isn't planning or wanting to practice a martial art

• what are the most cost-effective ways of building internal force for someone like this?

Sifu Barry


Answer (Contd.)

... Irrespective of whether a person is planning or wanting to practice a martial art, the countless benefits of internal force can be classified into three categories:

1. To maintain life.
2. To enhance life.
3. To enable practitioners get better results no matter what he does.

When a person is sick or in pain, internal force enables him to recover faster. If he is already healthy, internal force ensures that life goes on harmoniously.

Enhancing life can be manifested in countless ways. When he returns from work, for example, he has a lot of energy to enjoy the company of his family and friends, or by himself.

No matter what he does, including eating and having sex, internal force will give him better results. If he practices a martial art, internal force will improve his performance in all aspects.

Hence, improving any martial art in all its aspects is only a small part of one of the three categories of benefits.

For us the most cost-effective way to help someone not waning to practice a martial art to build internal force is to get him (or her) to enter into a chi kung state of mind, and let him stand upright in a relaxed manner without thought. He would develop some mental clarity and internal force. Highlight to him that it is more important and useful for him to employ the mental clarity and internal force in his daily life irrespective of whether he practices a martial art.

Another very cost-effective way of building internal force is to teach him Worshipping the Buddha from the Eighteen-Lohan Art. If he performs the exercise in a chi kung state of mind, he can develop some chi flow and internal force. If necessary, explain to him that chi flow is soft internal force.

If you want him to experience hard internal force, or internal force usually associated with martial arts, a very cost-effective method is teaching him Reverse Hanging of Silver Hooks, also from the Eighteen-Lohan Art. He will probably be amazed at the amount of internal force generated in such a short time.

It is interesting to note that the above three very cost-effective methods involved the training of Jing, qi and shen, or essence, energy and mind, in a reverse order. The first method focuses on the internal cultivation of mind, the second on energy, and the third on essence.

It is important to note that these methods are very cost-effective if we are the teacher. Most other people teaching these three methods are unlikely to produce any result. Indeed the third method is likely to produce harm for the student. Incidentally, these examples illustrate that not every teacher is the same.

Learning internal force is a rare opportunity, though ridiculous in a good way, way we are teaching it quite generously to the public. But our students must be deserving. We are already ridiculously generous; we don’t have to persuade them to learn from us.

[barrys]

Question and Answer - 12 - Part 1

Question and Answer - 12 - Part 1

Question 12

Last year at the Intensive Taijiquan course you taught that after internal force practice, such as Lifting Water or Three Circle Stance, one can choose to let chi flow freely, or first let the chi flow be quite still and then let go more, or let the chi flow be calm.

How does this affect on building force?

Sifu Nessa Kahila


Answer

Chi flow after building internal force brings four wonderful benefits that even some masters may not know!

1. It erases harmful side effects due to unwitting wrong practice.
2. It enhances force building.
3. It attains better balance of energy.
4. It puts internal force to better uses.

Some people may be surprise that many Chinese themselves are dreadful of internal force training. Even when they have an opportunity to train internal force, they may not want to. This is an interesting contrast to many people in the West who try to practice internal force on their own, and then teach others.

The main reason why many Chinese are dreadful of internal force is that they are afraid to train wrongly. They know very well that wrong training brings deviation, known by a frightening term in Chinese (Cantonese) as “chow for yap mor”.

Word by word “chow for yap mor” means “escape fire enter devil”. If a practitioner practices internal force wrongly, his own life force, represented here as fire, may be dissipated, and harm, represented as devil, will result. The modern term “deviation’ is less frightening.

While harmful effects of “chow for yap mor” or deviation are true, they are not as horrible as these people imagine. Internal force training is safer than driving a car or swimming in the sea. But on must learn internal force from a competent teacher. Learning on his own is asking for trouble.

Chi flow after internal force building is an excellent save-guard against deviation. Even when a practitioner has made some mistakes in his training, the chi flow will erase the harmful effects of these mistakes, without the practitioner doing anything extra!

Mistakes here refer to wrong practice due to carelessness or forgetfulness. If a practitioner purposely go against instructions, he is asking for trouble. For example, a very important instruction in any internal force training is to be relaxed. If a practitioner, due to carelessness or forgetfulness, tenses his muscles, but attempts to be relaxed when he recalls the instruction, he needs not worry or do any extra remedial exercise. His chi flow at the completion of his force training will automatically clear any harmful effects his mistakes may have caused.

But if he purposefully tenses his muscles although he knows he should not, perhaps wrongly thinking that this may increase his force, he is a fool. He will definitely derive serious harmful effects.

Although chi flow is our norm, it is rarely found in other schools. Hence, internal force practitioners of other schools do not have this safety precaution.

Besides erasing harmful effects, chi flow also enhances the result, often by a big margin though a practitioner may not be aware of it, and sometimes may even think that some of the internal force developed has been lost due to the chi flow. For example, if a practitioner spends 15 minutes training and builds 100 units of internal force, he may build 150 units if he spends 10 minutes on training and 5 minutes on chi flow.

The increase of internal force is due to his chi flow attracting more energy from the Cosmos to flow into his body. Moreover, energy that is flowing is more powerful than energy that is static.

Although there is an increase of internal force, say from 100 units to 150 units, the practitioner may have an illusion that the force is less. This is because the force is spread out due to the chi flow. When he practices Lifting Water, for example, before chi flow there were 100 units of force in his hands. After chi flow, there are only 60 units of force in his hands, the other 90 units are spread over other parts of his body.

This spreading of energy to other parts of his body helps him to attain energy balance, otherwise the energy is localized at the place of training, like his hands. Better energy balance contributes to his physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health.

If too much internal force is localized in a practitioner’s chest after training Three-Circle Stance, for example, physically the function of his lungs may be affected, emotionally he may feel oppressed, mentally he may feel dull, and spiritually he may disorientated. If the energy is spread over his body, his lungs will function better, emotionally he feels confident, mentally he is fresh, and spiritually he is peaceful.

[barrys]

Question and Answer - 12 - Part 2

Question 12 (Original question)

Last year at the Intensive Taijiquan course you taught that after internal force practice, such as Lifting Water or Three Circle Stance, one can choose to let chi flow freely, or first let the chi flow be quite still and then let go more, or let the chi flow be calm.

How does this affect on building force?

Sifu Nessa Kahila


Answer (Contd.)

... Without chi flow, the internal force developed will be limited in its uses. It will make him a more efficient fighter, but it may not enrich his daily life. It may not even make him healthier or enhance his mental clarity. Having chi flow after his internal force building will give him all these wonderful benefits.

The countless wonderful benefits of internal force can be classified into three categories as follows:

1. To maintain life.
2. To enhance life.
3. To enable a practitioner have better results no matter what he does.

All these wonderful benefits are possible with chi flow. Without chi flow, even when a practitioner has internal force, he may not enjoy these wonderful benefits.

As I have mentioned earlier, even masters, past and present, may not have this invaluable knowledge.

When past masters were sick or injured, which threatened life, they had to take medication. They could not generate a chi flow to overcome their sickness or injury. The great Taijiquan master, Yang Deng Fu, for example, suffered an internal injury, which he sustained when sparring with his father, for life.

Chi flow enables our internal force to enhance our life. The great Xingyiquan master, Guo Yun Sheng, for example, had tremendous internal force, but he was easily irritable. He did not have chi flow to spread his force and open his heart.

In whatever he does, a person with internal force will produce better result than if he had no internal force. This is possible when the internal force is flowing.

If it is localized at when it is trained, like at the palms of an Iron Palm practitioner, its usefulness is limited to only breaking bricks or opponents’ bones. It cannot be used to enhance intellectual activities like planning a project, or even in physical activities like running up a flight of stairs.

Chi flow can convert the localized force to flowing force which can be used anywhere and for whatever purposes. For example, it can convert the Iron Palm force of a practitioner to his intellectual force for him to plan a project, or to mobile force at his legs to enable him running up a flight of stairs without being tired or panting. Many of our students have reported better result in whatever they do after training internal force, which in our case is always followed with chi flow.

For more refinement to have even better results, we can vary the modes of chi flow, such as:

1. Letting chi flow freely.
2. First letting chi flow be quite still, then letting go more.
3. Letting chi flow be calm, or in other words be flowingly still.

These different chi flow modes have different effects on building internal force.

When we let chi flow freely, we use our internal force to clear blockage. It is an excellent mode for overcoming pain, injury and illness. In our sparring, if we are accidentally hurt, we can go into a vigorous chi flow to clear out the injury immediately.

When we keep quite still initially, we build up our internal force. Then when we let go more, we allow our internal force to flow moderately. This is effective for strengthening and nourishing ourselves physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. As a result we have more power in our physical movement, have better control over our emotions, our mind become more focus and fresh, and we become peaceful and happy.

By remaining to be flowingly still, we allow our internal force to build. This can increase your force building tremendously. For example, after practicing Lifting Water you have developed 100 units of internal force. If you remain flowingly still for some time, instead of just walking away after your training, you can increase your internal force to 300 units! You will also enhance your mental clarity and spiritual joy.

Having the skills as well as the philosophical understanding of these various modes of chi flow enable us to be very cost-effective and to adjust our practice to suit our aspirations and situations. If, for example, after standing flowingly still to increase your internal force, you find that the increase is beginning to feel overbearing, you may let go more and move moderately to spread the force.

Or after a vigorous chi flow to clear your injury, you wish to enhance your mental clarity to perform some intellectual work after training, you can slow down your movement to become flowingly still.

Internal force and chi flow are not only very beneficial, they are also a lot of fun.

[barrys]

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[barrys]

Question and Answer - 13

Final question and answer in another amazing series. Thank you to everyone who asked a question, to Sifu for sharing his expansive knowledge and experience, and to all of the other past Masters who did what was necessary to ensure this wisdom was realised and passed on.

Question and Answer - 13

Question 13

Many people I have spoken to over the years tend to dismiss ‘neigong’ or internal force. Instead, as mentioned to Sifu over dinner that day, many people expect to see superhuman abilities or some other external (and tangible) manifestation of ‘neigong’. The comment I hear most often is “Can you fly now after practising your qigong?” or words to that effect.

The people who do not doubt are those who have witnessed the steady but gradual transformation of someone they know who had practiced qigong, or those who have themselves experienced the wonders of qigong and have developed neigong on their own.

How can and should we best showcase the wondrous effects of qigong in a relatively short time to those who have not had the opportunity to witness how qigong (and neigong) has brought health and vitality to its practitioners, such as curious seekers who have only read about internal force but do not personally know any practitioner?

The most ideal situation would be for someone to see the transformation brought about by regular practice over time, but in today’s information-overloaded world, is there a way to get the message across in a quicker manner without resorting to “stuntman shows”?

Sifu Zhang Wuji



Answer 13

Honestly I do not want to waste my time over these people. I rather spend time taking my wife, children or grandchildren out for a drive, or spend time drinking tea with you or other students.

We are ridiculously generous in sharing our arts and wonderful benefits with people whom we may not even know before, if they are deserving, But if they are undeserving, as indicated in the question they ask, don’t waste your time entertaining them.

If I want to answer their question, “Can you fly now after practicing your qigong?” I may say one of the following, and I mean it.

1. I may explain to you if you pay for dinner at an expensive restaurant.
2. I can fly before or after practicing my qigong – more than nine times a year around the world. My students pay for my air tickets.
3. Really, I don’t want to waste my time on you.

Interestingly, no one has asked me such a question. But many people, including those who do not know I teach qigong, have expressed their admiration for my good health, vitality and cheerfulness. Some have complimented me on my quickness of mind and clarity of explanation.

We do not need to showcase the wondrous effects of our qigong. We ourselves are living examples. We are healthy, full of vitality, kind and considerate, confident of our abilities, cheerful and encouraging, and pleasant in our dealing with other people. We walk our talk.

When sincere seekers ask me questions, I reply immediately if the answers are short. If the answers are long, I refer them to my website. If they ask me to teach them some chi kung exercise to try out, I tell them to attend my Intensive Chi Kung Course or learn from our instructors. Teaching them for free may spoil their chance of learning our wonderful art.

When they find out the price of my course and say it is expensive, I tell them that they will get more benefits than the price they pay for, otherwise they can ask for a full refund.

A very convincing and fast way to demonstrate the effectiveness of our arts is to perform a flying kick in the air or an agile roll on the ground. Many people expressed amazement when they see me, at 70, performing such impromptu athletic actions. I performed them not to convince skeptics, whom I have said earlier I would not want to waste my time on, but to students of our school to illustrate some points in question.

[barrys]

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