Secrets of Building Internal Force: 10 Questions to the Grandmaster

[Daniel]

Wonderful!

Thank you Sifu and Barry!

[barrys]

For anyone interested in this thread you might want to check out this extract from the course at Summer Camp 2014.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7As69DjCKxw&feature=youtu.be

[Maxime]

A great THANK YOU to the FULLY ALIVE TEAM (Barry, Tim and Mark) for their videos!

And a great THANK YOU to Sifu for sharing all those secrets so openly! Amazing!

Maxime

[foxinsocks74]

Amazing benefits of the Secrets of Internal Force Course

Greetings to All,

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but couldn't find any better location. I have been practicing and reflecting after summer camp and just wanted to share the quite amazing (for me)personal insights and results of the Secrets of Internal Force course that Sifu generously gave us. For various personal reasons, I could only attend this one day of the Summer Camp, but it was one of the most useful days of all my training with Sifu to date. I was amazed at how these 'secrets' were made so open and accessible, in a simple direct and very effective way. Even though they were contained in other courses, the fact that they were isolated and systematically presented, step by step gave my mind a deeper appreciation and understanding of the skills than ever before.

Since Summer Camp, I have been applying the various skills to my training and have had some great results in terms of the depth and subtlety of my awareness and experience of internal force. Some examples include:

Stance training: Sifu corrected my stance during the course and tilted my back very slightly forward. At that point I felt a distinct 'locking-in' of chi in the dantien. Ever since then I have been able to re-connect with that feeling in a way that I was not able to do before. This combined with his instruction to find the centre of the stance by simply breathing out and relaxing was a great crystallisation for me. This solved one of the longer standing subtle challenges I had with stance training -- previously I had been basing my assessment of if I was doing the stance correctly more or less on the exactitude of the form -- if the back was straight and feet aligned, etc. Only when I was happy with the form did I try to put my mind at the dantien. The corrections Sifu made made me relax my mind more and realised that there is a more subtle gauge of correctness on the energetic level. I realised that when I started with achieving the 'locked-in' feeling at the dantien, then my physical form was led by my chi into harmony. It was subtly different -- my back was slightly less 'upright' but nonetheless I noticed that my head was in fact directly above the centre of my feet and the weight was equally balanced on the feet. -- So the form took care of itself if the energy is correctly centered. I also realise that I probably could not have jumped directly to this level of awareness, and I think Sifu just knew that I was ready for that particular instruction to take me to another level, so I don't feel that I had been practicing 'wrongly' before. But it just goes to show how the mind/body/energy development process in in constant flux - percieved 'mastery' at one level is merely a stage of relative ignorance preceding the next level!

Flowing and exploding force: I have been experimenting with this in various sets and patterns, notably the 18 Lohan Arts, particularly the patterns that emphasise exploding force like Old Monk Grinds Rice, Big Bird Spreads Wings, Green Dragon Charges at Face. Also I have tried to use the skills in various combat sequences notably in the Flower Set and Combat Sequences 5-8. I have found that I am now much more aware of the building 'hurricane' of force and then the whole body spiral exploding of force. I have gained a new and deeper appreciation for the interconnectedness of the basic form and body mechanics with the flow and force dimensions. This part of the course has also been great for improving the flowing force training sets like One Finger Zen and the Flower Set Force training.

Consolidating Force: I think this was my biggest 'wow' area. Consolidating force was one of the force training aspects that I had less confidence in. Over the past week or two I have had the spontaneous urge to revisit the Iron Wire Set after about a year of not practicing it much and and have gained a whole new appreciation for this set. My awareness of the building and consolidating within the set has greatly increased and I've also experienced the tremendous mental clarity and existential joy associated with this set in a much more direct way than I did before. It has also been interesting for me to experience how the 'quiescent' aspect of stance training and the flowing / exploding force skills are also strongly present in the Iron Wire set in addition to the consolidating force skills that are its hallmark. I gained an appreciation of how 'well rounded' Iron Wire really is.

Mind: As always with Sifu's courses, the greatest learnings are to do with the mind. I re-learned 'from scratch' the importance of mental relaxation. Sifu confirmed that simple wuji stance training could potentially generate more internal force than golden bridge if the wuji practitioner's mind was in a deeper state of relaxation and chi kung state of mind than the practitioner of Golden Bridge. I think one of the keys to my new 'unlocking' of Iron Wire is due to me making extra efforts to enter chi kung state of mind more deeply before starting.

Form: The course was a great reminder how important good form is as the foundation for chi and force generation. This was particularly evidenced in the spiral force exercise, where only when we had correct body mechanics could the spiral force 'hurricane' naturally arise.

Chi Flow: the first lesson we ever learned from Sifu is still perhaps the greatest! I was awestruck, when Sifu 'reminded' us that Flowing Breeze Swaying Willows is the key to building internal force. It was like learning it all over again.

I hope these notes are of use to others. I'd also love to hear other people's insights and benefits obtained from the Course.

A very big and heartfelt thanks to Sifu for this wonderful course, where ancient pearls of wisdom were made so clear for us all to see!

Shaolin Salute to all,

Omar

[Andy]

Great realisations, very well communicated.

Thanks, Omar!