I just finished my practice for this evening, and I was inspired to write about my experiences.
Yesterday, I experienced wonderful sensations of flow during One Finger Shooting Zen practice, especially during the triple stretching portions. I decided to maintain a gentle thought of flow going into today's practice, as well. Nothing forced, no expectations, just a gentle thought of flow.
As my repetitions grew, I began to feel a similar sensation of flow linking all of my movements together, not just the triple stretches. The flow became constant, and I began feeling changes in the flow - it would smooth out and flow quickly; it would condense and become very forceful; I could feel it gushing outward and sinking downward; I had experiences of lifting/bouncing away; there were moments of pulling/controlling. It was awesome!!
I had experienced all of these manifestations before, but often as stand-alone experiences. This was the first time I was very aware of one, constant flow from the beginning of the session to the end, and experienced the continuous change/manifestations of that flow from movement to movement.
As I concluded my session, "Taijiquan" popped into my head, and I realized this is what the classics mean when they mention different types of force, and what Sifu means when he says they are the same force, just manifested differently.
It was a great experience, and wonderful confirmation about the arts that we all train!
Flowing with gratitude,
-Matt
Yesterday, I experienced wonderful sensations of flow during One Finger Shooting Zen practice, especially during the triple stretching portions. I decided to maintain a gentle thought of flow going into today's practice, as well. Nothing forced, no expectations, just a gentle thought of flow.
As my repetitions grew, I began to feel a similar sensation of flow linking all of my movements together, not just the triple stretches. The flow became constant, and I began feeling changes in the flow - it would smooth out and flow quickly; it would condense and become very forceful; I could feel it gushing outward and sinking downward; I had experiences of lifting/bouncing away; there were moments of pulling/controlling. It was awesome!!
I had experienced all of these manifestations before, but often as stand-alone experiences. This was the first time I was very aware of one, constant flow from the beginning of the session to the end, and experienced the continuous change/manifestations of that flow from movement to movement.
As I concluded my session, "Taijiquan" popped into my head, and I realized this is what the classics mean when they mention different types of force, and what Sifu means when he says they are the same force, just manifested differently.
It was a great experience, and wonderful confirmation about the arts that we all train!
Flowing with gratitude,
-Matt
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