-Today we started with a ‘simple’ move of locking the forearm and only use the rotation of the waist/torso to propel the forearm to go forward.
The forearm is dead. First it is one piece. Second, it is in a tight tube, so no sway sideways. Third is the arm itself does not have power. In this way, there is yin yang separation.
Imagine you cut off the forearm from the elbow, and when the torso rotates, hits the forearm from the elbow, the friction will only make the forearm go forward. The movement is very small. If it is large, it will have to go sideways. It is like hammering a big nail into the wall, you do a big swing with the arm, and on the touch of the nail, the nail goes forward.
Once you are able to do this, we add resistance to the forearm a little bit and gradually increase the resistance.
It is about active/inactive, active/passive, moving/not moving, indirect power.
In actual Yilu training, think about there are ten parts, nine parts we do it normal, and the last part is when everything is in place, we lock the outside shape and rotate/stretch from the inside to go a bit further, that is to relax. The last move is a very small punch. Master used Punch covering hand as example to show how to drive the arm forward as a dead piece using the body. There is no muscling in the arms, it is a stick. The turn in Turn right to pound the mortar, the arms do no open itself.
– From GM Hong, it is not scientific but a conception, no body part can move more than 1/9 of its own size. The size comes from 9 different parts adding up. There are always only two parts working together, it is different configuration of the 9 parts. In action, we combine, lock, relax and then reconfigure. The arm is always locked as a coat hanger shape. Through training, we will be able to produce more dead parts in the body, eventually the power comes from the feet. The feet works like a Bolter??(I cannot remember how to spell this word, like a boat), and the body is like a mountain.
– Taiji state is non-being/existence. Taiji is empty forms and into emptiness, it is unrelated to any human activities. There is no actual bearing in our body to understand it. If you add your own understanding, you will never get it. Just follow the instructions. It is the art of illusion, the shadow boxing. It is magic for the people who do not know what is happening behind the table.
– To relax is not doing. The tension is the pretensioning. Whatever there is, do not add on its own(nail), add from other parts(hammer). When you are falling off a cliff, there is nothing touches you, nothing stops you.
– Two things. Positive is one, negative is thousands of variations. We need to learn the one, how to tie the first knot in the fishing net.
– When the alignment is there, it is like there is no space. Being close or further away, there is only connection, no movements(elbow and kua).
