I wrote yesterday about the torso charge development in Xingyiquan by means of the (apparently) static stance work called Santishi. It's kind of easy and kind of hard. Easy in that the instructions are easy to follow and try. But it may take a long time to actually feel the charge at the juncture of your lower torso (hips and pelvis) and you upper torso (lower edge of rib cage to collar bones) - meeting and rip-tiding at your waist. Most of the problem of actually feeling this will come from
(i) not really thinking there's anything to it, or
(ii) interpreting the instructions as some kind of physical thing.
So when I talk about two rip currents meeting at the waist as the key to torso/ox power, which in turn floods your entire body, most of you will think of that as basicaly a physical thing. We 3rd dimensional creatures are totally hypnotized by the physical! What makes it more even more confusing is that there actually is a small but essential physical component to the whole thing. I mean, this isn't sedentary zazen - the practice has its roots in traditional martial arts. But the physical part of this is only a gesture - just a dynamic of power activation and directional channeling - it is NOT the source of the power. Not at all. Let's face it most potentially interesting people will never get past this physicalization and the accompanying excess tension.
But anyway. The answer is yes, once you feel that energetic rip zone in the 'standing', you can then take it on the road. And I use the metaphor advisedly, because as I wrote in the previous post, this has a lot in common with the concept of "putting a car in gear". You can have lots of gas in your tank, you can stomp the accelerator through the floorboard but you won't move an inch as long as you're in neutral. It's really conceptually similar - a meeting of different angle and structures via the meshing or interlocking of gear teeth that permits the power exchange. So I will call this stage of energetic meshing or engagement the Xingyi 'Ox Lock'. It is the heart and soul of the XYQ art.
That first barrier may be the hardest - thinking there's nothing really to this. Thinking its just another simply little buzz like all the other qi gong's out there. I don't blame you. Though I'd been taught and told it took even me by surprise when I first experienced it. Despite all my interest and research into this stuff, I was llike "WHAAO what's THAT?" Catch it by a thread and then work that thicker and thicker. It's amazing, so amazing.
Anyway you come here for practical tips, not philosophical blather and self-serving SEO marketing, right?? So let's talk turkey. Though the essence of dynamic XYQ is the Crushing technique, however for creating your first bridge from the 'static' experience of the Ox power activation over to dynamic trajectories, you should understand it first via the technique called 'Crossing' (Hengquan), one of the classical Five Elements. This technique is absolutey precision Swiss crafted to active almost by itself in motion once you can bring your 'meshed gears' or 'wrung towel' (see previous post) to the table. Crossing has a lead in of two 'blocks' that require waist motion and engagement that is the ideal gateway gesture to put it all together in motion. It's an experience like no other!
My version of Crossing consists of a couple of lead-in moves, then the strike:
- Outer forearm block with step
- Inner forearm block with crossing step
- Twisting forward underhand strike with and follow-stomp
Each of those component moves involves a physical 'gesture' of a waist rotation. That's what makes this technique the perfect bridge from 'static' Santi to dynamic full power up.
Stages of Development:
- You must have the basic understanding and experience of the waist border counter-rotation (or towel-wringing) as an gonzo energetic phenomenon, best using Santishi.
- Then practice Crossing with the intent to active that same experience in motion: at this initial stage, you will be able to re-engage experience 3 times: once synchronized with the first block, again synched with the second, and again with the strike itself.
- Finally, you'll be able to maintain the torso ox-lock continuously throughout the full sequence above. Then you are finally cooking with gas (oops, I might get my door kicked in and my face jackbooted by the feds for using that expression... disculpame chicos! meant no harm)
- Once you've really understood it in the Crossing, context try it with the other moves, they're all absolutely incredible with this sauce applied to them. Totally transformative.
- Finally you'll have this kind of in always-on mode, such that you can instantly and instinctively engage it in Ba Gua, Tai Chi, pretty much anything and beyond.