Open and Close

Author Mike Sigman to neijia list as of Mar 25 1995

> It seems you are saying that a large portion of training is learning
> how to get out of the way of the functioning of the body.  But would
> you expand on these mind-body concepts that are at the core of the
> internal arts.

A large part is really learning to shift your fulcrums, rely on peng jing and whole body connection. To do that means that you have to allow your body musculature to re-pattern (re-coordinate). If you just relax, relying on the above, the body will assign and handle the rest. After you have acquired this new way of moving (takes several years for it to become really fixed), then your automatic responses will call on the new method as needed. Calling on the new method is just an aspect of the repatterning, it's really just reflexes, etc., shifted over, so some of the mind-body stuff is really old stuff employed a different way.

> >Heng is called the Mother Fistbecause it is related to the spleen.> >The body, after first closing, opens with a diagonal peng release.
> >Often, depending on application, there is a second rebound closing
> >that is almost instantaneous.  In this action, it would be considered
> >a diagonal strike of great power (from inside to outside) against the
> >opponent's arm, with the rebound hitting the side of his head.
> 
> Could you give a simple explanation of opening and closing.  Something
> suited to an IKG Book, i.e, "Opening and Closing for Dummies".
> 

*If* you really understand and use peng (and right now, most people who talk about it can't do it or only in very limited aspects), then you can view closing as a whole-body contraction and storage along the peng axis. Opening is the reverse. The storage of peng is necessary for the entry in p'i chuan, the closing and rebound jings power the strike.

I'd really have to show you, Chris Achstetter notwithstanding. :^)

I didn't clarify that the spleen is the mother organ, hence heng is the mother fist.

Regards,

Mike Sigman

 


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