Post by Eric Ling on Oct 17, 2004 0:08:15 GMT -5
Hi little boys and girls,
I got an ancient secret manual in front of me expounding all the finer points of energy, movements and blah blah blah that I hope answer all your curiosities.
Secret manual is authored by ancient sage, Peter Ralston, who is a personal friend of oldragon Wayne. And this wise old man actually started martial arts at age 9 in a bizarre place called Singapore – according to back cover of secret manual.
This posting will self-delete in 30 seconds so read very fast…….
“Energy” work involves feeling as if certain images are actually occurring. By drawing our feeling-attention to a particular image we can align our energy and structure to the qualities inherent in that image.
For example, when we feel an extension of “energy,” or feeling-attention, flow out from the hand, regardless of anything else actually accomplished by this, we have immediately drawn our attention to and aligned our body with this feeling; and so our power in relation to that act is increased relative to anything “extension” might add.
When we feel as if we’re “standing on pilings,” or “holding a ball-and-chain hanging from our center,” or when we’re “feeling the space all around the body 3 dimensionally,” we immediately align our body and feeling-impulse to the qualities and design of those images, as if they are presently physically occurring.
Body and feeling-attention will adjust to these new demands. If, in the image, an increased sensitivity to balance is required, it is drawn out; if greater structural strength is needed, it is aligned with, and so on. In this way, our body-being obtains the qualities and powers inherent in these images.
(I am skipping a big chunk here…………………..).
With this imagery you can feel what is necessary to translate all movement and force to a vertical pressure beneath the feet. (Here he is talking about the imagery of standing on 2 pilings or long vertical poles).
If you pretend the pilings are very high up, you not only get a much stronger sense of depth, you also have more incentive to stay on the poles. Pretend, too, that the poles may be slippery, and in this way you won’t be so inclined to use friction to push away from a pole. (I love this part). When you sink straight down on a surface, slippery is not an issue, since compression takes place straight into the ground and this doesn’t require friction
Translating our bodily activity into this vertical pressure requires some vertical alignments. One of the most significant of these is the placement of the knee. The knee should always move or “press” towards the direction of the heel. This is one of the critical aspects of alignment that allows for all horizontal movement to be translated vertically.
When the weight shifts toward the front foot, I recommend that the knee doesn’t move in front of the ankle. If the knee is pressed toward the heel, it is very difficult for it to move in front of the ankle, since it is not moving in that direction. In this case, the movement is fulfilled when the knee arrives above the heel.
This is very significant. The movement, and so the feeling of the movement, is quite different from that of normal forward movement or shifting of weight. Since we are holding the activity as one of changing weight from one vertical pressure to another, the movement is complete when this is done.
Since the direction of the knee’s movement is down into the foot, when the knee arrives over the heel, it can’t go any further because the rest of the leg and the ground are in the way. So pressure builds up under the foot and nothing more. There is no tendency to move the knee forward since it was never going forward. The only reason the body mass appears to move forward is that its weight was shifted from one vertical resting place to another. These 2 places being located some distance apart (wherever the feet are placed), it so happens that the body mass moves some distance.
Yet that movement is not the focus of our attention. What is mostly felt is the downward pressure shifting from foot to foot. The horizontal movement is secondary. This is a very important point. Things like this can change the entire functional power and ease of body use.
For structural integrity it is also important that the front of the knee point in the same direction that the toe is pointing. In other words, the knee’s bend should point in a line parallel to and in the same plane as the line in which the toes points. This should remain true regardless of the direction the toe points. If the toe’s direction changes, so must the knee’s.
No matter what the original direction of force or movement, or whether it comes from your own expression or an outside force, it must end up as movement into the knee and then the foot. If the knee is moving forward a vertical relationship with the foot, then by the time the force reaches the knee it will be very close to being translated into vertical pressure.
Alignment with the pull of gravity in all parts of the body, having the pelvis always positioned between the 2 feet and never outside of or behind the line of the 2 feet, and many other proper uses of the body parts as a whole make this translation possible. (Note – this concept is very similar to Tai Chi’s posturing and Whooping Crane’s “Sinking into the center”) Once the translation of force into vertical pressure is made, we are capable of using intrinsic strength by allowing the body to be compressed into the ground. (Exactly what Whooping Crane means by Chen – sinking).
Another very powerful way of “holding” feeling-imagery that greatly empowers our structural physics is called the “ball and chain”. This form of grounding and translation of forces into vertical pressure is brought about by imagining a huge 1,000-poind lead ball hanging from a chain attached to our center. The chain falls between our legs and under the ground so that the huge ball hangs underground.
This imagery brings into alignment many qualities. The ball is heavy, so it pulls us straight downward and forces us to align our legs and pelvis properly to support the pull. (This is exactly how my own teacher taught us – using this imagery.) “It presses us into our feet. Since the heavy ball pulls us down between our legs, it makes moving our weight too far forward in the front foot or too far backward in the back foot difficult, as the ball constantly pulls us back between our legs if we try to move outside of them.
When we learn forward or backward it pulls us upright again. Since the ball is attached to our center, the movement from and the feeling-awareness of our center is enhanced, and the power that comes from the grounding qualities the ball and chain imagery elicits is immediately related to the center.
This feeling-imagery is an excellent form of grounding, and when combined with “hand-up-you-down” or “marrow draining,” completes the first stage of the translation of force and alignment needed for the use of intrinsic strength.
“Hand-up-you-down” and “marrow draining” both refer to relaxing and feeling a flow inside the body, starting with the hand (if it is the body part that is to make functional contact) and moving or draining downward through the body into the ground.
With this flow, a pathway is opened that creates an alignment of the body from the target to the ground, allowing the necessary translation of any force, given or received, to vertical at ground level.
I got an ancient secret manual in front of me expounding all the finer points of energy, movements and blah blah blah that I hope answer all your curiosities.
Secret manual is authored by ancient sage, Peter Ralston, who is a personal friend of oldragon Wayne. And this wise old man actually started martial arts at age 9 in a bizarre place called Singapore – according to back cover of secret manual.
This posting will self-delete in 30 seconds so read very fast…….
“Energy” work involves feeling as if certain images are actually occurring. By drawing our feeling-attention to a particular image we can align our energy and structure to the qualities inherent in that image.
For example, when we feel an extension of “energy,” or feeling-attention, flow out from the hand, regardless of anything else actually accomplished by this, we have immediately drawn our attention to and aligned our body with this feeling; and so our power in relation to that act is increased relative to anything “extension” might add.
When we feel as if we’re “standing on pilings,” or “holding a ball-and-chain hanging from our center,” or when we’re “feeling the space all around the body 3 dimensionally,” we immediately align our body and feeling-impulse to the qualities and design of those images, as if they are presently physically occurring.
Body and feeling-attention will adjust to these new demands. If, in the image, an increased sensitivity to balance is required, it is drawn out; if greater structural strength is needed, it is aligned with, and so on. In this way, our body-being obtains the qualities and powers inherent in these images.
(I am skipping a big chunk here…………………..).
With this imagery you can feel what is necessary to translate all movement and force to a vertical pressure beneath the feet. (Here he is talking about the imagery of standing on 2 pilings or long vertical poles).
If you pretend the pilings are very high up, you not only get a much stronger sense of depth, you also have more incentive to stay on the poles. Pretend, too, that the poles may be slippery, and in this way you won’t be so inclined to use friction to push away from a pole. (I love this part). When you sink straight down on a surface, slippery is not an issue, since compression takes place straight into the ground and this doesn’t require friction
Translating our bodily activity into this vertical pressure requires some vertical alignments. One of the most significant of these is the placement of the knee. The knee should always move or “press” towards the direction of the heel. This is one of the critical aspects of alignment that allows for all horizontal movement to be translated vertically.
When the weight shifts toward the front foot, I recommend that the knee doesn’t move in front of the ankle. If the knee is pressed toward the heel, it is very difficult for it to move in front of the ankle, since it is not moving in that direction. In this case, the movement is fulfilled when the knee arrives above the heel.
This is very significant. The movement, and so the feeling of the movement, is quite different from that of normal forward movement or shifting of weight. Since we are holding the activity as one of changing weight from one vertical pressure to another, the movement is complete when this is done.
Since the direction of the knee’s movement is down into the foot, when the knee arrives over the heel, it can’t go any further because the rest of the leg and the ground are in the way. So pressure builds up under the foot and nothing more. There is no tendency to move the knee forward since it was never going forward. The only reason the body mass appears to move forward is that its weight was shifted from one vertical resting place to another. These 2 places being located some distance apart (wherever the feet are placed), it so happens that the body mass moves some distance.
Yet that movement is not the focus of our attention. What is mostly felt is the downward pressure shifting from foot to foot. The horizontal movement is secondary. This is a very important point. Things like this can change the entire functional power and ease of body use.
For structural integrity it is also important that the front of the knee point in the same direction that the toe is pointing. In other words, the knee’s bend should point in a line parallel to and in the same plane as the line in which the toes points. This should remain true regardless of the direction the toe points. If the toe’s direction changes, so must the knee’s.
No matter what the original direction of force or movement, or whether it comes from your own expression or an outside force, it must end up as movement into the knee and then the foot. If the knee is moving forward a vertical relationship with the foot, then by the time the force reaches the knee it will be very close to being translated into vertical pressure.
Alignment with the pull of gravity in all parts of the body, having the pelvis always positioned between the 2 feet and never outside of or behind the line of the 2 feet, and many other proper uses of the body parts as a whole make this translation possible. (Note – this concept is very similar to Tai Chi’s posturing and Whooping Crane’s “Sinking into the center”) Once the translation of force into vertical pressure is made, we are capable of using intrinsic strength by allowing the body to be compressed into the ground. (Exactly what Whooping Crane means by Chen – sinking).
Another very powerful way of “holding” feeling-imagery that greatly empowers our structural physics is called the “ball and chain”. This form of grounding and translation of forces into vertical pressure is brought about by imagining a huge 1,000-poind lead ball hanging from a chain attached to our center. The chain falls between our legs and under the ground so that the huge ball hangs underground.
This imagery brings into alignment many qualities. The ball is heavy, so it pulls us straight downward and forces us to align our legs and pelvis properly to support the pull. (This is exactly how my own teacher taught us – using this imagery.) “It presses us into our feet. Since the heavy ball pulls us down between our legs, it makes moving our weight too far forward in the front foot or too far backward in the back foot difficult, as the ball constantly pulls us back between our legs if we try to move outside of them.
When we learn forward or backward it pulls us upright again. Since the ball is attached to our center, the movement from and the feeling-awareness of our center is enhanced, and the power that comes from the grounding qualities the ball and chain imagery elicits is immediately related to the center.
This feeling-imagery is an excellent form of grounding, and when combined with “hand-up-you-down” or “marrow draining,” completes the first stage of the translation of force and alignment needed for the use of intrinsic strength.
“Hand-up-you-down” and “marrow draining” both refer to relaxing and feeling a flow inside the body, starting with the hand (if it is the body part that is to make functional contact) and moving or draining downward through the body into the ground.
With this flow, a pathway is opened that creates an alignment of the body from the target to the ground, allowing the necessary translation of any force, given or received, to vertical at ground level.