zentao.comDiary of a Student
3nd entry
My last lesson - one of several that I didn't write down for this diary - focused on speed with precision. This week we focused on what Shi Lei calls "Power Form." (Not form as we usually think of the word when used in the context of martial arts, as in a prearranged sequence of fighting movement, but the caliber of one's own movement in the performance of any movement or part of any movement.) And I sweated - lots - until my hair and body and uniform were soaked. We worked precisely, almost robotically.
Breath is again the secret. Focus on the breath - its intake, its expulsion. Then, when you have that, move the focus to the movements, then to the opponent, then to nothing but being in the happening, all the time retaining the attributes brought by each level of focus. (I'm not saying this well, but oh well. It's the best I can do.)
Intent must be focused, every fiber of being focused only on a single point of concentration ...without forcing that concentration ...without effort. It's like a daydream state without the daydream zombie-brained-ness, but with a strange, relaxed alertness that has no focus. (I hope you get my drift here.) ...It's like you are carried on a river of energy or, rather, "going." It's exhilaratimg. You are not in control; you are one with this river of movement. I can't explain it. It's wonderful. It fills you; you are moved ...it moves, you move - all are one and the same. There is no willing a goal ...willing a doing. It happens. You are put in "happening."
When we were done, Shi Lei said I had entered a full chi energized state. Yet, he said, unlike other times he's seen me enter that state, instead of falling into a trance - mindless and unaware - I stayed fully cognizant of what I was doing / what "happening" was occuring.
Physically we began as we had last lesson with Stance Dancing, then he asked me to do some free form power blocking/striking, my upper body moving purposefully, my lower fluidly. He wanted me to achieve a balanced split of lower body moving automatically without concentration while upper body was the focus of my mind. He says the mind splits, when asked, in as many parts as it must to perform the requested or needed functions. He says a teacher askes for many functions at once because it prepares the student. It begins the process of moving without thought in many arenas simultaneously. Many arenas, he says, means many potential attackers at once. In time, Shaolin takes you to the ability to move in an infinite variety of directions at once against multiple attackers, one movement a part of another and many others and all others, some hard, some soft, each hard a soft to some other hard (and vice versa), some one animal, some another or several others. In this way, he says, you move like water, wind, earth, fire, stone, simultaneously in all directions. This is the beginning, he says.