Did you ever wonder what power means when talking about kung fu?
If you start reading kung fu books, you will find all kinds of different "powers". I think I always see kung fu guys talking about "fa jing" power. There is spiraling or circular power. I think there are lots of them.
For me? I don't like those kinds of explanations. I am not chinese and I did not grow up in chinese culture. I do not have the necessary background so that terms like "fa jing" would make any sense to me.
As a western english speaking person, I wanted someone to talk to me about power in terms I could understand. I learned about energy and power in college, bu those ideas are too complex to teach someone in a kung fu class. You would lose your audience within 10 minutes if you started talking college ideas about power.
What I wanted was a very simple obvious way that I could tell a 16 year old new kung fu student so they would understand what power is. The answer is as simple as it should be.
Power can be defined as expansion of something.
If I am a human being and I expand my arms out from by body, I can push an object away from me. If I expand my leg away from my body, I can kick someone with it or push some object away from me. If someone gets me in a bear hug, I expand my entire body to break the bear hug.
I think even a child can understand those visual images. This is an adult kung fu forums though, in the Tai Chi section of the forums. The things posted above, will accurate and maybe helpful, are rather simplistic for an adult Tai Chi man to use and learn from.
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When you begin to learn high level kung fu, you will be told that a move is associated with a particular internal organ. A move might be a liver move or a spleen move or a heart move. Alternatively, you will be told that the movement involves an internal organ. This is a subtle difference but it is a difference.
When my instructors told me about heart moves and liver moves, I was completely lost. To me, the liver was something inside of your body that did blood filtering. If you were an alcholic, your liver would go bad. The idea of kung fu being involved with the liver was a fantastic claim to me.
If I was a jerk, a rude person, an asshole, I could have said "Ahhh, your stupid teacher. The liver is inside of your body. Kung fu has nothing to do with the liver. I think you have a small dick and no education. I think you had problems with your family. I think you are a kook and should seek psychiatric help".
But then, if I talked like that, he would rightfully have kicked me out of the class and I would not have learned anything.
Instead, because I knew my kung fu instructor was smart, and I knew I was smart and could figure out anything he could, I began thinking, observing, and researching. Eventually I hit on an answer that made sense to me.
When a kung fu man says that a move is a liver move, that move can be visualized as the liver expanding and causing the body to move. If the move is a heart move, the move can be visualized as the heart expanding and causing the body to move.
This is really a simple idea. I could post a picture I suppose but it is so trivial I do not see the need. If the discussion requires it, I will post a demonstration picture.
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Kung fu is simple and easy. All that needs to be done is to translate the foreign culture of chinese to western culture. Then use common sense, and the brain that you were given as part of your tool kit for this world to figure out what is going on.
If you start reading kung fu books, you will find all kinds of different "powers". I think I always see kung fu guys talking about "fa jing" power. There is spiraling or circular power. I think there are lots of them.
For me? I don't like those kinds of explanations. I am not chinese and I did not grow up in chinese culture. I do not have the necessary background so that terms like "fa jing" would make any sense to me.
As a western english speaking person, I wanted someone to talk to me about power in terms I could understand. I learned about energy and power in college, bu those ideas are too complex to teach someone in a kung fu class. You would lose your audience within 10 minutes if you started talking college ideas about power.
What I wanted was a very simple obvious way that I could tell a 16 year old new kung fu student so they would understand what power is. The answer is as simple as it should be.
Power can be defined as expansion of something.
If I am a human being and I expand my arms out from by body, I can push an object away from me. If I expand my leg away from my body, I can kick someone with it or push some object away from me. If someone gets me in a bear hug, I expand my entire body to break the bear hug.
I think even a child can understand those visual images. This is an adult kung fu forums though, in the Tai Chi section of the forums. The things posted above, will accurate and maybe helpful, are rather simplistic for an adult Tai Chi man to use and learn from.
---------------------------------
When you begin to learn high level kung fu, you will be told that a move is associated with a particular internal organ. A move might be a liver move or a spleen move or a heart move. Alternatively, you will be told that the movement involves an internal organ. This is a subtle difference but it is a difference.
When my instructors told me about heart moves and liver moves, I was completely lost. To me, the liver was something inside of your body that did blood filtering. If you were an alcholic, your liver would go bad. The idea of kung fu being involved with the liver was a fantastic claim to me.
If I was a jerk, a rude person, an asshole, I could have said "Ahhh, your stupid teacher. The liver is inside of your body. Kung fu has nothing to do with the liver. I think you have a small dick and no education. I think you had problems with your family. I think you are a kook and should seek psychiatric help".
But then, if I talked like that, he would rightfully have kicked me out of the class and I would not have learned anything.
Instead, because I knew my kung fu instructor was smart, and I knew I was smart and could figure out anything he could, I began thinking, observing, and researching. Eventually I hit on an answer that made sense to me.
When a kung fu man says that a move is a liver move, that move can be visualized as the liver expanding and causing the body to move. If the move is a heart move, the move can be visualized as the heart expanding and causing the body to move.
This is really a simple idea. I could post a picture I suppose but it is so trivial I do not see the need. If the discussion requires it, I will post a demonstration picture.
------------------------
Kung fu is simple and easy. All that needs to be done is to translate the foreign culture of chinese to western culture. Then use common sense, and the brain that you were given as part of your tool kit for this world to figure out what is going on.
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