How hard do you hit?

[StoneRobe]

by way of explination I submit the following quote from Thomas Cleary

"For practical purposes, a distinction is made between the "original spirit" and the "conscious spirit." The original spirit is the formless essence of awareness; it is unconditioned and trancends culture and history. The conscious spirit is the mind-set of feelings, thoughts, and attitudes, conditioned by personal and cultural history, bound by habit to specific forms. These terms are employed in both Chan and Taoist traditions.
Intuition belongs to the original spirit; intellect belongs to the conscious spirit. The essence of Taoism is to refine the conscious spirit to reunite it with the original spirit. In Chan Buddhism, the primal original spirit is also known as the host, while the conditioned conscious spirit is known as the guest; the original spirit is the master, and the conscious spirit is the servant. In these terms, self -delusion occurs when the sevant has taken over from the master; self-enlightenment takes place when the master is restored to autonomy in the center.
The idea of two minds or two aspects of mind is found early on in the ancient Taoist classic Tao Te Ching "Using the shining radiance, you return again to the light, not leaving anything to harm yourself. This is called entering the eternal." Here is an image of an ideal relationship between the original spirit as the source of power and the conscious spirit as a subordinate functionary. When clarified, The concious spirit functions according to the situation without usurping the authority of the original spirit. The original spirit remains available as the reserve of total awareness, to which the conscious spirit returns without leaving any harmful fixation on itself or its objects."

[StoneRobe]

Ready for shock treatment.

[Fa Hui]

You'll never get it through explanation.

That's for sure!

[dogchow108]

Soft beats Hard
Hard beats HardSoft
Hardsoft beats Soft

Examine Why you practice.
if it is only to increase your ego then truly the Guest has thrown out the Host.

Think About this carefully.

Well, i thought about it. Then my head popped. In between writing this post and reading your explanation as to what on earth you meant, i will get to picking up peices of my scattered cranium....

[StoneRobe]

included all of quote to explain.

not really about hitting at all.

How hard does Da Mo Hit?

[daodejing]

Corpses don't tend to hit very hard. But every time I've sparred with a tree, the tree won. Funny how that works.

So you're saying the best way to spar is to soften against hardness, and play the middle against the soft, I like that idea.

As for hitting, I've never found out how much pressure my punch exerts in numbers, but as someone who grew up grappling and not striking, I've been concerned with the power of my punches. When I have worked with a partner and pads (usually the fellow holding the pads has 50-100 lbs on me) I always wondered why they kept getting backed into the wall. And last time I did alot of work with freestanding bags (the kind with water in the base to hold them up) I kept knocking them over. When i eased up the bag just kept sliding back with each punch until it fell into wall

Thats all I know about my punches. I've never punched a person though (w/o boxing gloves at least, and they really impair gongfu technique).

I've never like hanging heavy bags. They just feel weird when you hit them. Something about the way they're anchored from above instead of in the earth makes them feel odd.

[LeiYunFat]

You are a friggin beast, ddj.

[StoneRobe]

ddj it was a metaphorical question not a literal one.

A corpse is a corpse of couse of course.

[Fa Hui]

I know what kind of person you are.

[master splinter]

One hitter quitter

ive walked thru guys many times with my straight right punch that i trained on a brick wall scattered over a period of 6 years, thats from 13 to 19. i kind laid back after that and got into the internal aspects of martial arts. i cant break a brick but i can make a face look like an ass. unless it alredy does, then ill make yo ass look like a puss*&.

[zachsan]

the crowning achievement of the martial arts.

[master splinter]

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA !