Yes that strategy is especially important and advantageous when applied with a Jian, as you can imagine! 😃🙏

Yes it’s totally important that you feel the Qi. When you first start you can imagine the ball, because what is really happening is you are telling your awareness where to pay attention to. Once you feel the Qi you no longer need to imagine anything and just feel how that feels, to the extent that it helps you know this feeling and to come back to this feeling. Does that make sense? 😃🙏

That’s a really good question! Yes if you lose your focus there will be a moment when your control of the internal skills will falter. That’s why a calm, meditative mind is of value to this kind of practice, and why facing opponents, strikes, and yes spit in the eye, becomes a martial path to a meditative mind! You’re right about fall back. I tell my students that Fascia and Song are physical enough that even when their focus and Qi is sub optimal, they can still rely on Fascia and Song. And inversely because you know you can always rely on them, it is easier to remain relaxed and calm. Does that make sense? 😃🙏

@phoenixmountaintaichi Yes, and thank you. It makes perfect sense. Your statement on keeping a meditative state when facing another player reminds me of some of my experiences longboarding down long winding inclines. When relaxed I can control the board and myself with the greatest of ease, be in a higher stance and control with subtle changes, but if I hit a rock, gravel or my tail kicks out, my body braces and lowers my root becomes more physical and even after regaining control it takes my nervous system time to get back out F or F. On snow it's easier to recover center then on ashfault as the consequences are greater as I would imagine it would compare to agreed dueling and a self defense situation. I wanted to add looked at your courses on your website. Thank you for keeping them at an affordable price. I plan to invest in them. 🙏

Haha yes this is not a part of any Tai Chi branch I know of either! Outside of Tai Chi we also enjoy a variety of Kungfu especially regarding weaponry. This footage was taken when someone inquired about how to use this weapon. We have another unexpected one coming up too, double tiger hook swords! Thank you for your kind and informative comment. 😃🙏

@@phoenixmountaintaichi Very cool. My very first Kung Fu Sifu was GM Chan Pui from the Wah Lum Kung Fu Temple located in Orlando Fla. I studied at his school back in 1985 and he taught Northern praying mantis along with about 25 different weapons including the 3 sectional staff. His specialty was the twin hook swords.

Congratulations! And now that you can experience Qi, as you allow yourself to be in that state even more, the more you will align with the energetic and other higher aspects of yourself! Try it and see how it affects you. Because a part of you knows there’s more to you and more to all of this, then the surface, and is ready to guide you to become both more than who you had been, and more true to all that which is really you. And that would be something nice for you, would it not? 😃🙏

@phoenixmountaintaichi Yes. It would. Tank you

You are totally right about the importance of density and hardness. The one I’m using is given to me by my teacher as being suitable for training and not hurting myself too badly. Meaning it probably won’t hurt the other person enough either 😆. The density is about half of that of my usual wax wood staff. He mentioned that his peers who specialized in it, used ones that were as thick as wrists and forearms. If they had the same density as quality wax wood staffs that would make them very heavy. The amount of damage that can be done in the whipping is tremendous. I am doing it as gentle as possible because even with my training weight staff you can still easily fracture bones. I made a follow up video using Moe’s foam three section staff to show how much kinetic energy you can release into it when you properly use Song. Good point about the free middle section block. That is really best versus long distance thrusts, which makes the long whipping follow up logical too right? We can definitely explore Taiji Jian next. It’s a really interesting weapon that allows you to influence their structure, balance, force direction with Tai Chi’s internal skills. There is always opportunities to incorporate the free hand, whether to support the Neijin, to control their weapon/limb, or managing the scabbard. There is a lot of richness that is often overlooked. But you are looking for sure and that’s great! Jian versus longer Miaodao, the saying is that one inch longer is one inch more formidable. This is true and the shorter weapon user must respect that. Using Qi and Neijin, the stronger striking force is not as much a problem and Yi helps making up the range. But the range remains the biggest challenge. As Range translates to Time before you reach them and Time means opportunities for them and liabilities for you. They will have more opportunities to defeat you that you must avoid before you have your opportunity to defeat them. It’s like they get three strikes before striking out in baseball but you only get one! Xingyi spear and pole we can definitely explore. We make use of it a little bit in Song Mastery course to refine your power transmission. I’ll present more sometime on its usage applications and how that looks! Thanks for all the great questions, discussions and ideas! Very appreciated. 😃🙏

Oh your last question, weapons traditionally associated with and incorporated in Yang Tai Chi training include: double edged Jian, single edged saber, spear, and staff. Weapons are of great importance in the 1800s and early 1900s when Tai Chi was spreading. So different masters may have explored how Tai Chi applies to other weapons, including ones they are already familiar with from other martial arts. So aside from the four main ones mentioned here you may find a number of other interesting forms and applications! It’s really quite a different world in that golden age of martial arts and it will be more than great when we get back to that level of enthusiasm, general knowledge, and community in a new age if martial arts to come! 😃🙏

@phoenixmountaintaichi are there multiple Yang forms for the Jian, or is there just the one (the 13 Form)?

@@nathanielbrundige5982there are quite a few versions of it, attributed to different masters in the Yang family tree!

That is totally a fun topic! To really make that work it completely relies on Yi Mastery. Because when your own weapon doesn’t have strong weight, structure, or power, then you will have to maximally borrow the opponent’s force and intention to succeed. Does that make sense? I’ll present it at some point. 😃🙏

@@phoenixmountaintaichi Emei peircers

Yeah that would be dope​@@phoenixmountaintaichi

@@nichalausrook2397 I would like to see that too, that would be cool!

Back on top! 🏆🥇😃

That’s right! Thank you for reminding all of us on that one. He does have excellent counter punches. 😃👍

The courses contain mostly videos with progressive explanations and drills. You'll get explanations of the theory, with demonstrations. Oftentimes, Shifu Lin will ask the students to give their take/feedback on what it feels like to them, to help give us some insight. You start from simple exercises just to get a feel for what you're trying to do/achieve, then steadily progress to more advanced applications. Majority of the drills require a practice partner. They don't need to be skilled or anything, as long as they're willing to participate and can spare the time. There are also solo exercises, but at some point a partner will be necessary to help you practice application and gauge your progress. There are also community forums within the website for questions, and Shifu Lin often replies in them. The entirety of the course can be accessed once unlocked, so you're free to go at your own pace. No particular prescriptions for frequency of practice, as the assumption is you'll take as much time as you need (or are willing to put into it) and proceed to the next part when you're ready. You can review everything at any time, as often as you'd like. There's an intended and recommended sequence to the courses, but nothing's stopping you from taking just the courses you're interested in, in any order. If you're skeptical, start with the first course (Fascia Mastery) because it's the most tangible and easy to test for yourself. Standing practice isn't particularly emphasized in the courses, but undoubtedly it'll help in your development if done well. There are videos on this YT channel about Song and Zhang Zhuang (standing practice). Hope this helps. Cheers.

I completely agree with what GreyTactics said. Thank you for the very accurate summary! Including reading my mind about "taking the amount of time that's right for you to master each skill" and all ha ha. Standing is indeed not emphasized. What we start with is Fascia, awareness of it in yourself, and then in others, and then from there we continue to refine our awareness for more and more subtle, more internal elements. Because awareness is what unlocks your capacity to experience the internal skills of Tai Chi, and begin to control them, does that make sense? My one addition I will add about our courses is that above all else, I want every student to succeed. This is not some series of recordings I've uploaded and just hope someone spends money on. For everyone that places their trust in me to guide them on this journey, and invests their time and resources, I completely want you to succeed. You'll find me in the forums, live coaching sessions, lesson discussions answering questions just like I do here. Because these courses, like I often say, are for you. 😃🙏

@@phoenixmountaintaichi So there are exercises prescribed to the online students then? What I'm looking for is more like knowing what to do for a daily practice at different stages. Also, if standing is not prescribed at the fascia stage, does it come into play in later stages? I guess I'm just interested in figuring out what chi feels like and how to gather / control it.

⁠​⁠​⁠@@ConciseCabbageYes many many exercises. If you look at the course webpage, at the bottom there is a list of lessons in the course. And each lesson contains one exercise to help you accomplish the title of that lesson. It is like how when you are growing up, learning math, each lesson has assignments that as you do them, you begin to recognize the key to solving the problem and the process to complete it. You are evolving the way you think and what you can recognize beyond inside the jumble of numbers. So here you will, step by step in every exercise, begin to recognize the signs of subtler elements, fascia, tension, chi and beyond, that is inside of what you can already see. And once you are aware of it, you can begin to influence it. Because how do we affect something we can’t sense, other than by becoming aware of it, right? And therein lies the pitfall of the “just stand and Song” approach to internal mastery. Song is crucial and a foundation to a lot of Tai Chi. But it does not automatically cause you to develop awareness for fascia, meridians, Qi. Maybe it does, after decades. Some masters say that after they have become masters, all they have to do in training in standing. There is wisdom to that. But what master does to maintain or deepen their mastery can differ a lot from what the beginner does to get on the road. If Einstein tells you that all he does is drink tea and ponder about the nature of gravity, do you think that would make a suitable educational program for a school kid? Probably not right? So what the courses are, are the type of ladders, tools, and maps that takes a beginner on this journey and helps them reach the destination. Specifically, by giving exercises that helps them recognize the landmarks of the journey, and become familiar with the landscape and how to overcome each obstacle. When you reach the top of the mountain all you have to do is just stand and enjoy the scenery. When you are at the bottom of the mountain, you want maps, tools, and you want to be moving and climbing, do you not? 😃 Does that all make sense? More than figuring out, you will experience what Chi feels like. Because figuring out is what the mind does. And the mind can only compute that which it already knows. Can you figure out how to cook a dish, if you have not yet tasted the ingredients? How will you proportion your nutmeg and cinnamon and seasonings if you don’t know how they taste? So while the mind would like to figure out, another part of you is ready to go and experience it, and to turn information into experience. And when experience becomes knowledge that your mind can make use of, what will you finally know, and become, that is more than what you had been? Because you will grow with experience and while your mind can doubt and your mind can want to figure things out to reduce doubt, how will experience help you grow, that gives you real certainty and confidence thar is calming and empowering? That would be a journey worth exploring right? 😃🙏

@@phoenixmountaintaichi that makes a lot of sense! I'll strongly consider signing up. Starting with fascia reminds me of Yan Shou Gong as well. They begin with the "powerlines" so that when you add the "powerplant" you can actually do things with it.

A way that can be helpful to understand is the nature of the Fascia system. It is like a web structure in our body that can modulate forces in very complex ways. When external forces are applied to the body, the untrained body will store the forces in muscles, and bone structure, and eventually allow the structure to break to dissolve the force when it is too much to bear. But an awakened, trained fascia system, is able to take forces, modulate and return that force. Similar to bouncing off a big yoga ball. This can happen suddenly, or happen gradually and continuously. In terms of physics, when force hits any resistance, it means there is a "Return" force acting, thus creating that resistance. The facia is able to allow that "return" force to travel, store, collect, redirect, wave, all kinds of things, with the help of Yi, to flow back to the source of the force, sometimes directly, often peripherally. Why is this elusive, difficult? Because the conditions for fascia to stretch and elongate, act like a web, goes AGAINST the normal way we are used move our body. When muscles CONTRACT, fascia becomes slack, joints close. When muscles RELEASE, specifically to gravity, the fascia stretches and becomes long; joints open up. Taiji quan demands very unique conditions and command for the body to do things that are not natural for many. And in that way it transforms the body, nervous system, the mind, it's relationship with forces and energy. The instructions are actually very straightforward and simple, but it is not easy due to deep rooted habits of how we gather strength and interact with force in the world. Shifu Lin is sharing authentic knowledge of internal arts. This is very rare to come by.

Oh yes very good question! After explaining some of the common mechanical fajins I skipped all the internal ones straight to Tai Chi for brevity. Bagua does indeed have its own fajin. And even between Yin and Cheng Family they have each their own way of it. Yin style excels at the suddenness, coldness, of launching their palms and pierces. Cheng style uses more of a Neijin like quality to cause people to stick to the wrong part of the body as they flank you and set up throws and take downs. Maybe I’ll make a follow up video sometime with Bagua, Xingyi, and Baji. What style of Bagua interests you most? And what do you enjoy most about it, above any other martial practice? 😃🙏

@phoenixmountaintaichi Thank you! I train a combination sryle Xingyi Baguazhang, but I'm still strugling with the internal aspects. Your explanations are already very helpfull! Esspecially the Baguazhang part is very difficult to get more information. Esspecially getting my sparring partners into my Bagua cyrcle and keeping them stuck is very interesting to do (they do not do Baguazhang).

Thank you for sharing the awesome story! It’s really great to hear people arrive at similar conclusions on their own, because parallel evolution is very affirming of the benefits of this journey isn’t it? You can certainly mirror and train Song before Fascia, it’s just that when you have a partner, it’s easier to master Fascia first and then that makes mastering Song easier. You are right that you can pass Neijin through a pole and sword. I’ve actually not tried with a rope! But with your encouragement I’ll go play with that ha ha. I hope you do present some of your own findings and experiences some time. Each of us have our own voice and way of sharing, that may uniquely reach different people out there. And together we form a movement that can impact even more people beyond each of us along! Thank you for sharing your wonderful comment and cheers to good company on this journey! 😃🙌

😃🙏

Ohhhh thank you for this comment. I don’t know if I clearly stated in this video that the Tai Chi I am explaining here is Yang Tai Chi. Chen Tai Chi is indeed different and deserving of its own video! (Along with Bagua, Xingyi, Baji). You are right that Chen Tai Chi uses more Dantian, or you can say more silk reeling. Silk reeling, along with its yin and yang qualities, creates a wave that naturally affects their Yi, their ability to align with you, their structure, as you offset them and then release your own Fajin into them completely. It’s very elegant in a way and totally formidable. And yes Form is less important than Intention. It’s hard to reach the state of clarity of intention without having good form when training. But once you reach and understand, form becomes less important. And hence you see older masters with haunches back, imperfect joints, still exhibiting amazing Fajin and internal power right? You can say Yi involves being present in movement. And there are levels of clarity and awareness that deepens that presence. This is part of why Tai Chi is so engrossing to practice, and becomes something that practitioners love and pursue throughout their life, is it not? Thank you for your comment! The discussion about Chen Tai Chi is crucial and it would be a big neglect and disrespect if we didn’t have it at all! 😃🙏

Thank you for your answer Sifu. And indeed we should not have a value judgment to know if it is Taichi Yang or Chen which is the best. It depends a lot on the personality of each one and who can be better in one than in the other.🙏😑

Yes! I just recently met a new student who competes in that armored HEMA type duel, in a MMA cage, with ground fighting! He's busy focusing on his next competition right now but when that's done I do plan to make him wear his 50 pound armor (or something like that) and see what it's like applying Tai Chi to someone like that! You can certainly apply internal power through swords and spear. Yang Luchan and his children instructed the Qing Dynasty's military battalion and that most certainly meant weapon work. I have a few videos showing the weapon work on this channel but there will be more in the future! You are right that there is something called cold jin. I will totally explain it. Check out my video about Song explained, which I talk a little about it I think. It is indeed related to, or contributes to Chun jin. We will have a video about Chun jin soon, and maybe a 1 inch punch course for fun! Great question about Bagua Fajin. For brevity in this video I skipped all the other internal arts after we discussed the more mechanical Fajin. There are multiple schools of Bagua. The Yin Style has cold, fast piercing and palm strikes, including whipping strikes too. The Cheng Style uses that integrated jin, along with Tai Chi Neijin like qualities to make opponents stick and follow the wrong part of the body, which allows them to enter in and execute elegant and devastating throws. Both styles are able to make use of all of this but they have their emphasis or preferences, does that make sense? This probably could be a video some time too., Thanks for the great comment and all the great ideas! I appreciate them! 😃🙏

@@phoenixmountaintaichi thank you for the answer :) i have several more ideas, but should i wait until you have freer time before recommending them? one of them had even asked if there is professor who would researched the mechanism of his method :p oh when you make the chun jin video, if possible can you explain one the goes side ways instead of forward or backward? long ago one of the visiting old teachers, maybe of yin style bagua, demonstrated breaking brick in inch distance. but unlike bruce lee's forward punch, he did it to the left or right of his fist. maybe like whipping fajin but in a very short distance?

Haha thank you for the beautiful comment! I will now borrow your kind and positive energy to brighten up this comment section! 😃🙏🙌

@@phoenixmountaintaichi 🤩

That’s a really interesting analysis of Aikido energy and power use. Aikido does have very elegant turning. From what I have seen of different respected Aikido masters, I see elements of Dantian use, of Qi’s Yin and Yang to sink or float people, and of Yi’s capacity to influence people’s attention and intention. It looks like a very sophisticated art! I think you are right that some teaching is lost in translation. What do you enjoy most in your Aikido practice? And what do you look forward to accomplishing, that will make you feel this journey to be totally fulfilling? 😃🙏

@@phoenixmountaintaichi I agree very much with your observations of Aikido. It has those elements that you mentioned, and it's missing alot of the ones that are in Tai Chi. But as I said before the turning makes up for it and is actually a necessary element because Aikido is heavily focused on dealing with multiple attackers. My first art was a jujutsu style called Danzan Ryu. I appreciated it for not being tainted by sport and it's ability to increase martial ability through efficient biomechanics. My primary focus then was on self defense. But it still had a barrier of physicality that I thought alot of people would not be able to overcome. Would my mom or my sister be able to train in this art? Would I be able to as I get older? Then I wondered if there was enough training in their syllabus regarding weapons defense. When I discovered Aikido at a later time in my life I found it to have the efficiency and the martial minded-ness that I was used to, and it had the weapons training in spades. It even showed me a path to a lifelong practice that I could pursue when I got older. But more than all of that I found it to be very healing. I started training in Aikido when I was depressed and suicidal. It was one of the things that kept me grounded. That was 19 years ago. I've not been practicing for a long time, so I still daydream about going back. But for now I'd just like to work on my fitness levels first. EDIT: I should add that studying Aikido has also been a gateway for me to look deeper into Zen, Daoism, Confusionism, etc. I just can't get enough. EDIT 2: I'm watching the video for the second time, and I'm finding it interesting how much one can learn upon review while using different language to explore the same ideas. In Aikido we say the four principles are 1) relax 2) keep one point 3) weight underside 4) extend ki. Now, if I try to equate these ideas to Taiji terms those might change to 1) relax 2) zhongding 3) song 4) yi, then I might be able to find more/different material on the internet and find a better understanding.

Ohhh good question. The reason is that most of the videos are just recordings of me answering questions during our group class. Once in a while I will plan a topic to thoroughly discuss as the main point of class that day. This is one such and I do usually call it something something completely revealed ha ha. Thank you for your comment and support! 😃🙏

@ But it is funny what I have question in mind, suddenly your video pop up to answer the question. I will try to reach you on astral plain for further discussion. Thank you sifu.

@@AikiTom76I’ll keep my astral line open! 😃🙌

@ Thank you for giving me such a great bliss, it changed my life.

Thank you for this thoughtful comment! Yes you are right there are instructors completely devoted to one method and view, dismissing all others. The funny thing is I have at various points in my journey thought for each of these methods, “this is it! I’ve finally figured it out!” And yet sooner or later I’ll realize “oh my gosh there is another level beyond this. That which I thought was nonsense before is totally real and profound.” This has happened enough times that I am fully on board with Adam Chan’s statement that you have to keep letting go as you rise and return to the Tao. I frequently tell my students that all that I say now they will likely have to release at some point. Perhaps because we’re going somewhere where this is no longer relevant. Or perhaps I was just wrong ha ha. I was fortunate that my teacher frequently reminded me that the day that you think you’ve learned it all, is the day that the Art starts dying inside you. So I look forward to keep watering the Art inside with experiences of me being proven wrong and letting go of any attachments in this journey. 😃 You’re right that a lot of not-Taichi methods got mixed into Tai Chi to explain Tai Chi. This is in part because Tai Chi masters in the previous century really did not want to give away their Tai Chi knowledge. And in that void, misunderstandings arose. You’re right too that often times people attach to what they can understand, scientifically or otherwise. But if we only look at what is most commonly accepted and limit ourselves to that, then we will likely still think the world is flat and this kind of process is anything but scientific! I think, aside from truly negative trolls, people understand what they understand, and say what they say, with some level of good intentions to inform people of the truth as they see it. And that is shaped by their experiences, skill level and all of that. So I don’t fault them for their preferences, nor their dismissal of what seems unbelievable and outside of their experience. In a way it just means they’re not prone to being crazy or gullible ha ha, does it not? And even if people will say some of this is fake, I want to present it all, leave a record of it, plant a seed in the mind, so that some future day when it is the right time, it can finally sprout and they can say, “oh my gosh maybe it is real and I think I get it!” Just as it has happened to me many times before. Thank you for your amazing comment, I truly appreciate it! 😃🙏

Yes! You are right to think that some amount of dantian and pelvic tucking is a part of Yang Tai Chi, and it forms a comfortable, neutral physical foundation for tai chi practice as you begin to realize your Shen, Yi, and Qi inside of your Tai Chi. I’m glad you are looking forward to more about Intention and Awareness because that is what I intend to present! 😃🙌

@@phoenixmountaintaichi Ah now that you mention that dantien and pelvic tucking is part of the art my thinking is that its probably done physically to make the beginner use to the movement and feel whats happening. But at an advanced stage theres probably no physical movement just the movement of energy going up, down, left, right, diagnally etc. My reasoning for this is that I heard one other taichi teacher say at advanced stages there is no movement physically or its negligible, its just done with intent and the rise and fall of energy only, most probably you feel them along the various yang /ying tendon structures along the body and its all driven via intent and I would also presume the shen and chi. I think teh emphasis on 'you have to feel teh energy' is so that you dont imaginr it happening as people focus on visualization and might delude themselves.

You know how there is a real art to the practice of Zen Archery, and Zen Golf, and things like that. When you can see the Zen there, you can begin to see the philosophical essence inside of throwing like this too, can you not? 😃🙏

Yes opening the kua forms the physical foundation for allowing for integrated force, spinal bow, and dantian force. As you learn to relax the kua and the rest of the body with Song, releasing the attachment to resistance and Kua pressure, the internal power of Tai Chi becomes accessible. So yes open the Kua is a really good opening to begin the journey to further methods of Fajin. 😃🙏

@@phoenixmountaintaichi thanks for taking the time to reach out.

Yes! I like what you say about recognizing the mixes and making use of mixes consciously! Thank you for sharing the good news about the clarity you are gaining, that is exciting to hear! 😃🙌

Right! This is a very formidable and useful skill. Chen Taiji makes use of Kua in their Fajin very well, in a lateral and spiraling way. The skills are very valuable and I can see why someone would put it on a pedestal. Beyond that valuation I think it is a treasure that is meant to be used for our benefit. So I hope for people to be able to learn, enjoy, and benefit from it fully and appropriately. That would be nice right? 😃🙏

@phoenixmountaintaichi Yup 😁

Haha yes! Thank you for that message! I think especially when it comes to training power, the way you train the power is the way the power will come out. Of course in usage, people's targets may be a little higher or a little lower and all of that. And we have to choose wisely when we apply this versus apply that. But the engine that you use repeatedly for your forms is the engine that drives your movement, is it not? Throughout this year I plan to show more and more of Tai Chi's form applications, especially in the course The Art of Tai Chi Applications, coming around the middle of this year! I like your phrase of putting sense into training methods, so that we can train sensibly and achieve good results, because that's what we all want right? Thank you for your comment I am glad to hear you being excited and hopeful for what's possible for you and ahead for the arts! 😃🙏

@ Shifu Lin you are a most amazing asset to the Tai Chi community, God Willing I’d really like to meet and train with you or your organization in the near future! 👌✌️🤲☝️😉

@@U.W.Y.H.L.I would love to train with you! If you are ever in the area please let me know. And we have some workshops that will be taking place around the world in the coming year! Stay tuned! 😃🙌

Thank You Shifu Lin 🙏

Thank you very much for the kind comment! Like a lot of you, I sought out the best teachers I could and explored every path to master the engine behind Kungfu and Tai Chi. The good thing is that it has given me a big perspective and a systemic understanding that I hope to distill for everyone who loves these arts! I look forward to sharing a lot more with everyone this year! And feel free to send your suggestions, as you consider, what is valuable to you, that if you understood and mastered, would make your martial arts journey totally worthwhile? That would be helpful to me and I'm happy to respond! 😃🙏

Fantastic question! When you consider what is the key difference between Moe and a punching bag (Moe doesn't like this question 😆), you can see that it is that Moe has consciousness. When I say borrow force, I don't mean the type in counter-hitting where they are coming towards you and run into your fist going towards them borrowing force. More than that, we are affecting how their consciousness interacts with how they implement their intention. When the partner wants to resist or push you, their intention causes them to direct force towards you in a certain way. By influencing their Qi, Neijin, and Yi, you are causing them to make mistakes on how to implement their Intention. So instead of pushing you they end up pushing themselves, as if they are doing a pushup, instead of a bench press. You can in fact borrow your own energy and force, in the unusual case that your left hand is pushing your right hand. The right hand can manipulate the Qi and Yi of the left side to cause the left side to fall back. But that will not result in an extra big push or result, because it is just your own amount of force. The big results is when I make Moe use his own force to move himself back. That is why people point out that it looks like the student is jumping back, and not like the Shifu is generating some tremendous power. Because that is indeed what happens. When done correctly, the Tai Chi player intentionally and accurately causes the partner to lose control of their strength and push or jump themselves back. Does that make sense? Thank you for asking this great question! I appreciate it! 😃🙏

@ awesome! One more query, do you think Tai Chi can or scientifically prove itself by the methods you demonstrate pretty much at will and thus showing a repeatable result? Or are there still ways of showing that it may be your hypothesis or perception against skeptics that somehow perceive Tai Chi as purely mechanical? 😳🤦🏻‍♂️🙄/✌️🤲☝️😉

@@U.W.Y.H.L. Yes that's a great question! I think Tai Chi should certainly aim to prove itself scientifically. I would like to have a partner put on a bunch of EMG muscle activity sensors, and then push and be pushed as scientists measure the muscle activity, map out the force directionality, and all of that. Wouldn't that be interesting? And beyond that, perhaps FMRI or other brain activity sensors to measure changes in brain activity as Qi and Yi is applied in different ways. This may all still be my hypothesis and perception that someone can in time develop a better hypothesis and better explanation for. That is the scientific process! We create our hypothesis on theories that best explain the current repeatable observations, until we have more and better data that leads to better hypothesis and theories! On the other hand I also believe we should push forward with our training while science works on verifying and explaining what we experience in practice. Because this is our road, each as our own martial artist, to walk forward into the unknown, to confirm with our own bodies and our experiences, what is real and meaningful for each of us. So beyond the Martial Science that we will develop with time and research, I hope all of us continue to walk our own path, develop ourselves, and express ourselves through our Marital ART. ​ 🙏😃

@@phoenixmountaintaichi It works much like magic. Like a shell game, doesn't it Shifu..! ;)

@@kingofaikidoyes! I really like this demo of shell game magic by Penn and Teller, because it shows that real art, even when you don’t hide anything and reveal all the tricks, is still absolutely beautiful! kzbin.info/www/bejne/pKPaZJire5eWf8k

Classically, it is specific internal training that teaches these skills, such as pole or spear shaking for whipping fajin and integrated fajin. Spear spiraling for dantian development. Power testing to develop integrated force. Tai Chi form helps you to develop the Song aspect of Tai Chi internal power and fajin. And form practice primes your body to be ready to train the other stages. But specific intention and awareness is needed to actually develop it. That’s why people think it takes a decade to develop Tai Chi skill, because the form alone without the internal instruction is very difficult. Imagine if you bought an IKEA cabinet. But it has no instructions. You just have a pile of wood boards, screws, rails, fasteners, and a picture of the completed cabinet. I think it would be reasonable to say IN THAT CASE that it takes ten years of dedication to build an IKEA cabinet ha ha. The form is like the picture of the completed cabinet. It will help you verify if you finished it right or wrong. But there can be a lot of helpful instruction along the way that can shorten the build time a lot. This is the reason Phoenix Mountain structures Tai Chi instruction in the way we do, to give step by step guidance so that anyone can put it together and enjoy it, in a reasonable time frame. And when you watch Moe and other student who appear on these videos, you can get a sense of the progress they’ve made in a year or so! That’s nice to see right? And the joy they have of learning and improving! Tai Chi is a wonderful practice that I hope to see more people enjoy, with the time investment that one would typically put into any hobby, and gain real aptitude and benefit that is good for them the way that we really can improve when we have the intention to do so in any hobby. Thank you for asking this important question and letting me share my thoughts on this! 🙏😃

@@phoenixmountaintaichi The IKEA analogy is/was/will be hilarious for as IKEA is still a company. I've often thought somebody should apply the IKEA concept to taichi. You beat me to it Shifu Lin..! But, it doesn't matter. What matters is that more people get to experience the fun of learning and doing taichi..!!

@@kingofaikidoyes let’s borrow the ikea concepts that are great for this. Minimalist, beautiful, works together, easy to assemble in a reasonable time, and highly functional! 😃🙏

Yes! This is a topic that many people want to understand more completely. It’s certainly what I really wanted to know and do when I was little and learning ha ha. So I really wanted to do this topic right with the detail and respect it deserves. Please enjoy the video, because this one is for all of you who are curious about and love Kungfu and Tai Chi! 😃🙏

Yes! And isn't it great when we can do something we already enjoy, with a new perspective that adds to the enjoyment and benefit? 😃🙌

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Yes different colours are associated with different Qi elements. In the organ meridian Qi of acupuncture, herbalism and certain Qigong, colors are associated with the elements and organs. Red for heart. Yellow for stomach. Green for liver. White for lungs. Black for kidneys. Eating food of these natural colors tend to benefit the Qi of the organs. Beyond from that, Yin and Yang Qi have their own colors. Lingqi around us can have different colors. And Bliss energy for the Shen has its own color as well! Thanks for bringing up an interesting topic! Would you be interested in more Qi healing and wellness topics? 😃🙏

@@phoenixmountaintaichi Thank you Sifu. Would definitely be interested in healing qi techniques and specifically strengthening organs and clearing out sick energy. Also I have heard from some other people that you can stretch your self internally using lao-gong points which is something quite interesting.

Thank you for your very kind words! I wish for all of us to improve together and elevate Tai Chi knowledge and skill. 😃🙏

Good question! When you look at what the classical texts about medicine and Qigong state about Huang, here is what you see: In Classical Chinese, 肓 (huāng) is a term that carries specific and meaningful connotations, often tied to its role in traditional Chinese medicine and metaphorical usage. It refers to the area between the heart (心, xīn) and the diaphragm (膈, gé), representing a region within the body that is difficult to treat. This association makes it symbolic of conditions or situations that are particularly challenging or resistant to intervention. Let’s look at actual historical and cultural usage: 1. Medical Context: In ancient medical texts like the Huangdi Neijing (黄帝内经), 肓 is described as a critical but inaccessible part of the body, emphasizing the complexity of treating ailments in this area. It has been linked to issues of vitality, balance, and internal harmony. 2. Philosophical Symbolism: 肓 is sometimes used metaphorically to represent things that are deeply rooted, elusive, or hidden beneath the surface. For example, it can allude to problems or truths that are concealed and not easily discernible or solvable. 3. Expression of Duality: In phrases like “病入膏肓” (bìng rù gāo huāng, “the illness has reached the fat and the huāng”), 肓 signifies a condition that has become so severe that recovery seems unattainable. This phrase later evolved to describe situations of irreversible crisis, but it also reminds us of the importance of early intervention and maintaining balance. Because it refers to tissue that is deep and generally, below the heart and above the diaphragm, it does not seem to be a word that generally correlates to fascia that runs throughout the whole body, deep and also the superficial network around the muscles, as well as around the organs. Terms like 經絡, tendons and meridians may correlate better to the muscle related fascia described in this video. From the modern side, the Pericardium, Omentum, Peritoneum, and other membrane lining of the internal organ seem more consistent with the term of Huang 肓. It’s an important term and highlights Chinese medicine emphasis on prevention and early intervention to maintain inner balance. It is rarely used, if at all, to describe muscle action and movement capacity. But it’s definitely an important element of our health! Does that answer your question? Thanks for asking a great question and opening this discussion! 😃🙏

@@phoenixmountaintaichi Wow, that's a very detailed response, thank you! That does answer my question, huang is not facia!

I heard you on the astral plane! Thank you for your comment and support! 😃🙌