Sleepy eye is a method that is used with Tai Chi practice that has a lot of really neat qualities in terms of helping the practitioner to first conserve and then to build and then later to express internal energy. The origination of sleepy eye seems to be the Shaolin Temple and although the practice is seldom seen in Shaolin Kung Fu forms it is a method that is practiced by the monks.

To perform sleepy eye simply allow your eyebrows to droop as if you are very tired. You should find that your field of vision is actually increased even though everything that is more than a few feet away visually will normally appear very fuzzy. While performing sleepy eye you will perceive incoming motion such as from a kick or a punch much earlier and be able to easily respond to it much quicker and with more precision. In the Tai Chi classics there are statements about how a Tai Chi master can respond second and yet arrive first in response to being attacked. Sleepy eye is a critical skill that is required to be able to perform this way.

If you pay attention to your body while performing sleepy eye you will find that you are much better able to feel and perceive inside your body while practicing sleepy eye. This is a critical aspect of self healing. You must be able to feel inside of yourself to move energy and dramatically effect your own internal healing processes.

Properly performed sleepy eye will help you to deeply relax and calm both your mind and body. Practice your Tai Chi set while performing sleepy eye and you should notice a profound difference in how you experience your practice of Tai Chi and how your Tai Chi feels to you. The same is true for most Chi Kung / Qi Gong.

If sleepy eye is a new practice to you then please let us know how sleepy eye affects your practice and what kinds of sensations and experiences you get from trying it out. If you have been practicing sleepy eye for awhile let us know if you learned anything new about sleepy eye or have any other questions about it.

Good practice and blessings to all of you.
Until next time.
Sifu

I was asked recently what I teach for Tai Chi rooting and how it is applied.

What you will learn from me and my Clear’s Tai Chi program about rooting is how to have real and deep root unlike what I have seen from most other American teachers let alone students and you can keep the root on and keep dropping the root deeper and deeper while in full combat motion.

It is like someone let loose a gorilla.

This is a skill that I have been developing and refining for well over 20 years now as I realized early on that for serious Tai Chi power development and skill rooting creates an ability that is unlike any other.

What is Rooting?
Rooting is the ability to use your mind intention to drop your center of gravity down into the ground below your feet. After a little bit of time with correct practice you will begin to feel that more and more of your compressed body weight is down in the ground and that you can move the depth and that as a result you are building internal energy. Once you have built enough mind intent, root depth and internal energy then you will be able to manipulate that energy. The results are quite impressive. To someone who does not have any root the rooting practitioner feels like a solid wall that cannot be moved and that hits like a mack truck.

We have two videos that really help a beginner to learn and develop deep rooting ability. The first one is Building Internal Power through Push Hands and the second one is Internal Iron Body in 100 Days.

After these two videos we have some other materials available that I can recommend to help the practitioner to further enhance and apply the rooting ability for fighting and for health.

I hope this helps.

A young Tai Chi practitioner sent me an email question asking what Electric Jing is and it occurred to me that others may also benefit by my reply so here goes.

Regarding Electric Jing. When the human energy system is properly connected in Wu Chi the Chi starts flowing through both the Micro and Macro Cosmic Orbit without you having to make it happen. You can easily test it by seeing if you automatically have an energy ball between your hands without having to form one. When you bring your palms towards each other the energy is simply there.

Once you get used to this jing then when you have the electrical flow turned on you can feel it without having to bring your hands together. Then when you practice your Tai Chi set every time the energy stops flowing you know that your posture is off or that you are holding tension somewhere and so then the energy helps you to make the corrections because you adjust until the energy begins flowing again.

A lot of the ravaging effects of old age and disease occurs due to blockages and lack of energy flow. The electrical jing helps you with this. At more advanced levels of practice you can transmit the electrical jing flow to a recipient for healing or self defense purposes.

Ground Path training is essential work for rooting and peng jings. Ground Path refers to the idea that there is a properly aligned internal structural integrity from every external part of the body connected through the body down into the ground. The connection from the point of contact down through your body to the point where the foot connects to the ground is the focus of Ground Path work.

Basically if a person pushes on your shoulder, chest, back, head, etc the incoming force gets routed through your body and down into the ground. If the pusher quickly releases and lets go then you should not be uprooted, unstable or moving in the direction that they were pushing from or anywhere else. After they release you are still in the position you were in when they began pushing you because ideally their force has passed through the pathway and is not otherwise affecting the inside of you.

When you start learning this practice you will probably need to use a lot of skeletal structural stability but over time you can stay extremely relaxed and still route incoming force down through your body and into the ground. Learning this practice can help you to learn and understand Sung (relaxing) without collapsing and will put you on your way to learning Peng.

Please do not mistake ground path work for rooting or Peng. Ground path connections are valuable tools to assist rooting and peng but the ground path work by itself is NOT rooting or peng. Rooting involves allowing force to go deep into the ground and manipulating the energy way beyond the limit of the physical body. Proper Peng uses ground path and also utilizes a number of other principles. I will be writing an article on Peng that will be posted soon.

Ground Path work has to be worked on and built over time. First you work on it slowly with assistance from the person who is pushing and then you work on doing it with less assistance and from increasingly difficult positions and faster and faster. This is one of the practices being shown in our new video on Building Internal Strength through Internal Push Hands training.

Once the pathways have been developed then you can begin other practices as listed above and over time you can move Chi through the pathways. There are other types of pathwork but the Ground Path is one of the first to develop and practice for Tai Chi partly because it is one of the easiest to develop simply by virtue of the fact that you are assisted in your development by gravity. For most beginners, it is much easier to let energy drop through your body into the ground and maintain your position than it is to disperse force in any other direction.

Our combat Tai Chi Workshop is less than a month away, and if you have not reserved a spot yet we suggest you hurry.

Here is a question about the Combat Tai Chi series from one of our long distance students and Sigung Clear’s response.

Q: How are you going to structure the combat tai chi series?

A: Street Applications and Internal Power principles with an emphasis on Fa Jing, Steel wrapped in Cotton, Dim Mak applications and power transmission through fighting techniques.

Most of the videos will individually focus on one of the Tai Chi moves starting with Rise and Fall / Place Hands on Jade Table and working through to Parry & Punch, Carry the Cauldron and Grand Tai Chi. A couple of the videos will focus on Push hands and principles that all of the moves will use.

Ting Jing Listening Energy refers to one of the most important jing expressions in Tai Chi. Jing is normally defined as Chi directed by the mind intent. In this case the jing is actually feed back for the mind of what can you sense and feel. Mostly ting jing listening is practiced when you are in contact with someone and you are trying to read / feel what they are trying to do and what they are thinking about doing. However, you can practice ting jing listening energy by yourself for internal development.

To begin with let’s talk about feeling the intention of someone else. At first a lot of people give a funny look when you talk about being able to feel inside of another person to determine what they are thinking about doing or starting to do before it can be perceived with the eyes. This always amuses me because one of the most basic medical tests there are is to feel the pulse and to determine what the heart rate is doing. You would think that with an internal sensitivity test being practiced so openly and so often that people would be used to the idea that you can feel inside of a living human body and get a reading of what is happening with a person. But, I digress.

One of the basic practices I like to use to help folks with development of Ting Jing Listening energy is to have person A close their eyes and hold onto the outside of person B’s arm. Person B tries to strike person A with the other arm and person A’s job is to feel and move the second that they feel person B move the arm. It is really easy for person A to feel and really hard for person B to hide. This is basic first day Tai Chi Ting Jing Listening energy practice and it helps folks get used to the idea that you feel and understand what someone is doing without having to use your eyes to do it.

Over time Ting Jing Listening energy becomes more and more refined so that eventually it is as if you hear the person think to move and you counter before they actually begin moving. What’s more is that you counter in the right way, angle and direction to completely neutralize their attack. With practice you can actually feel where there are structural errors in their body posture and push them so that you put out very little force but to the recipient it feels like you forcefully shove them with an explosive cannon shot. Without Ting Jing Listening Energy it is very difficult to build this kind of ability and with Ting Jing over time it is simple and easy.

One of the other benefits of Ting Jing Listening Energy is that it can be used to listen to your own body. In the beginning I find it is used to help correct posture and to get better Sung relaxation and better and deeper breathing while helping to find and remove blockages. Over time it can be used to help perform such skills as Marrow Washing and moving sickness out of the body.

Ting Jing Listening Energy is an important skill that is very useful for both health and self defense. Have you listened to your body today?

I have previously written a post on Shen and Yi or I for health. This post is about Shen & Yi or I for Self Defense.

Let me begin by saying that most folks have some ability with shen and yi simply by virtue of being alive. Shen is emotional mind intent. Yi or I is intellectual mind intent. If an attacker is so angry or/and scared that you can feel their anger or fear then you are feeling their shen. If the attacker is very determined to get you to the extent that you can feel their determination then you are feeling their Yi / I.

Also, when you perceive that someone is staring at you and you look at them and see that they actually are staring at you then you are feeling their projected mind intent. If they are angry or upset with you then you are feeling their shen mind intent. If they are thinking about a question they want to ask you because you are likely to have the answer but there is no emotional aspect to it then you are feeling their yi or i.

With a little practice you can fill your own defensive/aggressive action and/or mind intent with determination that can be felt thus directing your Yi / I mind intent and you can learn to utilize your emotional response so that it can be felt thus directing your shen. With time and practice yi / i and shen can be refined and focused as well as increased so that you can project the mind intent without having to physically act. At the higher levels of ability a practitioner can project their yi / i and shen so that they are actually able to directly affect others with it.

Most likely your direct personal experience of the power of shen is due to your walking into a room full of people who are very sad (such as at a funeral) and the feeling of sadness is so thick that it makes you feel sad or at least solemn. The same can be said for walking into a party of happy people. Even if you are a little down you end up feeling better because the happiness is contagious. Shen is the energetic mechanism that is transmitting the emotion to you.

The most direct exposure to Yi or I that most people have is walking around a corner into a near head on collision into someone coming from the other direction. Even when no contact is made the person with the lesser intent feels the emotional trauma of the near impact much greater than the person who was more determined and focused about where they were going. Literally the yi or i mind intent is the energetic feeling that has been felt and experienced by the less determined of the two people. Obviously both people can experience the event and sensation of the intent from each other fairly equally.

My first memorable experience of this was when I was a freshman in high school. I played soccer and was varsity on the team. At a practice I went to kick a goal and one of my more experienced team mates who was supposed to be blocking me actually fell away and nearly hurt himself as he got out of the way because I was so determined to make the goal that he could feel my determination and it frightened him because he felt like I was going to spike him with the ball at close range by kicking it as hard as I could into the net which was only about 10 feet from me. His fall was so dramatic and surprising that I did not kick the ball and when asked what happened he told us how my actions had affected him.

Both the shen and the yi or i can be trained to such a level that the practitioner can project this mind intent to others strongly enough that it can easily be felt. High level practitioners can both defend themselves and heal with shen and yi / i.

The 3 Treasures Chi, Jing & Shen refer to specific aspects of internal training. I will introduce them here in this post.

Chi refers to the energy itself and is of course the first treasure of the body. The idea of chi being a treasure among internal arts teachers is that you want to build up a reservoir of chi and store it up like money in the bank so that you will have access to it on a rainy (sick) day and or when you get old.

Jing is the expression or manipulation of chi directed by the mind intent. The basic jing expression that is considered a treasure is both the sexual essence in the body which is the mind causing a creation of chemicals and electro-magnetic energy in the body and the idea that you want to build and store jing into your bones making the bones very strong and healthy and also building up such an amount that once again you have access to your treasure stored inside of your body for whenever you need it.

Last but not least is shen. Shen is the emotional mind and heart also referred to as spirit. A person who takes care of themselves physically and emotionally can retain a spirit of vitality up into very advanced years. As long as you keep this spirit you still have the ability to accumulate chi and to make jing. Hence the idea that shen is also a treasure of the body.

The 3 Treasures Chi, Jing & Shen are considered to be the essence of vitality and treasures to be cultivated and saved in the body for use in advanced years. I hope this post has helped to shed some light on this topic.

Blessings and treasure to you and yours.

The 3 Powers of Heaven Earth and Man refers to the basic elements required to make Tai Chi and powerful chi energy.  It recently occurred to me that this is also how we are made according to biblical scripture.  God made us of clay and breathed life into us.  Essentially heaven and earth made/make man.

In the Tai Chi yin and yang symbol you have the white that represents heaven and the black that represents earth.  They come together and mix inside of the circle.  This mixing is why the S curve exists in the yin yang symbol.  The S represents the mixing action.  This is also why there is a black dot in the white and a white dot in the black section of the yin yang symbol.

In a human being who is standing and practicing Tai Chi the basic idea is to let the body weight drop into the ground and for the upper body to be suspended by a string and pulled up lightly.  Properly practiced the lower body is heavy and sunk and the upper body is flowing and light.  Everything is relaxed.  The change of state in the body happens in the middle of the body and depending on the movement will be slightly variating on a sideways “S” shape.  The mixing of light and heavy is happening in the center and when someone pushes the upper body even though it is light the entire body weight can be accessed and transferred through the contact point or through a touch.  The result of this is that it is easy for the Tai Chi practitioner to launch the other person at the point of contact while the other person feels very little because they can not get past the feeling of lightness that they experience.

The Heaven Earth Man aspect of training is not to be overlooked.  The benefits and results of the training are profound.  Please post questions etc and I will be happy to elaborate more on this topic.

Until Next Time.

What is Internal Kung Fu?  Lets start by defining Kung Fu.  The word Kung translates as work and the word Fu translates as Skill so Kung Fu directly translastes as Work Skill or Skillful Work.  In Chinese culture (and indeed in any culture where craftsmanship is valued including our own culture) it is understood that for most folks to perform skilled work requires time for the individual to develop the skill.  So, often you will see Kung Fu defined as skilled work acquired through hard work, time and practice.  This leaves the word internal.  Internal literally means inside.  In this case inside means inside the body.  So, Internal Kung Fu refers to skilled work inside the body.

Internal Kung Fu often refers to Tai Chi, Ba Gua and Hsing-I styles of Kung Fu but can also refer to Chi Kung / Qi Gong and other internal styles such as Liu Ho Ba Fa (6 Harmonies 8 Methods style), Ba Chi Chuan (8 Extremes Boxing) and many other lessor known styles of Kung Fu. Drunken style and monkey style are not normally classified as Internal Kung Fu but these styles are as much or more about internal development practice than they are external practice particularly in the case of Drunken style Kung Fu.

Internal styles are classified as Internal Kung Fu because they work on the internal work skill as much or more than any other aspect of practice.  Internal Kung Fu styles empasize breath, posture, internal structural alignment, relaxation, mind intent and focus, chi development and energetic expressions.

An art does not have to be Chinese to be Internal and to have work skill.  There are internal styles in many cultures and from many different countries that also take many years of hard work and practice to master.

One of the basic Internal Kung Fu ideas is to be able to transfer whole body power through a touch or a hit.  This is much different than the normal slinging of the arms or fist (and kicks) that you see with most pugilistic arts.  A quality internal stylist can receive a hit and transmit the force of the strike into the ground thereby dissipating it or can cause all of the force to immediately go back to the attacker either causing the attacker to be popped up into the air and flung away or can cause the force of the hit to go back to a specific spot in the attacker such as into their elbow thereby causing an immediate broken elbow.  The ability to receive incoming force and to direct or redirect it like this is the work skill from the inside of the body that most serious internal stylists are referring to when they say Internal Kung Fu.

All of the Nei Kung Skills are Internal Kung Fu training methods as well.  Many of the methods are for health but there is a very strong physical self defense skill that comes along with the development of this kind of internal power.  So, health and self defense are developed at the same time.  To see more about these skills please refer to my posts on Nei Kung.