Friday, July 26, 2013

How do I fight with Internal Arts? / How do I know myself and be calm?

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Renaud Vanderlinden
Port Elizabeth, South Africa
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Dear Mr. Ralston.
My name is Renaud (pronounced "Reno") Vanderlinden. I've been doing T'ai Chi Ch'uan for about 10 years now. I'm currently living in Port Elizabeth, South Africa although my family and I are originally from Belgium. When I started here in Port Elizabeth I found the teachers to be rather dull and non-helpful in their approach to the art. I've since been teaching myself and I am currently starting to teach others. My Mom bought your book on "The Principles of Effortless Power -- the teaching of "Cheng Hsin." I knew immediately that this was what I was lacking in my training. I consider myself very good at T'ai Chi and I can grasp concepts very quickly.
There are, however, two things that I feel I seem to be stuck on and I was wondering if perhaps you could give me some guidance. After reading your book I feel that if there's anyone who can help me it's you. The first is that I lack a lot of sparring to put into practice what I am learning, although this should hopefully change when I start teaching others as I can spar with them. I would like to know if there's any exercises I can do which will help my confidence and my sparring while I don't have anyone to spar with?
The second and bigger problem is as follows. I started reading your book and followed your words with great enthusiasm. All your teachings of centering, balance, relaxing, grounding, sinking, etc., helped me a great deal. It was without a doubt the greatest eye opener I've ever experienced. I also do QiKung as a form of muscle stretching and breathing exercise. I feel, however, that I'm blocked or stuck at the moment. Although I understand everything mentally I can't seem to extend it to my physical actions. Is there a meditation or some form of exercise I can do in order to release me, to calm myself and focus? To be completely at one and at peace? I find myself when I spar to be attacking, even in my training. Maybe I'm too aggressive or I'm not understanding your teachings well enough?
My Mom ("Michele Mistler") and I have been avid followers of your teaching and her T'ai Chi master in Belgium (I don't have his name) just spent three weeks with you recently. I feel that you can definitely help me if you so choose.
Thanking you,
Renaud Vanderlinden

Renaud,
One thing to watch out for in working out the "functional" aspects to the art (via sparring or whatever games you may invent or play) is not to turn it into just another kung fu type "application." Many t'ai chi teachers do this since they don't know how to participate in real internal martial interaction. Make sure to relax, don't block or resist, but find other ways to handle another's force (yielding is the main one); work on using intrinsic strength, keeping calm, listening and joining these are things that set such an art apart from the "external" arts. Grasping these things mentally is a start, but all this must be trained "into" the body.


Interactive work can't really be done without a partner. We play a game called "Pressure -- No-pressure" which is very simple and easy to do but teaches so much, and can be played with anyone regardless oftheir chosen art or skill level. It is simply two people playing, touching for the most part, but not allowing any more pressure to come to the body than would crush a mosquito, while at the same time trying to apply pressure to the other person. That is the game. It is open and you can do anything you can think to do, but one thing I tell people is that they can't use pressure to get out of pressure being applied to them (basically: don't block -- don't push on someone's arm to prevent them from pushing on your torso, forexample, instead, yield to the pressure, and independently apply pressure anywhere on their body). This basic description and some others are in the back of the book "Cheng Hsin T'ui Shou: The Art of Effortless Power" if you have it. If not, you might want to get one, as well as the video "An Introduction to the Arts of Cheng Hsin" if you don't have one. Also, I do a two week camp in Holland the end of June. If you can get up that way, come join us.
Regarding your last question: to address this domain I think the work that we do in ontology and contemplation is appropriate. You can begin to contemplate for yourself, and I recommend attending the ontology workshop here in the spring if you can. The books I have out that relate to this domain of work are "Reflections of Being" (a series of essays written a long time ago and never meant to be anexplanation or complete information in any way, but may give you some direction); and "Ancient Wisdom, New Spirit" -- transcriptions from actual workshops and groups doing this work, but once again it isn't instruction, nor complete. I am currently working on a book that will be complete in this way. Other than that, try questioning yourself and contemplating on what is true within your experience. There may also besome direction available through reading through the old IDA (original newsletter) available in Archives on the website. www.chenghsin.com
Good luck and hope I've been of assistance. Maybe I will meet you one day.
Peter Ralsto

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Sunday, July 21, 2013

Ueshiba's influence on Peter Ralston and Cheng Hsin

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Maurice Gillis
Iwama, Japan
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Dear Peter
I would like to thank you for not only allowing me to take the degree one test this past summer, but encouraging me and giving the necessary guidance. I had a great time, as usual, and taking the test
added a whole new dimension to the Cheng Hsin challenge. I believe taking the test forced me to learn a lot more than if I hadn't. Lastly, I was wondering if you could elaborate on something for me. You have spoken well of Ueshiba in the past. I see a resemblance between some of your techniques and those of Ueshiba. What if any influence has Ueshiba had on you?
I want to thank you again for sharing what it is you have worked so hard to find, and I anxiously await your next seminar.
Sincerely,
Maurice Gillis


Maurice,
Of course Ueshiba has influenced me as have many others. I studied Aikido with Robert Nadeau, who studied with Ueshiba (so you've heard many "insider" stories). And I think Aikido done right is very beautiful to watch. Some Cheng Hsin techniques may look like Aikido techniques but when you work with them you will find they in fact are not, they just have a familiar look (Aikidoists have as hard a time learning them as anyone else).
I've studied many martial arts, and when I learned something valuable (i.e. if it had some effective functional purpose for being) I tended to keep it, and what was not valuable, I tossed. But don't misunderstand, I don't believe in jumping too quickly into revision or eclecticism. My philosophy has always been to master what is taught, before I would even think about changing it. This may have slowed me down in some cases, since I was hesitant to change what was asserted, even though I may have failed to find genuine value in it. But it also forced me to discover things I never would have if I had rushed to modify something due to a lack of immediate understanding. Eventually, however, I did begin to toss what proved to be remnants of techniques lost, or that were poor inventions in the first place, and to keep only what showed itself as a useful contribution. Of course by that I don't mean I kept the techniques as I found them, I just kept the direction or sometimes the look, and changed them or redesigned them to be consistent with Cheng Hsin principles. Since, as you know, my commitment is to the principles and not to
any form or specific art.
I never really wanted to create a new martial art by creating all new techniques. That pursuit seemed rather useless and I felt no need to do it. (I have known several people who tried that, and I thought their efforts turned out to be bogus and superficial.) But I did want to communicate the incredibly valuable principles of Cheng Hsin and so this is why Cheng Hsin T'ui Shou, Cheng Hsin Boxing, Cheng Hsin Body-Being, etc., where created.
Of course, standing on the basic design of techniques from other arts has sometimes proven to be a mistake. In trying to "reinvent" a technique to be Cheng Hsin consistent, I have discovered that a distortion of both the technique and the principles was often the result. In such a case, I found it was better to throw it out and start from scratch. But then again sometimes I was forced to learn (invent) a particularly difficult form of using intrinsic strength in order to accommodate the basic design of a technique that I never would have discovered without going down that road. So it seems to have evened out.
Not to understate his many genuine technical and systems contributions, the greatest influence Ueshiba had on me was inspirational. By the time I saw him, I had already gotten to the point of feeling like the world of martial arts didn't hold much more for me. And I was still a young man. But everyone I saw seemed worse than I, or doing systems that lacked what I already experienced as possible. Then I saw Ueshiba and conceded there was more to be done. I admired his attempts to go deeper even at an old age. I loved the beauty of his art. I enjoyed his ideas and intelligence. So it re-inspired me to study more. To look even deeper and push on. This was his main contribution to me personally.
Peter

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Sunday, July 14, 2013

How can the Cheng Hsin principles be applied to kicking?

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Jan Bloem
Holland
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Peter,
How can "The Cheng Hsin Principles" be applied to kicking?
Jan


Jan,
The same way they are applied to anything else. Move the leg from the center of the body, stay relaxed throughout and move the whole body into the kick. The last point is unusual in most kicking arts since usually people counter leg movements with their upper body and arms to balance the motion of the lower. I suggest not doing this, but instead move upper and lower body in the same direction. This will take some getting used to and you'll have to find a new way to stay balanced, but it isn't too difficult once you work it out. When the foot comes to the target, continue the motion into it and allow the body to be compressed into the foot you're standing on. One piece of advice I give people in kicking is not to try to "kick" but simply place or put their foot somewhere. Stay relaxed and let it drop as soon as it's free. One thing people seem to overlook is that when kicking you are on one foot (at most) at a time. This reduces mobility and the ability to make subtle and quick changes, so timing and awareness of the relationship is
crucial.
Peter

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Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Principles can take alternative forms

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Joel Glover
Englewood, CO
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Peter,
I wanted to express my gratitude for your willingness to make yourself available for these types ofworkshops. My schedule and commitments tend not to permit much time for these, but when I get to them I am so grateful for the outcome. I left the seminar with two strong impressions that have already helped me.
One has to do with lineage. I have studied a Chen Pan Ling tai chi chuan style for just under 10 years, butI don't really have a consistent instructor or class anymore and I have no clue on my lineage and can point to no "secret transmission." I feel like I am getting the "secrets" from you, like avoiding is better than blocking. In addition, I began to recognize that honoring lineage could serve to hinder or restrict learning what truly works and could force one to learn and even teach aspects that don't work. So, I feel better (less insecure) about being something of a mutt in the tai chi world. I especially appreciate the chance to get to "play" with other practitioners and to recognize that they are not superior because of their "lineage."
The other has to do with usefulness. I am involved in various levels of combat almost daily and I continue to try to use the basic Cheng Hsin principles. However, my combat is either in court, or negotiations, or on paper. In some ways it could be perceived as more abstract but for me it is more concrete. I don't need to imagine being in fights. I am in them. I was in them last week and will be in them this week. I continue to try to implement a system to apply the Cheng Hsin principles in the conflict resolution work that I do in the commercial world. They tend to work very well. The workshop helped reinforce for me those principles and to see their application in the combat that I do on a regular basis. For example, perception - seeing through your opponent's eyes; experiencing and knowing losing to know winning; timing; letting your opponent continue their attack so you can lead them instead of having them do something else; accepting and immersing in the loathsomeness of the combat; presenting; yielding; not committing to a particular outcome; recognizing anger in your opponent; doing everything right and still getting your ass kicked; and many others -- all had direct, concrete applications for my work. They may not always improve the results, but they help me enjoy the work that I do much better.
So, thanks for the help. I recognize that I may not fit the mold of your typical students but what you do really helps me on a daily basis and I look forward to continuing to work with you at other
workshops.
Joel


Joel,
Not to worry about lineage, it means nothing. If you study t'ai chi, then your lineage goes all the way back to the founder of t'ai chi. Where else could it go? The secret is not in lineage, but in finding real teachers who know what they are talking about. And then of course you have to practice what you learn.
Remember when applying the Cheng Hsin material to your work, the principles for combat will work just fine, but the form and method of applying them may have to be different. Consider, for example, what is it we are accomplishing through yielding, why do we do it, what does it provide, and what is the principle?
Then you can know better how this may apply to your work. It may take forms that don't look like yielding, or like yielding looks in the martial sense.
Good luck and thanks for your letter.
Peter

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Friday, July 5, 2013

Intrinsic Strength vs. Chi Power

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Marc Doust
Jacksonville, Florida
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Dear Peter
I just received the intro video tape, thank you. You seem very good at explaining things, which is important in this kind of discipline. I'm still confused about something. You mentioned that the intrinsic strength you use comes from compression with the ground. But other internal teachers talk about internal power coming from accumulating chi in the body and then projecting it into your opponent. So is it the same thing or is it something completely different? Is chi an energy that can be accumulated or is it just an expression of a trained and focused mind projecting intent or will?
If internal martial arts are so effective as so many people claim it is, why don't these people actually enter real no-hold-barred competition, just like you did in 1978? Most of them will say that their arts are too dangerous!!! But I think that if you can't perform in competition how can you expect to be able to fight in life threatening situation!
I wonder what are your thoughts on this.
Thank you,
Marc Doust


Marc,
Intrinsic strength is something you really need to study for awhile before it becomes clear. It is not the same thing as using chi. Most of what people call chi is just fantasy. There is something valuable to do in that area, but it isn't entertaining fanciful ideas, it's a lot of hard work. Certainly the vast majority of internal martial artists wouldn't enter real competition, because they don't know how to fight effectively. This is true of most martial artists. Unfortunately there is a tendency to lie to others and oneself about that. The thing is, fighting skills aren't for everyone. Few people actually want to use that path. It isn't necessary. Just don't lie about it or pretend.
Peter

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What is "Holding" a Question? (Gaining Enlightenment)

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Nick Favicchio
Plattsburg, New York
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Peter,
I was wondering about what you refer to as "holding a question." In a sense, I've worked with the questions of "who am I?" and "what am I?" and come to logical and rational conclusions not unlike your own. However, a direct experience of the answers to these questions has, as far as I can tell, not yet been forth coming. I was wondering how exactly you "hold a question" like you speak of in your writing. I guess my question is what exactly you mean by "holding a question"? I am hoping to get at an experience and understanding akin to what you describe getting from the contemplative seminars. Are there any other contemplative exercises I should consider? Any pitfalls or things I should be worried about?
Thanks in advance.
Nick Favicchio


Nick,
Holding a question is simply contemplating. But contemplation, as I'm speaking about it now, isn't sitting and thinking about or trying to answer the question. It is setting out to experience the answer, so to speak. And yet it isn't an "experience" we are looking for either, it is the direct consciousness of the thing we are wondering about.

We say "hold" the question because it is like remaining steadfast in this one question for a long time. Without necessarily thinking things or searching around for something to occupy your attention, you hold on to this question, which is really mostly having the intent to deeply and directly grasp what something is.

A first question of this sort is often: "Who am I?" In this you would hold the question by dwelling on your self with the intent to directly experience yourself. The question "who am I?" helps drive your attention toward that end. Within this question, you can ask: Who is seeing? Who is thinking? Who is walking? Who wants to know? Who is laughing, scratching, eating, listening, or anything else that might be happening. This helps drive you back into the question of who you are no matter what is going on. If you do this steadfastly and without break, it is called holding the question. You can set up a period of time in which to do this, an hour, a day, several days, 15 minutes, or whatever, and then commit to doing nothing but hold a chosen question for the entire time.

For more work in this I'd recommend attending an appropriate workshop or intensive here, like Experiencing the Nature of Being, or the Empowering Consciousness Workshop.
Good luck,
Peter

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Monday, July 1, 2013

Martial Arts Vs. Enlightenment/ How do I develop energy?

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Marc Daoust
Jacksonville, Florida
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Dear Mr. Ralston,
I just recently read your book (Principles of Effortless Power) and it is the best martial art book I have ever read! And I read a lot!!! I just want to tell you how much I admire your work and dedication to
your art, and how you made it so much more than fighting, but also a doorway into being. I'm sure you get a lot of mail from all kinds of people asking all sorts of questions. This one is no different, but I am sincerely asking for some guidance and advice. Just so you know a little about me (my
ego), this is my background. I started as a kid (9 years old) to learn karate, then I got into a phase of search for a complete and effective system. I learned some judo, kickboxing, wrestling, Brazilian jujitsu and muay thai. I learn fast and I have a lot of natural ability. I fought a few times in cage fighting and did well. (I'll stop bragging and get to the point, before you fall asleep!) Recently I realized that only so much power can be generated by the body alone (160lbs) but also that this power will decrease with age. And more importantly this ego-driven way of training did nothing to get me closer to being and enlightenment.
So I gave up all hard styles and a promising career to look for a better way. I started reading books about internal martial arts. It is quite hard to find a good and complete work on that subject. Then your book found me -- it was misplaced in the wrong section. As I read your book it just brought everything together, what would have taken me years to discover was written right in front of me!
Now I practice standing chi kung (with much more attention on gravity and grounding) also I do ba gua circle walking, chi kung (focusing also on grounding and waist movement), I take a t'ai chi class.
But I'm still confused. Am I doing the right kind of things? My t'ai chi teacher showed us this energy circulation into the arms, but you teach to drain down into the ground when the hands move. I really like your way, it's so much easier to focus downward constantly than moving it all around. So what should I do? What's the best way to develop the energy? How should I train? Forms? Push-hand drills? Or should I train with people from hard styles and try to apply effortless power sparring?
If you can help me find the right path, I will be forever thankful!
Thank you for your time, I hope to hear from you soon.
Marc Daoust


Marc,
Your background is very useful to give you a sense of the scope and reality of what people do, and how they interact; you will also have some experience of what the mind goes through in such competitions. This is valuable experience, don't turn your back on it. Essentially none of the internal martial artists you will encounter will have any of this experience and so what they offer should be balanced with this lack. In other words, they may not know what they are talking about as a reality but rather just as a belief. Sometimes what some teacher believes happens to match reality enough to be useful. But it's best to have them show you how things work rather than merely asking you to believe what they say.
 Martial work, or any other work for that matter, will not bring you to enlightenment. That is a different study. The martial work helps in many ways with discipline, reality checks, feedback about your own limitations, habits, assumptions, reactions and so forth. But the goal is different. You can pursue enlightenment, or simply increasing consciousness in any way, within a martial pursuit. But you have to do it, it isn't inherent in the pursuit at all.
You may get caught up for a while in a fascination with the various ideas, routines, and promises of the internal martial field. This is fine, but keep an open mind and press yourself and your teachers for real understanding about why the body should function this way or that, or why it is important to practice this way and not that way, and so on. There are many good ideas and clever methods that exist in the internal martial arts; and some of it is even powerful and effective. But there is also a great deal of superficial thought and hollow routines that people adhere to simply because they were taught it and believe it. Try to separate the wheat from the chaff.
No one item will make the big difference. For me to tell you do this thing instead of what they suggest is minor. Understanding the principles and why you should do either or neither is more important. I highly recommend coming to the Cheng Hsin month-long Retreat. Your desire for investigating the truth of being would be empowered a great deal by attending the ENB (Experiencing the Nature of Being) which is the Ontological workshop in the first 7 days of the Retreat. Some simple hands-on play and learning in the Cheng Hsin martial arts can point you in the right direction in a big way that just reading about it rarely does. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but real study is worth so much more. Your relationship to your other arts will doubtlessly change. Some you might give up, but others you may be able to find much more value from, since you won't be as stuck on merely believing what you are told, but will havesome way in which to discern the truth and investigate the matter for yourself.
This working things out for yourself is best done in concert with someone who understands the need for personal responsibility in this search, and so a good teacher is invaluable. Unfortunately there aren't that many very good teachers. This is one reason I advise so strongly that you study with me for at least a while. Regardless of what you think about my personality or teaching methods when you do, you will be exposed to real learning by a teacher who understands what he is talking about in a deep way. This will provide for you an experience of that honest direction, and you can use that experience in your relationship with other teachers -- passing by some, and demanding honesty from the others, until you find a teacher worth studying with.

As one of my past teachers once said: "Study with the best. It may cost you more in the short run, but will save you so much time in the long run." This is a true statement. Studying with lesser teachers seems to allow us to hide and avoid any real confrontation with ourselves, or avoid committing ourselves to a real study, and sometimes may even seem to save some money or just be convenient, but the unseen cost is much larger than anything we may avoid. Certainly sometimes people just want to dabble a bit in someart, to learn about it in a safe way as a hobby, and there is nothing wrong with that. But this is not your case. And so you should consider what I'm saying, and why I'm saying it.
Good luck and hope to meet you soon.
Peter Ralston

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