The Art of Effortless Power
The Cheng Hsin martial art is an internal martial art. There are many different ideas and definitions of what internal means. So first we need to clarify what we mean by internal martial arts. Basically, we are re-training our nervous system, mind, perception and experience. We are changing how we move, relate and produce power. All these qualities are something which one cannot copy or externally see. They are "internal trainings". We train to derive effortless power by aligning with the natural principles of relaxing, grounding and moving the whole body from the center. We consciously retrain our nervous system to use intrinsic strength, freeing us to produce power while remaining sensitive, balanced, graceful and mobile. We train the strategies, principles and dispositions which create an effective relationship. We investigate what we get up to that makes us ineffective so we can stop doing that. Cheng Hsin is practised in a relaxed, enjoyable and safe environment to allow real learning and transformation to occur. Perhaps the best way to describe what we mean by internal is to briefly talk about how we train:
In Cheng Hsin, a primary training is to experience ourselves, our movement and our relationship to others as a feeling sense. Since movement has a feeling, if we change the feeling then we change how we move. We can also change how we experience another person by changing how we feel them. There are many ways we can experiment with changing our feeling but certain dispositions are more powerful than others.
One of the first "feeling-trainings" in Cheng Hsin martial arts is called outreaching. Outreaching is making a feeling connection to another's whole body.That is, every time we touch somebody, we feel their whole body, all at once, every instant. This is not an intellectual exercise. In fact intellect will get in the way. When training outreaching, we are training our feeling-awareness. An essential element of outreaching is listening. By listening, we mean to put our attention every moment on something, without judgement, aversion or desire. It is simply to be present with what is there. Listening is a constant training in Cheng Hsin.
A primary training in Cheng Hsin is yielding. In a martial situation, we need to be able to put pressure on somebody else while keeping them from putting pressure on us. In Cheng Hsin, we train to yield to an extremely light pressure. Yielding is not dependent on size or strength. Anybody can yield! Yielding will neutralise any force. Becoming proficient at yielding is dependent on our ability to listen and our ability to let go of resistance. We have to let go of our want to "impose our will".
Another primary training is called following. Following is to have your movement completely in sync with another, whether touching or not touching. There is a myriad of ways in which one can move in sync with another. When following, there is no time to think about the movement. Continuous listening to our opponent is essential. Following is a way of moving, we move as a " following-feeling". It is not hard to see that if we are following the movement, we will never be caught unaware.
Other primary "feeling-movements" that we train in Cheng Hsin are leading, joining, cutting and borrowing. They are in effect strategies to relate effectively with different situations. Each has a different feeling to the movement; a different "energy". Each of these and the other "relational-principles" require continuous listening and form the backbone of the skill practice in Cheng Hsin.
Another aspect of "internal" martial arts is the ability to produce effortless power. This training is also in the feeling domain. In essence, we derive power by feeling another compress us into the ground. The power comes from the ground. Our training is to develop the sensitivity and structural mechanics so we can align our bodies for compression. First, we train to be completely relaxed. For a further discussion on effortless power, see the section on Body-Being.
Cheng Hsin Principles
Things are always a certain way. Relationships are governed by what is possible in the interaction. A principle defines how something manifests. What are the principles of body design, movement and effective interaction? How can we train in order to become skilful? What do we overlook?
| “A principle is not a restriction, it is a possibility” | |
Questioning the principles of anything can bring us to a more real experience of it. It can clarify objectives and purpose. It makes training real rather than reinforcing beliefs. We can better understand what it is we are looking at or trying to achieve. Once principles are grasped, we have a direction to train. We train the principle, or train to find it, rather than train in frustration or hope.
Along with the five principles of Body-Being (being calm, relaxing, centering, grounding and being whole and total), we train the principles of effective interaction. Aligning with these principles creates an effective relationship.
One of the main principles in Cheng Hsin training is to let our opponent do exactly what they are doing; constantly relating but never interfering. We train listening, outreaching, yielding, following, leading, joining and many other principles of effective relationship.
| “Our actions are not our own but follow the way of the environment. We do not try, but step here or there and allow the outcome to occur” |
|
In freeplay with a skilled opponent, we get instant feed back the moment we stop listening to them (they strike us, project us or throw us). Changing our experience from one of avoidance or desire to one of listening will change our experience from one of being self-absorbed to one of open discovery.
Cheng Hsin Forms
Technical practice is necessary to ground the training. Techniques give us new possibilities of movement and relationship, they give us feedback on our skill, and they form the basis of how we express our art. The Cheng Hsin martial art combines both technical training and skill training in different contexts: throwing, projecting, uprooting, striking, weapons and freeplay. We practise with partners to learn techniques and also do freeplay to train interactive skill. We do solo Body-Being training to re-educate the body to have more power, speed and mobility.
The Cheng Hsin martial art is trained in different forms. Although the forms are different, the Art is coherent and each form of training opens up new possibilities of interaction and reinforces understanding of the other forms and the principles of being effective.
Below are details and explanations of the forms within the Cheng Hsin martial art:
Cheng Hsin T'ui Shou
Translates as “outreaching hands”, T'ui Shou is the throwing and uprooting art of Cheng Hsin. Techniques from T'ai Chi, Judo, Aikido and Pa Kua are all given the Cheng Hsin makeover (i.e. built up from the Cheng Hsin principles) and together with the many techniques unique to Cheng Hsin, the technical repertoire is vast (about 150 techniques). These techniques ground our skill practice and open us to new possibilities in relationship, never losing sight that technical training is just another way to train aligning with the principles.
“There is really one technique in Cheng Hsin T'ui Shou. |
|
Techniques are practised in stationary and then dynamic relationships. We investigate both linear and circular patterns of movement in 3 dimensions. We explore how to use the space all around us to neutralise forces. We train flexibility of mind and body.
Aligning with the principles for skill and effectiveness in a challenging situation must be trained otherwise we will resort to the default buttons of brute strength and collapsed awareness. Therefore, freeplay is essential to our practice as it gives immediate feedback to how effective we are against an opponent who is trying to be effective against us. Cheng Hsin freeplay is fun and safe, but first you have to learn how to fall!
Cheng Hsin T'ai Chi
We practice both an introductory "mini set" and an advanced 64-move set to train an effortlessly effective Body-Being. Along with the learning the set, practitioners play interactive games and investigate how to use intrinsic strength to effortlessly move others.
| “Mystical sources of power are overrated, mastering ones’ disposition is underrated” | |
In Cheng Hsin T'ai Chi, we train how to move, and states of awareness - ruthlessly training to align with the Cheng Hsin principles to develop a powerful Body-Being.
Cheng Hsin Boxing
We do internal boxing. We train to develop effortless strikes and the mind states and strategies which force us to remain present to the ever changing situation. Boxing is faster than thinking. We need to be in a zone where we respond without thought.
Our actions always relate to what we perceive. Boxing is a marvellous opportunity to look at what we perceive (or don’t perceive!). We investigate how changing our perception changes our experience and skill.
| “Boxing is 90% mind” | |
But first we train how to dodge! Cheng Hsin boxing is highly mobile and we train to move our whole bodies as fast as someone can punch. Body-being and footwork are essential trainings. Boxing practice is excellent for exposing our weaknesses and fantasies. Like an inner tube, it is under pressure that we see where we leak.
We wear boxing gloves and mouth pieces so that we can train safely yet be realistic. We train exercises designed to draw our attention to making powerful distinctions and practising them to make them our own.
Freeplay is essential but kept light since Cheng Hsin boxing is not about how hard we can punch each other. We train where to put our attention so that we skilfully interact with our partner. Of course, our attention needs to be on our partner – but there are different ways to do that!
Cheng Hsin San Shou
Translates as “free hands”. We practice a 38 move 2 person choreographed San Shou set. The set has roles and involves applying techniques to a partner who neutralises that technique and applies their technique in turn to us which we then neutralise and apply our new technique and so on. The set includes T'ui Shou techniques but at close distance and performed fast. As well as applying some of the familiar T'ui Shou techniques to strikes, San Shou trains some of the less familiar techniques of T'ai Chi and opens up new possibilities of movement. The ability to deliver effortless power up close with different parts of the body is trained, as well as getting out of the way! Punches, kicks and strikes involving knees, elbows, shoulders and forearms as well as throws, joint locks and uproots are all practised. Even though the set is ritualised and we take roles, we train to never separate from each other - training “lotus root energy”.
Cheng Hsin Sword
We don’t have access to a training partner all day but weapons can be another teacher. By setting out not to muscle the weapon around, we train to use our center and whole body to listen to the sword and move it by joining with it. We can do solo practice and have something to relate to other than our own mind.
We train with the T'ai Chi double edged sword (T'ai Chi Kim) but the principles of the sword and sword play can be applied to all weapons. We teach a 30 move T'ai Chi sword solo set, a 2 person choreographed set, exercises and games to develop interactive skill and sword freeplay.