2006 – Allowing your intention and energy to play the form:
Watching a high level master play their particular form, one can really see the difference in the way they utilize their energy and intention.
Usually when a practitioner moves through their form, they are conscious of their body’s physical structure moving smoothly through the steps, some are aware of a feeling of energy moving around them and some people feel a great sense of calmness when they play their form, as if they and the energy around them are moving as one.
But when you see a really high level master performing, you can see that their physical body no longer just goes through the movements, but their heart and mind and spirit play the form, their body just follows along.
Recently, I went to see Master Wu Mao Gui, who’s based in Shanghai and watched him teach his students Tong Bei form.
Master Wu performed a short section for them. I had not really been aware before how beautiful and powerful the movements were, but what made it more impressive, was the way Master Wu’s intention stretched out beyond his physical presence and energy boundary. Rather like watching a mature tiger stalking its prey.
The strikes, which in Tong Bei are endless and continuous; sticking to and following the opponent so he can’t escape; were executed crisply and cleanly, but although there was no real opponent in front of Master Wu, I could clearly see how they penetrated into and through his imaginary opponent.
When watching students play the form, even though they can mimic very precisely the master’s movements and even his/her particular flavour, they often miss the teacher’s intention and energy in this regard to an imaginary opponent. This is something that has to be worked on and paid attention to, and is the result of years of patient and dedicated practice by the master, but it’s also something that they cultivate with conscious thought, until it becomes natural.
One must start to incorporate this aspect into one’s practice if one hopes to reach a high level, and more importantly, hope to be able to really use one’s art as self defense.
Without this imaginary opponent in your practice, you cannot properly execute the moves, nor can you truly gain the optimum benefit from your practice.
As Master Dong Bin says, in your form practice, you play with an imaginary opponent, to cultivate the correct intention and energy; in push hands practice, you imagine that the “real” opponent is not there, that way when faced with this real body, you don’t feel pressurized by his power or force, nor do you try to use brute strength to overcome him either.
The masters of old have all put these philosophies and theories into their practice; it’s something that all of us can understand and feel when we play with them; the trick is for us to start to develop this tendency in our own forms.