Perception and awareness are essential principals which practitioners of the internal arts need to develop from an early stage in their training. These characteristics are sensory in nature and often mysterious to many beginners who have shut themselves off from the daily bombardment of modern culture. The senses however need to be utilised within the three individual strands of training {Chi Jing Shen} in order to develop the practitioner into a whole scholar of the arts.
Utilisation of the senses is a natural phenomenon, fundamental to survival for all animals on this planet, humans included. While our five basic senses are widely recognised among western sciences, many more senses occur among our animal precursors. Taoist arts are based upon the observation of animals, including their sensory perceptions, and are traditionally expressed in our arts many forms.
Training the senses on a jing level begins early in our development. From our first lesson, we are told to look inside and feel internal vs. external movement; to differentiate muscle, tendon, fascia, ligament, and bone.
We must learn to feel our way into correct posture and alignment. The tendon line of the body and our central equilibrium {zhong ding} must be correct in order to develop power. Rooting and fullness must be trained to become heavy. The internal sensation of winding and folding must be felt in order to maintain connection {Peng jing} throughout the forms. These qualities are difficult to obtain without the use of sensory feedback. Our eyes tell us we are straight. Our breath and pulses tell us we are heavy, and our nerves and skin tell us we are stretched and counter-stretched. Some practitioners hear, feel, even taste the potential {Suu} of power they can develop in the form before discharge or fajing.
In two person training we must learn to turn our senses outward, to become sensitive to our partners or opponents’ jing. Learning to stick and adhere requires the development of the listening skill. To avoid becoming wooden we must learn to quickly process our sensory input so that we may change in time with our opponent or training partner. Anticipation, an emotion, must be overcome in order to allow our mind to be empty and sensitive to the feelings we are trying to evaluate. This may often time result in us losing at push hands practice but investment in this loss teaches us that sensation is our guide, not our emotion. Following skill often develops in relation to our ability to sublimate our ego. Some individuals find this part of sensory training too high a price to pay and consequently are unable to perceive the natural cycle of changes between yin and yang. It is only after great investment in an empty cup, that sensory experience begins to accumulate and we are able to trust our sensations.
Practising on an energetic or chi level, sensitivity must be used in order to feel the circulation, pulses, and transmission of energy through the body. The student must first learn how to identify the feeling of the different centres of the body. They must be able to sink the chi to the Dantian. Later they should learn the basic circulation or orbits of energy movement. On a higher level, they may eventually learn how to feel the movement of energy along the meridians of the body in time with the various Qigong exercises they perform. The student must turn their senses inward to identify blockages they may have due to poor alignment, injury, illness, or habitual behaviour. They may also learn to feel and evaluate how the various emotions effect particular organs and imbalance the system as a whole. Chi practice often uses thermal imagery by identifying the sensation of heat where the energy circulates freely and where blockage is present by lack of heat; for example cold hands or neck. Sight may also be used on checking the hands for colour, meridian contour, and even fullness.
High level Qigong Masters develop these senses and more in their practice and may begin to use these characteristics outwardly. While some Qigong Masters use their skill for martial purposes many go on to use their special abilities in a medical capacity to help others. One special characteristic they have in common is that their senses are highly developed. They are able to see their patients in ways lower level practitioners are not. They see the circulation of energy, and are able to diagnose without western scientific methods to a high degree of certainty. They may be able to move their energy into patients to augment the opening of blockages, even heal the patient. More research is being published now on these phenomena than ever before. Certainly, this area is controversial because of its lack of method of empirical measurements. It is often exploited by individuals of lesser character, but however predominately they may figure; we should not discount those few with genuine extra sensory ability.
The expression of sensitivity on a spiritual level is one of the more difficult characteristics to develop for all practitioners of the Chinese Internal arts. However, it is as fundamental to our training, as is the development of sensitivity on the chi and jing level. Indeed, in our culture we have many clues that this sensitivity exists even in our language. Take for example the phrases, you could smell the fear on him, it made my hair stand on end, I could see that one was trouble from the start, I should have listened to my instincts.
On a spiritual level, we need to develop the sensitivity to recognise the development of danger before it occurs. Our perceptions must broaden beyond mere experience to sense all the elements of our environment as we pass through it. Being here now leaves little room for random voices in our mind or run away emotions, both of which cloud our sensitivity. As both hunter and prey, our lives depend heavily on our ability to sense our way through the day. Those individuals characterised as insensitive seem to blunder their way from one disaster to the next. In a way, they develop the sense of finding trouble or fault in all things around them, stuck in a downward spiral of self-destruction.
By being sensitive to the pattern and spirit of those around us, we can learn to find ways to avoid those of lesser character or be in harmony with balanced individuals without the loss of our own boundaries. However, if the need arises for the display of jing or chi, being in touch on a sensory level with those around us better prepares us to act more immediately.
Learning to develop our sensory perception and awareness to a high level can benefit our training in many ways. It can develop our character, and skills, as martial artist or health practitioner beyond measure. It can help us to be in immediate harmony with those around us. It can broaden our experience to sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and sensations denied those who cut themselves off from life’s fullness. Emotion and base instincts obscure the senses from reaching our true nature and deny us the ability to perceive.
The development of greater sensitivity challenges many of our more base characteristics but likewise rewards us with a more peaceful and rewarding existence. And while it may be difficult to achieve, it is not beyond the grasp of any of us willing to invest in loss.
Rey wrote this article for QI magazine.