THE GHOST OF ‘TRAINING PAST’.

What does it take to stand there using only enough strength or energy to not collapse into the floor?

A DEEPER APPROACH TO TRAINING

In class do not think that you are paying money for training, this is not correct.

What you are paying for is the teacher’s time.

Your teacher is setting aside a small parcel of his/her life, something he/she can never get back or use again so that you can begin to understand something he/she already understands.

Just for you.

Once you connect with this you realise that you are also setting aside a small parcel of time that you can never get back or use again.

This can help you connect to the work.

To the importance of the work.

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At the heart of all Kung Fu is the physical condition known as SONG JONG.

This translates into many different things but essentially it is a body without unnecessary tension, a released body, a neutral body that works with and does not fight against Gravity.

This is the most important aspect of the work.

I should say “becoming aware of how we do this” is the most important aspect of the work because we do not learn this.

It would be more accurate to say that we re-discover it.

Releasing the tension that we subconsciously create in our everyday dealing with gravity is something we all do as we fall into sleep.

To be expected a good place to re-connect with this ability is of course in our bed.

Lay flat and simply observe how your body falls into the bed.

Observe how your bones are sinking inside your body as they try to rest, through your muscles onto the mattress.

Just observe, become aware of that feeling.

If possible paint a mental picture of what you feel is happening.

We can do this every night.

Not only will this help us enter a night of deep relaxed sleep, but we are also engaging in ‘serious’ Kung Fu training.

The next step is to do this lying on the floor, preferably on a yoga mat or the like so that we are comfortable and our body does not react to the discomfort by creating tension.

The same job, release the tension and let the bones sink into the mat.

The next step is probably the hardest but not ‘all that’ difficult.

Stand up and repeat the process.

What does it take to stand there using only enough strength or energy to not collapse into the floor?

What is holding your body up?

How do you maintain your shape?

Next, engage your imagination.

Imagine that there is a force or energy that is filling your body the way that air would fill a balloon or water would fill a bottle.

This is not intended to create some kind of internal pressure, but all the same, we must fill up every space, leave no gaps.

In the language of Kung Fu, this is “Song Jong”.

The neutral, empty or relaxed body.