On Dec 16, 2007, at 8:27 AM, sjames52 wrote:
A "wave" is a great metaphor; but it is not simple. If you've been on water, you'll have seen many waves. On the ocean, even the waves have waves. Yet, single waves can be identified that are born from wind and water and die when they reach land.
On Nov 5, 2009, at 9:51 AM, Lee Scheele wrote:
I agree that if a particular model works for you, then it's a good positive model. A positive theory just requires that a phenomenon works as if the theory were true, it doesn't actually require the theory to be true. I can't relate to your wave model, I see billiard balls - it's unclear that it's a big deal.
Michael Phillips responds:
The reason that the wave model is "a big deal" is that the more a good "model" mirrors "actuality", the better that model can reveal different aspects of the function it is attempting to "model" - and human beings are "actually" filled with various fluids, not "billiard balls".
In talking about "waves", there are two useful distinctions that that probably should be made here; one is that I'm not using the word "wave" as a metaphor. I 'm saying that the type of Qi that one uses in proper "traditional" fa-jin actually IS a wave, an ACTUAL wave that originates in the ' Chi-hai" or "Sea of Chi", more often called the dantien.
The most important phrase in my email on the partial differential equations is,
"A wave transports energy and momentum without transferring mass."
I didn't write that phrase, the scientist who wrote the equations did... Similarly important is the quote,
"The essentially new thing here is that for the first time we consider the motion of something which is not matter, but energy propagating through matter."
That was written by Albert Einstein and Leopold Infield in 1938, in their landmark book, " The Evolution of Physics".
I chose those two quotes not as metaphors, but as "descriptors" of what I, my teachers, and my senior students experience when doing fa-jin. I've had three very good TCC teachers, one Hsing-I teacher, and one Bagua teacher; they often didn't seem to agree on much, but the one thing they ALL agree on is that the chi that is used to perform various types of fa-jin is propagated and experienced in the body as a WAVE. Considering that these teachers are separated by space, time, and in some cases, life and death, I find it hard to attribute this to some type of coincidence.
An ocean wave is not, imo, a good model, analog or metaphor for Qi. However, it's also mho that it's possible to argue that Qi has some characteristics of a wave or can function "like" a wave.
The second distinction I'd like to make, is that I wasn't referring only to "liquid waves". If for example, we take the "pole-shaking" exercises, that would be a good example of a student being asked to actually PRODUCE waves in a physical object. In this instance, they would be called "occillations". In this case, the wave starts out as a "wet" wave in the body, and that energy turns into a "mechanical" wave in the weapon you're attempting to "vibrate" - your weapon becomes the "tip" of your internal wave. By observing where the harmonic "nodes" are produced in the pole being shaken, a good teacher can tell much about the student's internal rhythm, any timing gaps in the smooth transfer of that rhythm, whether the energy coming out peaks to soon or too late, etc., etc., - the INVISIBLE has been made VISIBLE, thru the medium of the wax-wood pole. A good tai chi sword behaves the same way. The wave physics involved here would be similar to that of a guitar-string, with it's "nodes", "anti-nodes"
How To Do It
The thought I want to leave you all with is this: If you want to learn fa-jin, start by acknowledging the fact that your body is 70% water, confined in various strong fascial containers; Then learn how to relax to such a degree that you begin to make contact with your own "liquidity"; Next learn to relax enough to become transparent to your own breath-wave; and finally read up on the workings of hydraulic mechanisms, which derive their power from the fact that liquids cannot be compressed.
And I bet some of you clever people will actually figure out how it's "really" done.
I'll give you a hint: you never "push" or "shove" your partner, ever - the hydraulic pulse-wave passing thru your body will do that for you.
On Nov 5, 2009, at 11:57 PM, Lee Scheele wrote:
Bones and billiard balls don’t compress particularly well either.
Bones and billiard balls do not hydraulically multiply "natural" (ie. "muscular") human power - you're totally missing the point of my post here, the key word is "hydraulics" , not "compressed".
My suggestion that people read up on hydraulics was a sincere one, ie. I actually meant to suggest they "read up on hydraulics", not "please tell me again what you already told me before about what you already think about billiard balls" - I'm actually suggesting that everyone try to "re-think" their own pet models for fa-jin; it's always refreshing to at least "try on" a new mental "hat".
I promise that whoever does read up on hydraulics will discover a few facts that will totally surprise them, and that maybe a few "light-bulbs" will pop on as to the actual meaning of many things I've posted to this list.
Btw, bones are about 97% water, and they compress and flex quite well; as any experienced Rolfer can tell you, bones are not "solid", except in relation to the body's other tissues.
From Wikipedia: "
A significant fraction of the human body is water. Lean muscle tissue contains about 99% water by weight. Blood contains almost 50% water, body fat contains 1/2% water and bone has 97% water."
The feeling of building and releasing pressure as if in a hydraulic system
It's not "as if" - human beings, and most other animals, actually "are" hydraulic systems; it's a "fact", not a "theory".
In a human, fluid dynamics is the 'primary' force in the running of the body-system - from processing food, to blood and lymph circulation, to neuro-peptide communication, to immune-system functions, etc., etc., etc.
When a human being is just a zygote, and the primary foundation for the entire body system is being built, fluid dynamics is ALL there is, since the developing human does not yet have any bones.
I've said this before, but the best explanation I have ever heard in my entire life concerning "Chi" and "Tai Chi Chuan", I think Dave Barbour posted it, was this:
A group of people were dining in a restaurant with a TCC master on a seminar-break, and one of them asked him, "Master, what is Chi?"
In reply, the master simply poured some water into a glass.
Then someone asked, "Well, then what is Tai Chi?"
The master simply took a spoon and stirred the water.
