Distinguishing Jing and Qi (part 1)

When I'm typing, I'm not thinking about the keys I'm hitting, and I'm not thinking about the words I'm spelling, I am thinking about what I want to say. I am thinking about the sentiment I want to convey, the style, the flavor, and the rhythm.

But in actual practice even those things I am consciously thinking about spin in and out of my mind in a very spontaneous way, they don't have any particular order, often they simply emerge fully formed at the moment of expression.

Martial arts are the same. This is as true for fighting as it is for performing forms.

In typing, if my mind goes to the keys, I stumble. In internal martial arts, taiji, xingyi, bagua--the moment you distinguish one muscle group from another, you have made a mistake. You can no longer have whole body power. You can no longer have the differentiation of jing and qi.

When you are learning to type, of course you look at the keys. When you are training martial arts, of course you make distinctions between muscle groups (and a lot of other things.) But once you are performing at the level of an art, once you are an artist, your mind must not get stuck distinguishing different parts of your body.