Listening vs Quiet
/Everyone who has been reading my blog knows that strength reduces sensitivity. If you are looking for reasons to quit your fitness routine, that's a great one.
But many people misunderstand this argument to imply that normal people don't have enough sensitivity. This I don't believe. Normal sensitivity is enough for the development of high level Internal Martial Arts. We don't need to increase our sensitivity. However, we do need to understand what we are feeling for. We do need to know one type of feeling from another.
The Chinese phrase for sensitivity most often left untranslated in English is ting jin, or listening power. George Xu has decided that this is misleading. First of all, the term jin or jing, power, is not what he wants us to cultivate. He wants us to cultivate shi, or potential power. Secondly, listening implies an action. George Xu says we should be internally active externally quiet. It is this term quiet which he is using to replace listening.
In other words, listening is not enough, you actually have to stop your tongue from wiggling! Your tongue must be completely relaxed, quiet. This goes for all the voluntary muscles in the body. All of them. The calves must be quiet. The eye muscles too. They all have to stop talking!
But many people misunderstand this argument to imply that normal people don't have enough sensitivity. This I don't believe. Normal sensitivity is enough for the development of high level Internal Martial Arts. We don't need to increase our sensitivity. However, we do need to understand what we are feeling for. We do need to know one type of feeling from another.
The Chinese phrase for sensitivity most often left untranslated in English is ting jin, or listening power. George Xu has decided that this is misleading. First of all, the term jin or jing, power, is not what he wants us to cultivate. He wants us to cultivate shi, or potential power. Secondly, listening implies an action. George Xu says we should be internally active externally quiet. It is this term quiet which he is using to replace listening.
In other words, listening is not enough, you actually have to stop your tongue from wiggling! Your tongue must be completely relaxed, quiet. This goes for all the voluntary muscles in the body. All of them. The calves must be quiet. The eye muscles too. They all have to stop talking!
