Taomeow

The only "external" thing about fajin is that you release the force externally instead of circulating and returning it to the interior as you normally do with your qi when practicing taiji. It fully depends on internal processes, the difference being that when you don't use fajin they remain internal throughout the practice and your qi is not lost -- whereas when you fajin you do spend some, especially when you initiate it instead of waiting to use the opponent's. (That's fully legit provided you don't do it often.) I've seen it in situations where, e.g., two equal-skill level (high middle) and equal stubbornness level practitioners, in push-hands, were standing against each other for some thirty, forty minutes, hands touching, stance perfect, rooting equally solid, just listening for the opening... and neither one offered an opening. So to the less-than-clueful observer they were doing nothing the whole time. And to the one with a clue, it was a battle of wills in full force. (Of course both were women, the patient gender.) The workshop participants started making bets as to which one will lose patience first and initiate something. (I don't know how it ended because I was busy with my own tuishou partners, I think I went through a dozen in the same time they were trying to NOT fajin first... 'cause every time I was done with the next partner, I'd sneak a peak and those stubborn girls were still in the same position, unmovable like statues. )

We are the only hairless primates for the same reason we have bred the Sphinx cats. Someone, a long long time ago, was bothered by our fur when redesigning us. (Allergies? Or the same fashion craze as the modern obsession with exterminating all hair still remaining on the human body for cosmetic -- or rather profit-driven -- purposes? Or envy? -- those green/grey alien thingies that messed up their own genetics and lost their hair and a few other things couldn't bear looking at shiny-furred happy people? And what about not having to first kill other furry animals for their fur to stay warm and later not paying for the heaters in winter? They couldn't stand it... )

I googled images for hairless bears, bald bears, and almost cried. They exist, poor things.

Chinese source does not equal competent source. My "English source" is also a Chinese source -- my Chen lineage master. In addition to his native Chinese he speaks pretty good English. He also holds a Ph.D. degree from Shanghai University as a taiji researcher, but more importantly he showed me short jin in real life. So my reasons for looking for a different source are exactly zero, both academically and empirically. I thought you knew by now not to try to teach me. Native Chinese proficiency does not make a self-taught taiji fan an expert or a master, anymore than English proficiency makes one the queen of England or Noam Chomsky, .

Uh-huh.

No, you may mean something else, but what I said refers to the level of skill, the development and refinement of qi with all its taiji-specific derivatives including fajin -- and its availability on a whole new level to those who had developed and refined it. Short jin refers to its concentration into ever-smaller units (in actual distance of application, among other things, but not only) of ever-greater power. Basically you generate it at what looks like a simple touch, not a punch, not a kick, not a push... just touch. You need to place yourself on the receiving end of short jin in order to get an idea of what it's about. A high level teaching master can show you... once. Once is enough, and you won't ask for more, I guarantee it. But you will understand what you're working toward. (And there's no other way. )

So I stay away for a month and come back to the tail end of the thread about the demise of TDB morph into bears and Egyptian magic.

Yup. And then there's "long jin" (chang jin 长劲) and "short jin" (duan jin 短劲) for all of the above. When a high level master shows what looks, to a less-than-clueful observer, either fake, staged, or magical -- that's the short jin. The difference in explosive power between the "regular" long jin and the top level short jin I would liken to the difference between regular powder explosion and nuclear explosion. The first one relies on a rapid chemical reaction (combustion) of an explosive material like gunpowder or TNT. The second one involves nuclear fission, where atomic nuclei are split into smaller fragments, releasing immense energy. (Bear with me, these are only metaphors, I don't mean short jin can split atomic nuclei... ...or can it if it's very short? )

Well, ergot fungus is not part of rye, it's an infection that can contaminate rye more readily but it can also spread to wheat, barley, oats etc.. So simply preventing this infection takes care of LSD. A better question is, what about gluten and cereal grain lectins stimulating the opioidergic system in the gut and the brain to produce endogenous opioids -- similar to morphine, codeine, opium etc.? Which explains why it has seduced our civilization into an ages-long drug addiction (which consuming those grains really is...) And why does our body release endogenous painkillers (for both the body and the psyche) in response to being presented with gluten and cereal lectins? Because that's what it does in response to being hurt, damaged. So the cycle goes on -- you eat that stuff, you hurt and damage your body, the body releases feel-good chemicals... and a grain "civilization" is born.

No, I didn't mean footwork. I meant "no issuing," "no expressing" technique. No fa.

I think this, like most things taiji, is misunderstood both in terminology and in application by quite a few. My teacher had me fajin him vs. fajin a pillar supporting a beam in his practice room, by way of explaining the difference hands on. Yes, of course you can fajin without an opponent, who's to stop you if you have the know-how. And no, that pillar didn't give me anything to use against it, I could only rely on my very own resources. Whereas a live opponent is going to give you something you can appropriate and turn against him (if you have the know-how of course.) Don't use your own resources is the golden rule of good push-hands. The highly skilled practitioner won't give you anything though. Moreover, they will create a perfect sensory illusion of "nothing there" -- try using fajin against a cloud, a swath of fog, a tactile emptiness... Very educational. So that pillar does give you something after all -- its own hardness which it is unable to soften, let alone to the point of disappearing from all your senses except your eyesight. Are you familiar with the "bu fa" technique?