Description

The traditional Chinese martial art of Xingyiquan (形意拳) appears outwardly as a powerful set of physical fight techniques. But when you understand it correctly it reaches much more deeply inside you. There is ultimately only one internal power – a non-physical force that can be trained and cultivated for massively augmented physical and psychological abilities. This single force manifests in various ways in the development process. The core manifestation has been described the the great Xingy masters as the ‘invisible’, ‘hidden’ or ‘covert’ power – anjing (暗勁). However, until now this power has been so difficult to get a taste of that many students and even teachers have given up, and retreated to re-analyzing the words of the ancient masters as mere metaphor, poetic license, or a mask for their understandably backward scientific ignorance. Nothing could be further from the truth.The problem has been our own ignorance and impatience and our love affair with the physical and the visual. These have all stood as barriers at the outer gate. This film presents an obscure and little-known byway of traditional Xingyi training. For each of the Five Element Fists (basic Xingyi striking techniques) there exists a parallel version performed with the long staff or pole – the iconic weapon of Chinese martial arts. But, true to the mysteriously profound nature of Xingyi, the staff work goes far beyond the normal twirling, bashing and poking found in every martial arts. As always with Xingyi, once understood it “reaches deeper”. Far deeper.This film teaches the inner protocol the brings the staff training to life as perhaps the most powerful “inner work” protocol ever devised. Simple beyond belief, powerful beyond measure. Though trivially easy to learn and perform, these drills will ignite your internal power and set you on a road you may have thought was pure fantasy. No matter what internal art you may have trained. once you adopt these simple staff protocols you’ll feel your prior work was like sitting in a high end Lamborghini without ever turning the ignition key or pulling away from the curb. This work takes you from curbside to the high speed interstate.The internal harvest from this simple work extends far beyond any reliance on the weapon itself. The staff is just a prop (though essential in the beginning) to trigger the energetic response. As you develop you’ll find you can “hold the charge” and learn to express the energy though infinite means and forms, like water which is the ultimate symbols of the martial arts. The film is about 90 minutes of teaching but the audio-guided self-practice session is only ten minutes. You can treat it as podcast-guided solo training method in the beginning, and extend and customize your own personal routine over time. You will find that energetic harvest and insight that results from this work overflowing easily and automatically into every other art you practice, work you do, life you live.This method was transmitted to me by my great Xingyi teacher and master almost 45 years ago. While the mechanical foundation of Xingyi staff techniques is standardized and widely known, this internal protocol that installs the internal bones within the flashy external mechanics has never been openly taught by anybody anywhere.https://vimeo.com/ondemand/darkfire1