Category Archives: nei jia quan

Five Steps to a Perfect Martial Arts Kiai!

Making your Kiai a real ‘Spirit Shout!’

All too often people describe it as a “spirit yell”, but this only scratches the surface, and it is a horrible translation. If we look at the word in kanji, you will see that it is made up 2 characters.  The first is Ki ( ? ), this is the character for energy, whether you call it chi, qi, or prana.  The second is Ai ( ? ) meaning harmony. Some of you may notice something here, those are the same 2 character as Aikido ( ??? ) but in a different order.  Thus “fighting yell” doesn’t enter into a proper translation.

So, a kiai, isn’t a fighting scream, but rather any sound that brings your energy into harmony with the situation.  Nobody ever talks about it anymore but this could be a sob, a laugh, a sigh, or scream to bring all your force to bear in a fight.

Kang-Duk-Won-side-ad
Since nobody ever has to explain how to laugh or cry, let us turn our attention to the application of “bringing the force to bear in a fight” or spirit yell.

If you visit enough other places you will no doubt see people, saying the word “kiai” or “kiup” (the Korean pronunciation) with no more enthusiasm than a yawn.  This is useless, utterly useless.

Kenpo says there are 5 reasons to do a Kiai

1. make sure you are breathing when you are executing a technique
2. distract your opponent
3. attract attention
4. tighten your muscles, thus protecting your body.
5. bring power to your technique.

Numbers 2, 3, and 5 will not work AT ALL if you are wimpy and quiet.

When you watch the old martial arts movies, you don’t see people giving a kiai, like a child who is in trouble being asked to confess.  It is loud, bold and proud.

More than once  people tell me “it is embarrassing to scream”, to which my response is “SO WHAT!  If I have to defend myself, I will give a kiai, and if the bad guy laughs at me, I don’t care.  Regardless how they respond, whether it is shock, laughter, or they turn to run, that is going to give me my opening”.

Did Bruce Lee care about what people thought? No!  He said (paraphrasing here) “every technique should have a life of its own, part of that is giving it a unique sound.”  This is why he was making sounds, that even other martial artists thought, were weird.

A good kiai comes from the Dan Tien (Tanden), if it helps, think of it as coming from the diaphragm. In theater, they call this “projecting” so the people in the nosebleed seats can hear you.  To go along with what Bruce said, it can be any sound, but “kiai” is not an Onomatopoeia, so please don’t use that as your sound.  Even the 1970s corny movie “hi-ya” is less annoying than “kiai”.

My Sensei says “if a Kiai is done correctly, you don’t go horse”.  This is true, but if you aren’t doing a proper kiai now, it will likely take a bit of practice to figure out how to be all “heavy metal concert” on it, without hurting your voice.

Here is a REALLY good article about what it means to bow in the martial arts.

Tai Chi Chuan Totally Broken Down with Western Logic

Matrix Tai Chi Chuan

Speaking of Tai Chi Chuan,
I have just released Matrix Tai Chi Chaun.

ancient tai chi

Learning Tai Chi Chuan with western logic ~ click on image above!

I actually released this some years ago,
but I stopped selling it.
The reason
I was not happy with the book.
So,
being on a mountaintop
head above the clouds,
I was able to see what I had done and not done,
and I was able to write
one of the best matrixing books I have ever written!

Matrixing a posture
matrixing the postures
how to matrixing the techniques so you get 50 plus applications
matrixing the footwork so you get 25+ silk reeling exercises!
Two matrixes,
one for hard tai chi applications,
and the information so you can change that into hard and soft applications!

And here is something you’re really going to like…
I always talk about the blank spots one finds by using a matrix,
how you can find out the data that was hidden,
glossed over,
made mysterious,
forgotten…
In Matrix Tai Chi I really show how this happens,
and how I compare two matrixes to find all sorts of stuff!

And here’s something you should know…
Matrix TCC is based on this principle…
A beginner learns hard applications
an intermediate learns hard/soft applications
An expert learns soft applications.

Do you understand?
All the TCC boys and girls out there are pushing soft apps,
expecting people to jump from the floor to the roof!
They are missing the basic and intermediate steps!
No wonder TCC can get so messy and misunderstood!

In Matrix TCC you get all three steps.

You’re going to be able to do hard TCC within a couple of weeks,
and then start working on the hard/soft apps for a couple of months,
and then you’ll be capable of the REAL Tai Chi Chuan!

Now,
a couple of things.

If you ordered the old Matrix TCC,
and there was only a couple of you,
send me the third page of the matrix TCC book I sold you,
and I will send you the new Matrix TCC book.

The video is the same,
no need to replace that.
It is me and Nehemiah going through
the lines, applications, footworks, form and freestyles.

So if you ordered before,
you get the book for free.
Just follow the instructions above.

Now,
what is the difference between Matrix TCC and Five Army TCC,
a little and a lot.

Matrix TCC breaks it all down.
You even get a quick breakdown of the form.

But,
it is not as in depth and comprehensive
as my breakdown of the form and applications of the form
on Five Army TCC.

It’s a matter of time,
and how much I could pack on the course.

Matrix TCC has matrixing,
breaks TCC down like it has NEVER been broken down before.

Five Army TCC I go into the form in depth and detail,
so if you like what I am saying and doing on Matrix TCC,
then you are going to want to get the finer detailed analysis.

So you can now get Matrix TCC by itself,
or you can get the package of both Matrix and Five Army TCC,
and save a few bucks.

Here’s the link for Matrix TCC..
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/2ba-matrix-tai-chi-chuan/

And here’s the link for the TCC package…
http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/tai-chi-chuan-package/

I haven’t had time to expand the larger Kung Fu package
but I will int he future.
If anybody is interested in that, let me know.

Anyway,
Matrix TCC is one CD and two DVDs,
Five Army TCC is four DVDs
Together, that’s about one CD and six DVDs
or a book and almost FIVE HOURS hours
of a new logic
presented one on one
in a very hands on format
so you can’t not understand!

AND YOU SHOULD KNOW
I always recommend the instant download,
because being on a mountaintop
I don’t get to the post office every day.

The videos are on youtube
and it is the simplest thing in the world
to find software to download videos from youtube for free.

If ever a disk or download doesn’t work
just let me know at aganzul@gmail.com
and I will see to fixing it as quickly as I can.

Now,
that’s about it.
I’ve been working hard on this,
didn’t even put out a newsletter last Friday,
but…this is the gold.
This course,
and especially the book
really puts the cap on Matrixing.
All the way from hard to soft,
so you can understand EVERYTHING,
and even turn around and teach it.

And in the shortest possible time.

Think about it,
people spend a couple of decades
to get what I’ve put together,
and then what they’ve got is slanted towards one art,
spotty,
messy,
filled with illogic and blank spots.
And you can get ALL the martial arts,
understand EVERYTHING
and within a couple of years.
Three or four months for each Matrixing course,
and you get DECADES of knowledge
without the mistakes and missteps.

So,
if you’ve just been reading this newsletter
it’s time to get your stuff in gear,
it’s not just…’be all you can be.’
It’s…’become more than anybody imagined!’

And if you’re ready for Matrix TCC,
the gloves are off!
Come and get it!

Don’t just have a great workout…
Have yourself a most spectacular journey!

Al

http://monstermartialarts.com/martial-arts/2ba-matrix-tai-chi-chuan/

Pa Kua Chang and Entering Insanity to Realize Sanity

Pa Kua Chang Makes People Sane!

Pa Kua Chang, or Bagua Zhang as some describe it, is a peculiar martial art where in one participatings in walking the circle till one locates the reality of one self.

Like a pooch chasing his tale till he discovers Buddha.

Like Black Sambo converting leopards into … liquid gold.

Like what, exactly, the race of man racing to?

pa kua chang walking the circle

Dong Hai Chuan was a likable fellow with a fascination for martial arts. He engaged in Shaolin Kung Fu, so the tale goes, and reached a point where he was so great he took to the road and started roaming, seeking instructors able to instruct him more.

His search led him throughout the Wudan Mountains of rural China, back where the mystic sanctuaries stood, and legends had it that old understanding existed in pure design. His search led him to a rare religious sect whose specialists thought that one could certainly uncover the reality of the universe by … walking the circle.

So Dong walked the circle, day in day out, in search of his divine nature. For 9 years he walked the circle, and one might well picture the taunts of passersby.

“Examine the old man chasing his shadow!”

“Hey buddy! Place it on a straight line and you could get somewhere!”

“Har de har har!”

Yet, rain or shine, under blazing sunlight and during freezing snow, Dong carried on his trek, looking for the reality of himself.

At last, some 9 years into his quest, he spoke about to the monks of the mysterious sect that … wasn’t it odd that … the tree he was walking around appeared to be chasing him? That the tree in fact appeared to bending over?

Was the tree bending over? Or was something in his mind bending over? Or was something in his mind simply coming to be … unbent?

The monks eyed one other, and one delicately put forward, “An additional 2 years.”

So on went Dong, round and round, circle after circle, nose after tail. And probably this is where he integrated his Shaolin with the never-ending walking of the circle. Maybe this is where the circle came to be imbued with the art of violence, and came to be not simply a repository of religious fanaticism. Probably this is where the creative mixture of self with the fanatical seeking of God comes to be … whatever it comes to be.

Did Dong at last manage to catch the reality of himself?

No reference of ‘the bolt out of the blue’ striking the formerly young lad is made in the histories. Just what is recognized, nevertheless, is that he accomplished a high degree of skills, that he was so profound at circle walking that he had the ability to defeat the Emperor’s bodyguards, and come to be primary teacher of that celebrated ‘clan.’ And there are tales of him fading away under the attacking hand, of tying up mighty warriors in fragile knots merely to view them fall, of contacting his followers even after demise.

Bolt out of the blue or skills, this author thinks that skills is the more valued. However, that stated, we visit the heart of the fable.

We understand not whether Dong discovered himself, however we do understand that an individual who walks in a circle is insane. Such purposeless endeavor, particularly in this godless earth, is the heart of insanity. Yet … is insanity not just a quality that others can not discover? Does not one have to go ‘in’ sane to discover real sanity?

The guy who pounds his palm upon a stone, hour after hour, day in day out, year after year … does he make solid the hand? Or at last divine that the universe genuinely is created of space?

That young child who will come to be old doing his kung fu forms, does he battle hordes and legions in his mind? Or does he clear his mind of all hordes and legends?

That acorn … will it actually come to be an oak?

The acorn could fall down a deserted gopher hole, and it may root into fertile ground … however it is time that makes the mighty oak, and the unlimited and insane urge to grub into the ground … merely to discover the sky.

We are all grubs … however have we discovered the earth? Will we see the heavens?

Trust Dong Hai Chuan for the answer to that one, yet only ask if you are walking the circle, if you are pursuing yourself with Pa Kua Chang, round and round, year after year, breath after breath.

The writer walked the circle, did Pa Kua Chang for 2 years, till individuals started to bend over, lightening filled his legs, and energy stripes barber poled out his arms … you can easily discover his Pa Kua Chang at Monster Martial Arts. Here is a great course called Butterfly Pa Kua.

 

How to Lose Reaction Time When You Do Kung Fu

Reaction time, when you do kung fu, is a fascinating monster. I say monster because it is the one thing people have that they should get rid of. It is one thing that can get you killed faster than a bomb in the diapers.

Reaction time is reaction, which means that it is something occurring after something else has happened. Do you understand what this means? If you possess reaction time, you are moving second and behind whoever is launching a punch at your face.

Now you are forced to move, and this because of the attacker’s move, rather than in keeping with what you want to do. That means you are the target, and you must get out of the way, build a good block, or whatever. It means you are not doing what you want to do.

The easiest way to understand this situation is if there is attacker A on the A spot. And a defender B on the B spot. And a third spot, maybe off to the left, which we will label spot C.

The time it takes A to move to B, B can move to C. But B MUST move at the same time. If B moves after A, then he is going to get clocked.

And, if B moves because of something he learned in a class, or because of an exercise, or because of anything else, then it is like he is moving yesterday. B must watch A ‘in this moment,’ and he must move as he wishes and not because of what A wishes. This is the only way for B to actually live to fight another day.

There is, oddly enough, how A sees this situation, and of actually being able to hit somebody. If you have seen how many misses there are in the mixed Martial Arts fights, then you will understand what I am saying. Simply, A is punching to where B is, but B is no longer in that spot.

In other words, for A to actually strike his opponent, he must strike not to where B is, because B is going to move, and spot B is where he used to be. And he must not attempt to change mid strike, for that will destroy his base and take power out of the strike. The trick is merely to understand and analyze the one sentence: in the time A attempts to move to B, B can move to C.

In summation, let me say that many people talk about timing and slipping strikes and that sort of thing, but they usually don’t really understand the equation I have given you here. To understand this equation-in the time A moves to B, B moves to C-you should write it out, along with every fight situation you can imagine, on a piece of paper. No matter what martial art you study, Kenpo, Kung Fu, Aikido, or whatever, this piece of data will enable you to shorten and even get rid of your reaction time, and elevate your martial art to a much higher level.

Chi Power through Unique Martial Arts Breathing Practice

Martial Arts Breathing and Chi Power

The capacity to generate beams of energy, though I have actually never ever seen nor become aware of it went over, is at the heart of martial arts breathing practices. I feature pressor or tractor or any other sort of beam in this conversation.
A beam is a line of energy drive outward from the body of the martial performer, and this beam is normally built upon a line, though it need not be.
martial arts breath

It can be pointed out that your martial art is not a real martial art unless it creates the capability to produce a beam of energy at will.
Many martial practices on world globe are aspired towards constructing muscle, or the shabby pretext of stimulating body parts. The function of this post is to awaken the reader to the capacity of developing beams of energy.
The first thing to be recognized is that the body is absolutely nothing more than just an appliance. It is a natural machine built of meat and bone and several connecting systems. Definitely, to the individual unused to a body, it can easily appear like a Rubic’s cube, however, in fact, it is remarkably straightforward to make use of.
To utilize the body as a beam power generator one need to engage in classic forms, and comprehend the value of classic postures.
To engage in the classic postures needs work, which work demands the production of energy in the Tan Tien, which is the one point, which is absolutely nothing more than just an energy power generator on a body/machine degree.
This work must be supplemented by breathing in accordance with the development or contraction of the body.
To posture, to work, to breath, to focus interest along the course of the arms, to envision. It is creative imagination that sets us apart from the beasts, and it is creative imagination that is required to produce the concept of a beam of energy coming out of the body. You need to engage in till the mind is calm then it will definitely have the ability to picture.
To check your capacity to beam it is essential to make use of an easy and frequently over looked trick. Set up a candle and face it, punch, and cease your fist an inch from the flame.
Do not trick flick the flame by leaving the line of the beam, however focus, and keep the line of the beam as straight as feasible. With success over time, cease your fist 2 inches from the flame, then further. Enhance distance till you can easily put out the flame from throughout the area. At some point, with fantastic persistence and want, you will certainly have the ability to just examine the flame and make it go out.
There are those that laugh and such practices as detailed right here are of little value, and there are those that will definitely not linger, however look for the instant gratification of easy battling. Then there are those that will certainly find out the depths of their being with this easy activity.
The distinction between the two is faith, view in yourself, and the need to awaken your real capabilities, and therefore awaken yourself, and this is at the heart of the Neutronic idea behind generating a beam of energy through Martial Arts breathing.

How to Achieve Light Kung Fu…How to Walk on Water

Light Kung Fu, sometimes called Light Body Kung Fu, is one of those ancient myths behind which there might be truth. There are directions in old kung fu manuals concerning the discipline, and every once in a while you see something really amazing that makes people think that such things are possible. This article is going to be concerned with directions for getting to that exalted Kung Fu ability.

light kung fu

Can you Use Light Kung Fu to Float?

 


Basic directions for learning light kung fu, and being able to do martial arts techniques like leaping six feet straight up, are usually childish, or esoteric. The childish instructions are things like, ‘dig a hole and leap out of it one thousand times. Take one cup of dirt out of the earth every evening, and in ten years you will be able to jump out of a twelve foot pit.

Let’s look at this: one inch a day, 365 days times ten years, 3650 inches divided by twelve…guy should be able to  leap over 300 feet. Maybe he was supposed to take out a cup of dirt every week? But he would still be able to jump near 30 feet vertical.

The more esoteric directions said things like one must breath to the tan tien while you do the Leopard gives birth move. The third chakra must be engaged on year two, and the seventh chakra will ignite on year six. Burn incense to Jesus constantly while you do this.

Leaving the childish and the esoteric aside, more confusion is often injected by scientists. I happened across the following directions for light kung fu on a martial arts forum. Gigong is just the ability of transition of body weight between the two feet in such a manner that the body weight never fully rests on any of the legs in any period of time…and the paragraph goes on to describe how to shorten the cycle of stepping.

This last description is most fascinating, but there is always a problem when somebody tries to describe something that is beyond science with…science. What I mean by this is that science describes how the universe works, but it doesn’t really tell you how to use your mind to move it around. I know people trained in science will argue with what I have just said, and try to inflict their reasoning on the phenomena, but science can’t account for supernatural phenomena such as light kung fu, raising the dead, or, say, walking on water.

One of my students could walk on water. His particular trick was to run across the corner of a swimming pool. He would get a running start, do something interesting with his mind, and run over the surface of the water without sinking under the waves.

The key here is what he was doing with his mind. Gravity can be measured; it can be described by science, but it is still an idea that must be believed in. We are raised up to make physics work (trained by schools geared towards scientific reasoning), but the secret of light kung fu is to untrain your mind, to get over the idea of gravity, and that is something that takes a lot of kung fu discipline.

First Time and Only Time I Ever Knocked Somebody Down with a Kung Fu Punch

Karate Punch Gets Me in Trouble!

A Kung Fu punch can be a poweerful thing. Proper Kung Fu training and you can shatter slabs of ice, stacks of boards and bricks, and even mutilate half ton bulls. You can also make bad errors, such as I will illustrate in this martial arts article.


kung fu punchI had been training for over two decades, pounding on the makiwara (punching board), practicingfreestyle with friends, and even writing martial arts books on what I had discovered in the martial arts. Interestingly, I had never actually used my martial arts on another human being. I knew I had a powerful punch, I had just never put it to the test.

I was in charge of a hotel in Los Angeles in one of the shabbier parts of town. One day I leased a room to a pleasant appearing fellow, and quickly learned that I had made a deal with the devil. This guy had a second business of selling illegal drugs. Now, aside from actual medical marijuana instances, because of my martial arts training I won’t put up with for drugs.

One sunny day I climbed the stairs and confronted the guy, and told him that he had to stop selling drugs. At first he wiggled around a it, tried to change the subject, but I kept after him. Finally, he just laughed at me, “The police don’t care what I do, there’s nothing you can do about it, so mind your own business.”

Shocked, I blurted, “I want you gone…now!” He just kept laughing at me. “It’ll take you a half a year to get me out of this apartment.”

The world suddenly went calm, and that is not a good thing, for it meant that I had been pushed too far. I dropped my body into an hourglass stance, power surged up my body and pulsed out my arms, and I hit him in the chest with two Kung Fu trained fists. What happened then blew me away.

Having never struck another person I had no clue what it would feel like, or about the back effects. First, I felt this enormous weight traveling back along my arms and through my body and down to the ground…it was much more mass and resistance than I had considered. Second, a long second later–that’s right, there was actually a delay before the effects of my Kung Fu strike were realized–he began to lift up and sail through the air.

He flew up and over the bed and smacked against the wall, and he slowly rose to a standing position, rubbing his chest his hands, his eyes wide open, “You can’t do that!” That just made me even more angry, and I started to cross the room towards him, then realized that he had told me something that I should be listening to, “Why not?” “Because I’ve got a friend in the closet!

I went to the closet door, opened it, and a nude man stood there shivering in terror. That’s right, the drug dealer was a homosexual, and his boyfriend had come to see him, and…what the heck had I just done? In using my Kung Fu punch I had abused my martial arts training, I had struck another human being, and was left with a very sick feeling in the pit of my stomache.

Tai Chi Chuan Builds An Energy Body

Tai Chi Chuan builds an energy body. This is true for Yang Tai Chi Chuan, Chen Tai Chi Chuan, or whatever type of Taiji you study. This is assuming you are following certain guidelines having to do with the energy anatomy.

energy bodyFirst thing to do, one must drop the body weight down. But, really, this is not just sinking the weight; to understand this just close your eyes and course your awareness down into the ground. This will enable you to create and drive a tractor beam into the ground.

Second in this procedure, you must shift the weight, then rotate the hips. You are trying to do one thing at a time, and therefore concentrating all your awareness on one thing at a time. This will ensure that you are distracted by splitting your intentions.

Third in this procedure, you must hold unbendable arms throughout all motions. There will be a slight in and out movement of the limbs, a slight wave of the arms, which will cause energy to wave. Unbendable arms need to draw on energy if they are going to build on energy.

Fourth in this procedure, you must pulse not just the arms, but the whole body. Push your awareness up the legs, rotate with the waist, and then wave out the arms. Do it in this exact sequence for every single movement, and learn how to push energy through your body.

Fifth, you must learn to relax. Relaxation is the most important thing in all the martial arts, as energy will flow easiest through that which is relaxed. And, this will lead you to higher levels of the martial arts, for being able to relax creates an emptiness within the body through which awareness will flow.

These are actually the rules for creating energy in all martial arts styles. Do these five things with Pa Kua Chang, or Hsing i, or that esoteric form of white crane chi gung, and your body will become more than flesh. It will transmogrify into a power body, a kinetic energy body, and it will become capable of feats far beyond the dreams of a simple physical cultist.

The key here is to believe that you are not just flesh, that you are a spiritual being, and that there is a link between the flesh and the spirit. That link is the energy body, and that link can be forged through the five rules listed here. That and a patient practice of such martial arts as Yang Tai Chi Chuan, Chen Tai Chi Chuan.

Dig Deeper into your Tai Chi Chuan. Learn the scientific methods of Matrixing. Head over to Monster Martial Arts.

The Real Shaolin History The Masters Won’t Tell You!

The real Shaolin History is one of those animals that’s difficult to pin down. One reason for this is that the communist regime controls all history, and rewrites it to suit the state. Another reason is that the current history is of an oral tradition, and therefore quite open to mythicizing.

real shaolin historyThe real history starts with Bodhidharma traveling to China to see the emperor. This tends to enhance Bodhidharma at the expense of the emperor, and it should not be that way. The emperor, you see, was enrolling Buddhist monks in a program to translate texts from sanskrit to Chinese.

?The emperor believed that if he saw to the translation of these religious texts the general public would be enabled to study this religion. He believed this would allow him to enter nirvana. Bodhidharma told the emperor otherwise, which gained him nothing but a swift kick in the pants right out the emperor’s doors.

Bodhidharma then went to a local temple to meet up with other monks, and was refused entrance. The head abbot apparently thought him a meddler, or an upstart, or maybe he just didn’t want to be associated with somebody the emperor found lacking.

The temple he was refused entrance to was built on land which had been razed, or burned down, and the emperor’s gardeners had planted new trees. Thus, came about the name Shaolin (young forest). Nowhere to go, Bodhidharma went to a nearby cave to live.

Eventually Bodhidharma gained admittance to the temple, and legends have it that it took nine years, he bored a hole in the cave with his eyesight, he cut off his eyelids and planted them, and all sorts of other rather ludicrous legends. No one knows why he was admitted to the temple, but it was a good thing he was. The monks were in bad physical shape.

The Shaolin monks spent all their time studying books (scrolls, etc.) and were a sickly lot. So Bodhidharma gave them a series of body motions founded on hatha yoga and raja yoga. These movements were derived from the 18 animals of Chinese-Indian iconography, and this was doubtless the source of the five Shaolin animals.

This was the beginning of shaolin kung fu, though it is difficult to say when body conditioning was transformed into actual martial arts. The times and the region were filled with bandits and hard times, and it can be safely assumed that somebody in good physical condition is going to stand a better chance of survival than somebody who is not in good physical condition. At any rate this real Shaolin history is better verified, with more legitimate sources, than the various myths and legends which currently abound.

Real Shaolin History means nothing if you don’t study the martial art itself. Head on over on over over to Monster Martial Arts for the most efficient Shaolin Teaching in the world!

The Three Geometries of the Internal Martial Arts

When one is defining the Internal Martial Arts they are, of course, speaking of Tai Chi Chuan, Pa Kua Chang, and Hsing i. These arts are considered soft, and they are designed to build chi power. Interestingly, while there is similarity, there must be difference, and the differences can better be understood by examining the specific geometries of each fighting discipline.

baguazhangTai Chi Chuan is the art that most people know of. It is done slowly, and attention is paid to the circulation of chi through the internal organs. This gives a ‘body of steel wrapped in cotton.’

Then there is Pa Kua Chang, which is a circular art in which chi power is said to spiral through the limbs and torso.

Last is Hsing i, which is more straightforward, developing the soft, internal power fist.

Now, Tai Chi doesn’t go anywhere. One deals with an attacker with subtle motions, not giving way, but rather redirecting force, then utilizing one’s own power.

Pa Kua goes in circles, which is a lateral motion.

Hsing i comes straightforward, more of an aggressive attacking sort of art.

The point here is that Tai Chi is the point on the ground, Pa Kua, though circular, describes sideways motion, and Hsing i creates forward and back motion.

Thus the three geometries create  plus, or a cross.

While this is not mystical, it does tend to create three methods of combat strategy which, when put together, create a wholistic fighting method.

If the attack is delivered with irresistible force, the tai chi student can shift to pa kua and move aside.

If the attack is not aggressive enough, one can shift to using i and mount a quick but penetrating attack.

Thus, fight or flight, slip or shift, the student who knows all three arts will have much more combat potential than the fellow who doesn’t. And that is the summation, be it a sketch it should still be handy in the overall viewpoint, of the three geometries of the Internal Martial Arts.