Developing Your Mind and Intent

[Anonymous]

Bruce has stated (see link to video below) that hsing-i chuan is good for developing the ability to persist with an idea or plan until it is accomplished. I’d like to hear from people who have taken up hsing-i and found this to be true. Please share your experience.

http://www.energyarts.com/hsing-i-video-developing-your-mind-and-intent

[Anonymous]

I haven’t really gone that far with it but the simple idea of staring at your index finger while doing san ti is fantastic for focusing your mind. After doing that for 30mins I find that my mind is incredibly still and able to focus a lot better than normal. Just try it. You don’t even have to do san ti to experience it. Just stare at your finger for 10mins without getting distracted by anything else. The benefit of doing it while doing san ti is that you’re training everything all at once. You train your mind to focus and get your chi going quite strongly, while building leg strength and working on alignments and posture..

[Anonymous]

Hi David,

It worked for me on a few occasions. Here’s one where some intense xingyi really helped me with a work situation:

http://dankleiman.com/2011/07/14/how-xingyi-saved-my-butt/

Best,
Dan

[Anonymous]

Thanks Dan, that’s an interesting video.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I was amazed at the change I felt and the power of the practice (had to scale back at times to find a good balance). Nothing else I’ve trained cultivates the same kind of drive.

[Anonymous]

hi david
my experience is that hsing i is great for developing a goal oriented mindset. the upside is that you can get what you want. the downside is that it’s pretty direct, you tend to ignore collateral damage in pursuit of the goal.
in fighting, this is normal, but for me, in life, I don’t enjoy or want to be that driven all the time.

my bagua training, in contrast, gives me a much more balanced feel, rather than developing intent, it develops the energy needed to actualize the intent. with the bagua, I feel very much capable, but not as driven to a predetermined goal. it’s more flexible and balanced.. I will also say it took a lot longer for me to get to that point, san ti is a very quick way to get your intent together, for sure.

I find myself training the water and earth fists a lot more, it gives you a lot of that drive, but it’s much more flexible. (I have a great fondness for yin energy and healing/love energy, san ti does not really help much with that)
but when I have something specific I need to do, and i know there is gonna be obstructions I am gonna have to cut through, that pi chuan juice (the energy and intent of pi chuan) is very effective.

anyone who wants to really be able to fight well would do well to spend some time training san ti and pi chuan.

thanks to bruce for offering such clear and complete teachings on this subject, i know other hsing-I cats, and while their stuff works, it’s obvious to me that I got a very high level of instruction from a pure source. thanks.

[Anonymous]

I’ve decided to take up a regular practice of san ti and a couple of other, more yin postures for balance. I’ll report back in a few months to answer my own original post. Thanks to all who replied.

[Anonymous]

Great, David. Let us know how it goes!

[Author]

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