Dropping the elbows

[Anonymous]

Since most of the people on the forum are new to Bruce’s teaching, I thought that I’d offer a slightly different perspective on Bruce’s teaching that is based in my own personal practice. First, I’ll briefly introduce myself and then I’ll just comment on one detail of dropping the elbows in the single palm change posture.

First me, because it is all about me. I met Bruce in the fall of 1990. Back then, he taught the 5 Core neigung sets, Wu Style Tai Chi, Ba Gua, Hsing I, etc. About 2 years after I met him, Bruce started teaching Taoist Meditation. He would take one hour of class and teach a beginner Taoist Meditation practice. We can thank Bruce’s senior students for this because they are the ones who begged Bruce to start teaching meditation. I didn’t even know Taoist Meditation existed at that time. I feel particularly lucky. I got a clear experience of imploding (ice to water, water to space) the first time Bruce taught me inner dissolving. Looking back I think this may have been the single most impactful moment of my life. I lost interest in the martial arts and started incorporating Taoist Meditation into my daily practice. I continued to study neigung, Tai Chi, and martial arts, but the most important practice was meditation. I practiced Taoist Meditation for the next 10 years, about 1 to 1.5 hours a day usually at 1AM in the morning. This was in addition to my practice of neigung and Wu style Tai Chi.

About 10 years after meeting and studying with Bruce whenever possible, I had the revelation that I was doing all this stuff and really didn’t understand how it all fit together. I also realized that Bruce had taught thousands of different practices and I couldn’t do 1% of them well. I realized that most of us were waiting for that one secret that would magically make it all make sense and at the same time we were becoming consumers of information rather than something real and useful to us. I stopped consuming more information and started digesting what Bruce had already taught me — I just started slowing down and really trying to get one thing at a time. So, from that perspective here’s a comment on dropping the elbows in the single palm change posture…

First, it isn’t about the elbows. It is about getting the energy to the elbows. The point is that in order for the energy to get to the elbows it has to pass through the shoulders and specifically the shoulder’s nest. Dropping the elbows is like an external tug on the tissue in the shoulder, but the most important piece is actually internal — you have to balance this with an opening of the shoulder’s nest; otherwise, you’ll just collapse the side channel and cut off the flow of energy to the elbow. For each amount you lengthen the elbows away from the spine, there has to be a corresponding opening in the shoulder’s nest. If you try to force this, the nerves will eventually shut down or you’ll just create more internal resistance. Whether that is physical, energetic, emotional, or mental resistance doesn’t really matter. The point is you’ve defeated the whole purpose of dropping the elbows and the harder you try, the worse it will get. If you try to turn to the center of the circle before you are ready, you’ll make it worse. If you try to twist into the advanced single palm posture before you are ready, you’ll make it worse. Why? Because turning to the center increases the twisting which tightens everything. Its purpose is to take slack out of the body.

So, slow down and allow the body to relax into the extension. Use the extensive of the elbows to feel the tissue in the shoulder and connect your mind to the nerve flow there. Don’t be in a rush. Allow the nerves to get comfortable and adjust appropriately each time you practice. Remember the 70% rule.

[Anonymous]

My original post on dropping the elbows was posted back in 2011. My practice has come a long way since then. I don’t know if I ever mentioned it, but I made the conscience decision over 5 years ago, when the BMP first opened, to use this forum as a sort of journal. I wanted to document all of the confusion, frustration, mistakes, and struggles we experience going from darkness to the light.

I always felt that masters like Bruce typically forget how they got to the end of the road. When they teach they are often looking back with a point of view that is so different they can’t relate to the beginner. Bruce is unique in that Liu Hung Chieh took him through the whole learning process (albeit in a very compressed timeframe) which gives him this incredibly unique ability to understand the entire spectrum even from a position of mastery.

So, I’m looking back at some of my earlier posts like this one, and I see so much more. With that I’ll add some comments about dropping the elbows that may not make sense for a while, but I want to document them.

Dropping the elbows is about moving energy through the elbow. The energy’s direction is away from the torso toward the wrist. Later when you start to get the energy of yin and yang working better, you’ll be able to match the flow through the elbow with an equal and opposite flow through the shoulder’s nest. Literally in the opposite direction. Each of these makes the other stronger. They are complimentary. I found this in the Mountain palm change. It is particularly useful in the first movement of the upper palm. But it isn’t limited to the arm, in fact, in Bagua the dropping of the elbow really is dropping the knee and the opposite flow is in the hip/kwa. But it doesn’t end there: the real movement comes from the energy through the entire leg sinking and the energy in the entire arm moving in the opposite direction.

You don’t get to this point immediately. You’ll first have to get the connection I described in this original post. Later you’ll have to open up a ton of channels in ways I’ve described in other posts. Eventually, you’ll get to sinking the wrist. Then finding the link between the legs and the arms which is part of the 6 combinations. Then you’ll find how it all moves through the middle and how a simple gesture like forming a fist in the Thunder palm or Marriage of Heaven and Earth engages the belly and the internal organs.

Have fun.

[Anonymous]

Thanks James. I don’t check these forums much anymore but when I do I usually have a read through what you say. There’s always some sort of tweak I pick up.

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