Jim Roselando on Awareness

Awareness (gok or jue in Chinese)

by: Jim Roselando, Jr.

Internal art trains Awareness and not techniques or forms. The path of awareness is simple and effective! We need to be "aware" of a few key concepts to use as a basic guide for our own development.  There are Five Stages of training everyone must follow!  The 5 Stages are:

 
1) Physical
2) Mental
3) Breathing
4) Energy
5) Force
 

Most traditional masters will give the new pupils a few tools to bring our Physical and Mental awareness.  Physically you must be aware of your posture and relaxation. The mental (or Mind) training is designed to help you slowly develop the quiet state. If the Mind cannot relax then the entire system cannot relax.  These are step one and two of internal training. 

Stage three is breathing.  It is quite common for a Master to say: Just stand there and let nature take it's course!  BUT, if the goal is to return to Nature then one must understand the basic concept of natural breathing.  So, it is very important to bring awareness to the breathing layer of training and that is to breathe bellow the belly button and to gradually allow your breath to go from short to deep to effortless! 

Every coach (or teacher) will give their students certain tools to bring awareness to certain areas of training but these are tools to keep you from going down the wrong road and not aspects to do forever.  One example is counting your breath. This is a tool to help bring awareness to the breathing layer of training and not to lock you into a specific method of breathing. You do not need to count your breath when you practice at home. Just train and be aware of your breath!  It is said that the average person breaths about 16 breaths per minute. Slow that down to 8 and you stimulate the Pituitary Body and slow it down to 4 and you will activate the Pineal Gland (aka 3rd eye).

The Energy realm will only surface when the Physical, Mental and Breathing layers unite and begin to return to the natural state!  The classic states: Sink the Chi to the Dan Tien and then transport to the entire body. When this happens you will automatically enter the 5th layer or wholesome Force stage of training.  

We always say be "aware" of the Three Gold Keys!  

Posture (physical), Relaxation (mind quiet) & Dan Tien Breathing (effortless) 

They will keep you on track with your journey back to nature!