Silk Reeling Secrets and Levels of Seeing

The irony of learning silk reeling is that you cannot see the level which you have not yet manifested and demonstrated in your own body. In the vein of the classic, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" conundrum, what you train is what you develop the ability to see. And as you develop your ability to see, you refine the focus of your training.

I've passed through many levels of training and seeing. A few of these are well defined; the development of specific skills. While some transitions are dramatic, most are nearly imperceptible. As my skills have developed, so too has my focus changed. Through the Wujifa training process I've refined my ability to see with greater depth and clarity.

For example, the more I train "relax and let go", the more I move away from where I was - tense and holding. In this way, I develop the ability to see the tension and holding in others that used to exist in me. Some of this ability to see is developed through this process of relaxing and letting go and some is developed by my Wujifa instructor repeatedly pointing out various muscular tensional patterns as we train at the School of Cultivation and Practice.

To illustrate this point,here is randomly selected, short video of a silk-reeling seminar. Let me say that I did not attend this seminar. I've never met nor touched hands with Grandmaster Wang Jinxuan. For me, this video simply provides an opportunity to talk about levels of seeing in silk reeling.

What do you see as you watch this video? Make a few observations and then continue reading below.

Grandmaster Wang Jinxuan

So what did you see? Here are a few of my observations based on where I am at now.

1. Grandmaster Wang appears to be really strong, grounded, and connected because he can throw around men half his age.
   
   
2. The audience participants look like "willing participants". They don't appear to be very well grounded or connected nor do they offer any peng. They appear to be exaggerating the effect of his techniques.
   
   
3. Body positioning and body mechanics are important in executing technique when the other person cannot render your technique ineffective by being more grounded and connected.
   
   
4. Beginning at time 00:30, his right arm movement looks disconnected from the rest of his body. I'm seeing a break at the shoulder.
   
   
5. At time 1:30-1:45, his knees swivel horizontally with his hip movement suggesting to me that there may be tension through the hips.
   
   
6. Beginning at time 5:08, there appears to be movement in the front kua but the rear kua looks stuck; the rear femur/knee rolls with the hip movement.

For me, these are examples of seeing at different levels. If you haven't worked on releasing tension in the kua or noticing how tension creates certain patterns of movement and non-movement, then these "more subtle" points may have eluded you. Of course, those with more training and deeper skill than me can see even more.

In the end, the only secrets in silk reeling are those that you cannot yet see. And not because instructors are deliberately hiding "secrets" from you. It's more the case that you are simply blind to seeing. Once you can see to a particular level, then that level can no longer be hidden from you. The formerly invisible becomes subtle and the previously subtle becomes obvious.

As my Wujifa practice has deepened and my body has changed,I have developed the ability to see at a different level from where I started. And as my focus has changed and refined, I find myself naturally seeing more specific kinesthetic qualities, seeing more internally.