Vibrational Energy: The Transitional Energy 3/06/2011

No matter if you're a practitioner of an external art who supplements practice with internal training methods; or if you're an internal practitioner seeking the perfect refinement of internal energy: both arts need a balanced understanding of external and internal methods in order to make a transition between the two. No one art-internal or external- can stand alone without the other energy method, and claim full understanding of their art's energy methods without transitioning into the other half. Internal martial artists have to come to terms that all internal martial arts are an evolution of external arts, and are ineffective without a basis of external training. External martial artists have to accept that the next level of energy is internal. It's a matter of knowing from whence energy came, external; and where energy has the capabilities to evolve, internal. No one method is greater than the other. That would be like saying yang is more important than yin; though everyone knows they are dependent upon each other. An important factor in understanding the two energies is realizing how to evolve one into the other. There is a transitional link for this journey of understanding energy. When one makes the first transition from external to internal, one should experience what is called vibrational energy. No matter if you're an internal practitioner seeking external methods, or an external practitioner discerning internal energy. One thing is certain; before vibrational energy can be discerned as a transitional energy; one needs to be familiar with the concepts of external energy.

There are many different types of external energy methods: muscular strength, muscular tension, muscular coiling, and potential muscular force or static strength. The classification of external energy is whatever energy that requires the body to feel work. I.E, if the muscles feel, then you are using external energy. The use of external energy varies across the board: snatching, striking, take downs, grappling, etc, all use these external methods. The effects of external energy methods vary as well, and are fully dependent upon the practitioner's understanding of the energies and how well they apply them.

There is a common misconception that only internal energy penetrates vital organs. As silly as this statement is, what's more absurd are the thousands of practitioners in Chinese martial arts, particularly internal styles, who believe this. Sport boxing has recorded over 1,000 deaths that have occurred either during a fight or directly after the fight: external dim mak(death touch) to the brain, so-to-speak. Furthermore, many internal martial artists will then say that, dian xue(点穴-death touching) occurs by one touch to a particular point in the body, that obstructs qi and/or blood to a particular vital organ thus killing the person. Giving the benefit of the doubt to these people, one thing is certain; dian xue doesn't discriminate between energy as much as it does the particular part of the body. Everyone has heard the news about how a school fight ended in tragedy, when a kid hit another kid in “the wrong place”.

These cases are pointed out to give a realistic-not theoretical- understanding to how energy is applied in martial arts; and how external energy is neither superior or inferior to internal energy. It is, in fact, just the another side of energy applied in martial arts.

All internal energy methods are sensed by a presence, rather than an actual feeling.

The four types of external energies listed above have internal counterparts: muscular weight, muscular relaxation, muscular expansion(also known as peng堋), and muscular yielding. These energy methods can exist alone, just as the external energy methods can; but in execution of perfect energy emission, they are-like the external methods; lacking their counterpart makes them incomplete modes of energy. Not-to-mention, even these four aforementioned internal methods are just the counterpart of the external perspective of using the body. Meaning they are meant to compliment external methods, but are not wholly internal methods themselves. Practical application of these energies are aligned with the external methods above; and when both are combined in execution, martial techniques will change: the body learns how to act without spending external energy that depletes the body, but by controlling external force through methods the body cannot sense or detect- internal energy. The best way to understand this concept is to relate internal energy as the body's subconscious: it is an autonomic function of the body that martial artists learn to control to certain degrees.

The practice of “the soft conquers the hard” has become a maxim that means any of the above mentioned internal methods would directly counter its opposite; assuming that both forces were equal. This is only because the external methods at some point would exhaust the body; where as the internal methods are not physically felt and do not present a demand on the body. Countering doesn't mean defeat, also; but to respond to something of the equal opposition. However, one skilled in complete hardness-the internal and external aspects- would be able to easily counter these internal energy methods as well as the external ones above. This is because with mastery of both comes the transitional energy of vibrating.

Vibrating energy is a transitional energy because it exists in the tendons, allows the muscles to exert a greater force, and is not entirely felt physically, making it not wholly external or internal. Practicing vibrational energy begins with tendon changing: exercises that involve stretching the muscles, and allows the tendons to resist tinsel and compressive forces being imposed by the stretching postures applied to the body. Vibration energy is a combination of external and internal forces playing on each other: static forces of the bone and kinetic forces of the muscles, oppose each other through the spring like functions of the tendons.

Because of this, vibrational energy exist on the internal and external energy plane of the body. The difference being very distinct: external vibrations exert a high physical force on the body, and manifests a hard(heavy) internal presence; internal vibrations have a soft(solid) physical force on the body, and a very high internal presence. Both vibrations, however, are physically manifested through martial techniques, and are detectable by the eye. Vibrational energy is the most refined force of external energies, and the very basic of internal energies: externally it is subtle, quick, and hard; internally it is distinct, long, and soft.

When used martially, vibrational energy delivers a kind of shock force whenever attacking each side of energy that makes up the external plane. This is due to the fact that vibrational energy's internal aspects allow it to be absorbed through a reversed method of yielding- simply called following- when yielding to the external plane's internal energy methods. The same is true when against the external energy method of the external plane; the difference being that instead of following, vibrational energy actually penetrates the external energy. To further understand these martial art concepts of applied vibrational energy, think of followingin vibrational energy and its shock force as a pager placed under a pillow. Assuming the pager makes no audible sound when vibrating, if one were to place their head on the pillow, one would be able to detect the vibration of the pager. However, if ten pillows were stacked over the pager, the vibration would be undetectable. The vibration force of the pager is able to counter the natural yielding, relaxed, expanded, and weight of one pillow by its own internal change of internal and external energies on the external plane. With ten pillows, vibrational energy is unable to reach the tenth pillow because the absorbing qualities of ten pillows neutralize and eventually dissipates the vibration(Dissipation is a internal method on the internal plane). Penetrating with vibrational energy can be likened to a nail and hammer: the nail being an internal force that directly penetrates a strong, static, and tense structure when struck by the hammer, the external force. The physical or external repetitions of the hammer's strike represents the change of internal and external energies on the external plane as well.

Thus vibrational energy is indiscriminate in practical energy application: mastery of tendon changing-from the external plane- makes a practitioner hard internally, and soft externally; giving one the ability to exert high levels of external force with a very keen sense of an internal presence. It is through this very chaotic exchange that the body is able to harmonize on an external level for full external proficiency, and transition into the basics of internal plane training. However, the body cannot remain in a state of constant vibrational energy; as this is depleting to the tendons. Therefore, it is not a final stage of energy training, but a transitory level of energy training into the internal plane of external and internal energy.

Martial artists tend to over emphasize the importance of internal energy and neglect the qualities of external energies. It should be of great note; that yin cannot exists without yang: internal cannot exists without external. Furthermore, the mastery of one side of energy is a great accomplishment; and one that should be regarded with great esteem in this age of martial arts. Imagine being a master of all things yin; is this a feat that should be regarded lightly? And if one is a master of all things yin; wouldn't s/he want explore all things yang?