Essays From The Master

Chi, which is the Chinese word for earth, is external life force composed of Yin and Yang which is usually found in breath. Ki is personal power generated from the individual and fueled by Chi when taken into the individual and refined. When one breathes, one takes in Chi, one is also opening one’s aura or “Wa” to the outer world just as one does to send out Ki energy. Ki is the energy of the will, the will is the link between the self and the outer universe taking in or manipulating Chi causes the will to vibrate showing how the two types of energy interact and sustain each other. The “Wa” or the aura is a harmony echoing the stillness of the void whose stillness is an illusion created by the constant motion of the forces of the cosmos. The individual is not an image of the world but rather the cosmos that the world is suspended in, a mote of dust held in the tension of the storm. Being an image of the cosmos rather than the world sets the energy of the individual against that of the world which is what makes the will or one’s Ki a blade to carve one’s intention into the skin of the world.
Intent causes a vibration in the aura through the will that links the self to the universe which the individual can sense. To sense intention is to sense the opening and closing of the aura before action can take place. This skill can be a trap in and of its self because one can assume one knows a target’s intention when this is not so. To avoid this trap the user of this technique must clear his mind of both agenda on a personal level and expectation as to the actions or intentions of the target. The adept must sync his aura not with the world but rather with the void that contains the world and anchor one’s self in the tension of forces that creates the phantasm of stillness that is the seen as the void. In the midst of the tension of the cosmos one is centered with one’s will as one’s momentum and one’s other aspects adjusting to the ebb and flow of Chi manifest as events around one’s self. What is a misstep in the face of eternity as one is being drawn by one’s will to one’s goal? The answer is nothing. What is the loss of a battle in the face of eternity knowing that by adjusting one’s strategy and tactics via that apparent loss one is getting closer to one’s goal? Again the answer is nothing. In the face of the void all outcomes are but phantoms in light of one’s will adjusting to circumstance.
To steal the breath of the shadow is to negate the will of an attacker by sensing his intent before intention is transformed into action, killing the shadow of the possible reality that said intention proposed. One does this by focusing not on one’s target but rather on one’s self learning the ebb and flow of one’s own aura as it opens and closes to the world taking in Chi and sending out Ki. One must train and trust one’s self to adapt to the disharmonies that come from the intentions of others knowing that it is only one’s self that one can control. By building and minding one’s self one in turn influences all around one’s self creating a tension between the world, the cosmos and one’s self that the world and the cosmos must both adapt to. To develop this technique one should work with another having no set form or technique at first and then do so again blindfolded expanding to up to eight attackers. The less one knows about an attacker the better for practice of this technique. Taking the life of a shadow of possibility is better than the killing of a target because it is not a fight merely a return to primal harmony.