About Shifu Garza

On my ancestor’s place, as is the one at the Gompa, there are many objects placed there that are symbolic representatives of the school, its history and of my own personal beliefs and history. I have a sword rack in the living room that holds 8 swords of various styles and dates. But the one that sits on the single display on my ancestor’s place is a double-edge straight sword that is broken in two at the middle. A friend came to visit this past week and looking over the swords, asked why the old, broken, cheap sword has the honor of being on the ancestor’s place, instead of one of the fancy, “pretty” ones (his words, not mine). [Read more...]

What does salt taste like?

There has been some really good postings and thoughts on “listening skills” lately. Something I have seen from time to time with some of my students, is that I ask them if they feel or see this, “You have to listen for it…” I tell them. And they look back and say listen for WHAT. And it hit me that many times they were listening/feeling, they just didn’t know exactly what to feel for or what that feeling feels like. Kinda of like asking someone does this taste salty, if they have never tasted salt! There are a lot of things going on, say in Willow bends and all the noise can get quite confusing amiss just trying to remember what to do physically.

Anyway, here is a Listening Exercise that has worked out well for helping one experience the “various sounds to listen for”.

Stand in front of each other, as in the Willow bends game (both in horse stance at arms length). One person is the pusher only (the talker), the other only redirects (listener). But the person pushing is just kinda of attacking, not really trying to get through, just giving the other energy to feel and react to. Just enough force is used to easily neutralize the pusher. You can even lightly hold the other. This is a listening exercise, not a push someone over exercise.

Now usually, an instructor or advance student is best here (they have experience with feelings), but basic students get good practice learning to create these feelings. The pusher is now going to go through a series of movements and tells the listener what he is doing.

Can you hear me?

For example, if I am the pusher, I will start with “I am just neutral”, can you feel that? They listen to this and acknowledge the feeling. Then I connect to their spine and again ask, “I just connected to your spine, do you feel that? Turn it off, turn it on, see the difference?” Again, the listener, as he feels it, acknowledges the feeling. Then I get very stiff (overly framing) while playing and again ask the same question, “Do you feel my arms getting too hard? Then I relax, “feel them relax, sung?” Going back and forth, so they can compare the two. Letting them feel and experience what it is they are “listening” for. We then continue over time and sessions and different partners to listen to common feelings that they have to be aware of. Can you feel me; localizing, pushing with just my arms, which leg am I pushing with, feel me leaning, grounding, skilled or beginner, stable or unstable, soft, hard, expanding, contracting, leaking energy, where, out the shoulders, elbows, lower back, can you feel me taking energy into the ground, back up against it? And on and on.

Eventually, not only do we listen to physical expressions of energy, but also with emotional qualities, or what they are thinking. For example, here is me thinking macho, here is me feeling unsure, hesitant, a beginner, I am aggressive out of fear, I am aggressive out of dominance, challenging, scared, frustrated, cocky, teaching or intimidating, alpha dog mentality, follower mentality. So, as the pusher, you think of these mental/emotional feelings and then physically try to express them towards your partner, so that they can get an inkling of what that energy feels like through the arms, through your body language. Then later as they are playing regular Willow bends, they “recognize” a particular way the person is pushing or expressing his energy. I was watching the movie “Hunt for Red October” about submarine warfare and one of the more interesting characters is the sonar technician as he “listens” to all the noise and clutter in the ocean, but listening for particular sounds that tell him of other subs, torpedoes, etc. that he feeds to his Captain (the mind), who then initiates the proper actions (the mind commands…). This is what you are doing. Learning to listen … and what to listen for in all the noise you are hearing.

Try this with a fellow partner and see if you get anything out of it. Its best with a cooperative spirit between the partners. Best with multiple partners, to feel the various ways different people express the same energies.

Andrew Garza III
Shifu, Daoqiquan

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