FLOWING FORCE AND CONSOLIDATED FORCE
Flowing Force
Question
I am very impressed with your demonstration of the Iron Wire Set in Barcelona the last time you taught us. It was simply fantastic the force you demonstrated. I would like to confirm the flowing method and the consolidating method you used in Iron Wire.
— Roland, Spain
Answer
The terms, “flowing force” and “consolidated force” are actually coined by me for our students’ convenience. Hence, you would not find these terms in chi kung classics. The flowing method focuses on flowing force, whereas the consolidating method focuses on consolidated force.
Flowing force refers to energy that is flowing, like in Taijiquan. A good analogy is a river of water. Consolidated force is energy that is condensed, like in Shaolin Iron Wire. An analogy is a glacier of ice.
However, a glacier is not an excellent analogy because the ice bergs in the glaciers are quite solid, whereas the energy in consolidated force is still flowing though it is much condensed. A better analogy is the larva of a volcano.
It is the same energy, but the energy in flowing force is like water whereas the energy in consolidated force is like larva. Practitioner in our school can convert flowing force to consolidated force, and vice versa.
However, most practitioners, including real masters, cannot do this. Hence, they are advised to stay with one type of force. If they attempt both at the same time, they may cancel the force they have developed.
Let us take an example of other practitioners training to have flowing force in Taijiquan. When they are successful, they will have 100 units of force per training session, and they need 10,000 units to be said that they have flowing force. Hence, they need 100 successful sessions.
“100 units” or “10,000 units” are of course just figures for quantification. Any numbers can be used.
Let us say other practitioners have 3 successful sessions a month, though they practice every day. They become successful only when conditions become ideal.
Do they have 300 units of internal force in the first month? No, they will have much less, because their successful sessions are too far apart to be accumulative.
But as they progress the successful training sessions would become closer and closer, and eventually they can have a successful training session every day. Normally it would take about 3 years for practitioners to develop internal force, irrespective of whether he trains flowing force or consolidated force individually.
However, if a practitioner practices flowing force and at the same time consolidated force, like in Taijiquan and Shaolin Iron Wire Set, his force training sessions will cancel each other with the result that he will not have any internal force no matter how long he has trained!
Because of certain advantages, like differentiating between techniques and skills and understanding the philosophy of flowing force and consolidated force, a Shaolin Wahnam practitioner can develop the same amount of internal force, i.e. 10,000 units in a shorter time. If he develops 100 units of internal force a day, he needs only 100 days to develop 10,000 units of internal force, because he will have a successful session every day. As the successful days are close enough, i.e. every day, his internal force becomes accumulative.
If he practices flowing force and consolidated force on alternate days, he will not only not cancel out the force like other practitioners do, but he will have more force. In the case of other practitioners, the flowing force he develops on the first day will cancel out the consolidated force the next day. In the case of Shaolin Wahnam practitioners, he will end up with more force!
This is indeed interesting. Let us see what happens to Shaolin Wahnam practitioners. On the first day he develops 100 units of flowing force. On the next day, he can convert this flowing force to consolidated force, and add this 100 units of his first successful session to his another 100 units of his second successful session. Because his force is flowing, regardless of whether it is flowing force or consolidated force, it will also increase the volume of his flow, which means that he has more than 200 units of force on the second day. In this way, he will have more than 10,000 units of force after 100 days, which he can convert as flowing force or consolidated force.
The above is taken from Question 4 August 2019 Part 2 of the Selection of Questions and Answers.
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