"Fajin" has many layers

 tai chi internal discipline

Let's not continue to conflate "fajin" only with "one-inch punch" which time-wise is of short duration. As you see in the photos which show "long duration" and "short duration" of force. How do we do either or both? If there is a "secret" to success it is to be found by us in our discernment or non-discernment of small differences in the sensation that we feel and our subsequent ability or inability to both note and choose options and movement efficiency. In a workshop Master Stephen Hwa said "...the amount of fajin you can deliver is proportional to how compact you can make the delivery..." My insight from this is it is an established principle that the smallest difference in sensation we can discern is proportional to the magnitude of the larger sensation. The "larger sensation" for all of us is the much larger section of the body that is away from the much smaller area that we wish to move.

 

There are no secrets of Tai Chi if you want to develop a"one-inch punch" in a hurry go home and do slow quarter body movement as a punch for 2 hours a day for a hundred days. The thing is there are slim and none people willing to do that...the "secret" is in sheer persistence for a "short duration" of time. Or you can do it spread out over the years as a "long duration" with the same persistence.

Another aspect is the idea of how the "short" seems to be contained in the "long". The "long" seems to trace a seemingly infinite number of points from which the short-burst "fajin" can emerge instantly. The idea is not only to strive in short burst power from one point but to cultivate the long which creates many more possibilities for the short. The converse is not true, the length cannot come from the short. This seems to be related to the idea that we do not show the application but the intent. If the application was more pronounced in the form we do, it would probably have many short-burst movements and it probably would not be good for our health due to the jarring that would occur. It seems that only in the intermediate stages of practice does one begin to realize this point more fully and really "feel" the potential for short burst anywhere, making it meaningless to strike a heavy bag repeatedly with internal "short" to cultivate it.