Continuity: The Mind is the Vehicle for Moving Qi

Continuity is when the body has completely finished with a move, and the mind thinks on to the next move, and the body continues to follow the mind. This is similar to the relationship of a driver to a car. The driver is the mind, the engine is the body and the gasoline is the Qi. The driver says, “I am going to move the car” and he presses the gas pedal. The pedal regulates the gasoline flow, which ultimately allows the engine to turn to create energy. If you take your foot off the pedal, there isn’t enough gas flowing, and the engine won’t turn. If the engine doesn’t turn, there won’t be enough energy created, and the car will stop moving. We have a similar relationship from our mind to Qi and to body. The flow cannot stop. Once it stops, the movements become disconnected. That’s what we don’t want. The mind controls everything and is extremely important in creating continuity in our practice.

In the past few classes, we have been focusing on individual moves. By doing this, we have gone deeper and bigger in our stances and footwork in order to challenge our bodies. When the body is stronger then you will have more energy, and then you can create more energy to use. But today, I would like you to work on continuity. When we are working on continuity, you might want to make the stance a little bit smaller. The focus is on moving continuously and you have to feel when one move is finished and it continues on to the next move without any hesitation. But the key point is you have to finish each move completely. If you don’t finish and you go on to the next move, then that move was incomplete. What controls whether you finish the move or not? It’s your mind. Your mind needs to be very clear about what you are going to do next.