Ting and Dong and silent sounds
Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2023 9:53 am
Ting jin and dong jin are kind of confusing to me.
They are usually translated as listening energy and interpreting energy. Ting jin is a lower (than dong) level, fundamental, skill and dongjin is like the key to it all, so they say. "How can one be beaten when they have mastered interpreting energy"
So how do you understand that? Do you agree?
When it comes to ting jin, I always thought of the listening as a bit metaphorical, like we're talking about a sense in the body primarily. I'm starting to question the role of the ear in the skill. Our sense of balance is rooted in the ear, any disturbance of or change to that balance or our orientation relative to gravity is registered and interpreted as something we may take action about.
In elite athletes this sensitivity is even more developed. Simone Biles in the last Olympics described a temporary inner ear or psychological dysfunction that prevented her from being able to sense her position in space, which made her acrobatics too dangerous to risk.
In taijiquan we're told that "neither can a fly alight or a feather take landing" or something like that without the entire body being set into motion. Could it be that disturbances to our equilibrium as slight as a few ounces or less can be registered in the ear?
Inside the ear resides an organ attuned entirely to detecting vibration. Vibration travels so efficiently through bone that chewing with a closed mouth can sound like a booming cacaphony with no noticeable vibration being perceived in the mouth and jaw.
Research has shown that grasping a solid object like a stick on the other side of a screen, pretty much anybody can identify where on the length of the stick it is being struck or rubbed.
Clearly we can perceive strong enough vibrations in our hands and bodies, but we can also perceive subtler vibrations in the ear itself, and we can receive vibrations subconsciously more subtly than we can even perceive. Low frequency vibrations, for example, don't necessarily register consciously but can cause discomfort and illness and disorientation as the fluid in the inner ear is disturbed.
So my dawning understanding is that all of these contribute to create ting jin, the perception of movement and vibration in the body, and by extension a greater understanding of things external to the body that affect it directly physically, such as another person trying to push you over.
The quieter and more receptive and more relaxed our minds and bodies and nervous systems are, the more we can perceive and interpret these vibrations, both internal and external to our bodies. Shifting fluid and tendons and bone and gaseous pockets internally create vibrations that travel through the frame to move the cochlea and create the sensation of sound. It can get very noisy in the silence.
So then what is dong jin or interpreting energy? Is it awareness of qi as bioelectric energy? Is it awareness of the intrinsic physical kinetic and potential energy in the body in movement and stillness? Is it both of these? What are your thoughts about this?
They are usually translated as listening energy and interpreting energy. Ting jin is a lower (than dong) level, fundamental, skill and dongjin is like the key to it all, so they say. "How can one be beaten when they have mastered interpreting energy"
So how do you understand that? Do you agree?
When it comes to ting jin, I always thought of the listening as a bit metaphorical, like we're talking about a sense in the body primarily. I'm starting to question the role of the ear in the skill. Our sense of balance is rooted in the ear, any disturbance of or change to that balance or our orientation relative to gravity is registered and interpreted as something we may take action about.
In elite athletes this sensitivity is even more developed. Simone Biles in the last Olympics described a temporary inner ear or psychological dysfunction that prevented her from being able to sense her position in space, which made her acrobatics too dangerous to risk.
In taijiquan we're told that "neither can a fly alight or a feather take landing" or something like that without the entire body being set into motion. Could it be that disturbances to our equilibrium as slight as a few ounces or less can be registered in the ear?
Inside the ear resides an organ attuned entirely to detecting vibration. Vibration travels so efficiently through bone that chewing with a closed mouth can sound like a booming cacaphony with no noticeable vibration being perceived in the mouth and jaw.
Research has shown that grasping a solid object like a stick on the other side of a screen, pretty much anybody can identify where on the length of the stick it is being struck or rubbed.
Clearly we can perceive strong enough vibrations in our hands and bodies, but we can also perceive subtler vibrations in the ear itself, and we can receive vibrations subconsciously more subtly than we can even perceive. Low frequency vibrations, for example, don't necessarily register consciously but can cause discomfort and illness and disorientation as the fluid in the inner ear is disturbed.
So my dawning understanding is that all of these contribute to create ting jin, the perception of movement and vibration in the body, and by extension a greater understanding of things external to the body that affect it directly physically, such as another person trying to push you over.
The quieter and more receptive and more relaxed our minds and bodies and nervous systems are, the more we can perceive and interpret these vibrations, both internal and external to our bodies. Shifting fluid and tendons and bone and gaseous pockets internally create vibrations that travel through the frame to move the cochlea and create the sensation of sound. It can get very noisy in the silence.
So then what is dong jin or interpreting energy? Is it awareness of qi as bioelectric energy? Is it awareness of the intrinsic physical kinetic and potential energy in the body in movement and stillness? Is it both of these? What are your thoughts about this?