The Nine-Joints and the Six Harmonys  "Michael Clanton" mrclanton@hotmail.com

The Internal Six Harmonies, which train the coordination of mind and reflexes, chi and power, without all these elements, a movement is not considered complete. First Internal Harmony: Body and Heart. The basic principle is to copy the natural image of something. For example, copy the image of animals or things. When animals are fighting, you must see their meaning (intentions of actions), speed, and power. You must imitate the feeling and take that feeling into your body. The heart means confidence. We must build up our confidence, which means to develop strong heart (not the organ,but spiritual strength).       Second Internal Harmony: Mind and Heart. When you get the image and you can imitate the feeling in your body you must build up the feeling by practicing it over and over again. By practicing you build confidence.       Third Internal Harmony: Mind and Chi(energy or oxygen). Once you practice enough to become confident, then you can move without hesitation. The body and breathing(chi) will move naturally and automatically with the mind.       Four Internal Harmony: Chi and Spirit(Not ghost but heighten awareness). The spirit needs to be trained to be highly alert. When your spirit is highly alert the chi automatically circulates through the whole body at higher level(very fast blood circulation which carries the oxygen or chi throughout the body).  Fifth Internal Harmony: Spirit Movement. In martial arts, the spirit uses the eye, ear, and sensitivity (heighten sense of touch or feeling). When you fight your opponent you see hear or feel. If you have the benefits of all the first four harmonies together, your spirit will recieve a signal and send a message to the mind which will instantly react and power will automatically follow.     Sixth Internal Harmony: Movement and Emptiness(not blankness of the mind but clarity and openess, ready for any experience to arise beyond presetting or calculating something to happen or anticipating something to happen) When you have the benefits of the first five harmonies, then you will know how to react. You won't need to focus(calculate) on technique or anything else, just react. The real meaning or technique is to move without thinking. This is what Zen Buddhist practitioners call No-Mind (the mind free of conceptual idea, spontaneous fully aware and open to all experiences). These principles are the key in developing perfect movement and the ability to conserve energy when in motion. When your body moves in harmony or as one unit you have speed which translate into power. This is real martial arts training. Learning alot of techniques and forms do not even constitute martial arts training. True technique is being able to move appropriately with ease without thinking. This can only be achieved by mind and body harmony.'

The Six External Harmonys  ...trains the coordination of arms and legs, shoulders and hips, elbows and knees, so one can attain a unity of  body mechanics.   This is also viewed as the 9 joints. First External Harmony: Body Joints Move as One: The three joints of the body are in the lower spine the middle of the back and the neck. Move from spine, to the back, to the neck. Second External Harmony: Arm Joints Move as One. The three arm joints move from the shoulder, to the elbow, to the wrists. Third External Harmony: Leg Joints Move as One.  The three leg joints move from hip, to the knee, to the ankle. Fourth External Harmony: Hand and Foot.  The hands and feet move together as one unit. Fifth External Harmony: Elbow and Knee. The elbows and knees move together as one unit. Sixth External Harmony: Shoulder and Hip. The shoulders and hips move together as one unit. To summarize: All main joints (call root joints, shoulder, hip, and lower spine) must start together and stop together in harmony with each other.