The Core of Internal Energy and True Cultivation
The essence of this dialogue is not merely about martial arts or standing meditation. At a deeper level, it reveals a fundamental question: why human beings become trapped within the structures of the acquired mind, and how one may restore the authentic connection between consciousness, energy, and space.
In modern times, most people still understand cultivation through the lens of power, technique, forms, or the pursuit of “qi sensations.” Whether in traditional martial arts, Taiji, Aikido, or various internal systems, many spend years training only to become more rigid, more psychologically burdened, and more deeply attached. The reason is simple: they never touch the true essence of practice. Real cultivation is not about gaining something — it is about releasing something.
True standing practice is not about enduring discomfort in a fixed posture, nor is it a method for strengthening muscular endurance. Its real purpose is to reorganize the body’s relationship with gravity itself. Most ordinary people rely on muscular and fascial tension to maintain posture and balance. Over time, this creates a constrictive internal structure where the body’s energetic conductivity becomes blocked. As a result, a person can only “use force,” while remaining incapable of perceiving authentic internal flow.
This is why the first step of cultivation is not force, but release.
“Relaxation” here does not mean collapse or weakness. It means allowing the body’s weight to genuinely settle into the skeletal structure, freeing the fascia and joints from unnecessary contraction. When the body can naturally descend with gravity, the closed energetic loop within the body begins to open. Downward movement follows gravity into the earth; upward movement rises through the joints and extends toward the crown of the head, forming what may be called the central axis.
This central axis is not an imagined concept but an actual physiological state. Like a chimney, it transforms the human body from a closed individual structure into an open energetic system connected with space itself. What traditional teachings describe as “standing between heaven and earth” is not poetic symbolism. It refers to the moment when the body truly establishes energetic connectivity with space.
The problem is that most practitioners unconsciously train through the acquired mind.
The “acquired” does not simply mean something learned later in life. It refers to the conditioned structure of consciousness shaped by social programming, personal experience, accumulated knowledge, and psychological identity. The moment a person practices with the mentality of “I am doing this,” tension and control immediately appear. The practitioner begins pulling, forcing, manipulating, and holding onto effort. Although the body appears to be training, inwardly the system becomes increasingly closed.
This is why many martial artists can train for decades while remaining trapped in purely mechanical movement. They inherit forms but lose the essence. Their movements become increasingly sophisticated, yet their bodies grow more rigid. Their techniques multiply, yet inwardly they become heavier and more conditioned. Eventually, martial arts degenerate into little more than “the strong overpowering the weak” or “the fast defeating the slow.” Once the inner foundation is lost, all that remains is physical competition.
True internal practice is not technique. It is state.
Once the central axis is established, consciousness begins to release outward from the body. This “outward release” is not imagination. It is the process by which intention leaves localized muscular control and extends into the surrounding space. As the fascia relaxes from its contracted state, it regains its natural conductive quality. Energy is no longer trapped within the body but begins to form a continuous field interacting with space itself.
At this stage, the human being is no longer experienced as a sealed physical object, but as an open energetic system.
What traditional systems call “internal power” is not a mystical force. It is closer to resonance. When consciousness and the body cease to remain closed and truly relax into space, contact with another person naturally enters into interaction with this integrated field. Classical concepts such as listening energy, neutralization, or borrowing force are simply different expressions of this phenomenon.
The difficulty lies in the fact that this process completely contradicts ordinary human conditioning.
Human instinct is rooted in tension, control, and the fear of losing the sense of self. The moment people are touched, they instinctively contract, defend, and resist. Yet authentic cultivation demands the opposite: not the strengthening of the self, but the gradual release of the self that clings to control.
This is why genuine internal cultivation shares the same essence as Daoist and Zen traditions.
Classical teachings speak of “transforming the acquired and returning to the primordial.” Most people interpret this philosophically, without realizing that it refers to an actual embodied process. The acquired state is the conditioned structure of consciousness; the primordial state is the restoration of awareness prior to conditioning, before identity became fixed and fragmented.
True cultivation, therefore, is not the endless accumulation of knowledge and techniques, but the continual removal of internal obstruction. As bodily tension dissolves and psychological attachment softens, the separation between oneself and space also begins to disappear. Movement is no longer merely movement. Breathing is no longer merely breathing. Human interaction is no longer merely physical contact.
It becomes a transition from force to connection.
And perhaps this is the very essence that many traditional systems once possessed, gradually lost, yet continue searching for to this day.
