Ahh, the last principle and probably one of the most important of all.  To truly  reach a level within internal martial arts and kung fu it requires mastery beyond kicking, punching, applications, or even building a Dan Tian.  To have been a real master of internal martial arts back at the turn of the century a person had to demonstrate the capability to fill their 4 antennas or extremities (Si Shou). When your Qi is abundant, has filled your organs and Dan Tian, it will naturally express through your 4 extremities.  One such extremity is connected to your hair through your blood.  Energy attaches to your blood and follows it.  Once your blood and Qi are thoroughly connected you will feel enlivened.  You will tingle with sensations and even the lightest of touch may send your senses off the radar.  The first step of to all of this though is opening your microcosmic orbit (discussed in principle 2).  Once your gates are open and you can quickly send your energy to your headtop you will feel a tingle in your hairs.  That is natural and good – you are filling things up!  Eventually you want to make that energy shoot up and pop your hair up on your head.  Masters of old were able to wear a hat and pop it off with a thought!   Hey and  added benefit it slows down the greying process of your hair and helps male pattern baldness!

Once you have the microcosmic orbit you work on the macrocosmic orbit.  This is where your energy flows through your arms and legs.  This is when you can get the energy to every part of your body.  When all your meridians are full and energy courses through your body you will feel it in every hair.  My friend once talked to Master Yun Yin Sen (Liu He Ba Fa master in Shanghai).  Master Yun demo’d his ability to raise and lower his arm hair at will.  Now this wont fend off a dozen armed men (or even a single one really),  but it demonstrates his abundance of energy and filling of his Si Shou and thus demonstrates his mastery and dedication to neijia arts.

As with some of these principles there lies a deeper meaning.  Sure its great to be alive with energy but it’s a trap!  There is another level that one should aspire to.  You must allow that qi and shen to mix and convert.  This is the level (as discussed in several posts already) that will allow you to sense others without touch and feel.  By expressing Shen at every hair you will have reached a level that can predict and act before your opponent, sense intentions, find meaning.  Can you read someone’s mind?  No, but by sensing the energy in their movement you are in sense doing so as you can react at a subconscious level, immediate and faster than anything they can fathom.

You must be able to connect your inner and outer together.  The energy and spirit must flow with the strength of a surging river throughout your body with the ability to move like the wind at will, swirling and alive.  All of the previous steps get you to this finality, to this doorway of mastery.  Its not an easy process but through hard work and dedication; you will have obtained what few have and will have a peace only few know.