Full and Keeping One's Cool

內實精神，外示安儀。

內 inside, inner part, internal

實 full

精 essence

神 spirit

精神 vitality

外 outer, external

示 show

安 peaceful, at ease, undisturbed

儀 appearance, bearing

1. Full of vitality inside, a peaceful bearing outside

This sentence is a classic of a lot of practices, especially the internal ones. If there is an obvious complementary opposition between the inner and the outer, it actually refers even more to two internal practices, the spirit and the heart trainings.

For internal practices, vitality comes first and is produced from essentials liquids contains in the organs (see 气 Where Is My Bowl of Rice and related posts).

Vitality, 精神, is made of 精, essence and often mainly refers to essential liquids contained in the organs while 神 means spirit. 精神 is actually a usual shorten version of 精氣神,  the trinity of essential liquids, vapours and spirit. Indeed, the first goal of internal practices is to have as much vitality as possible and the first part of such statement is linked to producing such vitality, hence exercising. Furthermore, the idea of fullness implies the capacity to keep, which the second part of the statement will describe.

Speaking of appearance, one shall first consider the body. Indeed, to the trinity for vitality, the contents, one has to add the container, i.e. one's body. Therefore, "a peaceful bearing" indicates the necessity to be totally and first physically relaxed. Indeed, internal practices, usually following the principle "without force is the better force", avoid using muscle contraction. Still, even more important than the body, this second part deals with the use of such fullness in one's vitality towards calming down oneself. Indeed, the more vitality we have, the more full of energy we feel, the more restless we tend to be. Internal arts, because they are all about saving, learn to channel this surplus of energy toward being even more calm, especially being less emotive. Again, the main difference between what is called regular methods which favour an emotionless state and abnormal ones which use an emotionally overwhelmed one. To reach such calm, one has to use proper breathing technique and avoid being out of breath. Therefore a peaceful bearing comes from a calm heart and at ease organs.

Full, hence without care, and calm, hence undisturbed, one can reach clarity, 明, one of the main aims of internal practices. And 明 is made of eight strokes, eight for the number of characters used in this statement. 明 is made of the 日, the sun, and 月, the moon. Then, one can link to the previous post "陰衰陽興", the Feminine declines and the Masculine prospers, because indeed 日, the sun, is a representation of the Masculine while 月, the moon, the Feminine. Hence the sun coming first in the writing order of 明 corresponds to "full of vitality inside", which is a confirmation of 陽興, the Masculine prospers, as explained int the previous post. Then, 月, the moon, links to "a peaceful bearing outside" which is a confirmation of 陽興, the Feminine declines. More than just playing on words, this is an example of how ancient methods avoided being straight to the point, always preferring to beat about the bush in order to have the student find by himself/herself. Real knowledge had to come through guided discovery within one's body and not by learning by heart and memorising.

2. Full inside, a peaceful bearing, showing (one's) vitality outside

Another method while deciphering Chinese martial poems is to change the order of the characters. In this instance, by applying to the inner what is meant for the outer in the original statement, and vice-versa for the outer, the sentence becomes "內實安儀，外示精神".

The first part, "full inside, a peaceful bearing" is a way to insist on the fact that one had to reach the peaceful state fullness can bring and avoid the natural tendency to deplete what is felt as an acquired extra energy. Bearing in that sense refers to one's organs, which shall refrain to "move" as the old texts would put it. In other words, the emotionless state one searches for comes from a fullness in one's vitality. The logic is simple, the fuller of vitality one becomes through training, the less needs one's body has, the less desires will emerge. Such state is reached through proper breathing techniques or exhaustion trainings when teenager. Exhaustion trainings are meant to physically exhaust, not mentally. Indeed, the link between physical exhaustion and mental rest is quite obvious. 

The second part may seem in opposition with the original sentence. After all, showing one's vitality looks hard to reconcile with the necessity to look peaceful. Still, being seemingly peaceful while still giving a sense of how dangerous one can be is a quality found in some dogs and other animals. For this, one of the hardest trainings is to learn to have an expressionless, close to stupid, face but using one's spirit and vitality to show a murder intend when needed. This is often, in its lesser use, what is called presence. Presence as it is trained in old practices is not a conscious will but much more something close to a basic instinct training in which the expression of one's vitality will be proportional to the danger felt, a matter dealt in the text just right after the present statement...

Again, such translations and explanations are more about giving examples of the method used to decipher old texts than precise rules, principles and meanings, since those could change according to one's practice and level of understanding. Because the main effective form of transmitting the knowledge remains oral for the old practices, any old text, especially the present one, is more meant as a memento, a reminder of the most important enigmas to decipher for a student of the arts.