One of the biggest puzzles when you learn Tai Chi is learning to feel the 4 main energies: Peng, Lu, Ji, and An.

The question of how to manifest the energies has come up for my students again as they work on the Tai Chi Mastery Program and discuss commencement in our Inner Form training group.

It's hard enough for most of us, perpetually stuck in our heads, to reconnect to our bodily sensations by feel, to relax muscles, loosen joints, and release our nerves.

Moving beyond the basic physical interface and into manifesting the energies where you "expand" or "condense" or "absorb" can seem impossibly complex.

I'm not saying the following descriptions completely capture the energies, but I hope they help you relate to familiar feelings rather than abstract concepts.

Peng or Expanding/Rising Energy

How do you get underneath something and cause it to rise? This isn't the same as pushing something through space, that's more like Ji.

The weightlifter will feel difference between Peng and Ji when he stands up. If he loses the structure of his upper body and root of his legs, he will quickly absorb all the weight, a crude, and undesirable form of Lu.

Ji or Pressing Forward Energy

Look at the way, at the moment he releases the ball, all of his joints open. The body expands to propel the ball through space, even the fingers.

In Tai Chi, you search for these moments with an opponent, avoiding opening force into force or "yang against yang."

Lu or Absorb/Yielding Energy

The art of Lu is yielding just enough to make your opponent feel like he is always just about to reach you. That's the matador's secret: run away too fast and the bull chases you down. Stand your ground and the bull runs you over.

The absorbing quality of Lu, not pictured here so much, involves completely eliminating any stuck spots inside you. In training, you seek out hardness and blockages in your system and learn to let go of them.

An or Condensing/Downward Energy

What does it feel like to hold a ball underwater? How do you create compression, not in yourself, but into someone else.

There's control and direction to it too. You're not just banging into something.

Try pushing yourself up off the arms of a chair. If you blindly press as hard as you can, you won't get up. You'll just bang your hands into the chair. Instead, if you direct a steady condensing pressure downwards, you can use the compressive force to lift yourself.

The same way, you'll see the downward compression of An all the way through your opponent, into their root, or use it to clear your own system of stagnant energy in your solo practice.

What Works for You?