TING JIN - "LISTENING JIN"
There is an old saying to the effect that "There are many jins, but there is only one jin" (I heard that from Chen Xiaowang, so it's a credible saying). Basically, the jin they're talking about is the ground-based jin where you mentally adjust force directions in your body when your "qi is sunk" and you bring the force/solidity of the ground to your hands (or wherever). "The force/energy starts at the feet, is controlled by the waist, and is expressed in the hands". All of the various "jins", of which there are many, like short jin, cold jin, spiraling jin, hard jin, soft jin, and so on, are just ways of applying the basic jin, the "neijin".
The point in this post is that "Ting Jin" is just another variant of the jin that comes from the ground ... because "there are many jins, but there is only one jin".
When a person is standing upright with all incoming forces allowed through the body to the ground and all outgoing forces originating from the ground, their "qi is sunk". The common saying is that the "qi is sunk to the dantian", but most people don't have enough of an understanding/skill with the dantian to understand what that means, so it is simpler to say that the qi is sunk to the feet and the dantian draws its power from the jin source at the feet. There is an old Chinese saying that goes: "A Superior Man gets his power from the soles of his feet".
When your "qi is sunk", that means that there is an immediate and ready path from any point on your body that goes to your feet. If someone pushes your arm, it should be a push that rests immediately/automatically in the sole of your foot; if they then push on your chest, etc., the force should immediately again be resting in your feet. You will have "peng jin", if that is true.
When I have my qi sunk to the soles of my feet, it means the source of all my forces rests in my foot and all movement to my arms, done by moving my dantian, is the manipulation of those ground-based forces. The movements in most correct qigongs, Taijiquan, Xingyi, Bagua, etc., should be the body manipulating the force of the ground (and the down-force of weight when down power is needed) by the dantian.
So, if my qi is sunk, then the solidity of the ground should be available in my arms and someone touching/pushing me should be able to feel the solidity of the ground in my arm. When I first meet someone who is doing Taijiquan, push hands, Xingyi, Bagua, and I touch them, I should be able to feel the ground when I touch them. I can "hear" the ground in them, so that is the essence of "Ting Jin", or listening jin. If I can't feel the ground, they are not really doing one of those arts.
Bear in mind that I have to solicit/train the subconscious to participate in this new, ground-based way of thinking and moving: the subconscious is doing all of the needed calculations.
If I am standing with my qi sunk and manifesting jin in my hands/arms, the ground, then my subconscious is aware and doing all of the calculations to keep the ground "flowing" from the sole of my foot to my arms and if I touch another object or person they become another source of forces which my subconscious takes immediately into account. In other words, it is my subconscious that is "listening" to/for sources from the ground and forces in other directions. If someone touches me, I "know" (via the subconscious) the direction and sources of his/her forces. That is what they mean by "Ting jin".
I see a lot of westerners do fast rolling of hands in exchanges with a partner and reacting swiftly to various attacks ... and they mistakenly call those reaction drills as a part of "listening jin". If I am doing push hand, Chi Sao, Rolling Hands (Rou Shou), etc., with someone, I should always be able to feel the overall direction of their push or forces and respond to that: that is "ting jin". The swift reaction stuff is nice, but it's something else. When a westerner refers to reactions in rolling hands as "listening jin", they simply give away the fact that they don't really understand what jin is.
Here's a video of Wang Zhanjun (son of Wang Xian) demonstrating Ting Jin while blindfolded. Notice that he is able to sense the direction and balance basis of the opponent's forces in an engagement and respond accordingly to those basic force directions. It wouldn't matter if the opponent had fast-moving arms or static arms: the idea is to feel the resultant overall force direction and respond to that.
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