The Myth and Misunderstanding of "Relaxed Posture"

One of the great hindrances to gaining an understanding of the mechanics and methodology of Asian martial arts lies in the inabilty of certain concepts to be translated accurately into our native languages. This is a real issue with internal styles such as Xingyiquan, Baguazhang, and Taijiquan. All one has to do is pick up a book written by a Chinese author and begin reading to discover how perplexing it all can be. For example the word translated as "smear" brings to mind someone applying a thick layer of peanut butter to a piece of toast rather than pushing your opponents head toward the floor. As well "sinking" brings to mind drowning in river rather than lowering and  adjusting your weight to gain better balance and rooting. This hasn't been helped by most western teachers who in trying to accurately convey abstract concepts often inadvertantly impart greater confusion.
The worst example I know of concerns the foundation of the internal styles - relaxed posture. I recently watched an instructional demo (instruction is kind of a bad term as it's not very easy to learn any martial art effectively without a teacher) in which the demonstrator was explaining to the viewers that the body must be "completely relaxed" in order for the techniques to work and for the chi to flow.
This is kind of misleading. He is not entirely wrong but at the same time his wording is deceptive. I would challenge anyone to try to achieve a state of "total relaxation". The only time I can remember experiencing anyone exhibiting this is when I once tried in peril to lift a comatose friend off the floor to carry her to a car that would take her to the hospital. It wasn't an easy endeavor let me assure you. No muscular structures were functioning and she was dead weight.
The closest thing I have experienced to this is when I laid flat in a swimming pool and free floated. But even then there was stress in various joints so as to keep my body in the position in which I could maintain bouyancy.
The simple truth is that there is no way you can be "completely relaxed" as some of those demonstrating claim.
What a practitioner of the internal martial arts must achieve is the most relaxation in the body while allowing enough stress and tension to maintain posture and exert the force required to execute whatever techinique is called upon. Let's face it, if you are standing there is stress in your body. If not you would collapse into a lump on the floor and probably fracture a few bones in the process. Holding your head up, lifitng your arm, even wiggling your toes all require muscular tension. If you totally go "jelly" and try to execute forms and techniques your arms and legs will flail in an incontrolled fashion and you'll exert more force and effort just getting back to where you belong with repect to posture. For the Shanxi practitioner, at the moment of impact the body's musculature hardens so as to convey the power from the ground up through the waist to the point of impact. This happens in a split second as any longer would begin to sap the body of needed energy.
Xingyiquan translated means "form mind fist method", the fist actually denoting any surface of the body used to strike - not limited to the hands. When a person first begins practicing an internal style they will be tense and rigid as the movements are unfamiliar. As the person repeats the forms, they are engraved in the mind and the person can execute the movements with less conscious tought. This allows for the relaxation of the body to the point that the only stress present is that which is keeping the body stable and in correct form. By the way this isn't accomplished overnight and it can take the greater part of a lifetime to achieve an ideal state of relaxation.