Hi,
There is a useful concept involving 'all' joints, which refers to them as gates, and that all gates should be kept open. This is done by not 'locking' them into a straight position, or over extending. There is a point of expression, say when opening your hand, that you will feel it fill with qi, out to the fingertips. Sit, relax, put your hands on your knees, palm up, and try just feeling the qi move to your palms, by expressing your hands/fingers open. There is a point, where you feel the energy filling your fingers to the tips, or beyond. For me, it seems right before straightening them. My palm at this point is very heightened, a bit taunt(not in a hard sense, although you can make your palm very hard this way, almost focusing more on the palm) from a soft stretch..Your hands can fill with qi in a more curved position, and this is fine and ok, but I feel an added alertness or heightened energy, if I open them a bit more. It draws more qi into them. Master Lin stesses a very open(extended fingers) hand in meditation. I think it relates to alertness or awareness in sitting meditation, versus sleep. A 'relaxed curve' could roll back into that less than radiant aspect. You want to be relaxed, but still, you want to be fully present. How you express yourself physically, regarding your fingers, can effect that. In a martial arts sense , this drawing of the energy to the hands is very extreme, heightened, instant, and very brief. The power happens, then complete relaxation is possible, and ability to continue, change, etc. In a meditative sense, you can 'draw' the energy out to your hands in a nice relaxed and smooth way, and add to that opening, alertness, presence, and awareness, by just extending a bit. No tension, no locking, but fully expressed up to that point. There is , of course, variation from person to person.
Your sense of 'yielding', to being soft or relaxed, does not mean shrinking in any way. You want to be full and fill your body, and radiate into your immediate space. This is your space, and you meet things at that held sense of boundary. There is a related feeling in the lengthening of the spine. Something you can flex, but in meditation, it may shrink abit, and you may re flex it here and there to reestablish the full extention. The more one practices the longer these alignments stay full during longer sessions.
In general, follow the sensation of the energy, filling you, out to your hands. Go by that feeling, as opposed to focusing your thoughts on a particular joint. Just globally fill and radiate. I have seen people in level I active, with the qi not moving fulling down to their hands. All they needed to do was open their hands more to move it there more fully. also, keeping the arms away from the sides of the body to allow qi to circulate around.
There is a difference between staightened, and straight too. Say, in sword fingers, my fingers are quite straight, but not locked, or closed. They are soft. You can generate a feeling in your fingers, almost like the spine lengthening, where you are open, flexible, and your fingers are quite straight, but sort of stretch through the center in the direction you are pointing, in the flow of energy. You are focusing on extending your energy out your two finger tips in this case, and the full extention helps do that. Again, it is soft, open, but very directed, through the 'straighter' position. Even when your sword fingers, for instance , are quite straight, you could still lock them in a more overextended feeling that causes some tension, and closing.
Another idea involves getting older, and how we tend to 'wilt' with age. I like to hold my ground! No wilting! radiate... and smile.
Some mudras or meditative hand positions do cup more. I equate this more to positions joining both hands, like resting one in the other and joining thumbs... The hand position of just open hands palm up, or joining the thumb and index finger, are slightly more extended, to me. Either way, as you enter the emptiness, you will not feel your hand position.
I just thought of another analogy. Feathers and feather tips. Think of your fingers like the feather tips on a wing. The feathers are soft, but quite straight, very sensitive to energy, air currents, ....subtle changes. Hope some of this mish mosh helps!
love,
gallen
