Fear blocks tao by warping our perception.
It sends us guiltily into the past or anxiously into the future,
rather than letting us relax into the present.
(Wolf Lowenthal)
Standing in your own way
With
awareness it is possible to relax the blockages
within your body.
Shaking during qigong is the first sign
of letting-go.
In time, your hands should throb and it will become quite difficult to close
your hands properly during qigong and form practice.
The main problem facing you is your own expectations and fear.
Taoism has long recognised that the harder you try, the more you fail.
Letting-go means not doing, coming to rest.
Conduit
If you regard your body as being a channel for the
transmission of energy, you can start to understand what tai chi
striking involves.
You do not punch or kick using local muscle groups.
The energy is transferred from the ground, passing through your frame and out
into the opponent.
Your limb is simply the part that makes contact with the opponent.
Yield
A beginner may be capable of delivering some degree of energy using the body but
this is just the start.
By
yielding and becoming softer and softer,
you can support the delivery.
Your entire frame can become part of the wave of energy, spiralling and rippling
by itself.
By adding more mass and momentum to the delivery, you amplify the effect.
Deliberate, conscious movement will not assist the energy transmission.
You must yield to the action of the delivery, allowing your body to be moved
by the wave.
Page created 29 April 2001