So, you have a strong punch, but
do you have it with uncontrolled anger, or do you have it with peace of
mind? Are you able to integrate to a point where fighting or combing your
hair or studying or typing at your computer all have the same smoothness, or
is it that each of these has this stressed-out, manic
spike to it?
(Bruce Frantzis)
Mind
Your mind must be calm and your emotions composed.
Meditation helps with this. It teaches you to be detached yet totally present.
Training the mind is more important than training the body. The mind leads the
movement.
A rigid, fixed mind is a weak mind. We want flexibility above all else.
Our conditioning, education and opinions can all hold us back.
Mind & body
Most of the exercises are designed to unite mind and body. Through their
combination we have movement with intent.
Mind and body working together in harmony can produce neigong and jing (kinetic
energy expression).
Every tai chi exercise trains mind and body to work as one.
Coordination
To understand how coordination works, consider driving a car for the first time.
When you get in the car (as a learner driver), it is bewildering and you have
too many concerns to cope with.
In time, you learn to coordinate mind and body. The driving becomes easier.
Eventually it is second-nature and you forget that it was difficult to start
with.
The technical complexity and physical coordination are ingrained. You forget all
about them.
You focus on the road, on other drivers and your body follows the dictates of
your intention without impediment.
Few students ever reach this final stage. They remain beginners.
Their forms are self-conscious. There is no sense of flow, spontaneity or
integration.
In self defence, they falter and use aggression and brute force. This is not the
way.
Self defence/freeform
Exercises such as 'pushing hands' must be seen in the wider context of the tai
chi.
They are not an end in themselves.
They are a learning tool for teaching skills that must eventually be utilised in
self defence.
Some students seek to be pushing hands experts, which is absurd.
It is like becoming an expert at 'indicating' when driving a car.
Everything you learn in tai chi only has meaning in the context of freeform
application.
If you cannot use your tai chi to defend yourself, you negate the original
purpose of the art entirely.
Refinement
The technical body mechanics of tai chi must become so second-nature that
you forget about them.
Instead, you think about the movement itself.
You use jing/13 postures to improve your mind/body interaction. It becomes more
potent and focussed.
The mind leads and the body follows.
In our school, we call this stage 'column 2' - in reference to one of the
hand-outs.
Column 3
The movements of tai chi must become so second-nature that you forget
about them.
Instead, you think about the kinetic energy itself.
Everything is smoother, smaller and more circular in appearance.
It is comfortable, easy and unselfconscious.
Your only concern is jing - the effect.
You amplify the effect whilst reducing the movement required to produce it.
Shen
The next component is shen or spirit. Some people think that shen is
'intent' but it is not.
Intent is already present in your tai chi.
You learn intent by studying neigong, 13 postures and jing.
Shen constitutes the emotional content of your tai chi.
We initially use certain visualisations to help people infuse their tai chi with
shen.
These serve to channel the emotion in a powerful way.
Anger and aggression are not used in tai chi. We are employing the energy of
emotion, not the emotions themselves.
Practice
Providing your practice is correct, the mind/body relationship becomes habitual.
It becomes involuntary and unconscious.
Shen (emotional content) must also become involuntary.
You no longer think about the body mechanics, the movements or the jing
expressions.
It all just happens.
There is no effort or self-consciousness involved at all.
Uniting
Form, qigong, neigong, jing/13 postures, shen and partner work are all simply
learning tools designed to cultivate whole body, whole being expression.
When your mind/body/spirit integration is complete, you act so unconsciously
that you no longer really feel the movements as such.
It is spontaneous and natural. It just happened. The counter emerges
preconsciously.
This
level of skill is called 'sung'.
Unfortunately, many students think that sung simply means 'relax' but this
definition fails to incorporate the full scope of sung.
A person who moves as an integrated whole does not really need form anymore.
They are doing tai chi all the time.
They are beyond style, beyond convention and are one with the moment.
Page created 14 August 1998