As the roof was leaking,
a zen master told two monks to bring something to catch the water.
One brought a bucket, the other a sieve.
The first was severely reprimanded,
The second highly praised.
(Koan)
Obedience
Being orthodox is not always the best choice. Similarly,
deliberate perversity is no good either.
It is far better to act according to what is appropriate and effective.
Obedience is necessary when you are learning something,
but only to a point.
Blind faith is no good in self defence.
Our approach is to offer the material and then give students the chance to
try it out.
Nobody takes the teachers word for it.
Students are expected to understand it for themselves.
Systems
Martial arts often adhere to familiar
techniques and
approaches.
They practice only a narrow range of potential responses.
This becomes their system, their approach.
It is easy to identify an orthodox fighting style: wing chun, judo, boxing,
karate.
If you train an orthodox system, you will find that rigid adherence to your
style may fail when you encounter a situation that operates by different
rules.
At some stage, you must let go of the reins and just do whatever feels
right.
No orthodox system can allow for every combat variable and plan the
appropriate strategy; there are simply too many possibilities.
You have to give up and just go with what is happening
instead.
Freedom for the known
Our approach to
tai chi
considers the underlying principles in situations
and does not bother with orthodox responses.
Providing the body is
used in accord
with the
tai chi classics
any response is agreeable.
This means that each student has the liberty to figure out what works best
in each situation as the situation is unfolding.
Planning and preparation is discouraged. How can you plan for the
unknown?
Move
Attacks are movement.
Your tai chi needs to be concerned with the movement itself, not the
attacker or their intention.
Responses are movement.
Your body is a conduit for the storage and
release of energy.
Any action that deviates from this purpose is fundamentally unsound and
redundant.
Learn to
move.
Too many tai chi people tense their bodies and call it 'peng' when they
should be flowing smoothly around their attacker.
Be like water. Find the easiest route. Go with the movement. Do not meet
force with force.
Sheep
If you want to do what everyone else does, that is fine. Many people feel
safer when they stick to the rules and follow authority.
You need to do what feels right for you.
Others may want to stand alone and move with the moment, changing fluidly as
and when the situation demands it.
This takes courage.
The word 'orthodoxy' conjures up for
me a world in which people have reached the final station of how they define
themselves.
(Ben Okri)
Page created 3 January 2005