Embrace Tiger: Return to Mountain………..the essence of Tai Chi.

Embrace Tiger is one of the hexagrams in the IChing.

I have recently taken up Tai Chi classes in my area. There is a waiting list for Sam’s classes!

I am really enjoying it. For me, it is the same as any discipline: sticking with it even through difficult phases will, in the end, bring the living form to life, as it were

A short example………..

A young Indian working for the Forest Service, cutting trails in the mountainous country,  said he didn’t understand the way the other young men worked. They attack the brush with such force and then sit down and puff and pant.  Then they fight it again and sit down and rest again.  He demonstrated their actions with his body, and then demonstrated his own way.  His own way was easy Tai chi flowing movements, swinging and returning without a break.  Strength without force “I don’t have to rest” he said “I can do this all day.”

Al Huang writes:

Energy is a confusing term. I try to make it clear that it is not nervous tension, it’s not pretend mental wishing, it is subtle and powerful and circulates continuously in one’s mental physical self. Acupuncture meridians show the path of this chi energy.  In practising Tai chi, as in pushing forward in the fire element step…. what one senses is the circular path of the chi from the tant’ien out through the palm of their hands outward and curving around to return to centre.  Beginners can only imagine it and feel it fragmentedly. After long years of practice it becomes very obvious.

Energy is open, free moving, unburdened basically undefinable. It is life force unforced which then becomes forceful and powerful.

Flow is so overused as a word, it sometimes suggests loosely letting go sloppy mushy self indulgent freedom which is really not true spontaneity.  Flow is like blood circulation or breathing easily without self consciousness. The chi flows in the body meridians when a body is perfectly healthy and natural.

A person can’t force flow. Flow flows until we block it.

After the first day of Tai chi practise one man went home bumping into things feeling peculiarly clumsy his first thought was negative. How come tai chi is not making me graceful and flowing better?

Then he realised that all his life he had been living and moving only partially and with construction now in spite of himself he was moving bigger his chi took over and he couldn’t keep up with it, so he found his usual space too cramped bumped into things and felt slightly disorientated.

Steve writes:

Tai chi is a subtle and powerful awareness discipline. A tool to become more in touch with yourself. It is a way of allowing yourself to function that fully and smoothly, uncluttered without expectations, shoulds, hopes, fears and other fantasies that interfere with our natural flow. Unlike so many paths to awareness Tai chi is beautiful to experience as you do it and also beautiful to watch from the outside

Beside the utility and beauty of Tai chi in itself it has been invaluable to me as an embodiment and expression of the psychological process is that I see in gestalt therapy work.

If I continuously reach out to others for love, I am tipping forward off centre and unstable leaning on whatever contact and likely to fall flat and hard if the other leaves. If I continuously withdraw in fear I am tipping backward tense and rigid and the slightest surprise will push me over.  If I feel uncertain in myself and unstable in my base, then all my contacts with others will be wobbly and lack conviction. In contrast if I can become centred and balanced in my own experience then I can carry this moving centre with me. If I am balanced now then I can move in any direction I wish without any danger of falling. My contact with you is solid and real, coming to you from the root of my living”

Alan Watts writes:

Tai chi exemplifies the most subtle principle of Daoism known as Wu Wei, literally meaning “not doing,” but the proper meaning is to act without forcing, moving in accordance with the flow of nature’s course, which is signified by the word Dao and is best understood from watching the dynamics of water.

 

I will continue my experience of acting without forcing.

Enjoy whatever you are creating this week!

Pauline

pauline@ireadyouread.com