One Word vs Ten Books
It is very hard to write about Tai Chi theory because of two things- 1. I don’t understand it thoroughly myself. For instance, I can’t tell you what it is that makes you move subconsciously, I just know you will eventually with faithful practice. 2. You tend to sound mysterious when talking about theory, especially Tai Chi theory. My teacher always says-
“You only need one word to tell the truth but you need to write ten books to tell a lie". A word he often used was “空” or “Kong”. Its English equivalent is “empty,” “hollow,” or “nothing.” It is the ideal state of our mind and body when we fight. It is the highest level of our mental and physical relaxation. By the way, I am going to add a Chinese name to the new sign at the new location: 空空武馆 (Kōng kōng wǔ guǎn) meaning “The Empty Way Martial Art School".
*See bottom of article for additional info... We all know muscles need to be relaxed to work quickly and powerfully. This is why almost all styles of martial arts talk about and try to teach relaxation. However only Tai Chi (as far as I know) and more specifically our school of Tai Chi really works on getting both our minds and bodies relaxed, or loose as I prefer to say. The looser our bodies and muscles are, the more strike force we can release at any given time.
However, we also know that our mind gives signals (because it is not relaxed) for our muscles to contract (to get tense and generate forces). Therefore, when our mind is working hard giving so many commands in so short a time, especially when our opponent is all over us like in a push hands situation, it makes the muscles all over our body tense and hence the whole body becomes rigid. Now lets deal with the real issues associated with these problems. That is, how do we accomplish these seemingly contradictory goals? First and foremost the Zhuang Kung or holding the ball is both the most basic and the most advanced piece of practice for us. We must condition our bodies to obtain that loose quality... a willow in the wind. We want to be floating in the air following our opponent’s forces. This will only happen with faithful, daily practice of the Zhunag Kung. Anything less is pointless.
Secondly, we must practice each technique until it turns into a reflex. Once mastered your body will just do it when the opportunity presents itself without conscious thought. The Chinese martial art term is a reflex or "chain reaction" of eye, foot, body and hands. Imagine an opponent who needs not even think to defend themselves? How would another overcome such a person?? We all fight to win. Yet if we think too much about winning (or perhaps more importantly not losing) our mind gets tense which makes in turn makes our body tense. If we cannot keep our body loose when we fight, the moves we have learned don’t work. All the pieces must be in place for the system to work, relaxed mind, loose body, reflex movements and so on.. Next: some concepts- Qi, Jin and more... *The name of the school is an educated guess at what John had written and is likely not a word for word translation. Even after installing a Chinese language pack on my computer, the original article he sent me was a blank in the area of the school name so I had to wing it. As soon as I hear from him I will correct any mistranslation or mistakes I have made.
-Jim L |
