About practicing Tai Chi Chuan
Tai Chi Chuan is 'the noble art of leaving things undone'.
The wisdom of Tai Chi Chuan consists in the elimination of non-essentials.
There is a difference between 'living man Tai Chi Chuan'
and 'dead man Tai Chi'.
Living man Tai Chi Chuan follows the natural way.
How to do Tai Chi Chuan?
Like in nature there is no doing.
It is like the koan: "When you do nothing, what can you do?"
Internal strength will be there when you can stop all the doing.
Basic gigong (3 circle zen stand):
How do you do gigong?
Let it be.
like in nature there is no doing.
You no longer stand in your own way
The spine should be held straight and vertically.
As you become competent,
you are less and less able to explain just how you do it.
You did it and it worked. This is Tzu- Jan.
Suddenly you find it easy to do things that were formerly difficult.
The doing fades and the outcome seems to happen by itself.
The doing is still there but you have forgotten to try.
You have internalised it. You no longer stand in your own way.
The spine should be held vertically, it creates both tension and relaxation.
Potential energy located at the base of the spine travels up the spine.
Relax into the spine.
The doing fades and the outcome seems to happen by itself.
Tai Chi Chuan is the art of collaboration between the universal Tao
and the local martial artist. The less the artist does the better.
Less is more.
Deep relaxation into the spinal.
Spinal cord stimulation.
The spine makes connection between 'Heaven' and 'Earth'.
Our Tai Chi posture is the window into the spine. Our spine houses
the nervous system that regulates and controls everything in the entire body.
When the nervous system is compromised, the whole body is compromised.
Often we do not realize how important our Tai Chi posture is
in order to get mental and physical health.
Feel the expansion of your spine.
If you can raise your back, real 'chi power' will come from your spine.
Internally relaxing allows your body to sink into the ground.
Below the hips, your body needs to be sunk and stable. Rooted in the earth.
Above the hips your body must be light and loose. Connected with heaven.
Taoism is a kind of longing to feel at home
between heaven and earth.
Things which are made are an assemblage of parts put together.
Things that grow shape themselves from within.
Tai Chi must flow spontaneously from you, like a smile.
You just did it and it worked.
This is Tzu- Jan.
By practicing Tai Chi Chuan we will feel more connected to nature.
More connected to all parts of the body.
10 Feb 2010/ minus 6°
We end up feeling more connected with ourselves, more alive,
more informed, more educated and in many ways more aware.
We end up finding an inner calm in a 'monkey mind*society'.
(*see About meditation-monkey mind)
Tai Chi Chuan can cultivate an inner calm that
you take with you into the hectic moments of the day
so that you keep your head, while roadrunners around you are losing theirs.
Inner calm helps to stay positive, centered and present on what is truly important.
It creates a family atmosphere and sets an example.
The example of the rock and the river.
Photo : HugoLorent
Watching the river.
Be like water.
Stay centered, like a rock, and let all things take their course.
Water dropping day by day wears the hardest rock away.
Tai Chi Chuan was influenced by Taoism. Taoism was profoundly influenced by observations of Nature.
Everything in Nature is an expression of the Tao, so Taoism starts and ends with observation and
intuitive interpretation. "Like the Tao of Heaven water operates mysteriously and secretly. It has
no fixed shape; it follows no definite rules. It is so great that you can never come to an end of it.
It is so deep that you can never fathom it. "
In the Tao Te Tsjing, Wuwei (=doing by not doing) is often associated with water and its yielding nature.
Even our human nature is like water. It takes the shape of its container. So, "the best of men is like water.
Water benefits all things and does not compete with them (Lao Tse)."
The rock itself is a part of nature, as is the river. Stones and large rocks scatter across river beds,
some protruding above the surface, and some below. The river flows always on and on; it is certainly good
to know where the rocks are. It’s in the rock’s nature to sit still, it cannot change the nature of itself.
The rock can change the direction of the river, but it cannot change the nature of the river. It can simply
be, and allow the river to be, just as they both are.
This is the duality of nature, and since rock and river are dual in nature, any absolute truth you find in
one, cannot, ever, be applied with absolute certainty to the other.
So it is in our own lives. "May what you do flow from you like a river, no forcing and no holding back,
the way it is with children (Rainer Maria Rilke). "Tao is like a river, It’s in the river’s nature to flow
downstream. The rock cannot resist the flow of the water, It must let it run its course. The rock can wish
all it wants; the water will always flow. So much energy can be saved if the rock would stop resisting and
just let itself be. It doesn’t matter if the rock wishes to stop the flow of the water.
Tai Chi Chuan Classics:
Move like water, stay like a rock.
So it is in our own lives:
Let it be.
The great river of life is within us.
Remember the river.
Nature is change. The river is flux, one can never step into the same river, for new waters are always flowing
on to you (Heraclitus 540-480BC). Putting flux in exact formulas shows in itself a lack of the sense of humor
and therefore a lack of wisdom. It is only with observation that one can appreciate the underlying eternal flux
of the river, what means the underlying unity of 'the Ten Thousand Things'.
There can be no mountain without valley. The higher the mountain the lower the valley, Yin (valley) and Yang
(mountain) not only balance each other, but also complement each other in never ending cycles of change; day
and night, winter and summer, life and death... for life and death are one, even as the valley and the mountain
are one. Even as the river and the sea are one. Even as the upper end and the lower end of the river are one.
Study how water flows in a valley stream, smoothly and freely between the rocks. "What makes a river so restful
is that it doesn't have any doubt. It is sure to get where it is going, and it doesn't want to go anywhere else
(Hal Boyle)." "Even the upper end of the river believes in the sea (William Stafford). "What means that Nature
results in one harmonious action, and... that could be a good definition of Tai Chi Chuan: one harmonious action.
The Great River of life is everywhere.
Yangtze, the great River, is the largest water container in China. It has numerous tributaries. Winding about
4000 miles, from west to east, finally it pours into the East China Sea. Generally, people consider the Yangtze
a dividing line between North and South China. Areas to the north and the south of the river have many differences
in climate, scenery, economics, culture and folk customs. One river, 10000 things, one spontaneous flow!
Take a look at your own natural river,
with his 10000 things, with his rocks and rivers,
his many twists and turns, whit his upper and lower end.
Where's your river of life going?
?
Tai Chi must flow spontaneously from you.
In Tai Chi beginning the body is doing the work, the mind follows.
In the end the body follows the mind. It is your mind that becomes Tai Chi.
We can only project what’s inside.
Using the intention of the mind to direct the body is the highest level of
Tai Chi Chuan.
Slowly?
By practicing the movements slowly
we perfect the structural integrity, the connectivity of them.
We are reteaching our body.
We create a balance between breath and movement.
We cultivate harmony between the emotional mind and the wisdom mind.
We cultivate harmony and balance between Yin and Yang.
We can rely on body-mind memory when we speed up the movements.
A musicus would practice slow in order to perfect and put themselves into it,
and then rely on body -mind memory.
By practicing slowly
we should relax the neck (yin) and suspend the head (yang).
By practicing slowly, when the body is stable and Heaven-Earth aligned
Tai Chi Chuan can flow spontaniously from you
so that the intention of the 'deep wisdom mind' can do the work for you.
The intention of the superficial monkey mind is body active//intention passive.
The intention of the deep wisdom mind is body passive//intention active.
After years the deep intention active// body passive wisdom mind'
becomes Tai Chi Chuan.
Finally your less becomes your more.
Less is more.
*If less is more then nothing is everything.
Real Tai Chi Chuan is fascinating stuff.
Basically Tai Chi is an animal move workout.
Some people prefer the company of animals to people. The therapeutic use of animals for human mental and
physical benefits is a rapidly growing field, and the number of programs and settings that are connecting
humans and animals to address a broad range of problems suggest that these interactions provide something
both basic and profound. Human-animal bonds meant great attention in mental and physical health, and today
animal assisted programs demonstrate the therapeutic and rehabilitation benefits.
Ancient civilizations valued the profound connection between humans and animals, they have been respected
as essential partners in human survival, health and healing. Fundamentally, humans and animals are relational
beings and the domestication of animals was an interaction process of co-operation and co-evolution based
on shared need for shelter, food and protection (see the Chinese Fu-Dog; part-lion, part-canine as the
protection of the home and the children). Children need protection, they live in a world filled with animals,
real, symbolic and fantasy. Fairy tales speak through beasts to explore common experiences. What is interesting
about the use of animals in tales is that often the animal is symbolic of a type of person, but then there are
also animals that are used in a variety of roles (dragon, snake etc). Animals may serve as stand-ins for
human characteristics, or they may be a source of wisdom and power.
The Animal Collective:
This must be my daughter Liesbeth and her source of wisdom and power.
We live in a world filled with animals,
real, symbolic, archetypical and in fantasy.
All ancient spiritual traditions have honored the special relationships to animal forms of life as part of the
interconnectedness of the natural world and the spiritual world. Animals represent the power of the natural
world which can create (qi-gong) or destroy (martial art).
Hua To (100-200 AD ?) and his "five animal health giving excercises".
Hua To:
"The body needs excercise, but it should not be excessive".
Basically Tai Chi Chuan is an animal move workout related to animal movements, almost every Tai Chi posture is
related to animal ecology. The way an animal moves is related to the environment it lives in, its habitat.
Animal moves are an important tool in determining their environment, for most animals moving is nearly as
routine as eating, and just as important. Have you ever wondered how animals survive, make sure that they don't
waste energy. Animals are often faster movers than we are, see how an animal can move, and the different speeds
employed for attack. Practicing Tai Chi Chuan we can benefit from more mobility, flexibility, endurance, and
power while having fun in the animal process.
Chinese believe that each of us is born with essential characteristics and creative forces of the animal associated
with the month and the year of our birth. The Chinese concept of imitating and emulating five animals to improve
health and well being goes back thousands of years prior to the advent of Tai Chi Chuan. Tai Chi Chuan is a number
of health giving exercises based on the movements of animals and the animal figuring in Tai Chi Chuan corresponds
to those of the Chinese doctor Hua To. Hua To, the "Chinese miracle working doctor" was a physician (Han Dynasty,
100 AD-200 AD ??). He is known for the early qi-gong set known as "the frolics of the five animals"; tiger, deer,
bear, ape and bird. Each of this five animals relates to the five elements and the five Yin or Yang organs in the human body.
1. Tiger: metal, lungs, large intestines.
2. Deer: water, bladder, kidneys.
3. Bear: wood, gallbladder, liver.
4. Monkey: earth, stomach, spleen.
5. Crane: fire, heart , small intestine.
*The Wudang animal qi-gong set is based on the movements of tiger, leopard, snake, crane and dragon.
Real Tai Chi Chuan is fascinating stuff.
There are so many mysteries and the first one is how to find a teacher.
You have to define what makes a teacher.
The second one is how to find a master.
What makes a master?
A master transmits and transforms whereas a teacher can only teach.
A master is "a finger that points to the moon".
The real Tai Chi master transforms and transmits
even when he passed away.
Erle Montaigue,
the eye of the master will do the work.
My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.
In memoriam Grand Master Erle Montaigue
Erle Montaigue was one of the kindest men I ever met. He was simply Erle, the music man. I miss him because he helped
define myself. Erle was no one's master. No man is good enough to be another's master, every man must decide for himself
whether he shall master his own world or be mastered by it. The potential to be mastered lies within everyone of us and
masters of the arts actually aren's those who can just break bricks, do flip and kicks, but those who can master themselves.
We should not be too attached to romantic images of yesterday, Hollywood makes fun and money of everything. Thanks Erle,
I am "more Walter" and a better martial artist because of you.
Tai Chi is difficult, and the wise Tai Chi players are those who play what they can master. I don't like "masters", "sifu's"
or stuff like that -I'm too old for such things- but to me Erle Montaigue was not a master, he was a music man and a martial
genious.
Yes, it is possible to be a master in false Tai Chi Chuan, easier than to be a master in Tai Chi Chuan, because false Tai
Chi Chuan can be made as simple, as stupid and consistent as one pleases.
Thanks Erle, for your life and your death. Sleep well, just do it, the eye of the real master will do the work for you.
Walter
"Each and every master, regardless of the era or the place, heard the call
and attained harmony with Heaven and Earth.
There are many paths leading to the top of the Mount Fuji,
but there is only one summit-love."
Morihei Ueshiba
Tai Chi Classics: About Tai Chi Chuan.