Tai Chi Brings Peace

Tai chi is a meditation and a martial art. It is in a state of “allowing” that the process unfolds. To test our understanding of any aspect in tai chi, we must apply the concept of yin and yang, (opposites at play) to part of our training. We are looking for the stillness in movement, and the let-go in power. Tai Chi is always strong by nature and powerful due to effortlessness. Applying the concept of “yin and yang” to every aspect of tai chi, is helpful to understanding how to practice tai chi.

The Paradox of Relaxation

For example, to follow the instructions in tai chi: to relax - or to sink - we are looking for a paradoxical play of opposites to practice. Outside of tai chi, we consider relax to mean: a softening experience in which the body's joints slightly close and the persons' shape shrinks. But if tai chi students follow the directions to relax in this way, what results, is a shape that is not helpful to circulation of chi. Relax does not mean collapse, because that would constrict the joints and cause the body to hold itself in uncomfortable positions.

In tai chi, relax means to open the joints. We open joints to allow more chi to flow. Relax is the ability to let go within the shape. The paradox is found as soon as a student tries, for the first time, to open all their joints. The body feels rigid. How can we open the joints and relax? (There is always a yin and a yang aspect to the understanding of a tai chi concept.) In tai chi, relax does not have a collapsed appearance, just as it does not have an expanded appearance. The outside and the inside, have the interaction of yin and yang, the posture is strong and yet effortless. Yin and yang are interacting in every posture, constant change, never a “holding ” experience. The key is to discover an effortless alignment, in which the body joints are open and the muscles can relax.

Relax is what you are able to do, after you open all your joints, discover how to hang from the top of the head, and can clearly drop your weight to the root.

Sinking Down

In tai chi, the instructions in tai chi, to sink down, are often interpreted in a way that results in compressing the leg joints. Sink implies going downward, but if the whole body goes down, where is the yin and yang paradoxical interplay in that idea? We cannot sink down, compressing the leg joints, to become rooted. The ankle, knee, and hips need to learn to be open even when the body is lowered into a tai chi stance. The quest is to find a way to bend the legs, without locking up any of the joints just to hold oneself upright. Standing with weight in the hip, the knee, or the heel is not usually remedied with more practice over time.

In tai chi, even the legs are not tense, yet the structure of the legs is very strong. Tai chi students should be aware that we want to avoid compressing the leg joints as well as the spine, to increase the circulation of chi and the ability to connect, or root. This connection is strong and supple, but is not achieved by tightly holding on with the legs. If a student stands in a way that uses a lot of muscle strength, they are most likely, compressing leg joints. Strong and rooted should be due to the internal connection throughout the body, and knowing how to drop your weight, or anyone else's force, to your root. Strong and rooted does not mean tightly holding on with the legs.

Let Go and Less Is More

Applying the concept of “let-go” and “less is more” to your understanding of tai chi principles is valuable. Let go is the opposite of holding. The Taoist Classics say that yin and yang are present in every posture. This implies change, not holding. To change there must be one thing letting go, and another, taking form. Interaction and the paradoxical play of expansion and contraction exist in every posture. This means that we are studying a natural movement process - holding shapes is not the focus. Holding shapes can be used as a training method, to get started, perhaps, yet I don't teach that way. I find that if students understand that we are not trying to hold a shape, but rather we are changing from yin to yang with our legs in every posture, their progress is long lasting. The more one can change from yin to yang, the more one can develop internal energy. When we apply the concept of yin and yang to form, then we begin a movement in a yin state, (no action), and change to yang, (full action), in every posture. Holding shapes will not develop the desired effortless power.

In tai chi we want to drop the weight directly to the root. To drop something, you must let it go. When we drop a ball, we just let it go, when it hits the ground, it bounces up. A ball carefully placed down will not bounce up! Dropping the weight improperly into the hip, knee, ankle, or heel can cause joint problems.

The yin and yang of dropping the weight implies that there are opposites at play. When we drop something, we let it go. There is a reference point from which the drop originated. If I have a ball in my hand and I take my hand and the ball, together, and put them both on the ground, it would not be considered, dropping the ball. Therefore, just bending our leg joints and taking the whole body downward is not dropping our weight.

A String of Pearls

The classics say that the spine should hang like a string of pearls. If the spine is going to hang, then it is obviously, supported from above. To understand how to stand on legs that don't have compressed joints, try hanging from the top of the head, like a string of pearls. For the spine to hang like a string of pearls, suggests that each vertebra must open, so that there is a feeling like individual pearls hanging in a line. This experience cannot happen once a student already collapsed down into tight legs.

The classics say: a divergence of an single step leads to a mistake of a thousand miles. Stand back up and try again! Drop your weight, from the reference point, the bai hui (top of your head), to the foot (bubbling well), with a let go. Loosen the hips so that the spine can learn to telescope open. The hips are loose and open, they cannot be baring weight just to hold you up as you stand there, because we are in the yin state of “no action”. Then, we are able to “connect” from yin to yang, and the action takes place, the posture takes its shape.

We must ask ourselves, why do we bend our legs in tai chi anyway? We bend them to connect the upper and lower body by opening the low back, (ming men.) Standing with the hips involved with supporting the body weight will cause the muscles in the low back to tense. The ming men will not be able to relax open - if just standing there – the muscles used to hold the body up are tight. Many people think that they must open their low back, but they are confused about how this is done. The art of tai chi develops through refinement of the concept “let go” and “less is more.” Apply “let go” to the instructions to open the low back, and that would mean that the low back opens when nothing is done. It opens when we stop holding it internally, providing the structure is correct. The head should remain suspended from above, the spine telescopes open as the hips loosen, body lowers, and the ming men will be nicely open dangling near the lower end of the string of pearls.

What Tuck The Tailbone Really Means

The Taoist Classics tell us that the whole body must move as a single unit. How can we tuck the tailbone, and be true to the classics, the whole body must move as one piece? I do not think that “tuck the tailbone” means to tilt the pelvis forward. It is not instruction to move one part of the body more than another. In my experience, tai chi works best when the whole body is integrated as a whole. Lets think about how we make our natural actions. When we walk, jump, skate, run, play sports, etc. we ideally stand in a way where the body can easily shift and move. To do this, the hips are not tucked forward. When you are jumping the hip must be loose before the action, so that you can use the legs, to connect to your foot to propel the body off of the ground. We use loose hips - to then pressure the foot - to make our actions. This connection from hip, through foot to ground is also used to propel the body to move in tai chi. This is how to begin to understand yin and yang in the legs. Many of our other activities work the same way. The hips flex on and off, in most of our natural actions.

When we jump the whole body loosens in preparation and then connects with a spring off the ground. Let us remember that tai chi is based on what is natural and body movement is not an exception. Tuck the tailbone, has a meaning and purpose, but it is not instruction that I find helpful in explaining how to drop the weight when practicing forms by yourself.

To understand what tuck the tailbone means, a tai chi player must already understand the instructions we have already discussed here: how to relax, (joints open, not collapsed), hang from the top of the head, drop the weight, and stand in a tai chi stance without compressing the leg joints

You cannot do it, yet it must be done. “Tuck the tailbone” has to do with what naturally happens when your opponent applies force onto a correctly aligned tai chi posture. It is something that you cannot do yourself. Your opponent does it for you. Their force tucks your tailbone into your heal. In this manner, your opponents force, gives you extra support. Of course, this can only happen, if you are already standing in a correct tai chi stance.

The Effortless Push

In tai chi push hands the secret of the effortless push, is in dropping the weight and letting the chi bounce up. Push hands is a training method used to put the strategies of the Taoist Classics into action. It offers a practical way to test the internal connection in any tai chi movement. As an internal martial art, tai chi push hands has its foundation in the cultivation of qi, or life force energy. Body awareness is the key to internal energy practice. Developing body awareness allows one to internally relax, which allows the qi to be experienced and worked with. Upper body force is not appropriate, or necessary, for tai chi push hands to achieve results.

Be kind to the people we touch, engaging in tai chi push hands. Any act of aggression is ones' own misunderstanding of tai chi principles. Tai chi is the balancing of opposites, yin and yang. In push hands, yin and yang are balanced when force is met with neutralization. In order to do this, the player must learn to listen to their partner's movement. Listening doesn't mean with your ear. Listen to your partner's movement, with the stillness in your aligned axis. Listen with your stillness. Improvement comes from developing how effortlessly one changes from yin to yang. To improve the ability to listen, develop body alignment in forms. True neutralization of force is a “non action” event. It is yin. It happens on its own, as the nature of the process. When an opponents force hits a correctly aligned posture, the force is dropped. It drops due to the stillness of the alignment. So it is through non action that the force can be dropped.

Less Is More

Less is more. According to the tai chi principles, the whole body must move as one piece - without hollows and without projections. In tai chi push hands, skill improves by eliminating independent arm movement. The force is rooted in the feet, and expressed in the fingertips. The body in between must be connected. Apply the concept of yin and yang, to the connectedness from the feet to the fingers, and you may get the idea that there must be fullness and emptiness the nature of this connection. When the body is able to open, you can connect the feet to the fingers energetically. To do it, very little is done. The classics say: in tai chi push hands a thousand pounds of momentum is deflected with four ounces of force.

Invest In Loss

Invest in loss. One method to improve push hands skill is to stop moving the arms to do the intended actions. Push hands has more to do with the body then the arms and hands. Good skill doesn't depend on hand techniques, since hand techniques won't work if you can't stand up. Even punches don't work if you can't stand up. Firm footing becomes a foundational requirement. Firm cannot be a holding experience, holding on with the legs, restricts the flow of chi. In push hands, we want to use the opponents movement to throw themselves out. It takes an absorb, (yin) and a connect, (yang) to do this, opening and closing the body, using minimum movement, yet creating maximum pressure. The opponent bounces themselves out.

The Power Of Letting Go

Power is in the let go. In practical applications of tai chi, power comes from being able to drop your own center, or your opponents' force, to your root, creating a lot of pressure. To really do it, you must have correct alignment and be able to let go. Power comes from let go. Power does not come from doing more. If there is very much physical muscle involved, it is definitely not the tai chi way of making force. In tai chi we do not tighten, or shrink muscles to get power, we expand them. To develop effortless power, yin and yang must be clear in your own body first.

Winning

What is winning? Winning is being able to discipline yourself to follow tai chi principles, rather than wrestle, with your opponent in push hands, or in life. To develop in tai chi push hands, learn to stop reacting to the force. Act out of the fulfillment of your own moment. If the force comes from one direction, root it in your feet, and then allow the pressure to be released on the other side, as it naturally wants to be. We are actually just complementing the circle. It is not an aggressive act. It does not come from the effort of winning, or fighting.

Yin And Yang

To further understand tai chi as a meditation and a martial art, lets look at how yin and yang are in relationship. There is no yin without yang. They are two sides of the same coin. To develop the martial aspects of the art without the Taoist attitude would impede ones ability to develop, since dropping the weight has to do with let go, and winning martial arts bouts has to do with attaining something. Yin and yang must simultaneously interact. Tai chi is not meditative at one time and martial at another. One posture is not yin while one is yang. Yin and yang are interdependent. Any competitor knows that it is easier to win when a person doesn't need it emotionally. Meditation allows one to stop goal-oriented activity and connect to the moment. Push hands is a moving meditation when you allow your opponent to decide which way they would like to go. Be there for them, present in the moment, open to what ever their needs may be.

So, the most important aspect to developing a balance of meditation and martial in tai chi is to listen to one's own body. Follow your center. Remember to move the whole body as a single unit and stay relaxed. Question the answers.

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