Tai Chi Chuan - Love That Sword!

Tai Chi Chuan – Love That Sword!

I’ve been thinking about the sword form and our relationship to that sword.  Maggie Newman, my teacher, reminds us to “accommodate the sword”.  Let me give you my take on this wonderful phrase.

The sword has a specific path that it must move through.  We are there to help it go where it needs to go.  It is central, we are peripheral.  Like a magic prop, it has a specific place in space.  It is as if we see a video of someone doing the sword form, and if we could digitally remove the person in the video, we would then just see a sword going through its path.  We are there to make sure that it fulfills its requirement, its need, its desire, its wish to be here, its wish to go there.

Oddly, this reminds me of the well-made play, a plot devise from the 19^th century that dominates just about all realistic drama we see today.

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From Wikipedia:

The well-made play is a dramatic genre from the nineteenth-century theatre that Eugène Scribe first codified and that Victorien Sardou developed. By the mid-19th century, it had already entered into common use as a derogatory term. This did not prevent Henrik Ibsen and the other realistic dramatists of the later 19th century (August Strindberg, Gerhart Hauptmann, Émile Zola, Anton Chekhov) from employing its technique of careful construction and preparation of effects. "Through their example", Marvin Carlson explains, "the well-made play became and still remains the traditional model of play construction."

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One element of the well-made play is the use of a pivotal prop.  The story in one way or other revolves around this prop and the prop is critical to the plot.  It has equal importance to all the other characters.  In fact, without this pivotal prop, the narrative would die in its tracks.  The world of the play requires this prop in order to exist.  Oscar Wilde even spoofs this in one play where this pivotal prop is carried across the stage on a silver platter by a butler – heralding its centrality while laughing at its use as a narrative device.

Our sword is a prop of sorts as well.  And it may prove pivotal to our lives. 

Forget the traditional sword form for a moment.  If you take your sword and use both hands to cradle it as a means of support and then carry it into the pathway that we are familiar with, it becomes a glowing magical wand floating in space.  This is done without utilizing the familiar hilt grip used in the form, nor the basic tai chi form stances.  Keep your hands under the blade and hilt, moving your hands and feet as needed in order to “float” the sword.  You are the invisible partner in this dance with your sword.  Your weight always supports its weight.  The sword evolves in space in its perfect pathway.  The sword fulfills its destiny.  This “form” is purely about the path of the sword and not about the martial use of the sword.  You are the water and the wind that moves the boat along it journey.

Accommodation.  You are there for the sword.  Once you set it in motion, you follow that motion.  You are not making decisions for that sword.  The chi of the movement has been released and you both fall into that vortex.  Let the sword decide.  Let the sword lead you.  By supporting the sword and not manipulating the sword as a weapon, you might see other relational approaches:

What if you are the loving servant of the sword?  What if you are the willing devotee of the sword and the sword is your teacher, your guru?  What if you are there to respect the wishes of the sword?  What if your love of the sword gives it the power it needs to be fully present?  What if you feel tenderness towards this sword and you want to be sure that its journey is lovingly completed?  What if your caring actions create that sword’s existence?  What if you are gently helping that sword along like you would your dear infirm grandmother?  What if you are gently guiding that sword as you would an inquisitive child?  How would you treat this sword if it was an invaluable one-of-kind ancient porcelain object (worth $1M?)  What if you are birthing the sword into its existence? 

What if YOU are the prop, and the sword moves you?

What happens if this all deeply matters?

I can guarantee you that the sword form will take on a whole new meaning, a whole new feeling.  Like Oscar Wilde’s prop that determines the outcome of the play, your sword might change you and your life.

And what if we approached all people, places and things with this same concern and caring?  The entire world is your sword and you must accommodate that world such that it goes where it needs to go to fulfill its exquisite perfection.  You are then integral to the perfection of that world.  You are a slice of perfect.

Sure, you can return to slice, cut, jab and stab.  That’s the obvious choice.  Lots of fun, that!

But I think we also need to love that sword with every cell of our body, serve it, nurture its journey, feel its chi and let it affect us.  It might teach you more than just a martial art.