Tai Chi and Life: Lessons to be Learned

Tai Chi and Life: Lessons to be Learned.

Initially, you cannot see your own deficiencies – you need an outside source to guide or inform you of the right path. You can learn from a beginner as well as advanced players. Of course, life itself will eventually point out what you need to know -- we just have to be able to hear the messages. You may need to go back one step in order to go forward two steps. The answer is in the whole, not the parts. All aspects need to be considered. Tai chi is always 4 dimensions at minimum.

Cellular, structural and unifying aspects begin to make up a tai chi posture. Ultimately, you are creating a circle that surrounds you. Cellular is each cell’s involvement, structural are the vector forces that balance each other, and the unifying aspect is the movement as a whole piece with all the parts assisting to make the entire body function as one smooth sculpture without gaps or hollows.

Tai chi has a strong psychological aspect. For many, this is the most important lesson of all: be aware of your own sense of self and your feelings within the form and about the form. This is a world view that you carry with you and it can be addressed through the small world of tai chi. (Are you better than others? Have the answers? Always need to be paid attention to? Afraid of being corrected? Want to be admired? Want to be invisible? Resist practicing? Feel tense? Feel tired? Feel energetic? Feel full and relaxed?)

How you relate to space -- the air -- is another way you relate to the world. Is it there? Does it feel good? Is it in the way? Is it friendly, or your friend? Do you like it? Can you mesh with it seamlessly? Do you thrash through it like it doesn't matter?

Your body communicates many things instantly. The neutral tai chi body allows you to see those messages, change or drop them altogether. It also helps you “hear” the world. You are no longer in the way of receiving information. Your internal static has been neutralized. First this is done with the body, and then it extends into the mind.

Consider what you don’t look at in your form. Consider what you don’t look at in your life.

You can’t micro manage balance of the whole. You have to be aware of the whole, and allow it to balance itself. Balance is an allowing condition, not a control issue. You let it happen; tai chi is about letting things happen. It reflects what is happening and responds to what is happening. Tai chi is not about controlling or manipulating yourself or others. It is about being with, and ultimately just being.

Learning tai chi is about learning how to stick and follow. This is a crucial first step in your own self growth as a person. Even a little goes a long way!

The biggest deficiencies are those you don’t see or feel. It comes down to you don't know what you don't know. So searching for it can be a challenge. There is a marvelous quote by Dr. William Thurston, Cornell University, as follows: "You don't see what you see until you see it, but when you do see it, it let's you see many other things." This happens in tai chi alot!

The classics teach that all is lead by the mind. So it is good to start from there. What is mind? It seems, however, one clue to what your mind is up to is contained in the holding or releasing patterns in the body.

While relaxation is a central part of the answer, it is in relationship to balance. That is, if you are relaxed, you are balanced; If you are balanced, you are relaxed. To be relaxed, but not balanced, would be useless. To be balanced, but not relaxed, would waste precious energy.

Tai chi, in general, is about relationships, and balancing those relationships. Removing the sense of separation within the world is the goal. You are part of the world and the world is part of you. Be connected. Be with. Tai chi allows you to fit in and go with the flow. This allows greater awareness of opportunity and the ability to take it.

I am not suggesting that what I have noted above happens automatically. We can sabotage anything it seems, and to let the best of tai chi happen, it helps to consider what it teaches and then try to apply this in your life.