I don’t often come back as I should to the words of Professor Cheng Man-ch’ing, my tai chi grandfather. His legacy is so deep and vast that those who value what he taught have to return again and again to his teachings.
One statement that he made in his tai chi book with Robert W. Smith, now out of print, which always gives me a jolt, is his answer to a question presented in a question and answer section of the book.
The question: what is the secret to your martial arts success in tai chi?
His answer is almost incomprehensible:
“You are right, there is a secret. But it is so simple as to be unbelievable. Its nature insists that you believe, that you have faith; otherwise you will fail. The secret is simply this: you must relax body and mind totally. You must be prepared to accept defeat repeatedly and for a long period; you must ‘invest in loss’ – otherwise you will never succeed…. I relaxed my body and stilled my mind so that only chi, flowing at the command of my mind, remained…. In crushing defeat, I forgot anxiety, pride, ego. By emptying myself I gave the full field to chi. Gradually my technique improved. Then and only then, did my responses sharpen so that neutralizing and countering were the work of a moment. ”
There is great value in examining the words and experience of a master. Most of us do not have his level of skill, and in fact most of us will never attain his level of mastery. But our own journey can be spurred on by the experience of those who have greater skill. While it is indispensible to look at your own experience closely, it is also a dead end. My experience and your experience are limited. This is simply a fact of the human condition. There is only so much your experience can teach you. To be trapped by our own experience will never help you expand into new levels of growth. We learn much much more from the experience of others. Hence, it is even more indispensible to examine the success of true masters of the art. Let’s aim high, and look at what we can gather from Prof. Cheng.
(With that last thought, you might want to re-read the above quotation from Prof. Cheng. What grabs you? What inspires or perplexes you? What do you need to look at more closely? You may even want to get some thoughts from your teacher on the issues that you are drawn to.)
The first and foremost step is the total relaxation. Not “some”, not “a bit”, not “a healthy dose”, but a complete, total relaxation of body and mind, a place where you get out of the way and allow the chi to emerge. This level of relaxation allows you to discover chi, or internal energy.
Next, he tells us that technique is something that is employed through the chi. That is, relax, find your chi, then discover technique. The very last part not only refers to functionality, but being the “work of a moment”. A fine practitioner I know always states that Professor was in “real time”. Now REALLY is now, not just a little bit after now. Now is not the moment after – it’s the moment we are in. Attach your right palm to your left and move the right one. The left palm is right there in “real time”.
And if you don’t have all this, you must believe and have faith that what he is telling us is real. When he tells us to accept defeat repeatedly and for a long time, this is the point in training when we are learning how relaxation (then chi) replaces strength. He doesn’t elaborate in that sentence what new skills are being learned, but there are several basic skills that you need to develop while being relaxed. Skills such as how to stick and follow the opponent, how to connect them to the ground, how to relate the two bodies in motion through the tan t’ien (center) and so forth. Initially, you are defeated because you don’t have these skills. Being relaxed in the face of some “attack” is not like being a sack of potatoes in front of an oncoming truck. Yes, you are relaxed. And a whole lot more too!
Each of these levels in the tai chi journey is deep and challenging. How are we to avoid being overwhelmed or simply cave in and give up? Or worse, dismiss his depth and genius? And what exactly IS chi anyway?
I will address some of these questions at a later date. His statement brings up many questions and I am not entirely prepared to answer them all at my own skill level. Nonetheless, listening to his words presses me to explore more deeply what this marvelous exercise has to teach.
How do we get from here to there?
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