Tai Chi Chuan – Think Locally, Act Globally

Tai Chi Chuan – Think Locally, Act Globally

I have been looking at non-doing in push hands.  That is, how can four ounces of strength push someone?  We look at many ways to accomplish this and study methods of engagement to create that result.  I hear a divide out there, and both seem sort of logical when you isolate them. 

Group One: “When you yield, you yield – when you push, you push.”

GroupTwo:  “Yield into push as a seamless event and yield even as you push.”

I also hear of these miraculous pushes where the person pushed claims they didn’t feel a thing and suddenly they were in the air.  My current thinking – this can change – is that you do feel it, but that once it has registered, it is too late.  The push is a marvelous trick on our ability to register action in the body.  A good push is inevitable.  Even if you do see that push coming, you feel as if there is nothing left to be done but to be pushed.  In a street fight, you can always block a punch.  In tai chi, you never block a punch; you adjust yourself so that you are out of harm’s way.  You incorporate THEM.

Thus far, the best approach given to me by some very talented tai chi players is that of not doing anything at the point of connection.  This requires a bit of explanation:  yes, something happens. You may feel their intention or notice they are after you, intending to trap you.  Perhaps you feel them looking for your center, or preparing to set up a good push.  All of these are “doing” activities.  Noticing their intention gives you a heads up.  But if we are not going “to do” something in response, what is a proper way to respond?  How can we “non-do” to respond?

A few answers come to mind.  Always have their hands connected to your root.  Let them go through you to your ground.  Don’t flee.  Open up internally.  Yield to the extent that you need to (not more, not less.)  Don’t let your mind focus on the point of contact as if the solution lies in that small area of physical connection, but don’t ignore it either.  (None of these ideas are my own – they come from my buddies in Detroit and other teachers.)

This conundrum reminds me of a popular adage these days:

“Think Globally, Act Locally.”

This is because we feel we have some control over our local unit and can do something positive.  As Americans, we love to feel we are doing something positive to create solutions.  I think our “can do” spirit is a double edged sword and we do a lot of “can doing”.   In one sense, we throw our hands up in the air and do the best we can by creating local activity.  What else CAN we do but act locally, right?

Uh, er, oops?  If we act locally to problems, this does not insure that the other localities will work in sync.  We can stop our carbon emissions (in the US we refuse to do this for economic reasons) but what if our neighbors do not?  If NY State outlaws gun sales, but New Jersey continues to allow gun sales, are we safer for our local action?  The US has inflated prescription prices, but across the border in Canada, they are much less expensive.  Economic solution?

In tai chi, the opposite is true:

“Think Locally, Act Globally.”

That is, you are aware of that point of contact, that local concern.  But your response has to be with the whole body and mind.  That small point is just one little dot on the global map.  By responding locally, mostly what you get is force.  By responding globally, you no longer rely on solving the problem with that tiny local area.  Perhaps it is better to say: Think Globally, Act Globally.

Alas, as in tai chi, a global response is much much harder to achieve.

Oddly, it seems that when you do move the globe, it feels as if nothing in particular is going on.  If everything moves, then no part in particular feels active.  The action of the globe is integrated.  (By sitting in a car going 60 miles an hour, after a while, we feel like we are simply sitting at home watching a movie.  Since our whole body is going 60 miles per hour, it has no meaning within that protected environment in terms of experience.  Only the visual queue confirms this.)

But back to push hands.  One question that I’m working with is finding out how to get that globe to expand and integrate so that my action is not a local response.  Yes, I do have to acknowledge and be aware of the local threat.  I just don’t have to attack or run from the local threat.  I have the option of letting the entire globe connect to the threat and in a unified way engage the local activity.  This is our body as U.N.

If we look at the section in the form where press goes to push, that pushing action is moving something.  But it is not using the arms.  The edges of the hands are merely the edge of a larger circle the surrounds the body.  Our chi is expanding, our body is expanding, our globe is expanding and the hands follow.  Those new to tai chi tend to put the hands out front and let the body follow.  Why do we let the bulk of our mass follow those tiny arms?  Why not let that mass move the arms?   

I do believe there is an emotional parallel as well.  I’ll let you give that some thought…

Let yourself be a globe, move like a globe, and be global!