Tai Chi Chuan - Creative New to Replace Old Baggage

Tai Chi Chuan – Creative New to Replace Old Baggage

One thing I loved about Maggie Newman’s teaching was her creative use of language.  It evolved. 

I find when creatively playing in push hands, one way to go is to find what you want to improve on, and then practice it endlessly.  That’s required unless you are a genius.

But sometimes we are very stuck in our patterning.  And we need to look at the interaction with a fresh perspective.  If we keep going back to the old rules, however true they are, most likely we are also going towards the old patterns.  For each rule that you believe in, I can almost guarantee that over time, your habitual patterns cling closely by.  The rule is actually a list. And you may not see the list as it is played out in action.

New words that don’t have baggage can be very helpful.  You think differently and perhaps, just perhaps, you will move differently, experience something new, get somewhere you couldn’t imagine before.

I have been thinking about Dr. Tao, whom I had a few classes with years ago.  Alas, it is mostly forgotten.  But something has emerged that feels very much like what he did with ease.  And in thinking about it and trying to let it emerge, a new way of looking at push hands evolved.  Is it true?  Is it real?  I’m frankly not sure, but I can say venturing out on a new limb to explore and use new language will open up the process and perhaps the game.

Here is what I think I experienced – it really felt as if he knew where you were going before you got there.  And when you got there, he was right there, right with you.  It was predictive in a sense, but not in being manipulative, putting you somewhere you didn’t want to go, not getting ahead of the game in terms of his connection.  And yet there it was:  Wherever you went, he was right there with you.  It sort of reminds me of sitting in the balcony of a sporting event, looking down on a boxing ring for example and watching a fight.  Pretty much from afar, you have a better view of where this punch is going, where this duck and weave is being executed.  Did part of his mind exist above the entire endeavor?  Worth a try.

But next it felt to me that when he arrived where you were going, the two of you form a single unit.  And this unit, like the tai chi symbol, has a yin and a yang.  It is as if you are becoming a sculpture.  And Dr. Tao was the yin side of the sculpture.  It seems worthy to play, even sloppily, to find the yin part of the formation.  Be the yin side of the sculpture.  Depending on your accuracy and skill, if you truly become the yin side of this sculpture, it follows that you have the advantage in a push. 

I like to experiment with this one by not pushing, but just changing changing changing into yin yin yin into new shape new shape new shape.  You needn’t stick so formally to the push hands form in doing this.  You can slow down.  We are trying to discover something new through new language and new variations in the game.  Then I might see if and where a push feels inevitable from the standpoint of the yin part of the sculpture.  Go slow, don’t assume you have this skill, explore, and see if you can clearly identify your yin and your yang in relation to their yin and their yang.  Worth a try.

New language helps, letting go of old language helps.

How to find new language?  Look at where you want to go and see what comes up as you feel your way into that new result.  It feels like... It seems like… It looks like...

There is tremendous poetry in tai chi.   Chi, Mind, Ti Fong, Fa Jing, Relax, Yield, Sink, Let Go, Stick and Follow – all to the good.  But how does that translate to YOU?  How do you get there from where you are?  What does relax REALLY feel like or what do you think it should feel like?  Are you as flowing as a river? As porous as a cloud?  As massive as a mountain?  As elegant and soaring as an eagle about to strike?  As strong and full as a polar bear?

Words point the way.