Tai Chi Chuan, the subway, life...

Tai Chi Chuan, the subway, life…

It struck me on the subway the other day, being knocked about, jostled, shaken, rattled, that much of life is what is being done to you.

I don’t mean this in a victimhood way, but in the sense that much of what happens is a result of the natural course of events exacting their will on your existence.

The subway does you. You ride it for a convenience, but the experience is sort of out of your hands. 

Well, not entirely. I saw a guy stand on his feet without using any arms support. He turned his subway ride into a game to challenge himself. This has no impact on the subway, just his enhanced balance.

Gravity also does you. Your spinal structure does you too. Your physical reactions to humidity, heat and cold also do you. There are lots of things that impact your experience that simply are. You go with the flow, take advantage of the situation as best you can, fight it (not necessarily a bad way to go), guard against it, give in to it (not necessarily a good way to go), or resist it.

And so it is with tai chi, where I believe you take advantage of those forces and use them to your advantage. While there are forces to contend with, there are ways to harness those forces. They can help you.

In a way, this feels like those amazing human beings who take a horrible situation and turn it into a profound experience. There are many such individuals, right? The forces are now less an obstacle, but a challenge and even, perhaps, a game, a way to create a benefit.

Back on the subway, I tend to view such impositions as things that are in my way.  If only, I whine, if only…

If only the subway was not so loud and noisy and screechy. (People who can’t hear would LOVE to hear those sounds.) If it was really smooth. If all passengers were more civil. If I could always get a seat.

Tai chi has something to say about all this.

In push hands, in my view, what you always do is accommodate the other. The same with sword dueling. Their force or strength, the way they manipulate, their intention, all these can be to your advantage. Hard to believe, but anyone in push hands or sword, even if they cannot do it well, know this is true. Not resisting, non-doing, relaxation are all integral to this art. The question here is who is softer?

It takes tremendous skill to find this way. There are many who don’t even see it, and continue to make it game of dominance, a “martial art”. The question here is who is winning?

The form itself uses forces as they are to give you a new way to interact with life forces. Gravity, the ground, the air, the spine that keeps you upright, the use of natural energy to spring out of the ground to shift to the next leg. It’s all non-doing, it’s all taking advantage of what you live in, and it finds a way to let relaxation bring out these advantages.

A true challenge!