Water is something strange. If there is magic in this universe, it is to be found in water. Water? Water is a very important issue in health, philosophy and religion.

"Be like water" (Lao Tse).
Erle Montaigue: "The body needs electricity (Qi) to function. When we die, the current stops and we desintegrate. To keep the EMF (voltage) and current alive we use the components of water. However when I say 'water' I do not mean any liquid, I mean pure water". (Read his article on the WTBA-web)

Water is a Taoistic guiding principle. Water seems to be a simple element but water is not always what it looks.
From a Taoistic point of view all guiding metaphysical principles must be simple, clear, coherent logical and sensible. Water is the principal Taoistic guiding principle, water seems to be 'clean water clear', but water is not what it looks.
However, every Tai Chi form should be a clear and clean water form: "When in motion move like water that flows to the sea." Move like water that flows in places that others disdain" (Lao Tse).
Move like water that flows somewhere between the source and the mouth of your life-river and every drop comes to every place. Tai Chi principles seem to be as simple as that, but reality differs from appearance. Indeed, water is something very complex and unpredictable. If there is magic on this planet, it exists in water. From a chemical point of view water (yin) is a bitch of an element. A water analyst would say water is a living element with different faces; water is 'the universal bitch with ten thousand faces'.

Water is not always what it looks. Everybody knows that when you cool water to O°C, it forms ice... except in some cases when it doesn't. What happens if you continue to lower the temperature? Well, at -120°C something strange starts happening. The water becomes ultraviscous and below -135°C, it becomes glassy. It becomes a sub-state of matter.
At a molecular level, water is even weirder.

Some people say water has a memory; water molecules 'remember' what particles were once dissolved in it.
Water has a lot of female (yin) aspects... No woman ever forgets, that's the brutal truth that every man knows.

What makes water, what makes you? Water is made up of two gases; oxygen and hydrogen. Water is not hydrogen (two parts), water is not oxygen (one part). Water is the third thing: H2O. There is a third thing that makes water but nobody knows what it is because water is life itself.
So, we are not oxygen and we are not hydrogen, we are "the third thing: water (71%°) and nobody knows what it is.
We are life itself. The Taoist says: "Don't talk about spiritual enlightenment, talk about appreciation of reality, talk about life itself. We may experience the presence of water simply by doing our Tai Chi form correctly".
Move like living water, Taoists are not seeking for the meaning of life, they are seeking for an experience of being alive.
Unlike Western ideas, the Chinese version of elements is that they do not form a static arrangement of oppositions and alliances but define a running cycle. That means, in Tai Chi Chuan water is not seen as a static element, it's a living thing. Move like living and floating water, your life must always be a living thing.
"Doing by doing nothing" means the Taoist life is not a static life of "just being" but rather an active dynamic life of flowing, practice, learning, change, transformation, experience and spirituality.

We are a part of nature as a whole, whose order we follow (Bento de Espinoza). In Taoism we are talking about spirituality in nature as a form of the memory of all things. All things are one and everything and everyone is somebody's memory. So, finally Taoism becomes a mystical path, and the living Way of water is found within yourself. Remember that your own Way of Tao (your Te -Tao) becomes the Way of water, it becomes a Way of transformation, introspection and change, finally it becomes a Way of total spontaneity of all things.
The relation between 'Te' and 'Tao' is just like that between the water and the river. Remember we are the river, we are the water that flows in and to the river, but at the same time we are the water that flows in and to the sea. We are the rain and the snow, we are... life as it is. Your Tai Chi form should be a meandering channel with flood plains,the water is travelling to the lowest point, the river twists and bends to follow low ground. Your 'living river' is forced to run around obstacles and channelled by cracks in the ground. Your form follows the natural way, if your Tai Chi river or stream has an absolutely straight pattern then it is not natural but artificial. No significant factor causes a river to meander, don't worry, follow the flow and trust your intuition. Don't ask why rivers meander, the reason why rivers meander is still not fully understood. Meandering is a self- reinforcing process, meanders cause meanders. The important thing is to remember that rivers meander.

As the water flows down a river, its speed is faster on the outside of a meander causing erosion and slower on the inside. Well then, flow fast on the outside, flow slow on the inside.
Stay still. Don't be fooled by appearances, still waters run deep. In general younger rivers tend to flow fast, have fewer tributaries and tend to erode from the river bed. As you grow older remember the source. Maturer rivers tend to flow slower, they tend to erode their banks. A mature river makes the river deeper and straighter.

As you grow older remember the valley. Be a valley (Lao Tse). Your 'river- valley' has three stages: the upper stage, the middle stage, the lower stage. Your Tai Chi form has three parts: earth, man, heaven.
Life must be the missing link between birth and death, well then, your Tai Chi form should be the missing link between the source and the sea. It should be like water that flows somewhere between the source and the mouth of your life-river.
Remember you are the third thing, you are water. You are the river and you are both the source and the mouth. You are alive.

WALTER MARSOUL