About practicing Tai Chi Chuan
Tai Chi Chuan is 'the noble art of leaving things undone'.
The wisdom of Tai Chi Chuan consists in the elimination of non-essentials.
There is a difference between 'living man Tai Chi Chuan'
and 'dead man Tai Chi'.
Living man Tai Chi Chuan follows the natural way.
How to do Tai Chi Chuan?
Like in nature there is no doing.
It is like the koan: "When you do nothing, what can you do?"
Internal strength will be there when you can stop all the doing.
Basic gigong (3 circle zen stand):
How do you do gigong?
Let it be.
like in nature there is no doing.
You no longer stand in your own way
The spine should be held straight and vertically.
As you become competent,
you are less and less able to explain just how you do it.
You did it and it worked. This is Tzu- Jan.
Suddenly you find it easy to do things that were formerly difficult.
The doing fades and the outcome seems to happen by itself.
The doing is still there but you have forgotten to try.
You have internalised it. You no longer stand in your own way.
The spine should be held vertically, it creates both tension and relaxation.
Potential energy located at the base of the spine travels up the spine.
Relax into the spine.
The doing fades and the outcome seems to happen by itself.
Tai Chi Chuan is the art of collaboration between the universal Tao
and the local martial artist. The less the artist does the better.
Less is more.
Deep relaxation into the spinal.
Spinal cord stimulation.
The spine makes connection between 'Heaven' and 'Earth'.
Our Tai Chi posture is the window into the spine. Our spine houses
the nervous system that regulates and controls everything in the entire body.
When the nervous system is compromised, the whole body is compromised.
Often we do not realize how important our Tai Chi posture is
in order to get mental and physical health.
Feel the expansion of your spine.
If you can raise your back, real 'chi power' will come from your spine.
Internally relaxing allows your body to sink into the ground.
Below the hips, your body needs to be sunk and stable. Rooted in the earth.
Above the hips your body must be light and loose. Connected with heaven.
Taoism is a kind of longing to feel at home
between heaven and earth.
Things which are made are an assemblage of parts put together.
Things that grow shape themselves from within.
Tai Chi must flow spontaneously from you, like a smile.
You just did it and it worked.
This is Tzu- Jan.
By practicing Tai Chi Chuan we will feel more connected to nature.
More connected to all parts of the body.
10 Feb 2010/ minus 6°
We end up feeling more connected with ourselves, more alive,
more informed, more educated and in many ways more aware.
We end up finding an inner calm in a 'monkey mind*society'.
(*see About meditation-monkey mind)
Tai Chi Chuan can cultivate an inner calm that
you take with you into the hectic moments of the day
so that you keep your head, while roadrunners around you are losing theirs.
Inner calm helps to stay positive, centered and present on what is truly important.
It creates a family atmosphere and sets an example.
Tai Chi must flow spontaneously from you.
In Tai Chi beginning the body is doing the work, the mind follows.
In the end the body follows the mind. It is your mind that becomes Tai Chi.
We can only project what’s inside.
Using the intention of the mind to direct the body is the highest level of
Tai Chi Chuan.
Slowly?
By practicing the movements slowly
we perfect the structural integrity, the connectivity of them.
We are reteaching our body.
We create a balance between breath and movement.
We cultivate harmony between the emotional mind and the wisdom mind.
We cultivate harmony and balance between Yin and Yang.
We can rely on body-mind memory when we speed up the movements.
A musicus would practice slow in order to perfect and put themselves into it,
and then rely on body -mind memory.
By practicing slowly
we should relax the neck (yin) and suspend the head (yang).
By practicing slowly, when the body is stable and Heaven-Earth aligned
Tai Chi Chuan can flow spontaniously from you
so that the intention of the 'deep wisdom mind' can do the work for you.
The intention of the superficial monkey mind is body active//intention passive.
The intention of the deep wisdom mind is body passive//intention active.
After years the deep intention active// body passive wisdom mind'
becomes Tai Chi Chuan.
Finally your less becomes your more.
Real Tai Chi Chuan is fascinating stuff.
There are so many mysteries and the first one is how to find a teacher.
You have to define what makes a teacher.
The second one is how to find a master.
What makes a master?
A master transmits and transforms whereas a teacher can only teach.
A master is "a finger that points to the moon".
The real Tai Chi master transforms and transmits
even when he passed away.
Erle Montaigue,
the eye of the master will do the work.
My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.
In memoriam Grand Master Erle Montaigue
Erle Montaigue was one of the kindest men I ever met. He was simply Erle, the music man. I miss him because he helped
define myself. Erle was no one's master. No man is good enough to be another's master, every man must decide for himself
whether he shall master his own world or be mastered by it. The potential to be mastered lies within everyone of us and
masters of the arts actually aren's those who can just break bricks, do flip and kicks, but those who can master themselves.
We should not be too attached to romantic images of yesterday, Hollywood makes fun and money of everything. Thanks Erle,
I am "more Walter" and a better martial artist because of you.
Tai Chi is difficult, and the wise Tai Chi players are those who play what they can master. I don't like "masters", "sifu's"
or stuff like that -I'm too old for such things- but to me Erle Montaigue was not a master, he was a music man and a martial
genious.
Yes, it is possible to be a master in false Tai Chi Chuan, easier than to be a master in Tai Chi Chuan, because false Tai
Chi Chuan can be made as simple, as stupid and consistent as one pleases.
Thanks Erle, for your life and your death. Sleep well, just do it, the eye of the real master will do the work for you.
Walter
"Each and every master, regardless of the era or the place, heard the call
and attained harmony with Heaven and Earth.
There are many paths leading to the top of the Mount Fuji,
but there is only one summit-love."
Morihei Ueshiba
Tai Chi Classics: About Tai Chi Chuan.