Class Notes

T'ai Chi is the means employed by Taoism to revive our presence of mind.

"The way we deal with loss shapes our capacity to be present to life more than anything else. The way we protect ourselves from loss may be the way in which we distance ourselves from life." Rachel Naomi Remen

"Invest in loss."  Cheng Man-ch'ing.

“This effort to attain the correct centre of gravity is the fundamental practice by means of which we are enabled to live in the world in the right way. Thus resting in the basic centre, we are relaxed and free and at the same time feel ourselves supported. In the truest sense, here, we can be said to be upright. By means of this practice, the belly, the pelvis, and the small of the back and their relation to each other form the basis of correct posture. When all movement flows from this relaxed, yet firm centre, all gestures, attitudes and postures – walking, standing, sitting – become, as it were, testimonies to true being. There is no aspect of daily life that does not provide opportunity for this practice. If for one moment we forget [the centre] – whether it be in walking, standing or sitting – we cease at that moment to be fully and personally present.”

-Karlfried Graf Von Durckheim The Way of Transformation

Constant, slow movement teaches us to keep working

like a small creek that stays clear,

that doesn't stagnate, but finds a way

through numerous details, deliberately.

  Rumi (from “Deliberation”)

Buddhist parable of the lute :

Once the Blessed One lived near Rajagaha, on Vulture Peak .  At the same time while the venerable Sona lived alone and secluded in the Cool Forest , this thought occurred to him:

"Of those disciples of the Blessed One who are energetic, I am one.  Yet, my mind has not found freedom."

Now the Blessed One, perceiving in his own mind the venerable Sona's thoughts, left Vulture Peak , and, as speedily as a strong man might stretch his arm or bend his stretched arm, he appeared in the Cool Forest before the venerable Sona.  And he said to the venerable Sona: "Sona, did not this thought arise in your mind: 'Of those disciples of the Blessed One who are energetic, I am one.  Yet, my mind has not found freedom.'"

"Yes, Lord."

"Tell me, Sona, in earlier days were you not skilled in playing string music on a lute?"

"Yes, Lord."

"And tell me, Sona, when the strings of your lute were too taut, was then your lute tuneful and easily playable?"

"Certainly not, O Lord."

And when the strings of your lute were too loose, was then you lute tuneful and easily playable?"

"Certainly not, O Lord."

"But when, Sona, the strings of your lute were neither too taut nor too loose, but adjusted to an even pitch, did your lute then have a wonderful sound and was it easily playable?"

"Certainly, O Lord."

"Similarly, Sona, if energy is applied too strongly it will lead to restlessness, and if energy is too lax it will lead to lassitude.  Therefore, Sona, keep your energy in balance and balance the Spiritual Faculties and in this way focus your attention."

On Change

Change is reality of our existence and attempts to resist change are always unsuccessful and produce great suffering.

Learning to relax makes us better able to flow with change.

Since every situation is different, we concentrate on principles rather than techniques.

Relaxation is hampered by two types of tension: resistance and grasping.

When we are in a circumstance that is giving us great discomfort our tendency is to resist which only serves to further increase our suffering. Often when people begin to practice T'ai chi or are doing their first form after a day of stress, the slowness of the movement is difficult and even uncomfortable, particularly if you resist or fight that slowness. In daily life this is also what happens to many people who find themselves in slow traffic resulting in the road rage phenomenon. In push hands, it is when you resist a push instead of learning to relax and receive it with skill or when you try to force a change to occur.

In most of these cases the source of our discomfort cannot be changed, but what we can work with is our resistance. This can be achieved by increased awareness or presence of mind. In T'ai Chi we call this listening energy: a way to relax and let go of the resistance. As our awareness of the present moment increases, we can reduce or eliminate our resistance.

In situations that we perceive to be pleasurable, our fulfillment is often canceled by the tendency to grasp and futilely demand that our pleasure not go away. People who have developed their form over some months and years and who reach a place where it is feeling good will inevitably be frustrated when it starts to feel not-so-good without realizing that this is a natural process of growth and should be welcomed. In push hands it can happen when you feel a connection to someone's center, but that connection disappears before you've had a chance to push so, in frustration, you try to make it happen anyway.

Both grasping and resistance are an unwillingness to change that can be overcome by increased awareness and presence of mind or listening.

Some changes are perceived as pleasurable and some as painful. Some tend to be resisted and some grasped. But in both cases there is an unwillingness to let go. This is the skill we want to develop through our T'ai Chi practice. The form and especially push hands give us numerous opportunities to learn about the nature of change.

Taoist Parable

An aging master grew tired of his apprentice complaining, and so, one
morning, sent him for some salt. When the apprentice returned, the master
instructed the unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of
water and then to drink it.

"How does it taste?" the master asked. "Bitter," spit the apprentice.

The master chuckled and then asked the young man to take the same handful
of salt and put it in the lake. The two walked in silence to the nearby
lake, and once the apprentice swirled his handful of salt in the water,
the old man said, "Now drink from the lake."

As the water dripped down the young man's chin, the master asked, "How
does it taste?" "Fresh," remarked the apprentice.

"Do you taste the salt?" asked the master. "No," said the young man.

At this, the master sat beside this serious young man who so reminded him
of himself and took his hands, offering, "The pain of life is pure salt;
no more, no less; the amount of pain in life remains exactly the same.
However, the amount of bitterness we taste depends on the container we put
the pain in. So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to
enlarge your sense of things . . . Stop being a glass. Become a lake."

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"Any and every gesture of a person reveals them to the world.  And it is clear that when a gesture is frequently repeated and becomes more and more habitual, the content it expresses also becomes, for good or ill, more and more crystallized.  Thus the body, in its posture, its patterns of tension and relaxation, in the the rhythm of its breathing and manner of its movement, is an infallible indication of the point at which any person has arrived on their way to becoming a Person.  It may reveal how and where they have stuck fast in their ego and lost themselves to the world, or
alternatively to what extent they have remained open to their being and on the Way."  Karlfried Graf von Durckheim.  The Way of Transformation .

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"Thinking the movement is not becoming the movement."  From the movie The Company.

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"Nonviolence is not some exalted regimen that can be practiced only by a monk or a master; it also pertains to the way one interacts with a child, vacuums a carpet, or waits in line. When ever we separate ourselves from a given situation (for example, through inattentiveness, negative judgments, or impatience), we “kill” something valuable: . . . people, things, one's own composure, the moment itself. . . . These small-scale incidences of violence accumulate relentlessly, are multiplied on a social level, and become a source of the large-scale violence that can sweep down upon us so suddenly. . . . One need not wait until war is declared and bullets are flying to work for peace. . . . A more constant and equally urgent battle must be waged each day against the forces of one's own anger, carelessness, and self-absorption."  [This would represent a truly high level of T'ai Chi practice.]

Kenneth Kraft

CULTURE AND CONTEXT

A few days ago I received an email from a person wanting to know if he could teach classes in Chinese language and culture at my taijiquan studio in Kansas City. He wrote that learning the language and culture was crucial to one's taijiquan development.
I wrote back and said that, while I had a keen interest in Chinese philosophy and culture, my teacher (Chinese to the bone) never stressed that learning these things was essential to developing a deep understanding of taijiquan. Naturally, some background was necessary, but it was more about basic principles and perseverance in practice. It was about learning to relax-whatever the language or culture

I have met many taijiquan players in my nearly thirty years of experience-a handful of whom had some deep knowledge of the essence of the art. A few were well-versed in Chinese language and culture, but most were not. As a result, I never felt there was a necessary correlation between comprehension of taijiquan and facility with the Chinese language or familiarity with Chinese culture. Conversely, I know one Chinese gentleman whose knowledge of classical Chinese language and philosophy is extremely erudite, but hasn't the discipline to practice taijiquan daily. Even though he has been practicing for many years, his understanding is still largely conceptual.

Not all of the cultural accoutrements that come with Eastern mysticism-or Western science for that matter-are necessary or helpful. Some things deservedly need to be shed as they are more baggage than benefit. It is good to know the roots of the art that you love and practice, but it is also important to recognize and inhabit your own cultural milieu and not fret if you haven't mastered the intonations of the Chinese language. I am not saying that learning to speak Chinese or studying Asian culture is without value. It can be very intellectually satisfying in many ways. My point is that the wisdom of taijiquan is no longer tied to any one country or culture.

Many of the Eastern contemplative arts, including taijiquan have become, like Western science, part of world culture. We should be grateful for the generosity of those Chinese taijiquan teachers who gave of their time and talent to build a cultural bridge that propelled taijiquan onto the world stage. It was a selfless thing to do, and therefore an essentially taijiquan thing to do, because it necessitated letting go. When you allow your child to go out into the world you have to accept that they will forever be changed. It was a very forward-looking, "modern" stance to take, not typical of the traditional Chinese world view . This modern stance emphasized the belief that taijiquan was too important and wonderful to be constrained by any one culture and that it must continue to evolve if it was to thrive.

Taijiquan truly does transcend the boundaries of language and culture. As the Denma Translation Group said about the wisdom of Sunzi's Art of War: "It is a natural flowering of common human faculties present in all of us."

Kim Kanzelberger is the director of Center States T'ai Chi Ch'uan in Kansas City, Missouri.

**This article appeared in the Winter 2004 Issue of Taijiquan Journal (Vol. 5, No. 1)