Knowledge : Sometimes one word can enlighten you!
Quotations from masters. Short lessons with a lot of real power.
“People work very hard for a long time to acheive the wrong things.” -Chen Zhonghua
The only difference between the master and student is that the student learns publicly and the master learns privately.
The original verse is “That with shape and odor is an illusion; that without is the real thing.” I intentionally changed it to: “That with shape and odor is an illusion; that without could be real.” to:
- To see if people notice the change.
- To see if people notice the difference between the logic of the two difference verses.
In our daily taiji life, we are often told, “It is not this, it is THAT!” This has been used to cover up for many of the problems in taijiquan such as in the case when the form is very bad the person will say “It is the internal aspect, not the form that matters,” “Taiji has no forms, if there is, it is empty.”
In serious taiji learning, one must first of all make sure that the form is present and is done according to the rules. Only after that one can talk about the internal aspect of the form.
This is very important in our taiji learning. When we are told to do something, it does not automatically mean something else that is similar and vice versa.
This is one of Grandmaster Hong Junsheng’s favorite sayings. It is a technical principle of his Chen Style Taijiquan Practical Method system. By following this principle, many other important theoretical principles will start to manifest themselves eventually. This is the foundation of foundations in this system.
A spiral in the taiji sense is not a physical spiral object, or a shape you draw with your body when doing taiji. A spiral requires two actions simultaneously. A rotation on the body while another part of the body stretches it.
There are two activities that are identical to the gaining of gongfu in Taiji. One is swimming and the other riding a bicycle. These features about them are relevant to Taiji learning and gaining of real gongfu or skill.
- You follow the instructions but they might not necessarily help you.
- Once you know how, you will realize that it is just like what the instructions described to you.
- Once you know how, you cannot undo it. It stays with you forever.
In taijiquan movements, there is one correct way of doing a move but endless incorrect ways of trying to do the same move.
Most people talk about the difference between internal and external and in recent years, people have been proud to call their style “internal”. In reality, there is no such a thing as internal martial art or external martial art.
The real taiji is invisible to the naked eye; wrong things are the easiest to learn. From a traditional point of view, taijiquan is not about comfort, flow and natural. It is an art that requires the student to practice according to certain rules. In doing so, the student will not be used to the practice at the beginning and will not feel comfortable. Through long time repeat training, the student will start to feel natural. This NATURALNESS is not the normal naturalness. This kind of training is not within the realm of normal human sport training.
“Nobody has the patience to wait and spin. If I am reacting and someone is pushing, and I wait until he has enough friction, I spin and it works. But if I’m too impatient, he pushes and I move forward or backward instead of spin; it becomes a toss, because I go too early. That’s why you have to be patient, and you have to follow the rules. Following the rules is very difficult because when we see an opportunity we want to fight. And in taiji, the rules say you can’t. Even if he’s not blocking […] you have to wait until he comes in and then you can spin him.” original sources: http://www.chenzhonghua.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=308:chen-zhonghua-on-peng-energy-in-chen-style-taijiquan&catid=40:theory&Itemid=97 I like this paragraph very much.
In taijiquan, there are only two basic movements: pull and push. When pushing, one needs to make the body behave like a stick so that the energy transmits through. When pulling, one needs to make the body act like a rope in order to transmit power. Different actions require different body shape and movements.
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