The famed Zheng Banqiao (one of the Seven Poets of the Bamboo Forest) wrote:
It’s difficult to have a clear mind
It’s not easy to be confused
It’s even harder to transform from clarity to the state of confusion.
He wrote this at an era of no hope for the people. Indeed in his time, the learned would be able to live in peace if only they could voluntarily go into a state of drunkenness or confusion. The relevancy of this point in terms of our pursuit of Taijiquan is that there is a time for clarity and there is a time for confusion.
This reminds me of what Hong told me and many of his students:
Those who are smart cannot learn this art
Because they think they can understand it
Those who are mentally retarded cannot learn it
Because they CANNOT understand it
Only those who have the mental capacity to understand
But fail to see the point
Will one day get it
Through persistant
