“Absolute”

Recently, I received a comment on my Chinese language blog that considered one of my posts “too absolute”. Here is the principle in question: When the hand is used as a hand, it can move; when it is used as a weapon, it cannot move!
The dual functionality of the hand is something that was not talked about, revealed or discussed in the past. Only a very limited people were privy to this information. This is mainly because of the importance of this issue. The correct understanding and practice can lead to drastic change in one’s taiji ability.

As to “absolute”, I have some hard gained personal experience in this regard. When I started I felt many of the rules and principles were there simply to give me a hard time. I felt that they did not really apply to me because my body was different from other’s. Many years later and many wasted hours later, I discovered that taiji is a form that  changes a person’s physical structure. I, just like many other students of taiji, used a system that only picked up parts of taiji that fitted me. This is the so called intuitive method. Your body tells you what feels right and comfortable and you only learn and practice according to those feelings. This method of learning and teaching is what made taiji an overnight success.

However, this is also what give taiji a bad wrap. Many people today are discovering for themselves that taiji is not the magic bullet. Why, because in a true sense, you have not done taiji. You have created your own form of exercise under the guise of taiji. You have been following your own instinct, not that set forth by taiji!

In taiji, there are rules and principle. Some are absolute, others are relative. It is vital the follow the absolute rules to the word. It is also important to explore those that are relative. Confusing the two types will lead to stagnation in your taiji learning.

Posted via email from Zhonghua’s posterous