T'ai Chi Empower: May 2014

Friday, May 30, 2014

Relaxation in T'ai Chi, by Sifu Wong Kiew Kit

There are three golden steps to relaxation. First, have your body symmetrical. For example, if you are standing, check that you are standing upright, with your shoulders level and your arms hanging loosely at your sides. Then loosen all your muscles. Don't worry how or why you do it; just do it. Second, have your lips gently open and smile from your heart. Again, just do it. Third, close your eyes gently and do not think of anything. Then just let go. All these are easier done than described, and need not worry about the principles behind them. Just do them and enjoy the benefits.

From On Shoong, by Sifu Wong Kiew Kit.

Michael Garofalo culled information, quotes and references on relaxation - Relaxed - and I am grateful for his effort. Over several days in July 2011, I meditated over each one of these quotes and made notes in my T'ai Chi journal:

Not just to be really, really, but truly to be completely and absolutely shoong. I would like to imagine that in the future, I can be completely impervious to some people's craziness and shenanigans, by being absolutely shoong.

Going forward I will post regularly on relaxation, with more quotes and notes.

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Relaxation in T'ai Chi, by Robert Smith

Cheng Man-ch'ing, Pushing Hands

This is not to say that T'ai-chi does not require effort. It does. But it requires quite as much faith. I asked Cheng Man-ch'ing once why none of his students approached him in skill. His terse answer: "No faith." Faith in what? Simply in the twin principles of relax and sink, in not resisting and always remaining gently attached to the opponent.

From Chinese Boxing: Masters and Methods (1976, p 26), by Robert Smith.

Monday, May 26, 2014

Relaxation in T'ai Chi, by Lao Tzu

(image credit)

A man is born gentle and weak.
At his death he is hard and stiff.
Green plants are tender and filled with sap.
At their death they are withered and dry.
Therefore the stiff and unbending is the disciple of death.
The gentle and yielding is the disciple of life.

Thus an army without flexibility never wins a battle.
A tree that is unbending is easily broken.

The hard and strong will fall.
The soft and weak will overcome.

Chapter 76, from Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tzu.

Friday, May 16, 2014

(3) Walking for the Sake of Reflection

I love to walk, and I am equally happy on my own as with someone else

Anything repetitive and moderate is a prompt to reflect, to think, and to meditate. It can be raking the yard, or milling about somewhere, or walking for exercise. As long as I don't have to attend very much to what I'm doing or what is around me. I am at once with my surroundings, yet I slip past all of that and I imagine a host of things.