Relaxation in T'ai Chi, by Earl Montaigue

(image credit)

We are told to be in a state of "Sung" which has been mistranslated as to "relax". So the early instructors did the whole form with even paced movements, slow and calm for the whole form. This is not yin and yang! Sung actually means something like "moving without the conscious knowledge of movement". It does not mean to completely relax, as we would fall on the ground if we were to do that. However, within this state of sung, there must also be yin and yang balance without losing the "sung". So built into the "Old Yang Style of Yang Lu-ch'uan" we have movements that balance each other out by having both yin and yang movements. We will be moving along calmly, slowly and in as a relaxed state as possible, then will come an energy release point in the form where we perform a movement or set of moves that are totally explosive. Not tense, but explosive still retaining that sung ideal. Then we will be back instantly into the calm and the flowing movements, just like the great river or nature in general.

By Erle Montaigue, in The Nature of T'ai Chi Ch'uan.

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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.