Emotional Content

I have always loved seeing anyone perform. As a kid I would watch the local weekly talent show, the Lawrence Welk Show or the Ted Mack Geritol Hour to see real people playing music or whatever. As a musician I do love American Idol and will even watch the inferior spin-offs for the occasional moment of brilliance. The big surprise is That So You Think You Can Dance is the show that makes me cry. I can't watch more than one minute of Dancing With the Stars but SYTYCD has given me new vistas to explore conscious movement and focus my Tai Chi work.

People claim that Tai Chi should be empty and ego-less, that it is limited to prescribed traditional methods and that it is not related to dance. I believe that Tai Chi is a multi-faceted Performance Art rooted in Martial Art but also ancillary to it. I am an adult who has spent a large amount of my time practicing and studying Tai Chi for years and America is (at least for the time being) a free country so if I want to improvise, move freely, choreograph modern dance in a Tai Chi style with a narrative story and an emotional rise and fall then I am entitled to do so. Likewise if I believe that partner work can encompass contact improv, energy work and sensitivity training to the exclusion of fighting then again I have earned the right to that approach. It is certainly anyone’s right to declare that this is not Tai Chi as it is also for them to decide what Art is. For me that is a discussion that I no longer am interested in actively pursuing.

The feelings, consciousness, quality of movement, emotional release, creative nuance, artistic expression and audience connection are so deep with the angle of dance and generally not available in the straight ahead Tai Chi environment. The fact that Tai Chi players are unaware or dismissive about this angle is in no way a deterrent for me. I realize that people often only have consideration for what they do. They are not Masters over life, consciousness, ego or the evolution of Tai Chi. Certainly if one does not have interest, after studying intently for 20 years, in finding new methodologies, finding their own paths and evolving the art past where they found it then there is something still missing in my opinion.

It is within improvisational movement, choreographing original routines and improvising within the context of existing routines that we can find levels of emotional release and emotional content.

Why I don’t post on the Taiji Groups

My Teacher can beat up your teacher

If you are not doing X,Y and Z you are not even doing Tai Chi

Tai Chi has a curriculum of skills to be acquired including Fa Jing, Fighting, Internal Power, Spiritual advancement etc. without which the art is empty

This “Traditional” Form is better than that

This system is not traditional, that one is

Spiritual advancement is an emergent property of Taiji

You should bend the back

You should be erect

You should go Low, Slow, Fast, Smoothly and Kick, and Jump,

You should stand on your Left foot for one hour then on your right for 53 minutes, then meditate for 2 hours, then stand like a post for 3 then go too low and then go on Facebook to brag how diligently you are practicing

Length and frequency of practice determines outcome

You need to do the form 10,000 times to get good

No mention of how well you did the form

No mention about the intelligence and understanding of the practice

My No Ego system is better than your No Ego System

Shut up and Go Home

Shut up and I’m going home

No mention of the interesting research methodologies that yield the real results for the serious practitioner.

Yeah, that’s Why I don’t Post on the Tai Chi Groups

First Principles and a Common Language

My point is that looking at the Traditional Chinese concepts necessary to gain Mastery in Taiji from other angles can be illuminating. Even those who are very skilled in reading the classic texts in their native language have differing ideas of what the meaning is. If that was the only path for the Westerner we would be doomed!

There are numerous texts that the serious Taiji student should study and understand; many are written in ancient Chinese or more technically Classical Chinese (gǔ wén).

Some are written in a kind of Literary Chinese (wényán wén) and filled with poetic and prosaic constructions as well. For those who don’t know, this is not like the distinction between Traditional and Simplified Chinese, it’s much more than that. There are many modern Chinese speakers who do not understand the deep meaning of these styles of writing. Some of the best scholars of these dialects like Paul Brennan are not Chinese.

I have said that these concepts of Prima Sapientia may be spoken of in the language of Neuro-Science and Neuro-Physiology without reinventing or watering down the concepts. That is to say that these same ideas may be stated in other terms as it relates to Body Movement and Body Mechanics and the Feeling and Awareness that is associated with movement. That is actually the definition of Neuro-Physiology! It is an obvious modality to talk about internal processes such as Sung and Ting.

Most serious students of Taiji have a deep respect for Chinese culture and the gift of Taiji that it has given the world. Without the study of the Authentic Traditional Taiji and the culture that created Taiji it would be unlikely to progress to the higher levels. The idea that the only way to describe the central and universal concepts of Taiji requires a specific language and that to understand those concepts you need to be a native speaker is silly at best. Nobody can own an idea. Once an idea is at large we may try to describe it in numerous ways.

Taiji requires the Physicality of doing it and feeling it inside but it also includes an intellectual component. We should certainly be able to describe clearly in modern language what the methods and the results of Taiji should be. One must get the balance of those two components right or the work will not bear fruit.

What we are moving towards is a more Universal Understanding of the First Principles and a Common Language.

Where Did You Come To?

Were you transformed

 

What was the cost

 

What was the pain

 

How did you lose your way

 

How did you find yourself

 

What did you achieve

 

How did your goals change

 

Did you become a better person

 

How do you feel about what has happened

 

Was it worth it

 

What are you working on now

 

What’s next for you

 

How is the road opening up unexpectedly in front of you

 

Where Did You Come To

 

New and Old Training Methodologies

I am still looking to find Training Methodologies that go beyond Standing, Holding Postures, Doing the Form Repetitively, Push Hands Practice as I know it, etc. all of which do not seem to yield for me the Basic Skills that I would like to acquire.

All Martial Artists use the opponent’s power against them, use their reflexes and timing to dial down strength and speed requirements but Tai Chi is supposed to do something different which is to be able to merely use the surface energetics to trigger those myo-facial, sympathetic and parasympathetic responses or to cause the adrenaline dump shunting off any possible prefrontal cortex activity in the opponent. There is a clear neuro-physiological explanation for the majority of this which often ascribed to etheric effects or hidden behind a cultural barrier.

A runner does not achieve faster times only by visualization and running the course in slow motion, a basketball player or skater or swimmer or diver does not achieve Olympic levels by simply going through their event practice and likewise the Tai Chi player will never achieve mastery by just doing form. There are specific exercises, stretching, conditioning, training and optimization of action, muscle groups, theory and more that are either part of closed door teachings or have recently been scientifically developed.

The idea that Tai Chi players can achieve Forms, Push Hands and Awareness at the Mastery Level by the standard curricula we commonly see just seems wrong. To hide behind pedigree, lineage, secrecy, flowery New Age language, Cultural or Ancient double speak as an alternative to a clear transmission of the structural mechanics just seems wrong when dedicated, earnest students are practicing 3 to 4 hours a day for 10 to 15 years with very modest results and then to say will it take 3 lifetimes and the like is again just not adequate. I know it’s not the same but still in music, dance, visual arts, sports or even in MMA there are standards and accountability for achievement and efficacy of training methods. Bottom Line.

Well Bottom Line I want:

Ø Reflexive control of the partner without “doing techniques” on them

Ø Ability to stay in Taiji against very strong, uncooperative individuals who are not doing Taiji

Ø Ability to yield from any part of the body

Ø Ability to issue from any part of the body

Ø Extremely fast reflexive action (which BTW does not seem to be an emergent property of doing form slowly ;-)

Ø Ability to issue a Classic Taiji Push which from their perspective has no clear Point of Contact and the Partner flies a good distance without having been struck or jarred – Just Sucked in by the Undertow and Accelerated Away

Ø Ability to get a Radar Lock on the partner and see and understand everything in 3D

Ø Ability to Improvise freely with a Partner in Tui Shou / San Shou practice

Ø Ability to catch pushes and strikes like catching a child on a swing and returning the volley

Ø Ability to see inside your own body and Conscious of how it feels

Ø Ability to become Conscious of the process of becoming Conscious

Ø Natural Emergent high level Real Fighting Skills (It seems that in order to achieve these you Must not try to achieve these!)

Ø Beautiful and Graceful Forms practice

I am convinced that there are core curricula preserved from Traditional Methods that I am missing and I am more sure that there are emerging New Training Methodologies that are even better. We have to ask ourselves not what the Ancient Masters did but what would the Ancient Masters have done if they were living in this Age. I am pretty sure it would be a combination of New and Old Training Methodologies.

 

 

 

The Return Home

 

 

You, who are on the Road of Martial Arts have had had an Experience. Sometimes it seems that people will try to steal your experience, will tell you how to tell your story when they weren’t there. This inexorably leads to a combative kind of verbal exchange whenever we try to explore our ideas, assumptions and Ideologies and sort them out for the Better.

 

To those who think this is headed toward Gestalt therapy or something I will steer you back on course. This is basic Humanity. We have all been somewhere and it cost something and we gained something and we lost something and it mattered. It was important. It’s up to those on that Path to take care of each other. We brought such a high standard to it and some of it was met and some of it was not, that is a burden for some and a bitter pill for others. The very fact that is mattered so much is what fuels the endless bickering and perceived disagreements when we discuss our points of view.

 

Nobody is trying to make some rules that bind us here; nobody has taken anything from any of us. Everyone is telling their story and describing the area of the Mountain that they are currently engaged with and that makes us the same, not separate. The world in general requires many competing and Mutually Exclusive theories to describe it and why would the complex world of Taiji be any different? To me the subtext of these little skirmishes is a chance for various folks to step up and describe their field of study with the passion that a tale like this needs to be told.

 

We are all fellow travelers on a Mythic Quest to obtain the Golden Fleece and to make the rarest of all mythic quests - The Return Home.

 

What Do You Want From Tai Chi?

It is my belief that in Tai Chi one may declare their specialty and excel in that area to the exclusion of others and still be doing Tai Chi or even achieve Mastery. 

I will declare my major in these areas:

       Aesthetics – the ability to move with graceful and fluid body dynamics that display artistic and emotional content in a Tai Chi Context

       Internal awareness – the ability to feel the inner clock work of the body from the springs to the counter weights to the gears to the wave action and how it feels to feel that.

       Energy – the ability to absorb, transform and retransmit energy from the universe, the earth or a partner

Sensitivity – the ability to monitor action from the gross momentum, force and dynamic to the rarified electrical, magnetic and thought intention associated with movement in myself and in others

Neurodynamics – the process of becoming conscious of formerly autonomic reflexes in my body and the skill of attaching to another person’s movement, timing and reflexes through that system

Martial application – the ability to use the skills mentioned in cooperative play and it’s fine with me if I remain ineffectual in martial situations against a truculent and uncooperative partner or attacker. Actually fighting is not really something I am training for even if it is for some a determinant of doing Real Tai Chi.

Internal energy – the ability to immerse oneself in inner space and also to share that space with a partner and to gain feelings, information and to conduct movement from that space.

Peace of mind – real relaxation that comes from the muscles, tendons, the Myo-Facial Web and the overall state of being; being able to simply wave my hand through the air with no anger, no self-judgment, no tension and an open heart

Health – soundness of body including stamina, strength and longevity.

Wisdom – the acquisition of knowledge from the forms, movements and one’s own body placed into higher service.

These things will not happen by themselves. You must identify and study them individually and it begins with asking - What do you want from Tai Chi?

 

The Magic

While I don’t dispute that Taiji contains higher level energy that may be classified as paranormal I am most interested currently in exploring the mechanical structures in the body that create the dynamic systems that allow for these energies to manifest.

There are 3 states that interest me from a Taiji perspective; the cognitive state, the fight or flight state and the relaxation response state.

In learning new things we often have to use the Cognitive Mind to listen, observe, read about and think about concepts. By understanding the concepts they become software in the Fight or Flight Body; by doing them slowly and consciously they become firmware in the Relaxation State Body and as that type of movement becomes written to body shape they become hardware in the Physical Body.

Body mechanics require more data than the cognitive mind can keep track of. For this reason many aspects of movement are routed to automatic pilot relying on whatever resident program takes over there. I have found that by slowly and mindfully exploring these sub-routines one at a time it is possible to reprogram and upgrade them. Through the repetition of Forms practice I can write them into Firmware and over time doing these movements with conscious feeling produces changes in the Kung Fu body as they create Hardware. I can now be conscious of experiencing the feeling of these processes in the body without having used up my bandwidth trying to run everything. I can feel more. This makes me way more conscious of the deep body mind and I can see the blocks and trouble spots and start to iron them all out.

Perhaps there are those who develop Skills on the more external Kung Fu level of the applications and by making them reflexive and replacing startle reflexes with these more Martially useful techniques they allow them to become available at the level of the Relaxation Response. I am saying specifically that there may be a Pathway from External training to Internal Training.

It has been said that there are many roads to the mountain top but they are different mountains. Maybe the different mountains are somehow connected. Or is it just that the general knowledge of mountain climbing gained in climbing the external mountain allows a more efficient ascent of the Internal Mountain? The one thing for sure is that the progression through these stages is pretty universal and it is at the very highest levels of the mountain that we find the real art – The Magic.

The Three Levels

1) The Thought Engine learns and knows techniques, can be tricky and plan and can evade and attack. It is how we learn in general and many people never progress past this operational state. The Brain Mind has a limited bandwidth and interfaces with muscle memory to augment its efficiency.

2) The Sympathetic Engine is fast and has a higher bandwidth to handle the amounts of information that Haptic Control requires. It comes from the factory with a default "Fight or Flight" kind of twitchy jumpy energetic operational mode which can be reprogrammed with more Martially useful techniques. The high level External Artist who has become fluid and relaxed in their automatic movements uses this engine but it still controls contraction type muscular activity. There is a certain type of Fajin that is generated by this engine.

3) The Parasympathetic Engine is instantaneous and has more neural capacity than either of the other 2 engines and has the bandwidth in the required range to monitor movement. It interfaces with the Relaxation Response, Expansion Coordination and has the Myo Facial Fiber Optic Web under its control. It is this Engine that produces the more Super-Luminary Fajin and the body shapes and structure naturally fill in to support with sound postures. This causes some to think this is simply a higher level structural Newtonian technique because it generally requires a good posture and mechanical connection to the opponent.

Some people want to use Chinese terminology and argue the meaning of Fajin, Fali, Hua and Na but my Chinese friends tell me that the ancient texts are written in a style of Chinese that is so abstruse even for a native speaker who has studied internal arts that you are better off relying on the excellent translations that catch the essence of the text. Many of these translators were not Chinese but they were scholars of Ancient Chinese and Martial Arts. To claim that the concepts hidden behind the traditional terms are reserved for the culturally Chinese is silly. That being said these concepts may be spoken of in the language of Neuro-Science and Neuro-Physiology without reinventing or watering down the concepts. If a thing is true it may be spoken of (Except the Dao!)

Rather than the highly idiosyncratic terms that everyone seems to have private definitions of I choose a more modern language that comes from Neuro-Science that has allowed continual progression we see in Sports and Performing Arts. I concern myself initially with The Three Levels.

Mastery and Ability

There has been a longstanding belief amongst Tai Chi players that one must come from a certain lineage or tradition or culture or manifest certain specific skills, otherwise they’re not really doing Tai Chi. Among the principal skills claimed by the aficionados of the so-called indoor schools to be necessary for real Tai Chi to exist is Fajin. This Fajin must furthermore be of a particular style in which the mechanical aspect of using the foot Pump and Hip is minimized. Some people will say that this no-force Fajin by definition will not work against inanimate objects like its cousin the more external Fajin. BTW, I use Fajin in a general way here.

Here’s the deal, it appears to be necessary to learn good clean mechanical Fajin first. As one becomes more proficient, the exaggeration of bouncing into the feet or sitting with the pelvis becomes less pronounced. That is to say that the Useful Exaggeration that most of us go through becomes less useful.

Level three Fajin begins with one pressing into the other person or them pressing into to you and you causing their reflexes to fire. As the wave energy passes into them their reflexes involuntarily fire. This “Wave Energy” comes from the Dantian and is transmitted through the Myo-Facial Web and the body structure; not through muscular contraction. At the moment that their reflexes fire, you can add level two Fajin at the soft or hard level of kinetic energy to their reflex response. The high level player seamlessly combines and sequences all 3 levels of energy at will.

Level three Fajin done without a mechanical element grafted on to the end often looks like the partner has simply jumped backwards.

Now back to the discussion of what Tai Chi is or isn’t. I remember a discussion in music school over what was music at what was not music; or even what is art and what is not art. In music one can become a true master in Classical performance without having even a proficiency in improvisation. One can be a Jazz master at the highest level without a mastery of the Classical idiom. One can be a Master Player without being a Master Composer.

I feel that likewise in Tai Chi the lack of one particular aspect or another does not invalidate one’s true skills. The main thing about the highest level is that I know it when I see it and it all comes down to Mastery and Ability.

A Search for Self

I see people on the Internet chat groups abandoning all principles of Taiji Push Hands. Instead of a conversation they want an argument and they usually find one. I see them abandon all principles of Scientific Inquiry which should be an important component of our personal work. For instance I’ll say that something is a component of high level practice. They will respond that since this thing is a component of something else as well then I am wrong (There are cows in NH – No, there are cows in VT so there are no cows in NH). Of course furthermore it’s people like me that pollute this art, their teacher can beat up my teacher, I did not get the secret indoor teaching that they did, I study the wrong system or lineage, am not Chinese, that their no-ego system is better than my no-ego system. I swear to God I’m not making this up. Yeah, you can’t make that up because it’s too unbelievable. Of course it can be useful seeing your own words staring at you from the computer screen reminding you that you have not become the kind of person that you want to be, that you still have some personal history that no longer serves you to let go of and that this Art may not confer those gifts of insight and growth simply by showing up...

It gets worse. There are no Masters any more, nobody gets it. You have to be a Master to transmit the Art, therefore nobody has the right to teach. All the people going through the early stages with other teachers or styles at a lower level are wrong. Well my friends, I worked that area of the Mountain and was thankful to have some firm ground from which to progress until those temporary truths no longer served me. Eventually I moved on to truer systems and areas of the Mountain. Why would I deprive others of that experience; of their own experience? Many claim that Spiritual Progress is an emergent property of Authentic Taijiquan, they claim to be some of the very few to be doing Authentic Taiji and yet they are angry, judgmental, intolerant, close-minded, unkind and prejudiced. It’s an interesting juxtaposition and while I believe there is a time for righteous indignation and putting the disrespectful children in their place I don’t think you have to live there!

When I go to a party I don’t stand there wondering if this person I am speaking with is smarter than me or not. I see if we are having an interesting conversation or not. I’ve been bored to tears by those with greater intellectual prowess than me and been moved to tears by those who I could have easily dismissed as less intelligent. It should be the same in Push Hands, it’s not always a contest to see who can push whom. Actually that is the beginning level and you don’t learn as much there. I prefer the volley; catching and returning energy. I allow the flow to happen and find ourselves in cooperative and supportive roles regardless of how vigorous the level of play.

I would rather light a single candle to illuminate an idea than come to burn down the castle armed with torches and scripture. I try to conduct myself in class and out of class, as a teacher or a student in a way that would not prevent our studying together in the future. It takes a lot to cross that line. I write to see my thoughts from the other side so I can see what I think and what I need to work on next. The thing that helps keep everything in balance and not cross those lines is to keep it what it’s about - A Search for Self