The Art of Taiji is in Decline

I have been thinking about the point of Olympic advancement and Tai Chi decline. Of course I cannot include the real truth of my longtime association with the first school that I started in; it would be too cruel to that crowd. On one hand I have been the recipient of great generosity and must respect the conditions under which that was given. On the other hand I have trained earnestly at Olympic levels for 20 years with unacceptable results. Of course I blame myself but I also blame the system and methodology. I do not blame the individuals but even to voice an honest assessment of current methods and results publicly would come across as disrespectful. Imagine you had a music teacher who told you that they would teach you everything openly without holding back but only when you were ready. After 20 years you were still playing scales and etudes and were not ready for concertos. I would question the pedagogy. Luckily for musicians there is a well-established pedagogy that reliably leads to Mastery and the same is true in sports. My long time teacher in that school was still doing and teaching Tai Chi at the beginner exaggerated level after 20 years. You see, although the muscles are inside the body or “internal”, wiggling them around or the ability to do isolations is not “Internal”. The thing about useful exaggerations is that they are only useful as long as they are useful.

While I do not believe the necessary advances in methodology and pedagogy will come from neuroscientists and physiologists I do believe that the Tai Chi reformers will use the language and science of those disciplines to formalize and make clear those concepts formerly thought to be bound by Chinese language and culture.

My personal belief is that the Traditional Art of Tai Chi must be preserved. The traditional methods of teaching and learning need to be re-examined. Consider the advances in sports. In Olympic competition all breakthroughs trickle down to the collegiate level within years. High school athletes are competing at levels set by Olympians within a decade. Why don’t we see this sort of progress in Tai Chi? I know people who put that kind of time and energy into their training but they don’t get the results. Clearly, if the Ancients were here, with their skill and ability they could modernize the approach. The safety measure is not to modernize the form but to modernize the training method. I know it is not an Internal Art but in Figure Skating for example you can see physical feats increasing along with artistry, understanding and internal grace. These people retain their skills into old age. Maybe we should look at the physical training techniques, apparatuses and principles discovered by modern sports medicine.

The old training methods were in harmony with a different age. The thing about the Daoist Art of Tai Chi is that it is in harmony with its environment. We live in a modern world. Our spiritual advances are being made in a world of phones and computers in buildings of steel and glass. So our world suggests a different way to achieve balance than the old ways. We do not have the luxury of retiring to a cave or a monastery to study in depth. We must find the opportunity in our world to do so.

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 also 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 that it will take 3 lifetimes 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.

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 and should 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.

Neurophysiology is by definition the study of the nervous system and how it relates to movement. This seems like a useful angle to use when communicating and defining what we feel in the body. Neurophysiology is thousands of years old and permeates all cultures so this is not an attempt to Westernize Tai Chi or Modernize it. It is an attempt to Modernize the Methodology for a Western Society. We await an Avatar with an Intellectual approach and sufficient Taiji skills capable of bridging the gap and willing to tell Truth to Power. Until then the Art of Taiji is in Decline.

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

The List

Just imagine the number of things that need to be in place to simply receive an attack and issue a return.

Listen, Connect, Stick, Follow, Understanding, Neutralize, Seal, Unbalance and Push. That means you have to be conscious of the Internal Landscape and be able to stay there under duress. You have to be able to expand into your environment and into your opponent and sync up to him. You need to feel the whole 3D nature of the swirling gyroscopic energy coming in and catch it softly, support for a moment, release it and assist its acceleration away from you. All the while from beginning to end you need to attach to the opponents reflexes following their timing, turning them on and off at will.

I used to categorize these skills according to their traditional Chinese names but it seems that one should be able to define Tai Chi to someone who does not know the private vocabulary. If I talk about the Ting, Wen, Na, Fa cycle it isn’t clear to an outsider that this relates to the application of energy and its timing. Of course the acquisition of Jins and cultivation of Jing, Chi and Shen and all the rest are essential components that comprise the fundamentals, qualities and skills I mention here.

The Tai Chi Curriculum Includes the 1) Proficiency in the Fundamentals 2) The Qualities and 3) The Skills:

1) Fundamentals – Stances, Posture, The Moves, The Forms, Balance, Rooting, Stepping, Head up, Tailbone down, Joints sunk, Functional Use of the Waist and Back, Breath low, Open crown, Opening the hands, The Gaze, Peripheral Awareness, Independence of body parts, Weight forward towards ball of foot, Integration

2) Qualities - Calm Mind, Softness, Strength, Simplicity, Naturalness, Comfortable, Subtle, Clear, Relaxed on the inside, Peaceful, Artistic, Precise, Meaningful, Hidden, Open, Unified, Musical, Continuous, with Straightness and Roundness, Insubstantial and substantial, Quality of Motion

3) Skills - Footwork, Handwork, Use of the mind, Awareness of group energy, Gathering and Issuing, Understanding, Intention, Opening and Closing, Solo practice, Chi gung, Applications, Two Person Practice, Improvisation, Hydraulic Motion/Wave Energy, Transfer of Momentum, Appear, Disappear, Expand and Condense, Consciousness of the Body Field, Continuity, Timing, Yielding, Sinking, Dynamic Relaxation, The Ability to Receive Energy (Push, Punch, Grab, etc.) and Transmute it without undue strength and Return it, Internal Awareness, Fajin

And still… without the Secret Handshake this is just The List.

The Tai Chi Curriculum

You could say that the Tai Chi curriculum is Proficiency in Forms Practice and in Two Person Practice. Everything meaningful for me in Tai Chi would be covered by that.

Unfortunately this curriculum would not help to define Tai Chi to the non-player or distinguish it as an Internal Art. Well, it turns out that there is no consensus reality amongst Tai Chi players with regard to that type of definition either except that we know it when we see it. This is a factor allowing the unscrupulous or delusional to ply their trade.

It is no surprise that in the absence of a clear definition that a clear methodology is so rare. It has been said that the truth about the training methods necessary to develop good internal skills are so counter-intuitive that you are simply not going to discover them on your own. Historically this has been true but as advancing research into Sports Medicine, Anatomy Trains and the Enteric Body has unearthed the Dynamics of Energy involved in reflexes and motor function I think we can find a way to focus our practice to produce verifiable results in less than 3 lifetimes.

Once you are studying Forms Practice and Basic Applications you are Doing Tai Chi. Once you can see yourself inside and get a Radar lock on your partner and you can sense them internally becoming aware that you just acquired knowledge of their center then you are Doing Internal Martial Arts. Your level of skill in these things denotes your level in Tai Chi.

Tai Chi is a Martial Art. It is okay to excel in the Performance Art of Tai Chi as a central focus. A common complaint I have heard is that a focus on the Aesthetic and Artistic will cause people to try and make their forms pretty. Well, anyone who is familiar with high level internal skills displayed in Music or Dance will know that one hint of artifice or self-consciousness will cause the moment to fail.

I think that although Tai Chi is a Martial Art that Fighting Ability is not one of the more important determinants of Tai Chi level. Someone may cultivate partner work rather than combat skills and reach very high levels and conversely those who pursue fighting skills often seem to significantly delay their advancement in Tai Chi as an Internal Art. Furthermore some well-conditioned MMA guy could easily out fight some excellent Tai Chi players so I think a focus on Fighting Skills per se can misdirect our inquiry. If Push Hands was Ping Pong then I personally play a game more concentrated on extended volleying and being the Minister of Silly Spins rather than a game relying upon serves that cannot be returned or slams. When you play that way sometimes you forget who’s serve it was and even what the score is and you give up keeping score altogether.

So the Art keeps me showing up every day and what I learn in that context I test in partner work and free play to keep myself honest.

BTW - I am still zeroing in on my actual Tai Chi Curriculum List and thank you for being patient and giving me the room to get there!

Useful Exaggeration

In an attempt to define Tai Chi in a way that meaningfully distinguishes it from other Martial Arts I am creating a curriculum list of basic skills. This turns out to be quite a list and I find myself asking why it is currently that only a few of these provide the reason that I practice. I am not motivated to practice so that I will have longevity, be able to kick ass and take names, be able to do the super luminal types of techniques or reach some particular level like Mastery; all things I had written on my syllabus and believe intellectually are components of Tai Chi.

What keeps me showing up every morning is the Interest, The Quest, The Exploration of Inner Space and the Mechanics of Moving. The Feeling inside my body as I Sink this hip or Relax this Side or Expand the Body comes from Becoming Conscious of the Movement and Conscious of all the little unseen Sub-routines in the Body’s Operating System that assist in or govern the movement. The Examination and Re-programming of those Sub-routines allows me to increase my bandwidth of Inner Space by simply monitoring things instead of having to run them all.

The Forms provide the Context and I provide the Subject. Picking up the foot, stretching into space, turning, moving, coiling, opening and closing provide the Experiments and while the results are Martially Useful that is rarely my focus, it’s more about the Feeling or the Experience. The Ego, Anger, Frustration, Desire to Succeed and other Psychological manifestations that come to my attention during this work are one and the same as the ones I involuntarily Act Out under duress when I am pressed in Push Hands beyond my Ability to respond to in a Taiji way. (Yeah, sorry about that one friends…)

At any rate that is my Useful Exaggeration for now and I will pursue it until it is less useful and move on to the next Useful Exaggeration.

Thank You One And All

Hi - back from China after months where Facebook is really banned, really silenced.

In the past I have had many encounters in Teaching, Being a Student, Pushing Hands and Engaging in Online Groups with various Martial Artists. Here in the USA I am free to report my experiences and observations. People who moderate groups online are free to set ANY STANDARD THEY LIKE! I’ve been in both Zero Tolerance Groups and Flame War Shoving Match Groups. In reporting what I’ve seen and personally experienced I try to take a real and honest tone but try to say nothing that would actually prevent me attending a class, workshop or camp with the individuals I comment upon or criticize. There are a few individuals I know that any commentary is not allowed according to their culture or personality so I refrain. That’s my line.

I studied Mantaak Chia’s system and it was a nice flowy, spacey, Kitaro-like introduction to the art which I outgrew fairly quickly.

I studied with Li Deyin and his family and was impressed by their authentic skills and felt that the Government Forms are too Sterile for my taste, like Etudes not Sonatas.

I studied with a Teacher that helped me with some real fundamentals like dropping my shoulders and elbows without which nothing of value that followed would have been possible.

I went on to study on a regular basis with Authentic Masters in authentic systems. I will tell you that I studied and practiced with a dedication and perseverance greater in measure than the results that I received for whatever reasons those are. Of course the student is always quick to blame the Teacher or System but I think that it is not wrong to question the system or try to build upon it.

I wanted so much to reach the Holy Grail of Fajin and studied on the side for years and took workshops with students of Masters Chu Gin Soon and Vincent Chu. I came to feel that the methodology as being re-transmitted by these students was very unhealthy and although I did see some authentic results I returned to Forms Practice in an Authentic Yang Cheng Fu Lineage Family.

Seeking to broaden my knowledge in that system I attended workshops with Master Yang Jun and felt that while he already has and will continue to surpass his Uncle’s skill and teaching his style of Taiji was not the doorway I was looking for. I changed teachers and Masters and broadened my knowledge of Push Hands, Internals and felt that being Knowledgeable about what the standards that define Taiji and separate it from all other arts even when those arts are done softly at a very high level had never adequately been done.

I began studying with Don Miller on the side at this point. My first impression that first night was that this was too much strength. I came to a much different understanding as my eyes were opened to the realities Don presented. Don was capable of using a mere gesture, a mere suggestion of a move to create inexorable control over me. I was practicing 20 hours a week and had more than 10 years of experience by this point but still needed to be willing to make a quantum shift to come to a place where I could profit by the inquiry, scientific verification, improvisation, core work, shoving matches and hard ass bravado that Don offered.

I’ve seen some wonderful demos online from Adam Mizner and think he’s one of the more special guys out there and will make it a goal to seek him out. I also notice that even at his level he’s not immune from an occasional shoving match online or in person.

Michael Phillips frequently throws his weight around proclaiming a better and more real lineage and furthermore an Inner Door access to it. I have never met a Martial Artist of stature who didn’t have some issues; that’s what drives us!! MP clearly has some serious skills and methodologies though but as we know from all Martial Arts Movies there is always someone that one skill or another will not work on and it is not an indictment of someone, their skill or their lineage to say so out loud.

Mark Rasmus has some great instructional videos and displays this higher level stuff I am looking for after 20 years of practice.

Richard Clear likewise is an excellent instructor and I love what he does.

I am looking for the Internals - Softer Energetic Moves that will work on incompliant partners and I am looking for an Evolving Methodolgy like we see in Olympic sports.

For people to take umbrage over false claims of skill and people who charge money and don’t deliver the goods seems natural. Seeking a clear definition for a certain kind of Complete, Authentic Taiji is exclusionary by definition. This is Taiji; that is not Taiji. Sorry guys - that’s just the way it is.

If someone says my teacher isn’t real or Chen style isn’t Taiji or Forms aren’t real transmissions I will take it for what it’s worth. I gain impetus for continuing this work from these discussions, shouting matches and unilateral declarations.

In the end I am approaching a working definition of Taiji for the first time in my career and the beginning of wisdom is a definition of terms so Thank You My Friends.

Thank You One And All

The King is Dead, Long Live the King

Once upon a time Buddhism was a Philosophy insulated from Religion and Superstition. For sure it was one of the great gifts to the world; an actual Spiritual Technology based on Scientific Observation of the Self and the Psychological Overlays that divide us from our True Nature. Beyond that as part of its system it contained an actual Methodology for Implementing the Truths discovered through Self Awareness.

I do know that some still seek the Path sifting away the Detritus that has collected around the system but many delve superficially into the popular writers and speakers on the subject and involve themselves in the jargon and vocabulary of the day while using it to rationalize the questionable behaviors that led them to seek self improvement in the first place. Meditation provides an escape from real life relationships and non attachment provides an excuse for the lack of accountability for their actions. The superstitious adornments of beads, bracelets, Buddha dolls, Kuan Yin dolls and Nag Champa incense provide the semblance of a Spiritual lifestyle.

I know a guy who owns a poorly run little trading company in China. He has a brand of Buddhism I have frequently run into there. He has broken every business deal he ever made when it became inconvenient to keep it. He routinely deals unfairly with workers and shows them the door, cheating them out of their salary on the way out. He has never taken the time to learn his business or develop craft or integrity. He has a little statue that he puts fruit in front of and plays an annoying recording of a Buddhist song endlessly. He burns incense and wears a silly looking oversize beaded bracelet and goes to pay monks money on certain days. He has DVD’s of Buddhist masters lecturing on scripture and verse. It is funny that none of this ever leads him to question his behavior or lifestyle. Those monks who run those temples have played an important role in the demise of Buddhism and its devolution into a folk religion and superstition. They are fortune tellers, actors, amusement park workers, beggars, charlatans or salesmen. It is a multi-million dollar business devoted to the superstitions that if someone pays people to pray for them or if one burns expensive sticks of incense they will have good health and most importantly prosperity. The belief in various realms filled with boogiemen and other kinds of retribution are used to frighten and guilt trip people into parting with their money.

In the US the systematic commercialization and trivialization of the real Practice of Buddhism has taken a different form but its results are dramatically similar. It has been incorporated into the New Age movement which has a fair stock and trade in trinkets, trappings and fortune telling. All in all it has brought about a leveling of the playing field. We must make our own path cut from the whole cloth of our lives. The systems that rise up in the New Age quickly become inadequate to the real task of Enlightenment or even the prospect of Self Improvement. Perhaps Systems are too systematic and Churchianity of all sorts is less useful in this regard whether Scientology, NLP, Integrated Awareness, Dolphin Breathing, Angel Reiki or Buddhism. The King is Dead, Long Live the King.

It can happen. It did happen.

I am sailing now into a new country; this marks the beginning. You don’t always notice these moments, you usually see them upon looking back, but I am skipping ahead. The reason that I am sailing into the Northern waters with my monstrous creation is because the villagers did come with their pitchforks and torches in the end. Led by my former professor from the medical university citing scripture and verse I was driven off never to return to that world again.

With a moment to take stock of things I’m left to reflect upon recent events. What do human beings owe each other? Is it the grand vision of The Path, Universal Principles, the Martial Arts Honor Code and Soul Connections that lead inexorably to problems? What is my motivation in telling the tale? I’ll let you judge.

If you’ll remember, Monk says that his is story is a myth, a legend. In the mythic sense, people come together with soul contracts, trying to rise to the Universal Principles they purport to. This usually ends badly. On another level, people have a social contract – end of story.

It is amazing how many people purporting to the higher octave of expression do not even meet the most basic level of behavior that you would expect. I have seen time and time again that when people resort to claiming that they are acting according to Spirit Guides, Doctrine, Unconditional Love, Past Life connection or Universal Law that they usually have not performed as well at a basic 3D level. In Tai Chi it is usually necessary to have Postures and Stances that are strong and centered from a mechanically sound, Newtonian standpoint in order to be energetically sound on a metaphysical or Quantum level.

As people come to their truths through social interaction there are psychic ties formed and broken; it happens. Whether it is the adolescent discovery of energy and emotion or the other types of behaviors that occur later in life we allow bonds to be created and when things go astray we feel them create tension and release. Even when people behave badly or manipulatively these psychic aspects are only a natural consequence of human interaction. Other individuals willfully throw their energy around and attach to others on a Psychic level without permission. This is a whole different thing. Actually Dion Fortune writes a brilliant compendium on this subject called Psychic Self Defense.

But you see those who made mistakes with me were just that, social interactions that went horribly wrong that we learned and grew from. Probably elsewhere in their journey they too had lost their lives, had saved lives and had found their code of honor to continue the Path. For sure that was not where I intersected with them and I only relate my part as a point of view from which to tell my story.

So now I am able to allow others to bond to me at the closest levels of Love and Friendship and consciously attach to me but it is that word allow that is so germane. Sometimes getting to this place requires feeling like the injured party. That was a gift indeed!

You can see some people draw a line in the sand and declare to God that they will go no further. They will never take another chance again because it may open them up or reveal that they are frozen at some level. The Wounded Warrior is an archetype that has a limited utility for healers and teachers in this time and it’s our job to move on and in the end I did. That is the tale I tell. The point is that we are all broken and we can find our way back, to get through it and past it. There comes a moment where you get rocked back on your heels and if you are up to it you can grow. Then you can have real closeness, real friendships, real growth and come to a place of skill and even mastery. If you are not up to it you can wear your injury like a thorny crown and tread water until you decide to heal or not. I chose to go into it, I am thankful for the agents of change who helped me break open and hope that as many of us as possible get to the other side. It can happen. It did happen.

The Butterfly Who Dreamed They Were An Ant

When I became a superhero it was through the creation of my superhero identity, my costume and the cultivation of superhuman abilities that took me a lifetime to achieve, that is the story of how Warrior Monk became a legend. Well, I will tell you the tale of one individual that I know in the League of Superheroes who entered through another door.

This person was born superhuman like Superman; they did not need to cultivate the extraordinary like me. They did need to hide safely in society and fade into the background so they became like Clark Kent; so regular, so ordinary, maybe even a little bit boring. This was the part they had to cultivate, the common and the ordinary. It is hard indeed for a superhuman to disguise themselves as a common and ordinary person. Well, after time, this person like an agent who has been undercover for too long actually became their alter ego. This happened to me too! (Except that I forgot that I was just a man, just a boy, I thought I could fly and touch the sky and I became The Warrior Monk and my super powers became real.) This person actually forgot that they were secretly someone who had superpowers and abilities and responsibilities to use them. Yes, this person forgot that this was just their disguise not their real identity.

There was a moment when they noticed that I had found their secret. It was scary and exciting at the same time. I decided not to try to make them come back to the League of Superheroes but instead just decided to acknowledge their right to be wherever they wanted to be in life. That is when a curious thing happened. They did not want to be where they were. They felt lost and broken somehow and the feeling for them was like being saved. Of course I did not really save them, I was just the right person at the right time and I respected and honored where they were in their journey because it said a lot to me about my own journey and how hard this road is to travel.

In any Myth Quest there are always just a few who make it all the way and find the Hero’s Gold or The Secret of the Immortals and live to tell their tale. The most important thing in life is to notice if you meet one of these fellow travelers and from that know where you are in the journey. This is the beginning of knowing yourself and knowing the other, 100 battles won. This is the story of The Butterfly Who Dreamed They Were An Ant.

The Dao is a River

The Dao is a River; a river of stars, a river of dreams. Some can even cross this river. Usually we flow downstream with the current; the Dao has its own mind, its no-mind. Some people try to swim upstream against the Dao, this usually ends very badly! Sometimes you are headed for the rocks or over the waterfall and the smallest sideways motion lands you perfectly to safety. It is a good skill to be able to see ahead a little in the Dao to know what’s coming up and you can decide where to be; not what to do or how to react or how to do it but just where to be...

The Dao cannot be seen but like the wind its effects can be seen. We see the leaves all stand on end and rise into the air and swirl around in a big whirlwind, we know that this is the wind. Well, some times the Dao swirls in a Tai Chi spiral and picks up everything, all your feelings and beliefs and your whole life and it is all thrown into the air. Will it land neatly? I don’t think so. The Dao is Fate and your ability to move in the Dao is Free Will. The surrender to the Dao still allows for Free Will. This is the thing that cannot be spoken of, it is like an Ancient Story, a Myth.

Is there a future waiting for us? A best self, a better self? Is it the story that was written in the stars for us? A Myth is something that has two meanings. One is that a Myth is not true, it is a story that is made up to tell us something about who we are and where we came from. The second meaning is that a Myth is the more True reality. It is where we can rise above the ordinary and expect that Magic is real and does happen. It tells us of the most incredible potential allowed for us in this human existence. Do we have to let go of the first meaning to have the second? Does part of our Ego kill the Magic by saying this is not real, this can’t be happening, I can’t possibly rise above it all, science tells me that my reality should be limited to a regular and ordinary life.

But the Dao has other plans for you. It picks you up and shakes you and changes your life and makes you admit that you are extraordinary and that special things await you. You cannot control the Dao but now you look forward to what is next. You shoulder your load and put your back into your work and look forward to each day because you know that there is a Story and you want to see what happens. This has not happened for … well, I guess it has never happened before so it is Magic and Dreams are possible and Life is exciting!

The Dao is a river…………………..