So first let me say that while I sincerely believe that to practice tai chi in all its depth, we must learn the martial aspects of it (this not only contributes to our ability to fight and defend ourselves, but is necessary to perform the movements correctly and with the proper intent in order to get the health and wellness benefits), I have never fought using tai chi. I have practiced push hands and done some minor sparring, but have not had to use it in a fight. I would think most practitioners of tai chi, no matter how martially they present themselves, in this day and age, have not had to fight. So, really, the practice, from a martial context, is for sport. Even the toughest MMa guys might have to admit that what they do is sport. And this is not to put down MMa or sport, it’s just a reality.

Having said that, I would like to comment on the concept od combat tai chi, and what, from a theoretical viewpoint, it should look like. So my second admission is that I practice wu and yang style tai chi, and have encorporated chan su chin silk reeling exercises from the chen style into my prqactice, but I have never learned chen style, so my comment on chen style is from an outside view. It seems to me that the focus of “fa JIn” in chen style, issuing power, is too much. There is a whole lot of shaking and expulsion and whipping of power, like a dog shaking water off its fur(again not a negative comment), almost to the point that it seems to me that it can be exhausting and even close to causing whiplash. So, a chen stylist would say that it adheres to tai chi principles and is necessary to be effective in the end. I don’t know. It is not the way I practice tai chi and it would not be the way I would try to finish a fight or get out of a hold or parry a blow etc.

My second comment goes to other practitioners who demonstrate combat tai chi in videos. While it is impressive and well trained and looks really cool, it appears explosive and very external, very chop chop rhythmically, and ends with a flourishing tai chi posture after the fact.

Perhaps becaus I have a deep love(again I have not practiced aikido) for aikido, I like to embue my tai chi with an aikido quality–smooth, circular, flowing, effortless. Again, theoretically, the tai chi techniques and movements lend themselves to an aikido-esque practice.

In the end, I would say, combat tai chi should follow the thirteen principles–peng lu ji an, ward off, rollback, press push, then grab pull down, split rend, elbow, bump. Those are eight, the remaining five being, step forward, step back, left, right, standing still.

Trying to make a technique work through muscle and power is not tai chi. Understanding the interraction of yin and yang and encorporating the 13 principles is tai chi. And it is what I believe would make tai chi highly effective in combat. Yes, to win a fight, you will have to make an opponent topple to the floor or go crashing through a plate glass window, or throw an effective punch or open palm strike, or kick someone. I’ve worked to encorporate some western boxing techniques in my overall arsenal of practice–the jab, the left hook, the right cross, the uppercut. Tai chi and taoism are open to all techniques, they all can become tai chi.

The chen whip is really cool. external kung fu is really cool. western boxing and MMA brazilian jujitsu is really cool. But tai chi and aikido are also really cool. So focus and reflect on whether what you are doing is truly tai chi.

The I Ching counsels us that we are all wanderers in a vast and unknown universe…and should act accordingly–careful, reticent, gentle, not trying to get into conflicts. In and out. It’s the way we are told to live our lives, gentle, forgiving, diplomatic.

It’s the best I can come up with too. It’s so vast and it’s unknown territory. People think they know the lay of the land, whether it’s in business, religion, philosophy. They buy into a matrix and live their lives acoordingly. Most of the time it kinda works out and there are enough fallbacks in any philosophy or way of life to explain the anomolies. But you know what, I like thinking that we are pilgrims on an unknown journey in an unknown land. And I like the rules involved. Sure, I’d like to know the ultimate answers, and I impose my own matrix on the world I’m in, a philosophical, taoist, tai chi matrix that tells me to learn, develop, grow, develop awareness, work on the spiritual, and on and on. Is my matrix any different from the many matrixes out there? It’s different, but does it really explain the context of our existence?

Going on pilgrimage and/or doing a little wandering has long been a part of many traditional religions. I think it’s a valuable thing to do at some point in a person’s life. I haven’t done it yet. One of my favorite characters is David Carradine in the series Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. He wanders around, settling in here in there, following the tao, present wherever he is.

Tai Chi and Taoism attempt to give us a worldview. Out of the void come the two things, yin and yang. They revolve around each other. Out of the two things come the three things and then the 64 things an then the ten thousand things. The Tao de Ching describes the way things work, coming and going, folding and unfolding, expansion and contraction.

So, I will tread lightly, try not to insult people I meet along the way, enjoy the people and circumstances I meet along the way, and keep to the perspective that I’m a wanderer.

Chaos and order. Which is it? The earth revolves around the sun, it’s ben doing it for billions of years and will for billions more. The seasons change. Winter spring summer fall. There is an apparent order to the universe. But within it there can be chaos. Hurricanes, blizzards, earthquakes, natural disasters of all kinds.

One of the home made qi gongs I practice is to wash dishes in my tai chi stance using circular hand movements to do the washing. I will fill a pot with water and begin swirling it, using my dan tien, so my waste i circling as well. I notice that I can generate a smooth swirling motion of the water in the pot for a while, but then for no apparent reason(maybe it’s because of some subtle change in my own motion, I don’t know) the water will loose it’s direction and begin splashing chaotically in the pot.

Chaos and order, patterns, are often the result of our own perspective. If you drop a cup of water on the floor, in the few seconds it takes, the pattern of the splash will seem disordered and chaotic. If you prolonged the splash for 2 billion years, you will percieve an orderly and consistent rise and fall motion of the water.

The way of things is change. We must learn to adapt. We must recognize the synchronicity of things, which is a very subtle concept often misunderstood. Bottom line, everything that is happening at the same time is happening at the same time. Are they related, connected? That’s kind of up to you! Why are the people in your life in your life. Why are you where you are at the moment?

With honest and pure reflection and discernment, we can give meaning to synchronous events, give meanng to people in our lives. WE develop an awareness so that we can actually see what is happening. I’m sitting here typing and a girl in a red coat has just walked in. Is this meaningful for me? That is up to me. I can choose to ignore her or I can see the message in it. (I’ll add here that I kind of do also believe that the “universe” does send people and events into our lives in a sort of grand scheme of things. I do believe that maybe it’s not just me making up meaning to meaningless things. But this I see is often overused and over believed in. Things happen. It’s what we do with it that makes meaning).

(A woman has just walked into starbucks with a cat in a carrier and has sat next to me with another group of people. I really don’t like cats! Sorry cat people, but she has just blown my train of thought! Should I allow this meaningless event to pull me off center, or should I learn the lesson in the adversity!

Anyway, develop awareness, look around you, reflect, adapt to change, go with the flow, follow the seasons, don’t try to force things to happen, they will happen on their own. This is zen. This is taoism. Allow. This is your true power!

I suppose it’s no personal secret I prefer wu style tai chi to yang style, but I love both long forms. Wu style is more compact, seemingly more martial(although many tenchniques I would use in a fight are from yang). But the last two days I have done yang form, and as always, it seems to be more healthful, more energy producing.Performed in a flowing manner with no apparent stops, you begin to feel energy all around you. It becomes the quintessential tai chi experience, and offers one anecdotal evidence that all this talk about chi is real(It is amazing how many charlatans are out there, bending spears with their throats and bouncing students away for miles).

The I Ching encourages us, and Tai Chi teaches us to be gentle, simple, calm, aware, innocent, pure, honest, act with integrity, adapt to change, persevere. I was reflecting on the idea of innocence last night to come to terms with what it really means. It does not mean naivete. It means acting with a pure heart, not acting out of the motivations of the ego, not trying to manipulate situations or other people. It means being genuine. Society is a lesson in innocence lost. We see it at work, in relationships. If you like someone, tell them. If you have made a good product, sell it for a fair price.

Practicing tai chi, in a secret way, teaches you these things. It connects you to the numenous, you become aware of the divine, of your own call to holiness, of the way of things. It provides a practice of union with all things. The answer to life’s questions are present in a well performed brush knee twist step, in the cyclical turning of Fair Maiden Works the Shuttles.

You know, I wonder how many people are still praccticing their tai chi one by one to go, that is, hitting a posture and holding it, then moving on. This is very important practice, and should be done often and diligently and postures should be precise. But we must go further, turning the 108 moves into one move, one long flowing river, rounded, soft, smooth, gentle. Focus on the transitions between the moves. I wonder how many people stop practicing because they have not moved up to this level and are not getting the true essence of tai chi in their practice.

And remember that the way of things is spontaneous and creative. In tai chi, we never act spontaneously or creatively. We practice the forms as handed down from generation to generation. The only time one might become creative and spontaneous is in a fight. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

A blues musician can know three chords and a scale of five notes and write 100 songs. A tai chi player can take some fundamental movements, using tai chi stepping techniques, some fundamental moves like grasp the spwarrow’s tale, brush knee twist step, some kicks, and create his or her own tai chi symphony.

Happy New Year Everyone! 2012 promises to be a great year.

The retail holiday madness is finally somewhat over, and I’m taking a 7 day vacation, in which I have promised everyone at work I will be going deep into hiding!

I’m actually using this week as a tai chi vacation. Not a vacation from tai chi, but a vacation centered on tai chi and the contemplative practice of tai chi chuan kung fu. It’s wonderful to have the free time to devote to my practice(although I have used down time at work to do stretch work. I’ve fixed my back using the McKenzie method, but I am woefully not stretched out. This part of the healing process has to be done very slowly so as to not redamage the tissue in my back).

So what is a tai chi vacation composed of? Seated meditation, primarily focused on energy work. Breathing in and breathing out, mind focused on the dan tien. It is amazing how much chi is developed in the dan tien simply by sitting in silence and breathing. You feel the dan tien fill, then move to all parts of the body. After a while of sitting, I am usually drawn to do some spontaneous chi kung while sitting. I try to put this off so as to let the dan tien fill, but it is also a wonderful sensation to feel the chi move through you, and move your arms and hands, feeling connected to the dan tien.

It involves practicing the forms, the yang and wu styles long forms, slowly, without rushing, but having the time this week to really delve into the movements, discover new things about the form, and continue working to making the form soft, rounded, and flowing. Trying to make every move smooth and connected. Tai chi reveals itself to you, and it also connects you to the higher source.

The vacation will be rounded out by chi kung, stretching exercises, walks in the woods if weather permits, reading, writing, and thinking and contemplation. To be able to clear the mind and not worry about the mundane secular things is a great gift.

The contemplative practice of tai chi chuan kung fu recognizes several things. This life is sacred, holy, and divine. We work to place ourselves in the presence of this holiness, and work to become holy ourselves. This is not grandiose thinking. This is who we are as human beings. We are called to develop our awareness of who we are, to place ourselves in the presence of the source, to be conscious of the Universal Mind, and to develop and cultivate our physical and spiritual lives–they are intimately tied together.

A few other concepts–non conformity–conformism deadens the human spirit, strips ud of our individuality, and serves selfish and greedy purposes. Spontaneous creativity–the Way of things is a way of spontaneity and creativity. In Taoism, we adhere to the concept that life is a spontaneous Creation. There is mention many times in the I Ching of a “Sage,” or Higher Power. I grapple with the question all the time as to whether we are, as in Catholic/Christian concept, the Creation of God the Father, with the purpose of returning to him, or part of a spontaneous creation, a manifestation of the tao, the source itself. I’ve written on it before. I do not know the answer, but it is not so much of a dichotomy as it seems.

Other concepts, health, wellness, physical well being, nutrition. Listening lately to explanations as to why fresh foods are so much better than supplements, not to put down supplements, but there are so many nutrients and polyphenols in fresh fruits and vegetable that you don’t get in a vitamin.

This life is class, we are here to learn the lessons, develop and grow, become aware and raise our consciousness. Holiness. Sacredness.

I’ll round out my vacation by hanging with good friends, treating myself to a few good meals, checking out a movie or two, and watching some TV!

It feels good to be able to go deep into the woods. And don’t forget tai chi chuan is also an excellent martial art, so you can kick ass with a smile on your face!

I work in retail to pay the bills, and my entire life belongs to retail from Black Friday on. It can be disconcerting and frustrating if you fight it, but it becomes a little easier if you let go of trying to protect your free time and give in to it. Not in a surrender I give up sort of way, but just not being upset that I don’t have the mindset to work on a book or post more often on my blog. We do what we do with an inner smile, work hard, give it our best, and as the Tao De Ching says, step back and let the rest work itself out.

There are plenty of opportunities to give in to frustration, but they are opportunities for learning and dissolving of the negative emotions. The season is a season of peace and goodwill, and throw in a little taoist balance and rhythm and you have the makings of a very merry tai chi Christmas.

Christmas is a time to be a center, to be a counterbalance for those around you who are spinning out of control. Shine. Let the spirit you have been cultivating in your practice be your gift to those around you.
Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to give a heads up I’ve added a link to the right to Dr. Gary Null’s official website. I haven’t explored it fully myself yet as there is a lot of information there, but I’ve been listening to him on wbai radio lately and it’s refreshing to hear a different view from the normal media on the important issues facing us.

I’ve listened to Gary Null since the 70′s when he had his own TV show. A lot of what he says has efficacy. As with anything, I recommend we take in all information with a critical eye, but be open to the things a person like Gary Null is trying to get across to us.

Apparently Null has produced a number of documentaries exposing the truths of things on Aids/Hiv, Big Pharma, Gulf War Syndrome, Death By Medicine, and he has been very involved in the Occupy Wall Street and weighing in on the actions of Wall Street and the Federal Reserve. Where does the truth lie?(Is that a double entendre?)

I often find myaself in conversations trying to flesh out taoist/zen philosophy, allowing things to arrange themselves, trying to intervene as little as possible, the concept of wu wei, and the inevitable “yeah but…” comes up either in my own mind or from the person I’m talking with. Trying to live the Tai Chi way can be easy when things are good(although it’s important to remain grounded when things are good and not allow the ego to inflate, thinking you were the sole cause of the good things in your life or that you should get all the credit for the successes in your life). Living the tai chi when you are faced with challenges and obstacles is harder on the surface. We don’t trust the process, even though we practice for years, sit in meditation on a daily basis, read the Tao de Ching and I Ching over and over. We think, yeah but, this guy’s a real jerk off, or, but if I don’t do anything, the situation will continue. We feel driven to act, to impose our will, to effect change.

We hesitate when we are in a secular construct like at work because we aren’t confident that the tai chi way, the taoist way, will work.

But one of the best translations I’ve heard recently of the Tao de Ching, is: How Things Work. If you know how things work, you can allow the process to unfold naturally and resolve itself. “Yeah but…” No, there are no “buts.” We have to have confidence and trust in the process. And we have to examine honestly our own motives in a given situation. Are we anxious, worried, upset because of our own agendas, our own egos? The I Ching clearly states that these negative emotions are functions of the ego. Wu wei means not acting out of the ego, it means acting for the good, with right action and right motive, doing what is good for the community. If we are torn at work on how to proceed in certain situations, it is most probably because your employer is pulling you off balance and trying to get you to do something that is not part of the natural flow of life. So, you feel you must act in order to succeed. But are you succeeding in a secular construct, or are you failing in real life? This rarely becomes, but sometimes does, a moral question of real import.

The Tao De Ching teaches us How Things Work. It is folding and unfolding, it is yielding, it is soft and accepting, it is coming and going, it is natural change. When we are forcing, we are butting heads with the Great Way of Things. What chance do you have against that?

Be clear. Be centered. Fruit ripens on the tree. If you wait, you will be rewarded with a delicious piece of fruit. Sit in the center, be aware, awareness is a great skill, be conscious. Allow the order to come out of chaos. Allow things to arrange themselves. When it is ready, go with it and move with the flow. And when you hear that voice say, “yeah, but…” don’t listen. It is only pulling you off balance.

This is not passivity, this is not watching the world go by. This is like playing the piano like a master, light, confident, it appears the fingers are hardly touching the keyboard. Why bang on the keyboard to force the sound to come out. It won’t sound very good.

In recent weeks, in consulting the I Ching, I have received the hexagram Ching/The Well. I am exhorted to purify and go to the two wells, the external well is the I Ching, or some other text of wisdom, or a teacher. The Inner Well is your own good character. I was admonished this time in that it said my well was clean, but I do not drink from it. You understand what is right but you avoid it. One must not just draw water from the well but also drink it. Wisdom that is not put to practical use is meaningless.

I wan’t quite sure what this meant for me. But I thought about it, and I think that I still allow anxiety to take over, worrying about things at work or financially. I know what’s right to do, but I don’t drink from the well. I obsess a bit, I worry that I need to “do” something. In truth, in trust, in confidence, what I need to do is develop good gong fu, whether that is martially or at work, and do my job, do my work, modestly, honestly, and with integrity. Everything else will work itself out without my intervention or anxiety. “Yeah, but…”

I love this video not only becuase a jerkoff gets his comeuppence, but as it becomes apparent later in the video, the guy being harangues is a war vet and trained in karate and jui jitsu. First he stands calmly, trying not to react, only pushing back when pushed. But when he goes into his stance, left palm up and at the side, right hand up and centered, you know what’s going to happen. But what I really like about the video is his stepping. It is similar to tai chi slide stepping, even western boxers. You remain centered and stable and rooted, and you slide step forward. Take a look. And if you practice tai chi, try performing something like brushknee twist step with the slide step. The power gets generated from the back leg up and finally out through the palm. Check my youtube channel, I’m pretty certain I did a video on tai chi stepping.

The Tao De Ching kind of exhorts us not to stir the pot, not to awaken energies in a group dynamic, let’s say, that if stirred, will come forth out of control. I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and the two options one has when dealing with certain situations. The zen/taoist way is to stay to the center and act as little as possiible and allow things to arrange themselves. This has worked well for me, but I must say it takes a lot of work and discipline and practice, vigilance and awareness. It is not as easy as it sounds, even as people around you get the perception that you aren’t doing anything, when you know in your heart, that the essence of it is that in fact you are doing everything!

If things are flowing, if they are working well, why stir the pot and upset the flow? And if things aren’t working well, intervening or trying to force a conclusion only makes matters more chaotic. Better to allow the negative energies to dissipate and disappear on their own. If they have nothing to push against, they can’t push. It is tai chi in action.

But I often ask myself if, when stagnation sets in, in a relationship, or among co workers, if a little stirring of the pot isn’t called for. Sometimes we can stir the pot in a mischievous way, just to get a reaction out of people for fun, or to create a little chaos and wreak havoc as a kind of guerrilla warfare smoke tactic. But these are just tactics.

In a legitimate situation, where stagnation has set in, the ingredients in a drink, metaphorically speaking, have settled to the bottom and the drink no longer has taste, should we stir the pot. Now in the glass of water metaphor, we want the sediment to settle to the bottom because then we are left with a clear glass of drinking water. But what about a hearty soup? If everything settled to the bottom, the only thing we’d get in the spoon is broth. And any Italian cook will tell you you must constantly stir the tomato sauce or else it will stick to the pot. So, which metaphor do we adhere to.

Different metaphors for different situations? If a baseball team has fallen into a slump, does the manager sit in the center and allow things to arrange themselves, eventually, everyone coming out of the slump, or does he stir the pot a bit and take the slumping star out of the lineup or bat him last instead of in the cleanup position?

At work, do you stir the team up on occasion, bringing in someone new, playing with the mix, come up with new and exciting things to do? Keep things fresh?

I have to remember that the constant of Tai Chi is change, the flowing river, it’s never the same, it is constantly re-inventing itself every moment, while still remaining the river. But the question is, do you allow these changes to effect themselves by themselves naturally, or do you intervene, actively make change happen?

And let’s apply it to ourselves. Are you in a slump, are you stagnating? Has your life become dry and stale? Do you just sit back and let life happen to you? This is not the essence of wu wei. In wu wei, we are actively engaged and consciously aware. And perhaps there are things we can do to stir the pot for ourselves, to get the river flowing again.

Being aware of the opportunities that come our way every day is one way, and we develop this awareness through all the practices of meditation and tai chi and qi gong we have spoken of many times throughout this blog. We also develop the gong fu that will enable us to take good advantage of those opportunities that we recognize on our path. We also develop the ability to percieve even setbacks as learning opportunities or to take setbacks and turn them into opportunities.

So, stirring the pot with the wrong motivation is wrong. Constantly changing things keeps your team on its heels and interrupts their flow. But stirring the pot a bit to freshen things up, to get things moving that have come to a crawl, is ok. Recognize things may have come to a crawl for a reason, out of a natural development, and maybe you need to crawl for a while, but you have to also develop the wisdom to know that there’s going to come a time when you are going to have to pull the trigger.

Having said that, I’m going to think on it for the rest of the day. Maybe you never have to pull the trigger. Maybe the trigger will get pulled. In every case, though, if you are unsure on whether to act or not, or when is the right time, always follow taoist principles as espoused in the I Ching, act for the good, follow proper principles, do not act out of the ego, for pride, greed, hatred and so on.