INTO THE MYSTIC

Oh heck, here’s one more and then the computer must return to stillness.

http://www.wudangtao.com/wuji/

I don’t know too much about the “Wudang” school of taiji per se, but I liked the simple evocative things they write about here.  As with the quantum physics, when I read now about qi work and related issues I’m very pleased to realize that I have a sense of what is being discussed.

Do I know much?  Doubtful.  Like you, I know what I know when I know it.  And the reverse applies with equal force.

The wall that separates one thing from another, may be thick or thin.  Or it may be a gap, not a wall.

What are we caught up in?  Just life.  It contains all the beauty and mystery there is.       Is there an answer for every question?  Nice koan, that.

 

INTO THE INFINITE

I’m not spending much time at the computer these days.  But it’s hard to get out of the habit completely.  Tonight I had to send an email about ordering a taiji book and afterward I spent a few minutes googling around.  Found a nice post here, titled “Let Go of the Hand” on the Infinite Spirals blog:

http://www.unixica.com/taiji/2007/11/our_class_tonight_was_almost.html

Nice to read Chen stylists talking along these lines.  The poster, Nasser Manesh, got his start with Yang style (and some mixed forms).  Says he also enjoys setar playing (not sitar), and quantum physics.  Besides being a tech person in business life.

Talking about me for a minute, I was in the food store where I used to buy Inside Kung Fu magazine.  I’m not much interested in IKF anymore, but out of habit I usually stop by the magazine & paperbacks rack.  Saw the new issue of Scientific American, a publication I used to steer clear of because the articles are fairly heavy going, this is not middlebrow stuff and it used to give me a bit of a headache.

But the new article “Quantum Universe — Simple Ways to Create Spacetime” looked mighty intriguing, so I grabbed the sucker and was very pleased to find that I can now digest this kind of material.  Thanks in no small part to taijiquan theory and some of its teacher/exponents, I’m now somewhat able to thrive on these kind of abstruse matters.  Right on.

I’m really looking forward to delving into this article.  Excerpt: “To determine how space sculpts itself, physicists first need a way to describe its shape.  They do so using triangles and their higher-dimensional analogues, a mosaic of which can readily approximate a curved shape…”

And: “Although we usually think of space as mere void, both it and time have and invisible structure that guides how we move — much as the moguls (bumps) on a slope guide a skier.  We perceive this structure as the force of gravity…”

Is this kind of inquiry applicable to taiji?  The martial?  Art?  You bet!  At least, I’m betting on it.  And I dislike gambling.  I want sure winners, for the most part.

Also there’s an article on Neuroscience and Dancing, as well as several other good ones.  Nice to set the sails of the mind, catch the wind, and move out.  As in taiji.

 

REWRITE

Interesting post by R. Earle Harris from the Inner House Boxing blog:

http://xiong-shan.blogspot.com/2008/04/point.html

Do I agree, disagree?  I don’t think that’s the point really.  We are offered opinions, food for thought, possibly facts, maybe true but maybe not always true?  I like his bit about remaking oneself.  This sounds right, in my experience, which is limited.

Why remake oneself?  Aren’t we OK, as is?  No, it’s good to want to improve.  What’s the alternative — stagnation, right?  No one ever said stagnation was good.  Except a tyrant.  They love stagnation for the rest of us.

Look at it this way.  Life and the world will remake us as time goes by.  It even happens when we’re dead.  Ch-ch-changes, time to face the strange.  So remaking oneself, partially, completely, intermittently, or constantly, at least offers some control, some active participation.  And the hope of adventure.

It’s perhaps noteworthy that these martial arts arose in lands and during times that weren’t overly blessed with personal freedom, individual liberty.  But there is always a way.

 

MASTERWORK

Yay, I remembered to look, and I found it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCEdrVqVkQs

Cassius Clay, AKA Muhammad Ali.  When I was growing up, Muhammad Ali WAS boxing, and a lot of other things besides.  He always will be.

This clip shows some of his superior footwork technique, the “Ali Shuffle”.  This is real black magic.  I’m not qualified to say any more about this one-of-kind champion.

Found a page of quotes from Ali.  Plenty of good ones but for me, this stuck out for some reason:

“A rooster crows only when it sees the light. Put him in the dark and he’ll never crow. I have seen the light and I’m crowing.”

 

BASIC TRAINING

The most fundamental transition movement is this: lifting one foot off the ground.  Done countless thousands of times in our lives, why shouldn’t it be perfect in every way, like iaido?  But it’s so tempting just to get it over with.

One reason to just “move on” would be to avoid balance issues.  This is basic stuff, I don’t claim to be making some amazing observations here.  I have pretty good balance, but I found that sometimes in taiji class, I would get out of balance.  Not out of exquisite balance, but out of plain old everyday balance.  The culprit is lifting that darn foot… without doing the internal things (there are planty of choices) that need to precede and/or accompany initiating a step.

In other words, to simply go ahead and “step” is already a fault.  We tend to get away with this in everyday life because you can just plunk ‘er down again…. mission accomplished, no worries.

So in a sense, taiji equates to learning to walk all over again, with a bigger, clumsier grown-up body this time.  No doubt this observation is also unoriginal.  I’ve just been trying to consider it anew.

Then again, there’s also the aspect of why move if you don’t have to.  But that harks back to must learn form to be shapeless, must learn the movements to acquire stillness.

 

THE HEART OF THE MATTER

Thanks to an interesting discussion going on over at Formosa Neijia, I learned of this:

http://www.thebigview.com/buddhism/emptiness.html

This link came from here:

http://formosaneijia.com/2008/06/14/confusing-form-for-function/

I liked this comment (excerpt) from BL:  >>>”To reach formlessness one must have a form to be free from.”<<<

My analyzing mind thought: But, there’s another way to be formless, a very easy way.  Just have no form worth mentioning in the first place.  Presto!

But then you haven’t “reached” anything.  Not interested, can’t be bothered.  Even the craziest streetfighter rises above this level of who-needs-methods.

Rising above the base has its benefits.  And thus the martial arts were born.

But some philosophers tell us that what’s needed is not a departure, but a returning.

How to discover the truth?                                              

 

AN UNDERLYING FIRMNESS

In working with qi

The first thing to see is what

Holds us up at all.

 

CONDITIONS

For the host to come

Back into its own birthright

The guest has to leave.

 

Boundless obstacles

Created by one’s actions

Create the false web.

 

If a stream is dammed

The water will spread wider

But the stream is gone.

 

ROUTINE THAT’S THE OPPOSITE OF BORING

My kung fu goals are

Simple; I want to have a

Practice all my days.

 

FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH

I think I’ll go ahead and get this off my chest.  The following is a short video clip of me, Taijiquestion, doing some Chen-style movements:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=JDk_e_SlV_k&feature=related

People have been pretty good to read my blog, comment, refrain from comment :), advise, and generally put up with me on the internet.  So here’s a peek at some personal background if you’re interested.

I’m not really looking for comments here.  I know enough about taiji (I think) to make some critique of this, both pro and con.  It’s not terrible, and it’s not that good.  In fact, it’s just a guy trying stuff out and managing to not completely screw up.  Some points:

I’ve never had a Chen taiji lesson… or even seen a genuine Chen performance in the flesh.  If you think that makes me something of a charlatan, I can accept that.  Don’t bother telling me.

When I started working on this stuff, Chen taiji was not at all well known.  Things are changing though.

I had actually stopped practicing “Chen” for several months, but then an occasion came up that I wanted a vid, so I brushed-up for a few days and shot 3 reps, this being #3 if I remember correctly.

I can actually do the stomps, leaps, and fajings (at least, novice versions of them).  But I painstakingly smoothed them out of my routine, aiming instead for a smoother, gentler version.  Also I blended in some various influences from various Chen masters, for various reasons.

I bow to the many folks out there who have managed to put a great deal more time and sffort into their MA practice than I, so far, have.  Thanks to many of you for guiding me in various ways.  Wish I had a good Yang style video of me but… I don’t.  My blog tells the complete genesis of what’s up with me & taiji.  Here’s an extra dose of honesty, just a middle-aged guy with good knees, a Chinese suit, and some kung fu lite.  Still on the taiji quest every day, no plans to change.