People commonly translate 'tao' to mean the way.
The danger with this translation is that 'way' can mean more than one thing:
path/road/route
nature/how/essence/character
Invariably, people interpret 'way' to mean the first option, when in reality it might well be closer to the second.
Neither definition can be considered entirely accurate, but at least the second definition is speaking about a characteristic rather than a route.
Lao Tzu began Tao Te Ching by saying that 'Tao' cannot be defined and that any definition is incomplete.
Words cannot extend to reality.
This is a very logical statement. After all, you cannot eat the word 'bread'. Nor could another person share your experience of bread through words alone.
Reality is tangible. It has substance.
As soon as you try to capture reality verbally you fail. Words are too limited. Thoughts are incomplete.
Reality is far too vast. The word is not the thing.
The culture in which tai chi evolved was foreign to our own.
They had very different approaches to living.
To understand tai chi, you must see what the Taoists saw.
If a beast big enough to swallow a wagon
Should leave its mountain forest,
It will not escape the hunter's trap.
If a fish big enough to swallow a boat
Lets itself get stranded by the outgoing tide,
Then even ants will destroy it.
So birds fly high, beasts remain
In trackless solitudes,
Keep out of sight; and fishes
Or turtles go deep down,
Down to the very bottom.
The man who has some respect for his person
Keeps his carcass out of sight,
Hides himself as perfectly as he can.
(Chuang Tzu)
What is the meaning of rollback energy?
Entice the opponent toward you by allowing him to advance,
lightly and nimbly follow his incoming force
without disconnecting and without resisting.
When his force reaches its farthest extent,
it will naturally become empty.
The opponent can then be let go or countered at will.
Maintain your central equilibrium
and your opponent cannot gain an advantage.
(Tan Meng-hsien)
What is the meaning of wardoff energy?
It is like the water supporting a moving boat.
First sink the qi to the tan tien,
then hold the head as if suspended from above.
The entire body is filled with spring-like energy,
opening and closing in a very quick moment.
Even if the opponent uses a thousand pounds of force,
he can be uprooted and made to float without difficulty.
(Tan Meng-hsien)
To practice the tai chi skilfully, it is necessary to learn the tai chi principles.
The art relies upon gravity, softness, balance, rhythm and timing rather than speed or brute strength.
Students must cultivate an unusual kind of power.
At the end of a tai chi session you should feel very relaxed but also alert and vigorous.
When the exercise becomes more dynamic you will receive a serious boost of energy every time you train.
Coming to terms with yourself is not so easy.
It is necessary to observe your mind, emotions and behaviour without judgement.
To learn who you are and what motivates your actions.
Most people are so busy chasing the accoutrements of life that they do not make time for themselves.
Tai chi encourages you to slow down and eventually stop.
This may be harder than you imagine.
Balance is a dynamic process, not a fixed condition.
Sensitivity must be cultivated, along with awareness and presence.
Learning to feel how your own body responds to stimuli, how it moves and what problems it encounters is a profound journey of personal discovery.
Along the way you may become more comfortable with your own physicality.
You may begin to slow down, to notice things.
The marvellous quality of nature-violence, unlike ego-violence, is that it does not spring from intolerance and self-hatred.
So there is no anger in the rainstorm that carries everything before it,
or in the fish that devour their young in obedience to natural laws we know not,
or body cells when they destroy each other in the interest of a higher good.
When nature destroys, it is not from ambition or greed or self-aggrandizement,
but in obedience to mysterious laws that seek the good of the whole universe
above the survival and wellbeing of the parts.
(Anthony De Mello)
Taoism is unique in that it is probably the only major religion in the world whose practitioners as a rule have not sought great secular power. In the past, Taoists took on such power only out of necessity to correct specific abuses. After these excesses had been corrected, they were always ready to relinquish the power and fade away, or "leave no footprints" as they put it.
(Bruce Frantzis)
Here is natural instinct and here is control. You are to combine the two in harmony.
If you have one to the extreme, you'll be very unscientific. If you have another to the extreme, you become, all of a sudden, a mechanical man - no longer a human being. So it is a successful combination of both, so therefore, it's not pure naturalness, or unnaturalness. The ideal is unnatural naturalness, or natural unnaturalness.
(Bruce Lee)
