The Tao of Mind

If you but
Have one hour

In a day
To practice

What would
You practice?

Would your pleasure
Be drills or forms

Or a little of both
Or maybe you like

Strength training and
Bag work more coz

If feels so good to
Impact something

And get that sweat out
For that great feeling

Of having achieved
Something at least

Or would you practice
A little of everything

Because everything
Is important

I dunno about you
But if I have

Only one hour
Per day to practice

I’ll only spend it on
Cultivating shen, yi, qi

Because its the basics
Of our taiji without

Which there is
No foundation

To develop further
And realize those

Wonderful principles you read
About in Taiji Classics

The 1st movement
Represents the first step

In learning the principles
Of this wonderful art

Intention comes first
Our ancestors say

So learn not blindly
But know what you are doing

Taiji an art of
Yin and yang

Requires separation
Of intention and shape

And so standing still
Before we even part feet

Our mind intention manifests
Yin-yang from wuji

With a hazy sphere of light
That rises, engages our mind

And leads our body to
Effortlessly part our feet

So we are now ready
To start on opening up

The internal body to
Connect to the ground

Again the mind wills
The body obeys

The qi rises and
Permeates the body

The 3 qi rings are
Now ready to be formed

In turn the rings open
As we support the

Small qi spheres
In our hands

Unifying the spheres
To the ring

They go off into the distance
And to where they go

Back to me
They come

Lower the spheres
I then to the lowest ring

And we are ready
For the 2nd movement

The 1st step in
Our taiji journey

Begins with
Discarding the past

For a square hole
Is useless to fit

In a round object
So any fit is

At best awkward
And hence best

To leave the past
And start anew

If one truly desires
To discover the wonders

Of the mind and
How intention governs body

An empty cup is more
Useful than a full cup

Cause with an empty cup
It can contain anything

That it is filled with
Be it water, coffee or tea

Yet how often
We forget this lesson

When it comes to
Learning taiji

For a mind that is filled
With all types of forms

Is like a cup filled with
Tea, coffee and water

And whatever else
Guess how the taste will be

For in the realm
Of the mind

We call this overfilled mind
A scattered mind

Know it all but
Understand little

Its better to have a unified mind
Or better still a one mind

For only then can
We focus on getting it

Really right instead
Of being a little right

Once upon a time
In China of old

Fighting methods were created
And houses of combat were born

With the passing of time
Lineages grew longer and longer

And so another great tradition
Of pugilism was born

But with the passing of time
How do we know that

The great tradition that is maintained
Can be equalled to guarantee of quality

Of instruction to those
Seeking quality instruction

That indeed is a dilemma
For sometimes along the way

Principles are lost, altered,
Forgotten, misinterpreted etc

And a great tradition somehow
Lost something along the way

Yes, yes, they can still fight
But are they using the

Principles upon which the
Entire system is founded upon

That is the question I asked
Once upon a time when

Wandering through the taiji maze
Seeking the true instructions

Only to wander into more
Nooks, corners and deadends

Till I was forced to ask
If taiji not all that different

From other martial arts
That uses biomechanics

If so why the big
Ho-ha over the name

Perhaps history has played a trick on us
By spreading those tales of a superior art

I lamented and I prayed
And one day there was

A glimmer of light
At the end of my despair

And now I know
That tradition can sometimes

Lose its way
If the principles are not kept

Hence if its a choice between
Tradition or principles

I’d go for the latter
Coz principles make the system

And not tradition
Cause without principles

Tradition is
But a hollow shell

Here be some questions
For those of you who

Say taiji is taiji
And we are all the same

Question No. 1
If I may ask

Everyone knows “sung”
Is very important in taiji

So here be my poser
“How do you train “sung”?”

Question No. 2
If you can get past No. 1

Is a little extension
Of question no. 1

And goes like this
“How do you know you have achieved “sung”?”

To make this easy
I will just fine tune

The question to simply
“How do you know your hand is sung?”

Have you gotten past
The two questions?

If yes, congratulations
Now for another

Brain scratcher
Question No. 3 which is

“How do you separate your intention
from body when moving your hand?”

So what do you think
Are we still talking about

The same ole
Same ole taiji here?

Post your answers
And let’s see

If you want more
Will be glad to oblige

Exercise for the grey matters
Are good for keeping the

Brain cells active
And our minds fit

Summary of Questions
=================
Question 1 : How do you train sung?

Question 2 : How do you know your hand is sung?

Question 3 : How do you separate your intention
from body when moving your hand?

What’s in a name
Or more exactly

What’s behind
The name taiji?

Some call it health
And some say it dance

But it began as
A martial art

In a little village in
Northern China called Chen

Somehow its popularity
Like Gresham’s Law predicted

Has driven the true essence
Underground such that

What is normally seen today
Is no more different

From other martial arts of repute
So why the fuss over the name?

Apparently the body of writing
Called Taiji Classics say that

Use intention, not use strength
Is the pinnacle of skill in taiji

Rather than just rely on
Plain ole biomechanics

Which is just as effective
But maybe doesn’t sound

As glorious to the snobbish
And the intellectually inclined

But really if the Classics be true
What then is the essence?

And this is where we have
Lots and lots of fun arguing

Over what is taiji and
What not is taiji

Somehow I feel that one
Can argue till the cows come home

But this argument will never run its course
Like a long and winding river

So rather than waste time over semantics
Find yourself a school that transmits

The teachings properly and learn it well
Then perhaps you can at least settle

For yourself once and for all
What this vexed question

Of what taiji really is
Once and for all

Until then better spend
Time practicing than arguing

Song and San
An inseparable old couple they make

For when you see Song
You see San

The methods of Yang
Have no stomping

For how do you maintain Song
At the point of impacting forcefully?

And yet there is stomping in Yang
In High Pat on Horse

But its a mind stomp
Hence no “xing” impact

No “xing” impact means
The treasures of shen, yi, qi

Are maintained carefully
And qi is cultivated, not dispersed

Its a misunderstanding too common
When one does not follow the transmission

For the real objective is
To disperse “xing”

For only then can we say
Use intention, use no strength

And Song and San that old couple
Peacefully in harmony on the way they go

Shen, yi, qi
The three treasures of taiji

Song, san, tong, kong
The keys to entering the gate

Where the mind wills
The body reacts

Yi and xing
Must be separated

Hence yi zai xian
Is of utmost importance

So as not to confuse the domain
Of the mind with the body

We are all stupid
No need to figure out

Practice the methods of the ancients
Seek not and you will find enlightenment

For if we have to figure out ourselves
Then the methods are not being transmitted

Learning and understanding
Are two different things

Just as practicing to understand
And trying to understand intellectually

Hence the masters of old like to say
The secret is to practice

Those were words of value
Except they forgot to mention

That one should practice
What has been transmitted

And not be too smart
To try to second guess the methods

Be it martial arts,
Be it Buddhism

The methods of the mind
Are not easily grasped

And certainly not by
Thinking or guessing

For as Lao Tzu said
That which can be said

Is not
The real Tao

Taiji diagram
Inseparable yin-yang

Yet how often we play taiji
Without conforming to this basic tenet?

Many claim peng jing
Is mother jing

Yet when asked
What is an jing

They cannot answer
Because they don’t understand yin-yang

For in accordance to yin-yang principle
Xin jing must be the mother jing

Only then can we have the
Yin-yang of forces whereby

Peng – an is a yin-yang couple
Lu – ji is a yin-yang couple

Cai – lieh is a yin-yang couple
Zhou – kao is a yin-yang couple

Alas, the “wisdom” of modern practitioners
Have distorted this most wonderful

Treasure of our Chinese heritage
And make a mockery by

Substituting mindmechanics with
Biomechanics which is “xing”

When another taiji tenet has
Stated clearly that

Use intention, do not use strength
But how many really understand this?

We can only sigh the passing of
A great wisdom into the night