Another correlation between the physical expression of Tai Chi and philosophical ideas of Taoism is the ubiquitous existence of paradoxes in both. There are contradictory answers to many questions, and at the same time, the answers are very simple (a paradox in itself).
An example from Tai Chi is the posture of the p’eng shape. If you’re too stiff, you can be pushed over easily. If you’re too relaxed, you can be collapsed easily. People make the mistake of thinking that you have to be one or the either — that you’re either resisting a force or letting it move you — without understanding that there exists a “somewhere in between”. It’s difficult to explain how something can be structured and relaxed at the same time.
A Taoist example is the idea of wu wei, or “action without action”. Practically speaking, it’s the concept that you don’t do anything that isn’t necessary, and by remaining reactionary you let nature (or the interaction of Heaven and Earth, as Taoists romantically say) run it’s course. In doing so, “nothing is done yet nothing is left undone”.
Last class, my teacher said “Tai Chi is easy, that’s why so few people do it well.” His words reminded me of verse 70 of the Tao Te Ching.
My teachings are very easy to understand
and very easy to teach
yet so few in this world understand
and so few are able to practice
The answers remain elusive and difficult to explain because they must be felt, as in Tai Chi, or experienced, as in Taoism, a characteristic of the paradoxical nature of both the ancient Chinese martial art and philosophy.
Re: My comment in class “Tai Chi is easy, that’s why so few people do it well.”
Hmmm… sounds like something I might say but it’s important to invest a slightly sarcastic tone to the word “easy” to get my probable implication that a competent form of taiji is anything but easy which helps explain why it can be very difficult to find a legitimate traditional expression of the art locally — even though many people teach it at a community-center level as a feel-good exercise suitable more to the elderly, the infirm and the lazy.
On the other hand, I suspect that an old-style taoist might also well have suggested that the reason so few people do it well is because it is so easy! Those who intellectualize may miss the forest for the trees and complicate their training with overly stylized, wasted effort because they won’t accept that “it can’t be that easy!”
With a little diligence and competent instruction taiji at its core is simple: be balanced, be upright, be light on your feet without compromising your ability to stand your ground, relax appropriately, learn many techniques and choreagraphies at a reflexive level — without obsessing about them — and then transcend those so your body moves intuitively.
What can be easier?
I find that I tend to over-analyze things in Tai Chi, as well as life. It’s only yesterday that I realized how simple the world is, but it’s in our natures to make it as complicated as it is. Thinking tends to muddy the waters. I really have to agree with the old-style Taoists in that respect.
I’m sure there’s a discrepancy between levels of “easy” as well, although I probably shouldn’t get into that, for fear of over-analyzing.
It’s the part about not obsessing that’s the hardest for me. When I’m into something, I’m really into it.