Torque

Fighting spirit and community spirit. We clearly need both so yet again we have to strike a balance – an equilibrium, or what my teacher would call torque. By torque he means a state of power produced by the interaction of two twisting forces with opposite turning moments. The opposing turns don't cancel each other out, instead they twine around each other and squeeze and capture energy producing a charged and vibrant state. In a sense any living or lively situation is torqued – it manages to maintain a controlled high energy level without exploding or combusting, through a balance struck by the interaction of at least two different forces. In Tai Chi turning the waist to the right tends to produce clockwise twists in the limbs and turning the waist to the left produces counter-clockwise twists. It is possible for a limb to contain both twisting moments if the waist is working with left and right turns either simultaneously or in rapid succession (simultaneous should be a very quick alternation otherwise it becomes a grinding opposition, losing vibrancy and life). To turn the waist rapidly left right left right can be quite exhausting so instead of thinking in terms of using the waist to generate an energized state, think instead of using it to capture that state. The image of life, especially on this planet, is all around so if you tune into this vibrancy then the waist will want to do what it needs to do to make you similarly lively. To open to such possibilities requires heart and a real interest in something beyond yourself. Fighting spirit and community spirit don't oppose each other, they inform each other. You cannot be an effective and enduring fighter if your heart isn't big enough to contain the community from which you spring, and the community will not flourish or even survive if its members cannot or will not fight. The Mahayana don't insist on the bodhisattva vow because it's a worthy idea but because they have found from experience that it makes them better warriors. The environment in which you work needs to be open, vastly so, otherwise the heart will not fill with awe and wonder the way it should each time you enter your Tai Chi.