In a way your fitness for a particular enterprise or exercise is measured by the proportion of your energy you can direct into it without getting tired (physically, mentally or spiritually). To learn to direct more and more of your available energy into the work takes years and is rather like training as an athlete - it needs to be taken slowly otherwise you'll hurt yourself.
When I started Tai Chi back in 1984 I was in the final throes of writing up a mathematics PhD - my mind was reasonably well trained (I was going to say developed) and I could readily use it for 12 hour stretches without tiring. I had never done any physical exercise in my life though, so when I started Tai Chi and tried to attack it with the same intensity with which I managed my academic work, I found that I tired quickly - after an hour my body would protest and I would have to stop. Now after 22 years of the stuff, my body doesn't get tired like it used to and I could easy do 7 or 8 hours of Tai Chi at a go. What is interesting though is that because of the time I have spent with my teacher (at least 3 hours a day for the last 10 years), the work I do, although it involves physical movement, is directed much more by spirit and energy, not necessarily mine either but the spirit and energy of the living teaching. The feeling is that rather than me doing the work, the work is doing me. So the constraint now is not physical but emotional and spiritual - the ability I have to remain open and connected to the energy coming through the teaching.
When I started Tai Chi back in 1984 I was in the final throes of writing up a mathematics PhD - my mind was reasonably well trained (I was going to say developed) and I could readily use it for 12 hour stretches without tiring. I had never done any physical exercise in my life though, so when I started Tai Chi and tried to attack it with the same intensity with which I managed my academic work, I found that I tired quickly - after an hour my body would protest and I would have to stop. Now after 22 years of the stuff, my body doesn't get tired like it used to and I could easy do 7 or 8 hours of Tai Chi at a go. What is interesting though is that because of the time I have spent with my teacher (at least 3 hours a day for the last 10 years), the work I do, although it involves physical movement, is directed much more by spirit and energy, not necessarily mine either but the spirit and energy of the living teaching. The feeling is that rather than me doing the work, the work is doing me. So the constraint now is not physical but emotional and spiritual - the ability I have to remain open and connected to the energy coming through the teaching.
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