Answers to questions posed recently. The questions are obvious.
Any energy effect (experience) is something to be passed through rather than held onto.
If you hold onto experience (energy) then it becomes a barrier to future experience (energy).
Rooting is only possible if you are allowing energy into and out of the body; then you root through your feet to the Earth, your head to the Heavens and your hands (or wherever – heart) to the other.
If you are truly and honestly letting energy into your system from the outside and giving energy to that outside (i.e. communicating) then your energy (and health) problems should dissipate.
Rooting is about aligning the body with the forces acting upon it so that flows of energy establish themselves in, out and through. The body as channel rather than vessel. Energy flows out of us into the Earth and so from the Earth into us, into us from the other and so from us into them. These flows cleanse us of anything that clings, whether it be tension, energy or ego.
Pushing Hands (the controlled practice of yield-attack with another) is generally a waste of time because it encourages both incorrect softness (a backward moving mind-body) and incorrect hardness (a forward moving mind-body). If we have central equilibrium then we have a still mind-body and moving energy.
Tai Chi simply offers the opportunity to practice beautiful principles in a controlled environment. It will not improve your personality. What will improve your personality is the commitment to bring those principles into your day-to-day living, especially your relationships. This should happen naturally if these relationships are passionate – if they involve feelings, emotions and the body rather than the considering and considerate mind – if they honestly face the issues rather than opt for comfort (avoidance).
I think Dr Chi abandoned Tai Chi for Christianity (really for Jesus) because he felt that Jesus's message of love – God is all loving and all forgiving (probably the most radical message ever preached) was far more useful to his spiritual progress than the principles of Tai Chi. His practice involved praying and reading scripture all day.
Dr Chi found seated meditation a waste of time because it didn't involve another. For him, like my teacher, the most important problem facing anyone is yielding – how to open up to and cope with energy impinging from outside one's immediate realm – how best to respond to attack. At present I find the problem immediately preceding this one – how do I get my own energy out there – how do I attack (trust) – to be more challenging. But ultimately they amount to the same thing.
From 1987-2007 I was a full-time Tai Chi student-teacher. Now I am making every effort to get a life. This involves being a partner to a beautiful woman, a father to beautiful children, a teacher to beautiful students, a therapist to beautiful patients and a friend to beautiful people. I can honestly say that this is far more difficult and rewarding than filling a life with Tai Chi and nothing else.
A real teacher always teaches the things he (desperately) needs to work on himself. What is the point in retreading familiar ground?
Never be ashamed of what you do, or consider any action you take as unspiritual. If you do whole-heartedly and with humility then it will always have spiritual content.
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