The mystery and beauty of life lies not in the rules and principles that govern it, but in the shimmering detail and infinite texture that refuses analysis. The fact that as soon as a principle is discovered and understood, natural energies come into play to disturb and unsettle the surety of that understanding. These are the energies that ancient wisdoms strove to encourage and connect to, and that modern rational thought has tried its very best to throttle and deny. In taiji the yielding mind is one constantly searching for the unaccountable. It knows well that rules and principles are just devices – tricks – to get us going, and that as soon as spirit manifests they largely go out of the window, or at least become elastic, and retreat into the background. The secret to all this is lightness and humour. The perfect antidote to rational understanding is uncontrollable laughter.