Listening. This word, perhaps more than any other, sums up the essence of taiji. (Yielding, our close contender, is simply the art of acting upon what is heard.) It should be clear, having said this, why honesty is so important. What we listen to, namely energy, is so subtle, so delicate, so open to suggestion, that anything in our mind and heart will change it and possibly corrupt it. If the mind has already decided what it wants to hear then the listening process is largely ruined. So our touch and our presence must be so light and soft as to be elusive. Yet, paradoxically, our listening must bristle with the desire to hear – our listening doesn't just hear, it sucks what is heard into existence – otherwise yielding is always too late. Taiji takes so long to learn because listening is only true when the heart is ready to yield – to change – to fight, and to possibly die.