Harmony Tai Chi - Class's 3 & 4 - Moving From Absence Into Presence

“Absence, the highest form of presence.” ― James Joyce 

 You can't see the invisible.
You can't name the fugitive.
You can't hear what can't be heard.
You can't grasp what you can't touch.
Now can you?
You can't avoid these qualities, but you can't comprehend them, either.
They make a universe.
Tonight the sky is dark and the earth glows as with moonlight.
A cord stretches from it to it, and returns and returns.
What is the substance of emptiness, the form of the shapeless?
Confront it and its face evades you.
Follow it and its back disappears.
But still the ancients moved with the Tao into presence.
Stay connected to the origin.
That's Tao's cord.

Tzu, Lao. Waterway: a new translation of the Tao Te Ching (chapter 14) and introducing the Wu Wei Ching (Kindle Locations 175-184). crispy press. Kindle Edition.

Double Whip - Exposition of the Mystery

In weeks three and four we only learn one new posture ( Double Whip ). This is a posture/movement that can take quite a long time to master as it requires a simultaneous and subtle integration of multiple Tai Chi principles while stepping and turning the body through the better part of circle. Three years ago I posted on a philosophical connection I saw between the experience of this movement and an essay by Amanda Gefter concerning the Higgs Field ( here ) and I am borrowing some of my on text below.



The most basic conceptual principle that is fundamental to Taoist philosophical thought can be described as 'complementary opposition' . This concept is represented by the well recognized tai chi diagram which models the interdependent relationship between yin and yang.  Yin and yang can represent any pair of interdependent complementary opposites such as dark and light, form and formlessness, or, asymmetry and symmetry.






In line with the tai chi diagram, the Ni family harmony style tai chi movement form is composed of two sections: a 58 movement yin section, and a 50 movement yang section. Like the dark and light fish represented in the diagram, the yin and yang sections of the form asymmetrically oppose each other in such a way that their integration allows for the emergence of something greater than the parts. What emerges is symbolized by the symmetrical form of the circle, and what underlies the integration of the parts is a greater symmetry that could be said to be formless.

Consider the two postures 'double whip' and 'single whip'. Common to each of the postures is the underlying meaning 'exposition of the heavenly mystery'. An exposition is the setting forth of a theme. The 'double whip' posture serves this function for the yin section while it's opposing complement 'single whip' serves this function for the yang section. While each of these postures is composed of circular movements the 'double whip' is more contained, less expansive and turns 180 degrees from left to right. In contrast the 'single whip' is less contained, more expansive, and turns from right to left. Like the light dot contained within the dark fish the 'double whip' is said to represent 'yang contained within the yin'. Conversely, the 'single whip' represents the light fish which contains a darkened dot or 'yin within yang'. Together they complete the 360 degree circle of the tai chi diagram.

Moving From Absence Into Presence 

 Embracing emptiness, absence, mystery, uncertainty, and doubt are common theme's in Taoist philosophy. These ideas are not unique to Taoism. Just to give two examples, emptiness is central in Buddhist thought, and the poet Keats' concept of 'Negative Capability'  also has a similar emphasis (1).

'Several things dovetailed in my mind, & at once it struck me, what quality went to form a Man of Achievement especially in Literature & which Shakespeare possessed so enormously — I mean Negative Capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason'

 My interpretation of the Taoist idea of embracing absence does not require a negation of presence, and neither does the idea of 'being in uncertainties' require a rejection of 'facts & reason'. The ideal embodiment of absence reveals itself as presence. A mind aware of its own uncertainties is properly situated to evaluate facts, apply reason, and perhaps be surprised by new understandings.

There are many distinctions to keep track of while learning the 'Double Whip' movement. The rooted foot connecting one to the earth is constantly changing, the waist (lower dantian) is directing the movement, subtle circular expressions are unfolding out to the extremities, and all the while a visual panorama in flux is being received from above. Any focused attention revealing one of these aspects will conceal all the others. To bring them all into presence we must forget the particulars ( bring them into absence).

 What is the substance of emptiness, the form of the shapeless?
Confront it and its face evades you.
Follow it and its back disappears.
But still the ancients moved with the Tao into presence.
Stay connected to the origin.
That's Tao's cord.

 

 

 

1. https://www.brainpickings.org/2012/11/01/john-keats-on-negative-capability/

Harmony Tai Chi - Class 2

 'The world is like a bow being drawn;
what is high comes down, and what is low rises.
What is lacking gets filled; what is full leaks into the emptiness.
The world threatens those who have too much and yields its real wealth to those who have nothing.
Yet human beings try to operate in exactly the opposite way.
We give power to those with power and take it away from those who don't have any.
Good luck!
The path always returns.'

Tzu, Lao. Waterway: a new translation of the Tao Te Ching (Chapter 77 )  (Kindle Locations 760-766). crispy press. Kindle Edition.

Form #2 - Grasp the Sparrows Tail - Gate of Subtle origin

We begin this class first by reviewing what we worked on in week 1 and next we move forward with the 2nd movement form.

The 2nd movement 'Grasp the Sparrows ' is comprised of four smaller movements each with its own common name, and with its own spiritual or poetic meaning attributed from the Ni family tradition. These four smaller movements were also each among the 13 original Tai Chi postures attributed to Chan San Feng, and as such they have classic correspondences with yin/yang and five element theory. The table below lays out these correspondences.

The Four Components of Grasp the Sparrows Tail

Common name	Ni Family Spiritual Meaning	Tai Ji Classics Correspondence
Brush the Sleeve	to raise the lower	pure yang, heaven, creativity
Roll back	to lower the elevated	pure yin, earth, receptivity
Press	decrease the overabundant	yang within yin, water
Push	nourish the insufficient	yin within yang, fire

 

The attentive reader may at this point have noticed how the Ni family meanings mesh nicely with the quoted chapter (#77) from the Tao Te Ching that introduces this post. This is a small example of how the Ni family form meanings provide a depth of philosophical background that can enrich ones engagement with the movement. 

Each individual posture meaning much like the individual notes in a musical composition can take on a collective significance in the context of those meanings that surround it. As this collective significance takes and sheds form, the contours of its shape unfolds in a long progression of the movement. The meanings like the notes, reveal their beauty in relation to those that came before, the silence in between, and the suggestion of those to come. Ultimately, the meanings in the long form trace a path of cultivation that folds back against itself, and each time one practices the form she does so as a new beginner, although perhaps starting at a different point along the circle.

In this particular example the Ni family meanings refer to fundamental transformations between yin and yang. For example the Ni family represents a long line of traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, and the four most fundamental techniques in acupuncture include:

1.  learning to support the body in lifting energy when its yang rising capacity is diminished:
2.  learning to lower energy which is unrooted and floating upwards;
3.  sedating excessive energetic expressions such as inflammatory processes
4.  tonifying areas of weakness or deficiency.
   Of course these medical applications are just one way the metaphors could be applied.

Collectively the four components fall under the larger form meaning 'The Gate of Subtle Origin'. This can be thought of as a gate swinging back and forth between the limitless variations of yin and yang connected on their pivot point, and always part of a larger continuum.

The Gate of Subtle origin and Zhuangzi's Pivot of the Tao

The center point from which the 'Gate of Subtle Origin'  swings was described by my favorite Taoist philosopher Zhaungzi with a metaphor he termed 'the Pivot of Tao'. Here is one example:

'When “this” and “that”—right and wrong—are no longer coupled as opposites—that is called the Course as Axis, the axis of all courses.When this axis finds its place in the center, it responds to all the endless things it confronts, thwarted by none. For it has an endless supply of “rights,” and an endless supply of “wrongs.” Thus, I say, nothing compares to the Illumination of the Obvious. (1)

....Thus, the Sage uses various rights and wrongs to harmonize with others and yet remains at rest in the middle of Heaven the Potter’s Wheel.This is called  “Walking Two Roads.' (2)

I should mention here that the character 'tian' which is translated as 'Heaven' does not resemble the concept of heaven familiar in the modern world. It is often translated simply as nature instead. The 'potters wheel' is a metaphor for the spontaneous unfolding of nature's events and processes. Walking two roads is a metaphor for moving with the 'Tao'.

Walking two roads is what we try to do in Tai Chi practice. We want to keep our options open, finding a space of play between the extremes. From this space of free play we hope to see the possibilities afforded in a given situation without blinding ourselves to those possibilities with fixed prior allegiances. This is an aspect of moderation in that it involves not going to extremes, but it shouldn't be interpreted as staying passive in the middle. Rather than passivity, it is a posture of engaged responsiveness.

Notice the phrase 'the Sage uses various rights and wrongs to harmonize with others'. This is also not solipsism, or an enclosed, or self created reality purely of our own choosing. Having access to the supply of 'rights' and 'wrongs' requires a fluency of understanding responsibly connected to the physical, social, and cultural environments that produce the rolling situations we are embedded within. Perhaps most important is developing an awareness that is equally concerned with the the power of self deception as it is with self actualization, equally embracing our own uncertainties and illuminations with humility.

'Thus, the Radiance of Drift and Doubt is the sage’s only map. He makes no definition of what is right but instead entrusts it to the everyday function of each thing. This is what I call the Illumination of the Obvious.' (3)
 

Some might also be interested in a post I created 5 years ago that concerns the of idea of nature filling what is empty, taking away from the excessive and in general moving things towards an equilibrium. I called it the 'Tao of Entropy'.





1,2,3. Zhuangzi; Ziporyn, Brook. Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings, With Selections from Traditional Commentaries (Hackett Classics) (p. 12&14&15). Hackett Publishing. Kindle Edition.