Changing Perspective, Valuing Suppleness, Retreating into the Unseen—Staying Whole : Tai Chi 8&9

“To be a good human being is to have a kind of openness to the world, an ability to trust uncertain things beyond your own control, that can lead you to be shattered in very extreme circumstances for which you were not to blame. That says something very important about the condition of the ethical life: that it is based on a trust in the uncertain and on a willingness to be exposed; it’s based on being more like a plant than like a jewel, something rather fragile, but whose very particular beauty is inseparable from that fragility.” 
― Martha C. Nussbaum (1)

Fundamental to both Taoist philosophy and also to Tai Chi is a concern to correct our tendency to become stagnant; the tendency to become attached in a rigid or fixed fashion to objects in the world or to thoughts in our minds. Many can agree to this idea on the surface, but deeper reflection reveals how elusive the application of this simple principle can be. Often we take for granted and are blind to what it is that fixes the limits of what see, what we feel, what we think. Even when reflecting, the tendency is to do so within the same limitations (this is known as the 'blind spot bias': see this post I wrote on the topic contrasting introspection and mindfulness here).

In a few other posts I have described Zhuangzi's use of metaphor ( e.g., 'axis of the way',  'pivot of the Tao', 'center of the potters wheel', 'allowing both alternatives to proceed') as pointers toward a way of expanding limited ways of perceiving the world. Here, to address the issue, I am going to introduce a metaphor used by Ludwig Wittgenstein whom many consider the greatest philosopher of the 20th century. Wittgenstein was very much concerned with the limits of philosophy, and he wanted to understand how we could untangle our linguistic confusions. He saw philosophy as therapy for our understanding, functioning through its capacity to separate sense from nonsense in the way we process language. For Wittgenstein, meaning was dependent on how we use words socially and culturally in different situations(in essence, meaning as use). He called these different contextual situations language games. Wittgenstein wanted to get to the bottom of how language functions by identifying its limits.

Here are some selected thoughts (which he numbered) from his last book 'On Certainty'.

65. When language-games change, then there is a change in concepts, and with the concepts the meanings of words change.

95. The propositions describing this world-picture might be part of a kind of mythology ...

97. The mythology may change back into a state of flux, the river-bed of thoughts may shift.

99. And the bank of the river consists partly of hard rock, subject to no alteration or only to an imperceptible one, partly of sand, which now in one place now in another gets washed away, or deposited.

166. The difficulty is to realise the groundlessness of our believing.

256. On the other hand a language-game does change with time.(2)

There is a lot to unpack here. Wittgenstein plays riffs on the well known William James' metaphor,  'the stream of consciousness'. The image is of a changing river bank of seemingly fixed ideas that provides the boundaries within which our stream of consciousness flows. The river bank represents limits within which sensible thoughts can come together and flow within a given conceptual scheme. Conscious thoughts bubble up in the flow, but they are rooted and dependent upon our deeper system of beliefs signified by the river bank. The river bank itself is not an absolute ground, but a ground for the specific situation—language game—we are immersed in.



Wittgenstein is notoriously difficult to interpret. Here are a few points I would make as layman. 

• We often lack conscious awareness of our underlying beliefs and how they motivate our conscious behavior—language has its own unconscious. That unconscious system of beliefs sets the frame within which we can speak. It also seems to me that the more deeply fixed —the more rock like—the belief; the less available it is to conscious access.
• The river like flow of thoughts is also effecting aspects of the river bed. There is a porous boundary between the river and the bank—between the conscious and the unconscious.  
• Finally, we should also recognize the nature of the river—the type of language game we are engaged with—so that we draw upon the proper guidance systems of belief and action.

If the riverbed was not permeable in connection with the river, thought would be permanently cemented, unable to evolve, unable to form streams which might connect whole new waterways of thought. We might then be constrained to fit all our understandings of the situations we encounter within a limited, hardened, belief system.

Real clarity of thought then becomes contingent on a supple cultivated capacity to shift perspective and discern many types of situations; each situation supported by a sensible set of accompanying values and beliefs open to change. Wittgenstein also noted the limits of philosophy and language.

204. Giving grounds, however, justifying the evidence, comes to an end; - but the end is not certain propositions' striking us immediately as true, i.e. it is not a kind of seeing on our part; it is our acting, which lies at the bottom of the language-game.(3)

When we move on the surface of the earth it rightly seems stable and fixed—our movement is grounded in how the world lends itself to our use of it. From a larger more objective scientific perspective , however, the earth is spinning on it's axis and rotating around our sun; if a being had a perspective of the individual atoms that comprise the ground we are stepping on, that ground would be seen mostly as empty space, and from a quantum perspective the particles that compose the atoms can equally be thought of as real particles or as waves of probability ( not to speak of theories of multiple worlds). While each of these perspectives maybe valid within its given realm of discourse, each is a different language game, and in the end, it is our actual bodily engagement in the world that informs our movement within it. 

205. If the true is what is grounded, then the ground is not true, not yet false.(4)

We need not confuse ourselves overthinking these different perspectives to make use of our relationship to the earth to play with movement in Tai Chi. The truth or falsity of the grounding quality of the earth and the expansive quality of the sky need not be justified to the practitioner—it is self evident. Zhuangzi calls this 'the illumination of the obvious'.




OK, now to the Tai Chi postures we are learning and how all this might relate.

Postures For Weeks 8 and 9

  In these two weeks we cover six movements (Brush The Knee, Grasp The Sparrow’s Tail, Double Whip, Shoulder Block, Fist Under Elbow & Repulse The Monkey) the first three of which we have previously learned.

Changing Perspective- Brush The Knee, Grasp The Sparrow’s Tail, and Double Whip

 “It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view.” (5)
― George Eliot, Middlemarch

The basics principles, meanings and alignments that ground these movements are stable, yet there is something new about their performance and the consequent quality of the felt experience.
These three familiar movements—Brush The Knee, GraspThe Sparrow’s Tail, and Double Whip—previously executed on a line to the left are now cutting back against the grain from front-right to back-left. While the change in perspective may seem small on the surface, the opportunities to deepen the practice may surprise the student. This subtle change in perspective opens a new space of possibilities to play with the grounding concepts— namely, productive emptiness, complementary support, and formlessness within form.

Valuing Suppleness- Shoulder Block - To be Pliant is to be Whole - Fist Under Elbow- To be Curled is to be Straight.

“The finest souls are those that have the most variety and suppleness.”(6)

To become strong, yield.
To be straightened out, bow down.
To achieve fullness, empty yourself.
To be young again, allow yourself to age.
To learn, forget.
The wise person seeks the darkness and shines.
She doesn't boast or compete, so no one can compete with her.
There is an old saying that, like a tree, our survival depends on flexibility, that the rigid snap when the wind rages.
That is a mere commonplace.
is also true.
If you can let yourself go, you have already returned.(7)

In this movement for first time in the form both feet briefly leave the ground as we hop into the shoulder block. There is a natural tendency to tense the body during this application coming out of the hop while extending the shoulder. Instead the body should be relaxed and the shoulder extension elastic. I believes this ties into the top quote from Martha Nussbaum. All living things down to the level of the cell have permeable boundaries. This precarious exposure to world is what allows for our sustenance. Our vulnerability is necessary for our resilience, and while the fear of being exposed may be a sign of our fragility we should not deny its existence. The fragility is both real and necessary, it is present in all of us. Embracing our fleshy exposure to the world, and also, ultimately the vulnerabilities in our self identities as we engage with the world is not a sign of weakness, but a path towards psychological resilience.

Retreating into the Unseen- Repulse The Monkey - Progress in the Way may seem like Regressing

 “I like a view but I like to sit with my back turned to it.”
― Gertrude Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (8)

“Trust your heart if the seas catch fire, live by love though the stars walk backward.” 
― E.E. Cummings (9)

The meaning behind the movement 'Repulse The Monkey' can be read in two basic ways. The first is the simple idea that for any type sustained growth to take place there must be a balance between an active pushing forward and a more passive retreat. We need to sleep, and we need to wake up. If we want to improve our fitness we need to exercise, and we need to rest. In fact the physiological adaptations that lead to improved fitness take place during rest, and if we try to exercise without sufficient pause we eventually break down. The second meaning deals with a number of overlapping ideas covered in this post including: embracing uncertainty, moving into unseen territory, and perceiving how it is the vulnerability of living a thing that makes it pliable, open to change and ultimately resilient. This second meaning is a bit tougher to grasp in its full complexity but I think is more profound. I believes this ties together the top quote from Martha Nussbaum, with some of Wittgenstein's ideas. Yhe actual experence of practicing Tai Chi then takes over where the limits of language stop.

The 'Repulse The Monkey' movement begins in a standing position, coiling and re-coiling the waist as the arms and shoulders alternate expanding and contracting. Simultaneously, the vision is moving with the waist receiving its environment. The movement then begins to retreat: the waist continues its turning and the vision moves with the waist but is not looking back in the direction of the retreat. The vision remains scanning the situation it is retreating from, while stepping backward. This fills the body with a sense of moving into uncertain ground as it relies on proprioceptive sense touching the ground first the pad of the retreating foot then smoothly settling the weight into the heel. 

The 'Monkey' in this movement might represent a certain type of over eager curiosity much like the one in children's book that is always getting into trouble. The monkey mind tends to want to travel habitual paths seeking the comfort of what is already known—also known as confirmation bias. 

I don't think retreat from the world is really possible, only retreat from one aspect or another—retreat from one aspect bringing the other into clearer view. Thus this form can also represent the stepping back from conceptual analysis when its productive limits have been exceeded, backing off from the clutter of rumination and allowing our senses to perceive the world moving through us as we move through it in novel ways.

When you reach the end of what you should know, you will be at the beginning of what you should sense.” ― Kahlil Gibran, Sand and Foam

1- ― https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/03/14/martha-nussbaum-bill-moyers-world-of-ideas/

2,3,4 - https://www.amazon.com/Certainty-English-German-Ludwig-Wittgenstein/dp/0061316865

5 ― George Eliot, Middlemarch

6 ― Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays

7 - Tzu, Lao. Waterway: a new translation of the Tao Te Ching and introducing the Wu Wei Ching (Kindle Locations 261-268). crispy press. Kindle Edition. See also Chapter 76

8 ― Gertrude Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas 

9 ― E.E. Cummings https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/282956-trust-your-heart-if-the-seas-catch-fire-live-by