If you remain well within your limits at all times there is less risk of injury.
Most people exceed their natural range of safe movement frequently throughout the day without realising it.
The 70% rule encourages them to be aware of their natural range.
In self defence, over-commitment is a serious flaw because you have little room for failure.
Holding 30% in reserve is a useful safety precaution.
If you were to perform every tai chi action to 100% of your physical limit - in terms of stretch and endurance - you would be working at maximum capacity.
The 100% capacity approach is the 'no pain, no gain' attitude to exercise.
It opens you up for strain and injury because you are fully committed at all times.
We recommend following the 70% rule.
Making very small movements is difficult initially.
In modern society, our bodies are not encouraged to make small, smooth, controlled movement.
Everything is jerky and abrupt.
In the first movement of the form, we must place the palms down (as if on a table) then smoothly lift the arms up to shoulder height.
As the arms lift, the wrists must gradually flex so that the hand changes from a flat shape to a bent shape.
The arms then lower and the hand moves from bent back to flat again.
This movement of the wrist must be very slow, smooth and gradual.
If you simply flick the wrist, the joint is not exercised properly but if you move the wrist extremely slowly, you feel a very notable stretch throughout the entire exercise.
When you slow down, you begin to notice things. The study of neigong is a refinement of awareness, in which certain qualities are allowed and cultivated. By being slow, you can pay attention to what is happening.
Rushing is not healthy. Fast movement is often at the expense of good body alignment and can indicate a loss of composure. The unhurried pace of tai chi allows you time to experience life in a more complete fashion.
Modern life involves a lot of boring activities. People are accustomed to daydreaming or 'spacing out'. The difficulty of tai chi necessitates complete attention. It helps the mind to become calm and centred.
Slow motion practice encourages your mind to remain captivated by the immediacy of the moment, to feel every nuance of every movement. This degree of awareness is very healthy.Tai chi is about changing our internal environment so that life becomes a joy to live and not a burden to drag into old age and death. It is about helping your body to let go of the past and your mind to slow down and cease churning. Tai chi encourages your internal focus to shift toward cherishing and remembering all that is wonderful in your life. It predisposes you to look forward to ways to make life better, rather than remembering how unsatisfying it has been.
Most importantly, tai chi gives us the ability to realise a greater human potential in ourselves and to have genuine compassion for others. Tai chi, with its gentle strength, moves us closer to feeling more truly alive.
(Bruce Frantzis)
Neigong requires a certain kind of body movement that naturally produces fa jing. Nothing is forced.
Some methods involve shouting and aggression, with abrupt jerky actions that may cause tension in the body and problems if you are prone to migraine.
Although the muscles remain soft, there is a definite jarring element to it.
Bruce Frantzis sees this approach as giving-in to your animal nature, instead of sublimating it within the human.
Tai chi hides its secrets in the open. Your inability to comprehend them is a reflection of your own occluded nature. To unlock tai chi, you must change yourself.
If you are not discerning and scientific in your study, years may be spent practicing material that conflicts with The Tai Chi Classics, and does not really follow the way of tai chi.
He taught me to vibrate the breath and body rather fiercely and loudly like a growling lion, stretch the tendons, turn the waist like the motions of a food mixer, hit my own body and then flap my arms in the air. I started accruing some fa jing, although of a more shocking nature, rather than the smooth kind that can come from tai chi.
The drawback is that it made my energy jumpy.
(Bruce Frantzis)
Can you actually master tai chi? To do so suggests a degree of self-consciousness incongruent with tai chi practice. Surely you need to be mastered by tai chi?
Your body and mind must flow with what is happening; undisturbed and without resistance. Yielding, surrendering - until the 'you' is no longer present. When you and tai chi are indivisible, there is no master, no perfection.
Returning is an important theme in tai chi; the movements should not start and stop. Energy must release and return constantly as the body expands and contracts. Similarly, if your mind wanders, you return to what you doing and continue.
If you make a mistake, you identify, accept, correct and then begin again. Every time you practice, you start the form afresh by returning to the beginning. There is no end, no perfection. Just endless returning.
Tai chi needs to be considered according to its own nature... Each movement has particular characteristics; both energetically and martially.
What is the essence of each movement?
The body must adjust to express the appropriate energy, remaining utterly loose, balanced and relaxed at all times. Your muscles must be soft but not flaccid.
Inhale when your arms come in, exhale as your arms move out.
Inhale as the arms lift, exhale as they lower.
Inhale as you lift to kick...
This may seem odd until you consider the difference between a hand or leg strike. With the hands or body, you shift from one leg to another as you strike. Yet, with a kick the weight is in one leg only - the supporting one. As you lift the body and kick, you inhale. If you exhaled as the leg rises, your balance would follow your breath.
We only exhale for kicks that are inclined downward, and are using gravity and weight.
Your body knows how to breathe already. It is important to remember this before considering any kind of 'breath work'.
First of all, do not be caught by words - you understand?
The word is not the actual thing, the word 'tree' is not the actual tree - that's simple.
The word will not help you to touch the tree; you have to come into contact with it,
to put your hand upon it. We are slaves to words, slaves to ideas, images and symbols.
To come into touch with something directly the word must not interfere.
(Krishnamurti)
Even more tragic than our separation from the world is our separation from ourselves.
How many times have you stood in the kitchen slicing tomatoes for supper?
Where was your mind? What was your soul feeling?
Were you aware of the feel of the knife against against the palm of your hand?
Did you feel the texture of the tomato as the knife sliced through it?
Were you aware of how your hips, shoulder, abdomen,
and wrist aided the hand in the slicing process?
The answer to all these questions is, probably, no.
(John Lash)
