Concepts Are Limiting

Often when we teach we use images to get across an idea or shape. For Around the Platter we might say imagine the fingers tracing the edge of a plate; in Bass Drum we might say imagine the fingers going around the outside edges of a big bass drum – to get the idea of the hands circling while keeping the same distance apart. Images can be useful in the beginning to help a student see in their mind the shape we are trying to explain or the pathway their hands/arms should be following when executing a move. After a student has learned the shape of a movement then it is time to let the image go. It then becomes limiting. We must go beyond the concrete idea to feeling the movement. The mind must be free rather than locked in a concept. As we move we might say things like “push the bad energy away” or “pull the good energy in” or “as we open the hands we share the energy with the world” or “gather the Chi and bring it into the heart or tan t’ien.” When we do this we are adding our own interpretation to T’ai Chi Chih. These are nice thoughts but they are not TCC and they engage the mind.

TCC was meant to be done with a still and unthinking mind. Its purpose is to circulate and balance the Chi. We do not direct the Chi. We move and the Chi flows. If we tie up the mind with thoughts of each particular movement doing a specific thing with the energy, we are limiting the ability of the Chi to flow its natural pathway.

The only movement we engage the mind with is Pulling In The Energy – by visualizing “energy from the most distant star flowing into the finger tips.” It took many years for me to get comfortable with this movement while trying to find the right visualization. And then it hit me: there is no distant star. As our telescopes become more powerful we continue to find new stars farther and farther away. Brilliant. Any other visualization would be limiting.

If we continue to use a shape or visualization after the initial teaching of a movement, we are locked into that pathway and cannot feel our way through the movement. There are occasions when practitioners have felt TCC doing TCC, or the Chi moving us through the form. This can only be done if the mind is open in awareness and not tied to a concept.