A Great Bonus

Zen practice, no matter what you hear, is aimed at having you realize your own true nature. When you suddenly find out Who and What you are, it is a big surprise. On having this experience, the Zen master Hakuin said, “After this, seeing things of the world is like seeing the back of my own hand.” Zen proposed to do this through controlling and purifying the mind–cleaning out the Eighth Consciousness, the Alaya Vijnana. (Alaya means “receptacle,” as in Himalaya, receptacle of snow. Vijnana is “consciousness.”) This usually takes long and arduous work, often to the exclusion of other things, as the mind becomes one-pointed through such discipline as the Koan practice. T’ai Chi Chih works from the other end, not from Mind but from the Chi, which affects the Mind, just as the Mind affects the Chi. But T’ai Chi Chih also affects the health, through circulation and balancing of the Chi–this is the great bonus. It does not require giving up anything. I wish I could get Zen monks and Masters to do T’ai Chi Chih; most of those I know suffer stomach ailments from poor, soft food and from long periods of sitting without compensating periods of stimulating the Chi (“Ki” in Japanese, “Prana” in Sanskrit). So you can reach the same result through difficult mind control in Zen or through easy T’ai Chi Chih practice working with the Chi. This is possible because of the reciprocal relationship of Mind and Chi, a little known fact of great importance.