Holding Fast: Letting Go

Carmen Brocklehurst, Albuquerque, NM

There have been many times in my life when I felt that I was trying to let go, but it also seemed that the more I tried, the tighter my grip held on to the situation. It reminds me of the story of the greatest swordsman of Japan when he asked the Master, “How long will it take me to learn?” The Master, seeing that he was in earnest, said, “About ten years.” The student, feeling panicked, said, “But what if I work really hard at it?” The Master answered, “Then it will take you twenty years.”

It seems that the essential teaching comes back to what Justin says about T’ai Chi Chih: “It must be done with the effort of no effort.” Often when we start a class, we find the students overextending, stiff as a board, tight in the shoulders. Regardless of how many times we say, “There is no strain to the movements, they are easy to do, let it flow (in other words, ‘Let Go’),” the student continues to hold on to “trying to do the movements.”

Our talking to the students is helpful; it encourages them. But one day, through the movements themselves, the CHI is felt and then that which we needed to let go of is no longer there. How clear, how easy, how simple. (“When the water is clear the moon disappears.”) We might never have said, “Let Go,” but that is what has happened. We sometimes take it for granted, that the letting go has actually happened, but it really is a miracle. Thank you T’ai Chi Chih for a gentle way to “Let Go.”

Source: New Mexico TCC News, July ’96