Savoring the Transitions

Editor’s Note: During the COVID-19 lockdown the desire to explore the TCC transitions came to Dixie. The submission is about her joyous journey.

THE TRANSITIONS

Do you remember being a kid and pumping your legs on the swing until you were going high, high, high? Do you remember that delicious, weightless moment after the ascent and before the descent when, as the momentum turned, time seemed to be suspended? That was the transition. It is also the transition in T’ai Chi Chih: those moments of suspension where momentum gathers and turns, after the weight has moved fully in one direction, and before it begins moving in the other direction.

…CONTINUITY [is] the Essence

As a new student, I didn’t understand the transitions. I wanted to speed up to get it done, and move on to the weight shift, which seemed more important. My teacher kept talking about continuity and quoting Justin, “…continuity…[is] the Essence,” and like ”moving slow motion in a dream.” Her patient demonstration of equal speed through all portions of a movement helped me do it right, but I still wasn’t getting it. Over time, as my practice matured, I realized that the weight shifts and the transitions take equal amounts of time and are equally important. Greater flow of Chi is the gift.

AWARENESS is the root

COVID-19 brought solitude and desire to further explore the transitions. Awareness opened to every nuance that revealed itself.

CIRCULARITY is the fundamental

Forward and back weight shifts with the arms/hands moving in circles parallel to the ground got my first attention: Around the Platter, Around the Platter Variation, Pulling in the Energy. Early on, my teacher said that she sometimes thought of the circles made by the hands/arms as squares with rounded corners. This helped me feel the movement as completely integrated, but still with four parts: forward, across the body, back and again across the body. Those across the body parts were the transitions.

Then side to side weight shifts with the arms/hands moving in circles vertical to the ground caught me: Carry the Ball to the Side and Passing Clouds. The tan t’ien shifts the weight fully to one side, including moving the forearms/hands across the body. When fully on that side, the momentum consolidates and turns while the forearms/hands move up or down the side. That is the transition.

What about the other movements? More insight. More savoring.

COSMIC RHYTHM

Finding the essence of the transitions is unlocking the flow, the Cosmic Rhythm. The transitions feel savory, juicy and full of potential. Gratitude to Justin and to all my teachers.