STOP INTELLECTUALIZING NOW: On How to Access the Muscle Memory By Being Present in the Moment

Tags

Health, meditation, mental-health, Mindfulness, Tai Chi

I try to follow some content creators, YouTube Tai Chi channels, etc. Recently I have found the vast majority of what is published and shared annoying, shallow and frankly said – useless for the common practitioner.

In the older literature and Tai Chi classics there’s no mention of “fascia”, there are no elaborate explanations about how to use “yi”. And if you haven’t read much of the older literature, you will have a very hard time find any passage or paragraph where you can read about how to “use Qi”.

Nowadays everyone try to explain what is actually very practical, simple things, that need hands-on learning, in a complicated, intellectual manner, while mixing Chinese and Western terms in the most confusing ways. I often have a feeling that they are more interested in themselves than in their students. What they say is certainly of very little help even if they speak more truths than just mumble-jumble.

Again, you won’t be able to read anything, or at least only a very little, of this in the texts and books written by older masters. And still those old masters could control and throw people away effortlessly.

The biggest trap is the intellectual process in itself. It makes students focus in the wrong direction, it teaches students to “think” about what they are doing, rather than to “feel”. You just cannot “do”, “be aware” and be present in the moment if you try to “think” about how to do something, at the same time as you are doing it.

But being present in the moment is absolutely essential when it comes Tai Chi. Why? Because Tai Chi in practical practice, against a partner or an opponent, is actually very fast and direct. To make something work in Tai Chi, you must react directly and instantaneous on what is happening. You need to attach yourself to your opponent, on distance as well as upon touch, in a way you can react directly and spontaneous on every small change.

Upon touch you need to completely empty your mind so you can let your tingjin, “listening skill” take over. This means to only rely on what you feel, the sensory feedback, and react to what you feel. All your knowledge and experience are preserved in your muscle memory. This is what you need to be able to access, instantly and without conscious thought.

Your intellectual thought process is just too slow, it has no chance to do adjust what you do in the present. You actually need to access another part of your brain, and to do this you need to use your brain differently and tap into your nervous system in a way that is incompatible with logical figuring things out.

To explain this further and hopefully in a physiological way you can understand this process better, Muscle memory is defined as a neurological process that allows you to remember certain motor skills and perform them without conscious effort. Muscle memory is achieved when you reach the autonomous stage. It means that whole of your performance, all your movements, are smooth and accurate, as your brain’s main activity switches to the basal ganglia, the region involved with automatic functioning.

If you are not present in the moment, as in trying to “think out” what and how to do something, you cannot access this part of your brain. Again, instead of acting spontaneously, you will act clumsy, hesitant, and also probably forget all what you have learned about song and sinking, how to follow, react and act.

The mind-state known as “no-mind”, or wuxin, is the key to be able to access the muscle memory and let your accumulated knowledge work by itself. The more you practice, the more hours you spend working with a partner in push hands and other exercises, the more knowledge and experience will be stored in your brain, nervous system and muscle fibers. Some studies suggest that muscle memory causes muscle cell changes that last for at least 15 years, which, if this is true, it means that you can accumulate a whole lot of knowledge and experience you can access through your muscle memory if you keep up your practice for many years.

You really need to get rid of the mind-set of “figuring things out”. If you approach your Tai Chi with intellectual curiosity only, which is by all means in itself not a bad thing, it will be easy to get stuck in this mind-state and let it color everything you do.

You need to focus on how things feel through your awareness.

It is said the skill is transferred by touch, from a master’s hands to a student’s. This is absolutely true. You need to experience first hand how a skilled teacher moves, act, feels. In terms of development, five-ten minutes personal on-hand instruction with a skilled teacher, is worth more than many hours of push hands practice with a partner of the same level, and more than one year of solo practice.

It is not what the teacher says that is important, but to experience the skill first hand.

I have said this before: I went up to a whole other level when I stopped listening to what my teachers said and instead focused only on what they did. Every skill a teacher performs is expressed here and now in the present. You need to become present in the moment and learn through the body, learn by doing. After you have internalized different skills, terms as “qi”, “jin”, and “yi” might have some meaning.

But then again, you will probably still not need them. As I have quoted before, from Master Hao Weizhen: ”If you are able to use intention to attack the opponent, then after long experience, even intention does not need to be applied, for the body standards will always be conformed to.“ Skill is understood through the body and expressed through the body. The mind is always present in the body, but “intellectual thought” and “thinking” has nothing to do what we mean by “mind” in Tai Chi.

Try to think less, and don’t get stuck with words. Try to be present and feel what is happening. First without judging. First explore the practical aspects of what your teachers say and try to interpret what he says in a way that makes practical sense. Leave the rest for later, learn by doing. And be present in what you are doing.

I have written various articles on about the same or related topics, here’s a few of the articles I believe can benefit you to understand more about the importance of awareness and how to approach awareness and the mind in Tai Chi:

• How to Trust your Own Muscle Memory & Body Knowledge – Stop Fighting Your ‘Better’ Self, – related article about how to make the leap from thinking to doing
• Body Mechanics as Body “language”, this article is much about how to internalize your art.
• On how to find your own internal rhythm and flow, how you personalize your art in a meaningful manner and the importance of finding your own rhythm.
• Mind – Breath – Body
• A Spectator Has No Chance to Master Tai Chi Chuan

Hardness might deceive

Tags

Martial arts, Tai Chi

In my own experience, there are two very distinct types of “feel” of high level Tai Chi practitioners. For beginners, one of these types feels like they are stumbling in clouds, there’s nothing to touch, and yet they are easily swept around like a leaf in a storm. Then you touch the other type this kind of practitioner can feel soft and relaxed, but also hard, stiff and unmovable at the same time. It is very hard to explain this contradiction and for Tai Chi practitioners at an average level, this can feel quite confusing.

I remember meeting one of my teachers the first time. I was invited to try penetrating his guard punching at him. He didn’t do much at all, he hardly moved, yet easily evaded all of my strikes and punches. I was surprised how easy it was for him, how precise, small adjustments could left me feeling puzzled and somewhat helpless, like his skill was a whole building of levels ahead of me. But I was also puzzled about that he felt hard. Pushing against his arms it felt like pushing against a wall. Despite this apparent hardness and stiffness, a complete solid structure, he always spoke about relaxation and softness.

So what you need to understand, is that whatever you feel, when you touch a high level practitioner it is the result of a long time of practice. If you strive to mimic and do the same, having the same feeling as your teacher, you are doing wrong. Especially if you try having a certain structure, a hardness, you are just fooling yourself. Many do this because they believe they need to have a certain “peng”, or maintain structure to not collapse.

This is a common view, but it is also a big mistake that will keep you from understanding the real strength and power that can be developed by Tai Chi practice. You need to let go of all urge to use muscle strength to resist. You need to learn how the body and structure will keep up itself if you just let the body keep up itself. And also, when you play push hands or do other partner work, you need to be as soft as possible and relax into your shape and structure instead of forcing it.

You really need to listen to what Yang Chengfu said, that extreme softness automatically gives birth to strength and power. This is the real path to mastery, to first build your ability to be soft and relax into a real skill. You need to not just be not hard, but first you need to learn to become soft and supple and how to keep being soft and relaxed while people try to push and drag you. You will learn how to use it later.

Of course, how to achieve it can be hard to understand. If you haven’t already got it, this might feel confusing and like something impossible to achieve. The only way is to keep trying, keep losing, keep feeling stupid when others easily use force to push or throw you down. Always keep in mind that all great practitioners you will meet have felt the same. They have felt embarrassed, humiliated, many, many times until they learned to “let go” while sticking to the most basic, humble Tai Chi principles. And everyone can do the same. All it takes is time and practice, as well as some courage to continue striving to “get it.”

Tip: I wrote about the same things in this post, but also more about the problems and how to achieve it.

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Why a Scientific Approach to Tai Chi Chuan is the Most Traditional (and Correct) Approach

Tags

chinese-medicine, Martial arts, Qi, Tai Chi, TCM, traditional-chinese-medicine

I was thinking about healthcare in ancient China, not necessarily in terms of “Traditional Chinese Medicine”, or “TCM”, but more how advanced the overall healthcare was in older times. I thought I should do some digging to find more about this subject and luckily I stumbled on some very interesting articles covering the Han dynasti, the same time as the Huangdi Neijing and the Suwen, which is the most important of the historical texts on Chinese medicine. So I read more about this time era, and was surprised by my findings. I bet you can’t even imagine how advanced China was at this time.

I will reveal more of my findings, but first I think I should explain more about why this era is important. The Han-dynasty stretches from 202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD, and preceded by the short lived Qin Dynasty (221–206 BCE) starting with the reign of the person we here call “the Yellow Emperor,” or Qin Shi Huangdi.

This period, with these two dynasties especially, were very important for the future of whole China. Huangdi means “Yellow Ruler” in Chinese, or “emperor”. This was the first emperor of China, who united the country. Amongst other things, he standardized the Chinese characters, units of weight and measure, built roads, and started to unite guard towers together into what today is known as the Great Wall.

His own time and the following dynasty was a time of development and science. A lot of thoughts and science from that time influence Chinese people even today, especially when it comes to attitudes to foods, exercise and general health. Much of the philosophy of Chinese medicine and “internal exercise” as what is today called qigong and neigong stems from this time as well.

So why is all this important? Well, because the philosophy around Tai Chi Chuan is influenced by this time era as well. A lot of concepts, terms and ideas are found in different kinds of practice and ideas of neigong, qigong and Tai Chi can also be found in the Huangdi Suwen.

But it’s more to this, and it’s here where the rest of the story fits in. You see, science, medicine and healthcare, were all much more advanced in this time than what most people here understand. What is called TCM today is just a part of a much bigger picture. There was indeed some of the traditional Chinese medicine and the same kind of philosophy we still find today in TCM, the foundations of TCM. But at the same time, the scientific approach and methods we can find in Western medicine and healthcare were also prevalent.

Already in the Han dynasty, there were not only hospitals, but they also had mobile teaching and research units, and health stations. They had an advanced understanding of anesthesia, and aseptic techniques were also quite advanced for their time. This also made surgeries possible. Surgeries 2000 years ago? Really? Yes, they had medical surgeons performing surgeries like cesarean sections, dental extractions, and even the removal of tumors. They recorded the patients and maintained detailed medical records for patients.

They also develop sophisticated diagnostic techniques and they used dietary therapy amongst other things. But when it comes to diagnostic techniques, herbal medicines and diet, the so called “Chinese traditional medicine” is present as well.

In fact, back in those times, “western” type of medicine and “traditional Chinese medicine” were not separated. It all existed as a whole. There was a scientific understanding and a holistic approach together at the same time.

So what is good to know is that the separation into a “western medicine” on one hand and a “traditional Chinese medicine” on the other hand, is in fact a relatively modern, new “thing”. Originally, they were parts of the same whole and it was never supposed they would be separated like this.

So what does this mean for us studying Tai Chi and similar “stuff”? Well, it means that the philosophy and concepts we use in our own practice were never meant to exist in a vacuum or as an autonomous system of thought. Instead, this terminology, or what we call “philosophy”, was meant to be used together with, and as tools for, a scientific approach. And for many hundreds of years ago, it was used in science.

Most of the terms we use and find in Tai Chi and in traditional Chinese philosophy, are today in China, used in common everyday language. There’s nothing mystical about “qi” or “Yin and Yang”. In fact, most of the Chinese teachers I’ve had, met, or spoke with, were never much for the mystification around Tai Chi and similar arts. Instead, they thought that it would be better for us in the west to use our own terms and names from own languages. And they all thought that a modern, scientific approach was the best and the most correct way to approach Tai Chi Chuan.

So if we unravel history, philosophy, language and different old terms, we can see that the way of expressing things might be different, but the meaning is nowhere near nonsensical abstractions, but instead it’s rather always something practical and commonsensical. In my own humble opinion, this is also the correct approach and attitude towards Tai Chi practice in general.

We should be able to understand how to explain what we do in our own language and with simple terms. We should be able to transfer our knowledge in a practical manner so it can be understood. We should approach the art in a scientific manner and avoid everything that is hard to understand and mystification. This won’t make Tai Chi Chuan more shallow or water it down. Instead the art will become more approachable so it will be easier for beginners to avoid mistakes and taking detours. After all, Tai Chi Chuan is a practical practice, you learn it not by intellectualizing it, but through doing.

Why So Serious?

The problem if you take yourself too seriously, is that when you look back after 20 years, it will be much harder to accept how much you actually sucked.

If you try to not take yourself and what you do so seriously, it will be much easier for you to look at yourself in the mirror and to have a clear picture of yourself. It will be more easy to accept your own flaws and to deal with your mistakes.

A sense of humor and a decent amount of self-distance will make all of your practice much easier, more enjoyable and your progress to go faster.

So run away from every teacher who don’t like to laugh and never puts on a smile. Don’t start in a class where teachers want their students to stand in perfectly straight lines and demand them to address him or her with a Chinese (or Japanese) formal salut before asking a question.

All pompous, too formal, too ceremonial, types of instruction strips out the individuality and put the focus on formality instead of the students own personal progress.

Once, for more than 20 years ago, I asked a Chinese teacher about what I should do to become really good in the future. He smiled and said: “just practice”. He said it in a way as it was not that big of a deal.

And that is true. The only thing you can do is to continue practicing and try to discover more. There’s no recipe, no short-cuts, no secret ingredient.

But there are things you can do to make it harder for yourself, things that can slow down your practice, or even kill the joy of the practice itself.

When something feels too heavy – just take a deep breath and laugh at yourself. Friendly.

Light

Many speak about going against high level practitioners feels like stumbling in clouds. That you can’t hardly feel them and yet they can control their opponents with ease. 

But how come, at the same time, so many practitioners when they play push hands, when try to rely on peng and evident structure?

Sometime people share push hands clips, videos with people pushing hands, with themselves or with others. Sometimes people post a film they took from a meeting of a push hands group. Obviously some people are better than others. But many rely on techniques or tricks. The vast majority of the practitioners are hard and tense up.

They tense up because they rely on evident structure, they attach their strength on the opponent, and they let their opponent attach their strength on them.

You can never become like a cloud if you offer resistance and give your opponents opportunities to attach their strength on you.

Be light.
Stay light.
The lighter the better. 

Your most useful peng and your best Jin are achieved when you move completely free, unattached. When your opponent cannot even sense it’s there.

Taijiquan is a skill with shape and without shape. Although it has shape when an opponent attacks you, your whole body must be very reserved and display nearly nothing in there.

Taijiquan is a skill based on unpredictable opportunity.

If the other thinks you cannot attack, you should just move your mind suddenly to attack. If others think you will come then you should transform as if you have nothing to attack. This is the so-called “being suddenly visible; suddenly invisible”.

– Li Yaxuan