Tai Chi – The Art of Unlocking May 22, 2008
Posted by Geoffrey Wilson in : Health Tips,Meditations,Wisdom Notes , trackbackAustralian Tai Chi master Tony Ward, has a beautiful understanding of this ancient martial art and it is a pleasure to watch him in action as he simultaneously explains the principles to students and demonstrates. His basic premise is that the practice of Tai Chi is designed to unlock the body’s plethora of resistances – habituated responses to challenges – stored in muscle memory.
Based on the teachings of his master and passed down in the traditional manner, Tony insists that the essence of Tai Chi is to be discovered in stillness. In other words, training is designed to cultivate a deep personal relationship to quietude and stillness. In the process, the practitioner learns to passively watch what is actually happening in the body as the struggle to release tension escalates. It is a struggle because the mind puts up quite a fight – it doesn’t like it when distractions are disallowed and awareness is instead focused on the moment-to-moment reality.
Tony Ward suggests that the body’s habituated responses to the challenges it faces, creates energy blockages and these must be unblocked in order to literally open up! From this it is evident that there is a strong connection between the body and the mind. What happens to one, naturally affects the other.
Yet, placing attention on maintaining open awareness (e.g. ‘My legs feel very heavy’) without judgment (e.g. ‘This is painful and I want to get out of here but I’ll stay with it’), is the key to transformation. The body can be the vehicle therefore through which to calm the mind and vice-versa.
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