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From the Wikipedia article.
Taiji 太極 (literally "great ridgepole") is a Chinese cosmological term for the "Supreme Ultimate" state of undifferentiated absolute and infinite potentiality, contrasted with the Wuji 無極 "Without Ultimate". Taiji is best known in the West from the name Taijiquan (or T'ai chi ch'uan) 太極拳 "Supreme Ultimate Shadowboxing".
I was fortunate enough to have Willie come to Tempe recently to get some extra training in with me and he had a question about Zen and how it applies to our training in the Martial Art Of Awareness.
"What is Zen?" is one of the most common questions posed by beginners to I Liq Chuan and how that actually applies to training martial arts. In this quick video I attempt to address that issue as simply as possible.
As i read through student posts I get the sense that you all want to hear something more about the training process. In short, each of you are recognizing the difference between the Tai Chi Chuan mindset and the I Liq Chuan mindset. Although tai chi principles support both training methodologies, the training approaches are very different.
It is my understanding that Tai Chi Chuan in the early 1900's was only available to family members and those students who had already reached a high level in another art. These outside students also already understood obvious power and structure. Their yang qualities were well developed, what was missing were the yin qualities. So, in general, the initial training methodology for outsiders emphasized softness. Later, when some understanding of relaxation was present, a new kind of internal power could manifest. Notice that internal power at its foundation consists of softness and structure. Yin AND Yang.
The Tibetan teacher Mingyur Rinpoche explains that meditation is meant to train our 'crazy monkey mind'.
Sunday's class ended up being a private lesson with Moose, and since he's working on his student level two, we spent a long time talking about the hip roll, finding the limits within the hip roll and triangle energy and maintaining the square-ness of the hips.
Take a look at the notes from the white board, questions welcome!
©2012 CFILC
I found this to be an overwhelmingly positive event for the following reasons:
Sigong went to great lengths to create a "family" atmosphere.
We were priveleged to have not only the most experienced instructors of the art but many instructors of varying levels available to us.
The diversity of students enhanced the experience tremendously; the opportunity to live with them for a week was an ideal "training ground for life" environment.
Minimal ground rules and structure facilitated flexibility and openness.
I Liq Chuan - art for cultivating awareness
From time to time I enjoy re-reading the old "Tai Chi Classics". As students of I Liq Chuan, we should be studying "the cause", and the classics only discuss "the effect", so from the perspective I think you can't really learn anything from them, but I do find they make nice martial arts poetry.
From the I Liq Chuan System Guide.
"Learning is not to accumulate or imitate... Put your intention on your attention in order to become a reflective receiver... Do not think or judge... With mindfulness we learn, or look into our body, feeling, mind and nature."
In order to know what I know and do what I do, you must train like I train.
Is this not the simplest thing? What gets complicated is that what works for me might not be what works best for you. As I go deeper into the curriculum and further down the path of understanding, It becomes increasingly obvious that it truely is Not At All About Me.
In order to best teach, the teacher must be more open, more transarent, have an emptier cup and be 1000x more flexible in mind and body than any student.
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