The Attitude of Learning Taijiquan

The traditional internal martial arts of taijiquan, xingxiquan or baguazhang are often misunderstood as being just a flexibility and balance exercise for better health ... which is understandable, because they are excellent for that purpose alone, particularly for older martial artists! In reality, there's so much more. For instance, every one of the 113 movements in the classical Yang-style taijiquan form sets the stage for multiple different martial applications for self-defense purposes including: 1) shuai jiao, throwing an enemy off balance or downing an enemy, ideally by understanding the enemy's emotional state or following the enemy's intent and then exploiting the enemy's anger or lack of centeredness or if necessary with more direct contact and wrestling moves that set the enemy up for explosive bursts power or fa jin; 2) qin na, immobilizing the enemy by seizing, locking and breaking joints, muscles, tendons and bones; or 3) dian xue, beyond wild boxing or kicking, this involves very controlled strikes at vulnerable acupuncture body cavities or acupoints. As these three secondary tactics demonstrate, the neijia internal martial arts are much more than just the opening movements and their choreography -- the very same understanding of the body's vulnerabilities and function that is used by the qin na and dian xue tactics are also the basis for acupuncture or acupressure as well as TCM massage [such as tui na an mo, die da an mo or dian xue an mo, which is very similar to shiatsu massage]. Taiji classes have become popular in hospitals, clinics, community and senior centers in the last twenty years or so, as baby boomers age and the art's reputation as a low stress training for seniors becames better known -- or at least PARTIALLY better known. After all, most older men and women just are not that interested anymore in throwing punches to hurt people or in being injured in their workouts, but they still want to be active, flexible. Yet traditionalists feel that a school not teaching martial aspects somewhere in their syllabus cannot be said to be actually teaching the art itself. Traditionalists believe that understanding the theory behind breathing coordination strategies and the core physiological principles of the martial aspects of the internal arts are a necessary gateway to develop the mental focus necessary for realizing the full physical, mental and spiritual benefits of these arts. And you can't really understand the theory, unless you practice in conscious, repetitive training enough to develop a reflexive ability to apply the art without thinking ... OR until you have reached the point where you understand the theory without having to think about the theory.

At first, when one learns about the mental benefits and martial deadliness of taijiquan, xingxiquan or baguazhang it's a little tough to believe the results. These arts seem so unrealistically powerful that one might wonder why these internal Chinese martial arts have not already become more widely practiced ... the simple answer is that these arts require an extremely serious decades-long commitment of daily training and effort ... the benefits are in fact real enough but the commitment is much deeper, longer than anything that most modern American's can imagine. These arts do not offer the rapid turnaround, "Biggest Loser," cancer-survivor-runs-in-marathon dramatic before-and-after instant-jedi results that Americans typically dream of. Internal martial arts demand more serious mental study and a decades-long commitment ... they do not fit with expectations of rapid results possible on a training regimen at their gym, start doing pilates, kickboxing or extreme cardio video for a sixty minutes a day, training for a marathon, signing up at external mixed martial arts dojo or even jumping into something deadly serious Marine Martial Arts training.

In some cases trite expressions are especially true ... for example, when you start preparing to learn taijiquan, you should realize that you will get out of it what you put into it. Perhaps, in some ways, it is most discouraging to get past the very first disappointments in just doing the earliest taiji qigong stretching and conditioning exercises as preparation to be able to learn taijiquan ... because even though you know better, you might be secretly hoping for more ... you dream you'll pick up a few DVDs, some books, go to a seminar or two and learn one or two things and ...Viola! you're an instant jedi. Of course, that isn't going to happen -- so you need to make a firm decision that you're going to have to make an investment and you're going to have to stick with it and find ways to commit to working at it every day for a pretty long time BEFORE YOU MAKE ANY TANGIBLE OUTWARDLY VISIBLE PROGRESS. In the internal martial arts training, a journey of million miles does actually begins with the first step -- and you need to get that step right or do it over until you do! It is useful to know beforehand something about scope and hardship of the journey in order to prepare mentally for what is ahead and to "pace oneself" emotionally for difficulties that will need to be overcome. Of course, aptitudes vary, but becoming a taijiquan master probably requires something like 25,000 to 50,000 hours of serious effort and diligent study under the direction of an excellent master. It might be relatively easy to describe the attitude necessary for learning taijiquan -- it is entirely another thing to embody courage and perseverance necessary to continually display that attitude over the course of a training period that lasts decades. It helps to understand that courage and perseverance are like muscles, built one repetition, one movement at a time.

Taijiquan theory, for example, is deep and profound -- xingxiquan or baguazhang require similarly exhaustive and perspicacious study -- not only as a complex martial art (e.g. 113 movements, each setting the stage for multiple different combinations of martial applications in Shuai Jiao, Qin Na, Dian Xue), but also with deep implications for physical flexibility and balance, mental acuity and spiritual cultivation. It should not come as surprise that it takes many years of learning, research, reading, studying, pondering, questioning and practicing to gradually grasp the feeling of the art. In addition to perseverance and a good learning attitude, it is also important to find a good master. The Chinese have a saying that "It is better for a disciple to inquire and search for a martial arts master for three years than to learn three years from unqualified one." Additionally, it is common for a good master will test a qualified disciple for three years to see through a disciples's personality to know whether or not the disciple will persevere and maintain good martial morality.

A sincere taiji practioner should collect, read, study and practice the material from a lot of different taijiquan books and DVDs especially from established, reputable authors and martial arts masters that you trust; it does not hurt to also peruse and collect materials from other xingxiquan, baguazhang and other martial arts. It is also good idea to reach out and make connections with other martial artists in order to possibly workout together for flexibility and conditioning, exchange knowledge about techniques, or collaborate on important things like better diet and nutrition. In addition, it is necessary to take advantage of as many seminars, summer camps, emails, videos and every other way that you can think of to get in touch with truly experienced masters and their well-qualified martial arts disciples. Do not be shy about asking questions -- realize that the best way for an experienced martial artist to learn the art even more deeply is for them to teach a worthy disciple. Another Chinese expression is that "You do not want to give up your throat; question every talented person on earth. The way to attain the necessary knowledge is look outside and inside, fine and coarse ... nothing must not be touched upon."

In the beginning, it is necessary to pay close attention to the movements and try to be as accurate as possible. At first it is necessary to do the movements repetitively, but carefully to build the correct muscle memory. As you do this, you must also learn to relax physically as you regulate the body consciously, Only after you have gotten to this stage, can you reach the next stage where you do not have to regulate the body consciously ... the stage known as "regulating without regulating." The next stage after this is to coordinate your breathing with the movements and then work at regulating your breathing. When you get to the point where you can regulate your breathing without regulating your breathing, you can slow down the form while keeping the number of breaths the same. As you carefully stretch the form, your breathing must become natural, smooth, deep, slender and calm ... once you have reached this stage, you will have provided the necessary environment for your wisdom mind to regulate your emotional mind.

Regulating the emotional mind is necessary for obtaining the most significant relaxation benefits of the taiji practice. As you become better in this practice, you will also strengthen your immune system and more thoroughly oxygenate your blood to raise your mental sharpness and elevate your spirit. In order to garner the full health benefits of taijiquan, you need to explore the martial arts applications. If you practice taijiquan for martial arts applications, you must learn to use your mind to lead the qi to the arms for performing different techniques and to to the legs for rooting. In order to manifest power most efficiently and rapidly, you must build a sense of the enemy by imagining that you are in a combat situation. Here, too, the approach is continually train all of the combinations of your techniques to point past conscious regulation, i.e. where you are at the "regulating without regulating" point for regulating the qi where habits are no longer conscious choices, but instead reflexes. After all of your techniques are at this level, they could be quite useful in real emergencies ... or in preventing misunderstandings from becoming real emergencies ... after all, the ultimate goal of taijiquan practice is to help you reach the point where you can harmonize your energy with the energy of the natural universe ... the perfect warrior does not fight, but instead prepares so that it becomes possible to understand where the fight will come from ... which makes it possible to prevent the fight from ever happening with the appropriate early intervention of kindness and disciplined resolve.