Tantra says that every cell of the body can be brought to a point of Bliss. If one will do T’ai Chi Chih and then remain quiet for a period of time – not thinking, not planning, not conceptualizing – he or she can experience the same thing. With absolute quiet of the mind, a pulsation will be noticed throughout the body. The movement of the Chi can plainly be felt, and that feeling is one of Bliss.
We tend to cloud the mind with worry, creating problems where none exist. Then we agonize over the problem, completely ignoring the ground from which the problem has sprung. This is “beating the cart instead of the horse” in Zen terms. (Zen is not advocating beating animals!) If the problem goes away, another will arise in its place as long as the ground from which it arose is unchanged.
In T’ai Chi Chih practice, the character of the Chi gradually changes (sometimes instantly), and then the ground where the seed sprouts has undergone a revulsion, in D.T. Suzuki’s terms. We do not fight the problem, be it a lack of something, an ad- diction, or whatever, but the problem cannot grow in the new, balanced soil. This is the aim of all true spiritual practice, and it happens so easily with T’ai Chi Chih practice, if that practice is regular and sincere. Some people practice sporadically, breaking off practice whenever there is something to worry over or resent, thus taking away the very tool that could be a help!
Constant resentment should be a warning to a person that something is wrong; the soil is ripe for new planting. Resentment comes from self-clinging. “Who are you to tell me what to do?” we say, creating a problem where none existed. Take a good look at the ground from which the resentment or the problem arose. Have the habit energies, the attachments, created that ground?
