Many of you listening have seen Karate experts break through thick boards with one slash of the hands, uttering a shout, “Ahh,” to bring the Chi from where it is stored below the navel. No ordinary strength could perform this feat. And the hands would crack up if it was possible. Rather it is the power of accumulated Chi that enables adapts to perform such feats. Though great strength is involved it is paradoxical that T’ai Chi Chih must be done softly and without effort. Teachers continually harp on softness and continuity. If there’s tension the Chi will not flow freely through the meridian channels, which will contract. So, there must be an effortless effort. If one imagines he is swimming through very heavy air, or that he is moving in slow motion in a dream, he or she will get the idea. It is actually more important to know how to move than to know what moves to make.
In the 13th Century, the great T’ai Chi Ch’uan Master Chang San-Feng described the way to move by saying, “In any action, the body should be light and alert. Coordinated like strung pearls. The Chi, vital energy, should be actively excited but the Shen spirit must remain calm internally.” From this, we learn that all T’ai Chi is essentially spiritual in nature. Meaning it is in accord with reality. This should give you something challenging to think about.
If it seems to you that I am enthusiastic about this subject, you are right. I know that this practice has done much for me. And I have heard countless times what it has done for others. I am grateful to have been the channel through which it came into the world. If you can understand that everything physical is the crystallization of the spiritual state, then it will be easy to comprehend the beautiful passage from the Lotus Sutra that says:
From the state of emptiness, each man’s body is a body pervading the universe.
His voice is a voice filling the universe.
His life is a life which is without limit.
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