www.Longfei-Taiji.co.uk	Longfei Taijiquan Association of Great Britain
		Longfei Newsletter Volume 9 Issue 2

The Chair, the Flower and the Rabbit

Treasures on the taiji road

If I could but write this well you might well understand it, but even if you understand it will remain a flawed gem until you can "feel it". However I am driven to try. I hope you too will be driven to find this same treasure. These are the treasures in life that no other can steal, so you need not hide them behind barred doors, in fact your own treasure is the greater if you give it away.

As we small group of students sat in the old farmhouse enjoying an after class glass of wine with our teacher, I tried to remember those little gems I had picked up in the class. No doubt you have been there too... "wow, what a brilliant idea that is, I must remember it for later", then, when later arrives, all you can remember is that there was once, not so long ago, something that you knew that was great and that you had intended to remember it. I sat, sipping the wine and delving deep into a memory only an hour old, at last two words came to mind, rabbit and chair. But I knew there was a third, then it came to me, "aha, of course flower". I struggled to hang on to the words while more interesting conversations continued around me. These words were needed to trigger a train of thought that creates a feeling; the feelings we hope that will remain when the words are long gone.

The Chinese internal arts are littered with vague aphorisms, almost un-interpretable inferences and poetical imagery that are supposed to enlighten you, and they will, if you only knew what they meant.

An example in story form: "Our teacher says we should use the magpie bridge". "Oh and where is that then, in town?"

"No it's a place in your mouth that you make with your tongue." "Are you sure he's not having you on? Perhaps the meaning has been lost in translation." "No for sure that's what he said, its supposed to create a energy loop in the body." Oh... and what's it feel like then, this magpie bridge?" "I don't rightly know, I don't believe in that sort of thing, but he said that, if we did it, it would change how we felt, and said it was more than technical it bordered on the spiritual... I'm not so sure though." "Oh!"

If they had felt the magic of the magpie bridge they would no longer doubt... But how to feel it, that is the question.

Ok: back to the chair, the flower and the rabbit. Amazingly - or perhaps not so - you must find out for yourself. You cannot be told or shown by another. No different if you wish to play a musical instrument... does it not require practice?

Yes, you need a teacher to put you on the road, but it is you that must walk it - the easy going and the rough. If you don't walk the road you don't go any where, and as you no doubt realise some of the most beautiful scenery is only accessed by walking. (No cars to mountain tops or crystal caves or jungle temples, only feet to take you there on your own!)

Mental awareness health warning

From here on, if you don't plan to try and "feel" the advice and to "feel" the stones of the road under your feet then do not read on. Stop here, for it's not your journey; you may have bought the map but it'll stay on the shelf.

For the taiji student this opening move will be familiar, feet shoulder width and softening the Kua and bend the knees. Feel how that is and then relax and come out of the posture while reading on. Imagine you are about to sit in a chair, just before you actually release your body to the chair there occurs a little relaxation of your own body. It is this feeling of relaxation you must seek to feel the next time you open the first taiji posture. Give it a try - or two - or three - it's a long road.

Should you discover one of your joints is tight and uncomfortable there may be many things you could try - this one's not bad. Feel the joint in question with your mind, feel the flower gently opening, steadily, smoothly, inexorably expanding, unstoppable - feel it happen, feel the tension go.

Still with us? Ready for the rabbit? Well not so much the whole rabbit, just its ears. You take a taiji or qigong posture if you wish, or even sit comfortably for this one. Try and quiet your mind, then when you feel ready, (that's feel not think) imagine you have rabbit's ears, lovely long soft rabbit's ears sticking up above your own. Got that? Imagining them?

Right, in your mind feel the tips of those lovely ears, sense what it is like at those tufty little ends. If you are not laughing by now, and that's good for you too. You should feel a change that trickles down through your body and at the same time feel that you have extension beyond body.

Even in the Appledore pub as I write this I can feel the rabbit's ears - I just hope that no one else here can see them. Go on ask the rabbit, it may know more than you think.

Two warnings here

One, the rabbit's answer will only lead to more questions. Two, don't talk out loud to the rabbit, especially in the pub. May your road be easy and full of flowers and rabbits... with an occasional bench on which to sit.

Richard J Small

Longfei Newsletter Volume 9 Issue 2 Table of Contents