WUJI: NO-Polarity
To Know Taiji, one must practice Wuji…
Be Still and Quiet…
Observe EVERYTHING happening around you…
Now shift ALL of that focus to just yourSelf…
Notice any undue Effort or Tension…give it to Gravity instead…
Notice your BReath…Notice your Breath…Notice the Motion…
Notice the RHYTHM…
Notice the Pace…
Relax and just let it happen
This Is;
The Practice
On the spiritual Path, every single moment is part of your Practice.
Whatever you are doing right now, is what you are Practicing.
What are you Practicing right now?
In our Wednesday AM TaiChi class, we discussed the importance of practicing outside of class, even if it is something very small or seemingly inconsequential.
The important thing is that we are developing the capacity to focus and invest some Time and Energy in the present moment.
The ability to be mindful in this manner gradually expands, and as it does, the scope of our Practice also expands.
When practicing a TaiChi movement or posture, what other qualities are you Practicing?
Judgment?
Jealousy?
Frustration?
Relaxation?
Contentment?
Taken in its broadest sense, every single moment of Life is your Practice.
How you choose to respond to, and engage with, the world and your experiences is your true Practice.
What are you Practicing?
“The Present” is perpetually renewed and you must become adept at flowing with It.
The instant you try to pin it down you lose It, so the only option is to keep a very casual focus, not thinking or analyzing anything, just allowing yourself to observe and notice Things…
If you are truly doing this, there will not be sufficient Time to Like or Dislike anything. It takes too long to discern and contemplate.
Nothing should make sense or no-sense.
Making Sense takes too much Time.
Staying in this radical state of “Is”-ness can be difficult, which is why there are Practices, and why most of us need to Practice daily!
The infinite manifestation of Things can all be reduced via YinYang,
yet YinYang cannot be reduced.
It can be dissolved, perhaps, but not reduced.
In this way, Wuji (No-Polarity) is not a true reduction; it is a sublimation.
Oneness already contains YinYang as the polarity of Existence/NonExistence;
To-Be or Not To-Be.
Furthermore, once there is Some-Thing, it can be divided.
Only NoThing cannot be divided.
WuJi is Indivisible.
Irreducible.
It is like the Origin of Things, not unlike an Uncaused-Cause.
YinYang arises from It, which blossoms into all manner of complexity (Entropy),
yet all of That can be reduced by YinYang.
The Universe is complex, yet simple; simple, yet profound.
WuJi is Nothing; Zero.
Yet Everything blossoms from it.
If you aim to understand TaiJi (Great-Polarity), you must aspire towards WuJi.
Taichi might be best translated as Paradox.
Extreme Polarity, Ultimate Limits, or Vital Axis are more literal renderings of the term, but if we want to maximize the efficiency of our understanding, Paradox is the idea we want to discuss.
The fundamental duality of our Reality is expressed as Yin and Yang. Traditional Chinese Medicine says there are two primary forms of Energy (Ch’i), there is Yin Ch’i and there is Yang Ch’i.
Taichi is even apparent at the level of Ch’i.
The arguably most-fundamental substance in the Universe, the Ch’i, is still subject to the principle of Taichi.
Taichi is apparent in all facets of existence.
The uniquely Human polarity of Good and Bad is the most interesting.
All of our desires and preferences have an opposite. I like many things so much, that I can barely tolerate their absence. I am trapped in my preference so strongly that anything other than my preference makes me a mess. Siddhartha Gautama recognized this, which is how he became known as the Buddha.
Much of the difficulty in the Human experience is self-imposed by our strong preferences. We are trapped in the matrix of Taichi, perpetually bouncing between our feelings of highs and lows.
When we have properly understood the nature of Taichi, we can readily understand the value of Wuchi.
Wuchi means that the polarity has been removed, there is no Good or Bad. Wu is emptiness, or non-being. If we lose our preferences, then anything is essentially Good. If we look at things truly and objectively, without filtering information through our matrix of Taichi, the world looks very different than we are used to.
This is the true purpose of all Taichi Practice, to break out of the paradox by seeing the prevalence and absurdity of it. There are numerous beneficial side-effects, which vary by method and intention, but the most important benefit of Taichi Practice is gaining the perspective of Wuchi, which allows you to find Peace despite the constant churning and change that is Life.
Out on The Way, there comes a point where you either turn left or right. It’s a fork in the road, as They say. If you turn left, you will encounter a wide-variety of distractions and oddities. There are countless details, funny little snags and plenty to chew on; Zigs and Zags galore.
If you turn right, there is a much cleaner experience. Things are fairly straightforward. The path is well-maintained and very obvious. No frills or fanfare, just a path to follow.
This is how it is.
And it isn’t the case that you cannot switch. If you turned right and wish you hadn’t, you can struggle through the untamed brush and arrive on the other path. Likewise, if you turned left and are overwhelmed by it’s lack of clarity, you can trudge through to the other path (it’s easy to find, since it’s so predictable!).
Ultimately, both paths work. They lead to the same destination.
The funny part is, the destination is where you were before you ever came to the fork in the road. The Beginning is the End.
And yet, once you’ve set out on The Way, you have to pick a path. Turn left, or turn right. It doesn’t matter which path you take, but you will have to walk it (or bounce back and forth between them) because that’s The Way. IT. IS.
You can use the methods of thinking and analyzing to get there. You can use the methods of chaos and intuition to get there. It won’t make a difference in the end because getting there means arriving HERE.
We’re out on The Way for a reason. Most of us are living out the fable of the Musk Deer.
This poor ol’ Musk Deer roams the forest, searching for the source of the marvelous scent he has picked up on. Looking everywhere, he never seems to find it. Forever seeking, never finding, because the scent is coming from him. If he just stood still, he’d be all set.
We are very much the same. We seek peace. We seek relaxation. We seek health and wellness, among so many other things. None of them are meaningfully outside of ourselves. That isn’t the Nature of Things.
You cannot experience anything outside of yourself.
You ARE an experience.
It’s already happening.
ALL THE TIME.
The Mind and Body are doorways. TaiChi and Yoga are doorways. We are invited to walk through if we choose. Some doorways take us to the left, others to the right. All of them are useful, all of them are valid.
But you have to go through. You have to keep walking.
The need to understand the path is a wall.
Attachment to the path is a wall.
You have to keep walking.
If you just sit down and refuse to keep walking, you will only delay your arrival.
It does very little good to be mad that you are out and about. We have to get back.
So you just keep walking the path.
And when you finally realize you have re-arrived at the “destination”, you simply stay for as long as you can.
All these paths and doors will lead you to that place. But you have to do the walking.
And when you find yourself “There” (which is to say “Here”) you have to do the staying.
And inevitably, by our own design or not, you will end up lurching off the mark again and have to take another walk.
And each time this occurs, we run into the forks in the road; so we choose a path and we walk it until we get back again.
There isn’t much else going on with this “Being Human”.
Find your doors and go through. Acknowledge your path and keep walking.
If you’re already There (again, read: HERE), then just stay put.
Don’t put up a wall where you’ve been given a door.
In Tai Chi, as well as in Yoga, the outwardly-visible is never the whole story.
The movements of Tai Chi forms are not routines to be learned for the sake of accomplishment and performance, but rather to train energetic and mechanical alignment and efficiency, as well as to cultivate a quiet mental focus or intention.
The same underlying premises and directives exist in all Tai Chi postures and movements. What is to be done in one particular movement is also the imperative in all the others.
To borrow the great Yogic maxim: Sub Ek. All One.
The reason a skillful Tai Chi player appears calm and relaxed is because there is nothing exciting or compelling in their experience of executing the forms. The quiet moment before commencement is present throughout the entire sequence.
An external-only approach to playing the Tai Chi sequences is like walking around a tranquil and still lake. The internal approach means to become the lake.
Whether you count 8, 24, 48, 73, 97, or 108 forms in your Tai Chi sequence of choice is not relevant once we are practicing the internal aspects.
There is only YinYang, the Tai Chi, and as we allow Yin and Yang to flow we hold to the Wu Chi in the center. We carry and become the stillness around which movement occurs. We become the lake, rather than merely walking around it.
The “Tai Chi Walking” exercise is well-known and widely-practiced.
A walking meditation…
It’s worth remembering that
what we’re really practicing
is a single Step.
Many times.
Returning
to the steadfast
wuji.
In meeting with several teachers and associates today, the topic of Meditation came up.
Recently, Meditation has also been mentioned more often on SocialMedia and in other arenas of dialogue. Of course, this includes the voice of non-meditators, some of whom feel a sense of peer-pressure (if not the pressure of pure smugness and superiority) from the pro-Meditation crowd.
Today’s conversations helped me appreciate the diverse possible approaches to Meditation. Certain systems of Meditation exist with specific instructions and time-tested methods. Some traditions and lineages of Yoga are examples of this, though Modernity has also spurred a large blurring of lines and borders between different traditions.
In any case, if we were to avoid asking the adherents or advocates of a particular system or brand of Meditation, we would find that Meditation itself can be practiced and applied (or at the very least, conceived of) in many ways.
There are Buddhist perspectives that suggest manual labor to be among the best of Meditations.
Many Yoga classes invite us to use Savasana as a Meditation.
TaiChi CHuan is often marketed as a “moving meditation”.
These are all active attempts or efforts at Meditation;
what of the inadvertent or unassuming Meditations?
Riding a bicycle down a smooth road on a sunny day. Fishing a lazy stream in the late afternoon. Lounging, legs-up, on the sofa as gentle breezes whisper in the branches outside the window.
Meditation might be more properly thought of as an Experience.
Any Experience during which we are wholly (or transcendentally, to look at it from the other side of the coin) engaged, fully attuned, whether by way of keen mental-acuity, or that broader body-based proprioceptive perspective, being truly In-The-Moment is the bottom-line of Meditation.
Surely an exception to the Rule might exist, but I believe Everybody pursues Meditation, whether they realize it or not.
A Runner’s High. The first bite of a sumptuous meal. A job well-done.
Meditation, in it’s truest form, is something that happens without our recognition more often than not.
See if you can catch yourself meditating from time to time. The people who claim to not want anything to do with Meditation might find that they already DO meditate, and perhaps more often than many people who have bumper-stickers declaring their Practice.
Meditation as a Practice in and of itself is certainly not Everybody’s cup of tea.
Meditation as a general category of States-of-Being, however, is something inherent to the Human condition. It is simply a part of our Natural Experience.
Embarking on a TaiChi or Yoga journey often seems like stepping onto a linear path, but in my own experience this has proven to not be the case.
Something about the Western Mind, in particular, insists on this sense of linear progression.
Always forward, upward, onward…
Lately, it has occurred to me that the more Time I spend on the Journey, the less linear it becomes. To speak in linear terms, there is a lot of backward, downward, sideways, and cyclical.
We tend to like Asana practice and Forms practice because they give us the tangible and concrete sense of improvement, achievement, and progress that makes sense to the Mind.
Although growth in these aspects has plenty of value, it is simply incomplete, if we are truly engaging with Yoga or TaiChi. We might accomplish a great amount, but it isn’t whole.
If our Practice were about Color, progressing in Asana or Forms would be like trying to get really good at Red; we could be the Reddest Red around, but we have been offered an entire rainbow!
This is not to suggest that practicing only the physical aspects of Yoga or TaiChi is bad. Progress in these areas is absolutely valid and measurable, which is precisely why it is, in fact, good. To leave Asana or Forms training out of the picture would be equally problematic.
But it’s easy to get lost in that linear-mindset. Our Type-A neuroses, our pathological Desire can easily creep in and undermine the Internal work which occurs often just outside of our field of awareness.
It has been my impression lately that the expansion of that awareness is a more useful measure of progress. The longer we keep at it, and the deeper our Practice becomes, the more we realize how much mountain there actually is to climb and how deep the Rabbit-Hole really goes.
Our perspective begins to take in more and more of the picture, and we zoom out rather than zoom in. It’s not about climbing the mountain at all. Just look at it!
Linear progress suggests that we get to leave behind, or graduate from what we’ve learned. Progress in Practice is expansive. We don’t leave anything behind. We assimilate the old and the new simultaneously, perpetually, and wholly, and they always inform each other.
We come to know the “basics” in an intimate manner as we are able to apply them across a broader and ever-broadening spectrum. Progress spreads outward, and we can grow in our Practice because we are always still embracing step-one.
Find the Center, keep the Center. The TrueSelf resides there!
Yin-Yang-Yoga 