To practice Tai Chi to the extreme is to be simple and plain, that is, the great way is simple!
When practicing Tai Chi, you start by standing and punching. After you have internal strength, you still stand and punch. In the end, you still stand and punch when you are superb. Although it is still standing and punching, as the understanding deepens, the level and realm are different. As the philosopher Hegel said: the same sentence is more meaningful when said by an old man than by a child.
Pursuing simplicity and plainness does not sound difficult. The difficult part is to put it into action and persist. Without persistence, all virtues and holiness are fragile. People who have lived a minimalist life for a long time understand that to achieve minimalism, you must practice like an ascetic monk. Fortunately, persisting in practicing Tai Chi is a long-term process of returning to a minimalist life, so you don’t have to deliberately seek simplicity, just concentrate on practicing boxing.
When you start practicing Tai Chi, you will find that the master’s requirements are very strict. Whether it is standing or punching, the master will always find out this or that problem. As a beginner, you may conclude that Tai Chi is too difficult to learn and is not suitable for me. This is a huge misunderstanding.
It’s not that Tai Chi is difficult to learn, but that we have already made ourselves too complicated. When we were students, we were used to constantly solving difficult questions. Although our grades were not bad, we were rarely satisfied. We always thought that there were more difficult questions waiting for us to solve. If we didn’t get the ideal ranking, we would often feel uneasy no matter how well we did in the exam. After work, we have to deal with complicated work and interpersonal relationships, and we will not be very satisfied even after we become workplace experts.
Compared with satisfaction, worry is more in line with our actual living conditions. In order to win a place in the competition, we always think that the world is very complicated. Simplicity has become a luxury. Even if we have nothing and are penniless, we are still used to looking at the world with complex eyes. Life is not even a hundred years, but we always worry about a thousand years. This is the situation of most of us.
We consider everything, but it seems that we only don’t consider the problem of simple life. The saddest thing in reality is that our hearts clearly call for sincerity, but we are often trapped in the routine of human relationships. We say that we should concentrate on practicing boxing, but many times we still can’t let it go.
Compared with the complexity of human heart, Tai Chi is nothing. Practicing Tai Chi may be a little strenuous at first, but in the long run, it is to help us walk the path of extreme simplicity. Lao Tzu said: To learn is to increase day by day, to practice Tao is to reduce day by day; reduce and reduce, until there is nothing. Practicing Tai Chi is to follow the spirit of Lao Tzu to reduce day by day for Tao. The so-called Tai Chi Dao is simple, which is nothing more than Yin and Yang. Even if Tai Chi has thousands of methods, they are all natural laws. The so-called Tai Chi internal strength is nothing more than helping us find the innate true qi like a baby. “True transmission is a sentence, false transmission is ten thousand books.” To practice Tai Chi, we must dare to walk our own way, believe that slow work produces fine work, and maintain the belief that quiet waters run deep. Even if all kinds of fitness experts’ big bodies and big pectoral muscles are all over the circle of friends and dominate the discourse of sports, Tai Chi practitioners will still quietly stand and practice boxing. Real Tai Chi practitioners firmly believe that wisdom belongs to a few people and popular things are not long-lasting. If you just follow the trend to satisfy your vanity, you will be despised by gentlemen all over the world.
The confidence of Tai Chi practitioners comes from their inner determination and the fullness of their souls. No matter how you look at it, they are content with their own corners, quietly standing and practicing boxing. They are immersed in the time of Tai Chi. They do not need to find a sense of existence by posting all kinds of happy pictures, nor do they need to hold their mobile phones all day to entertain themselves. If it is not necessary, they would rather be alone. Their belief is: it is better to have high-quality loneliness than boring and vulgar socializing. Therefore, you rarely see them appear in public or in the spotlight. Even in public, we can clearly feel their unique temperament (usually standing out from the crowd).
People who practice Tai Chi to the extreme must follow their nature and live a natural life. They love freedom, but they can also face the world with ease. Going to extremes is what he wants to avoid, and he advocates adhering to the middle way. He is not without emotions, nor is he detached from the world. He adheres to justice and will not lose his reason because of excessive emphasis on compassion and kindness. He is masculine and innocent. He doesn’t care much about gains and losses, but he always has a craftsman’s heart for details.
A person who practices Tai Chi to the extreme is sophisticated in mind and simple in form. He sees everything, but lives quietly around people. He is not stage-frightened. On the contrary, he will always stand up if needed, but usually, he prefers to live quietly, striving for self-satisfaction without disturbing anyone, as if he is just an invisible man. He may look a little serious and may not speak wittily, but what he says is true and unambiguous; if you listen carefully, you will find that in his plain tone, there is always a cold humor of life.
A person who practices Tai Chi to the extreme will not be as self-disciplined as an ascetic monk. He has long passed this stage and now he has reached the state of doing what he wants without breaking the rules. Therefore, even if there are three thousand rivers, he still only takes a scoop to drink. Because of his wisdom, he may have become rich and powerful, but if he encounters misfortune, he can still be happy like Yan Hui in a shabby house in a shabby alley.
A person who practices Tai Chi to the extreme is no longer bound by a single move. He has seen through the essence and his skills have reached perfection, so he stays away from all the behaviors of being mysterious and sensational. Since he no longer needs the diligence of working late at night, he seems to be lazy to practice boxing in the eyes of ordinary people. Little do they know that the essence of Tai Chi has been integrated into his blood. When he shakes hands with someone, he can throw the person a few feet away by slightly relaxing his shoulders and waist. When he hits someone, he has a good sense of measure and will not hurt anyone at all. In fact, you can hardly see him fight because it is unnecessary. But just look at his spirit and you will know that his realm is extraordinary.
Although there are only a few people who can practice Tai Chi to the extreme, and perhaps only a few masters such as Yang Luchan, Sun Lutang, and Chen Fake have ever come close to it in history, this does not prevent us from taking it as a concept to pursue the extreme. As “ordinary people”, we do not need to pursue the superb skills of masters. Being able to have one-third of the essence of Tai Chi is enough for us to benefit for a lifetime.
Practicing Tai Chi to the extreme is a moving goal and a wise concept that inspires people to move forward. The importance of this concept to us is like the role of a compass on the vast ocean. It may never be possible to reach the extreme, but it doesn’t matter. It is a belief, a belief to do what you really want to do to the extreme.