Push Hands - Staying Cool...

Student Question:

The hardest part for me is to "continue being" in a Taiji Body during push hands practice.

Michael's Response: Hah-ha! Welcome to the club!

Imo, all TCC practice is a series of 'relational' matrices - when you're just beginning, it's all about the 'relationship' of the different parts of your body to the others; eventually, the 'fog' begins to clear and a series of 'coordinations' start to become habitualized, and we can truly say that we are actually 'doing' Tai Chi - then, finally, some other 'interior conditions' start to 'coalesce', and we can be said to have created the 'Tai Chi Body'.....

This is all very cool, and takes quite a bit of time, and it is a very real accomplishment, BUT - as it turns out, this is just the beginning; the next step is to take all these complex relationships that we have habituated into our movement process and add the wild card of trying to maintain them under the added pressure of unpredictable 'outside' physical stresses being fed into the system by a partner whose main 'purpose in life' is to freak you out, make you lose your cool, and cause you to break down all these wonderful relationships you've been able to bring into your 'solo' practice - in other words, we venture into the realm of practicing "Push-Hands".

It's still all 'relational' , but now the game graduates into the Major Leagues in terms of complexity - can you maintain your 'Tai Chi Body' condition and yet accept and neutralize "THIS" kind of force-vector, and if the answer is "Yes", well then how about this 'other one', etc., etc., as infinitum... ...And even if you're successful in dealing with any 'one' opponent, we then see the true value of being in a TCC School; there's a long line of other 'Body-Minds' waiting for us, with even more devious and nefarious ways of causing us to screw up our TCC 'coolness' - and how terrific is that!!??

Mario was not far wrong when he asked, "Have you had your beating yet today?" - meaning, "You think you're cool, you can do TCC, but how about if I twist your arm like THIS and shove you THIS way, are you still 'cool' then?" - "Yes?; Well then what about if I try and trap your leg and throw you like this? - still 'cool'?" Etc., etc., for a good stretch of time, and then you change partners and basically start all over again...... THIS is how you learn TCC; and in the end you may come to see that TCC is essentially about how two nervous systems try to maintain certain body conditions while dealing with the pressures of extreme physical efforts to unbalance those conditions from one another - and the "name of the game", as you have phrased it so well. is to "continue being"...

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Kalama Sutta (Kalama Sutra)

Do not simply believe what you hear just because you have heard it for a long time.
Do no follow tradition blindly merely because it has been practiced that way for many generations.
Do not be quick to listen to rumors.
Do not confirm anything just because it agrees with your scriptures.
Do not foolishly make assumptions.
Do not abruptly draw conclusions by what you see and hear.
Do not be fooled by outward appearances.
Do not hold on tightly to any view or idea just because you are comfortable with it.
Do not accept as fact anything that you yourself find to be illogical.
Do not be convinced of anything out of respect and deference to your spiritual teachers.

You should go beyond opinion and belief. You can rightly reject anything which when accepted, practiced and perfected leads to more aversion, more craving and more delusion. They are not beneficial and are to be avoided. Conversely, you can rightly accept anything which when accepted and practiced leads to unconditional love, contentment and wisdom. These things allow you time and space to develop a happy and peaceful mind. This should be your criteria on what is and what is not the truth; on what should be and what should not be the spiritual practice.