The Frog at the bottom of the well!

Frog at the bottom of a well! a quote from Zhuangzi!

 "Tai Chi is like dance, like exercise, like...", wonder why Grandmaster Young did not like to hear that? If you teach, or even as we are students, you will meet many people with a limited view of Tai Chi. People in Tai Chi think Grandmaster Wu Jianquan did not know small circles, small frames. Learn a little Mandarin by the "Frog in the bottom of the well"; it's  a metaphor I have heard my own teacher. The Chinese have an expression for the limited way all of us learn to see the world:  In Pinyin it is  "jing di zhi wa," meaning "frog in the bottom of a well." The expression comes from a fable about a frog that has lived its entire life in a small well. The Frog assumes that its tiny world is all there is, and it has no idea of the true size of the world. Only when a passing turtle tells the Frog of the great ocean that exists to the East, the Frog realizes there is much more to the world than it had known. All of us are like that Frog. We grow up as members of a culture and learn directly and from the perspective that becomes most familiar to us. Because the people, through direct and indirect teaching, usually share that perspective, we seldom have cause to question it. Like the Frog, we rarely suspect how big and diverse our large our species is".

Frog in a small well!  https://mathias-sager.com

 Can any of you formulate a good "concept," much less a "true" one of what Small Circle, Small Frame Tai Chi is? Master Hwa, after 40 years, says he still discovers things. All Tai Chi is "experiential," so: "I do and (only then can I say) I understand." We'll also attempt to explain here why students should not fret over "concepts". "The study of Classical Tai Chi in the beginning through advanced stages is as logical and rigorous as the study of any scientific discipline"...Master Stephen Hwa, Ph.D. However, beginning students run up against the desire to conceptualize something that is based almost entirely on an individual's personal experience. Every Frog in the well bottom will indeed have a different "concept" hearing of it for the 1st time; how should the teacher provide a "concept" of the Tai Chi for them by mere explanation? Won't their "concept" be considerably different in 1,3,5 year if they faithfully return each day and practice? The other problem is that a lack of a concept sometimes makes students try harder to intellectualize what is experiential. For instance, one hears pronouncements or affirmations about what "Qi" is from beginning students.

 Or one hears "conceptualizations" from beginning students about the Internal Discipline. "Oh, that is like belly dancing," "Oh, that is like an exercise I used to teach in Karate," "Oh, that is like the 24 Forms of Wu Style Tai Chi, etc. Or regarding the subject of "Qi": "Oh, I know what that is, it is like energy, it is air, it is like...", or "I teach Karate, and since I have experience with that it stands to reason that I can not only teach Tai Chi, but I can articulate what "Qi" is..." Let me get this straight; Science cannot thoroughly articulate what "Qi" is, but you can? The question I have to remarks like that is, "Why is it such a persistent issue that everyone assumes they can explain "Qi" or teach how to cultivate it when they have not gone through the "beginning through advanced" stages we mentioned previously? Science has no answers at the level of understanding we talk about; how would someone who has not studied Classical Tai Chi or Qigong in-depth have an answer. When one reaches the advanced stage and contemplates such problems as, by example, "conceptualizing what Qi is" where one truly sees Science has no answers... it should be a humbling experience. How then is there any "conceptualization" to be had for the beginning practitioner?