Appearance of Reality is sometimes an illusion

 AFTER FINISHING THE LESSONS, A BEGINNING 

 by Jim Roach

Review Upper Body as a "Beginning" Video Link

Jim Roach said:  I include the video link and the Forum information as an example of "...reality illusions..."!  With Tom Kostusiak, I arranged the 2011 workshop, where you can see this video and many others that were shot. Watching another video of students doing "push hands" is a perfect example of "reality illusions." People's lower bodies and hips were all over the place, and there was no apparent intent to stabilize hips and turn the upper body. Master Hwa's suggestions are "spot on"!

by Master Stephen Hwa, excerpted from Classical Tai Chi Forum 10

"Several of you have indicated that you were either finished or nearly finished with the lessons. You have made a very good beginning. Now, you can start to take the long and rewarding part of the journey in which you will gradually improve every aspect of your form playing and enjoy the fruits of tai chi. Remember that “sometimes the appearance of reality is actually an illusion.” My students in class often told me that they thought I was moving a certain way and tried to do the same. Later, they found out that their observation was not correct. That was why I incorporated different views in my video, so you could see my moves from different angles and lessen the chance of a wrong impression. 

 

Using a fresh eye to review the lesson video could also uncover any misinterpretation of my movements. The other thing to remember is that “you perceive that you are moving a certain way, but in fact, you are not moving that way.” I met one student who had finished the lessons from the video. One problem I observed was that when he tried to internalize his movement away from the arm and shoulder, his movements initiated from the chest area. He would scrunch his chest to start an upper body movement. When one of the students in my class makes the turning movement, she does stabilize the pelvic area, but the turning movement is initiated from the upper abdomen area. 

 

In both cases, the concentration on the internal position is too high. It has to be in the navel and below. When done right, you will feel the tight connection to the lower body through the buttocks. My 12-year-old student in the class commented succinctly: “One thinks that he is not doing external, so it must be internal.” It is not an either-or situation. There is an intermediate region, which is neither external nor very internal. Learning Tai Chi often follows an unexpected path: advancement followed by periods of stagnation and even a turn for the worse. This is because, at this stage, you still have not built a firm foundation under your form practice. 

 

Once familiar with the movements, you may become careless, neglecting some of the fundamentals in the form playing. You can test this by critically looking at how you do the tai chi walk. My experience with my students in class is that such reviews often showed missing details, which they had done correctly years past. Learning the square form will help build a firm framework of the form."