gene
May 29th, 2003, 06:48 AM
Today I did something I haven't done a lot of lately, I asked for wisdom from the I Ching with the intention of doing this on a daily basis. I received hexagram 52. I don't receive this hexagram very often, but I found it interesting when I read master Ni's version of it. There were no changing lines. In Tai Chi we do a two person exercise sometimes called push hands. I am fairly good at it for the amount of time I practiced, not compared to a seasoned veteran of course, but okay, but I have a weakness that I am starting to take note of and trying to overcome. The weakness is that the more my partner tries to push me, and the trickier he/she becomes, the more my Chi tends to rise, until eventually I am using brute force rather than Chi. Normally we want our chi to remain centered in the Dan Tien. #52 teaches us to remain centered. It teaches us to maintain stillness. This comes right after hexagram 51 which is "Shock." Often our opponent will try to shock us or surprise us in order to catch us off balance. The same principle applies in the military. If you want to make the enemy expose himself, or his plans, or unbalance himself, catch him off guard with a shock, or a surprise. Easier said than done. I know. And you have to know how to do it. That comes from military training, which I don't have. But I do have some experience with push hands. But when the superior person is shocked, he/she maintains his/her sense of balance through it all. It is one thing to have a meditative mind during times of peace, it is quite another to have one during times of war or disintegration. By practicing daily, we become aware of our insufficiencies and our inadequate tendencies.
Master Ni says, "When our yang energy is not yet mature, or deeply rooted, it is advisable to keep still. I think this is all too evident in a military situation. We must be strengthened before we can engage the enemy. In other parts of life it is not so obvious. Hexagram 51 and 52 once again have a very strong relationship to push hands in Tai Chi. For in push hands we learn to root our energy so that it goes down into the ground. We lose this connection when our energy rises. However, rooting has two possible applications. The first is that we can not be moved at all. But that only works if we have a stronger root than our opponent. Hexagram 52 is the mountain, and a mountain has a very strong root, but a strong enough earthquake can still shake it. The other kind of rooting is where we still have that root that makes us immovable, but we allow ourselves to be moved nontheless while maintaining that root. One other statement of Master Ni's is that "An unaffected mind is the mark of true achievement." It is when we get knocked around in life that our mind begins to be affected, then we no longer maintain stability when things happen to us. We maintain a presence of mind at the beginning of difficulties, and maybe a while after that, but with steadfast, prolonged stimulus, it is so easy to eventually lose that presence of mind.
Another aspect of this is that when we do Tai Chi we are seeking a number of things, but especially two come to mind that relate to this. The first is that we seek the straightness in a curve. When we do the circular movements, we strive to make them perfect circles, with no fishtailing, or imperfection. The other is, we seek stillness in motion, and to me that is a big part of what Tai Chi is all about. It corresponds with these two hexagrams, #51 and #52.
I would love to hear other people's thoughts on this.
Gene
Master Ni says, "When our yang energy is not yet mature, or deeply rooted, it is advisable to keep still. I think this is all too evident in a military situation. We must be strengthened before we can engage the enemy. In other parts of life it is not so obvious. Hexagram 51 and 52 once again have a very strong relationship to push hands in Tai Chi. For in push hands we learn to root our energy so that it goes down into the ground. We lose this connection when our energy rises. However, rooting has two possible applications. The first is that we can not be moved at all. But that only works if we have a stronger root than our opponent. Hexagram 52 is the mountain, and a mountain has a very strong root, but a strong enough earthquake can still shake it. The other kind of rooting is where we still have that root that makes us immovable, but we allow ourselves to be moved nontheless while maintaining that root. One other statement of Master Ni's is that "An unaffected mind is the mark of true achievement." It is when we get knocked around in life that our mind begins to be affected, then we no longer maintain stability when things happen to us. We maintain a presence of mind at the beginning of difficulties, and maybe a while after that, but with steadfast, prolonged stimulus, it is so easy to eventually lose that presence of mind.
Another aspect of this is that when we do Tai Chi we are seeking a number of things, but especially two come to mind that relate to this. The first is that we seek the straightness in a curve. When we do the circular movements, we strive to make them perfect circles, with no fishtailing, or imperfection. The other is, we seek stillness in motion, and to me that is a big part of what Tai Chi is all about. It corresponds with these two hexagrams, #51 and #52.
I would love to hear other people's thoughts on this.
Gene