Playing Tai Chi

When moving through the Tai Chi sequence of movements you are called a Tai Chi 'player'. So what is a Tai Chi player and how is it different from practice, doing, or performing?

From an Embodied Tai Chi perspective each movement has a certain intention while at the same time paying attention to the sensations and feelings of your muscles, tendons and facia.  

Chi Skills (2024) cites Eckhart Tolle's book The Power of Now as inspiration. How a sense of stillness can be found from being in the moment when practicing Tai Chi.  

Being in the moment in terms of Tai Chi is not reflecting on how the last movement went or what movement to do next. This is achieved by directing your intent and awareness only on the movement you are doing. It's a physical as much as mental process.

So playing Tai Chi does not translate as not being interested. It is about being intent on what you are doing in order to distract the mind from wondering. Eckhart Tolle is quoted as suggesting:

'As soon as you honor the present moment, all unhappiness and struggle dissolve, and life begins to flow with joy and ease.' (Good Read 2024)

By being in the moment we can start playing. In terms of Embodied Tai Chi we are able to perceive our internal physical sensation as relaxed, flexing openness. 

Lin Yutang (1937) reflects on the difference between Eastern and Western minds. Lin's insight into his own Chinese culture as it escapes the boundaries on monarchy but has not yet become dominated by communist ideology is helpful. Lin Yutang (1937) suggests that Chinese culture has always included a sense of 'detachment (takuan)' and that;

'It is only this sense of freedom and nonchalance that one eventually arrives at the keen and intense joy of living'. (Lin Yutang 1937 p.2)

Detachment, freedom and nonchalance is perhaps a good description of this sense of playing. As Lin points out detachment is often difficult to understand in a Western culture that is dominated by reflecting, doing, achievement, aims, outcomes and targets.  

Tai Chi is more than something to be learned or to practice in order to achieve an outcome. Tai Chi is a way to distract the mind into intentional movement and inner perception in a playful way. This 'being in the moment', 'nonchalance', 'detachment' seems to open different ways of perceiving our outer world. It is a compliment to our rational thinking.

One student succinctly described it as finding a 'sense of contentment'. 

References 

Chi Skills (2024) The biggest breakthrough in my training; The First Transformation: https://youtu.be/fGqpZ_yULMc?si=2CyOEB3_JBR3Lzbr  , accessed 8th July 2024

Good Read (2024) Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment: https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/840520-the-power-of-now-a-guide-to-spiritual-enlightenment  , accessed 8th July 2024

Lin Yutang (1937) The Importance of Living, Reynal & Hitchcock