The Application of Taoist Principles in the Creation of T'ai Chi
Is it possible to create movement using Taoist theories? The Taoist philosophy believes that the correct and most efficient way to create movement is through non-action. They say that "Non-action creates action”. This may sound contradictory at first, but it is actually a very accurate description of the process at work. How the Taoist and the West create movement is the fork in the road, where they go their separate ways. The West, and correctly so, believes that muscles perform various functions within the human body, but mainly they either generate movement through flexion and extension or they support body weight. Some muscles are more specifically designed to create movement such as the heart muscle. The heart is ceaseless in its activity, forever contracting and relaxing, from the time it completes its first contraction until it stops after we take our last breath.
Other muscles are more designed for bearing weight, such as the thighs, which are the strongest muscle we have in the body (thigh muscles can support up to three times your body weight). Sometimes muscle function can overlap and can perform both functions, support weight and create movement. Regardless of which muscle it is, when a muscle contracts, it will automatically hold weight. When a muscle relaxes it allows the weight to pass through and the weight is allowed to be drawn downward through gravity. The West sees human movement as being generated by only one means, and that is through the muscle being constantly activated and released.
However there is another way, a more efficient way. The Taoist way, the belief that non-action creates action. I remember when I first started T'ai Chi, hearing of these concepts for the first time. It was so infuriating “How can non-action create action?”. This idea is so foreign to the way a Westerner is conditioned to think. You see, the problem is you have a Taoist Chinese art and you're trying to apply a Western science to it. It won't work, it will never work, the two are incompatible. If you wish to train a Taoist Chinese art you must apply a Taoist Chinese science.
This reminds me of a documentary I once watched. It was about the time when Europeans and Chinese first began to interact and trade with each other. The West wanted silks, tea, spices and pottery, and in return we traded engineering skills, gold and manufactured goods. They showed a water pump built by Westerners, and of course they built it from blueprints. Now Western art has depth to its painting through the use of various shades of light and perspective. Chinese art is very two dimensional, very flat, ink on paper, both very beautiful in their own right, but both very different. The Chinese drew the water pump that the Westerners had shown them, but, when it came to building the water pump from the drawings (blueprints) they couldn't. Why? Because their art which is two dimensional wasn't compatible with Western science. You see, blueprints are three dimensional so that the builder knows the depth and circumference of an object. Whereas Chinese art doesn't have this capacity, so the Chinese artists had to be trained in the concepts of Western art so they could then apply it to a Western science.
We have the same problem today, but the shoe is on the other foot. We want to learn these Chinese arts - Acupuncture, Chinese Herbs, Taoist Philosophy and T'ai Chi, but we want to graft our theories of science to these arts, and then we wonder why they don't work. When they don't work, we smugly assume our understanding of science is better and we've just proved it, because it didn't work. If by some chance it does work, well we'll just explain what happened through our sciences. Talk about putting a square plug in a round hole. Another classic example is when doctors explain away acupuncture. The doctors tell the Chinese the only reason why acupuncture relieves pain, is because when you insert an acupuncture needle, this releases the endorphins into the blood which eases the pain. Never mind the thousands of diseases that acupuncture can cure. This is the equivalent of the Chinese artist saying there is nothing wrong with their blueprints, it is your water pump. Its not flat enough.
To explain the theory of non-action creating action, I need to tie a few concepts together. We are constantly told that T'ai Chi is an internal art, and that it is effortless; that the creation of movement in T'ai Chi is caused by the internal chi moving freely through the body, which then propels the external body, and it's this chi that makes movement possible. I remember being told that the closest thing that we do in everyday life that follows the principles of T'ai Chi is walking. Very true. If you were to ask most people, could they run all day, most people would say no. But if you were to ask them can they walk all day, most people would answer that they could walk all day if they had to. Why? Because walking by its nature, like T'ai Chi, is virtually an effortless action using minimal energy. Now take the action of walking as an example of T'ai Chi principles in action. When we walk, which muscles do we contract in the legs to cause the back leg to step forward? Let's have a look at this action that we call walking. Do we contract the muscles in the back leg, to lift the back leg? No. Do we contract the muscles in the front leg and pull ourselves forward? No again. So, what muscles do we use, to lift the back leg and place it to the front, this action called walking? None.
There is a saying, "In T'ai Chi we must swallow the chi of the heavens and borrow the chi of the earth". The earth possesses incredible energy, and all we have to do is learn how to use it to our advantage. T'ai Chi and walking use one of the most powerful of all the chis (energies) in the universe to create movement. In the West we call this chi, (energy) gravity. Western physics tells us that the universe is made up of mainly four forms of energy: Large Nuclear Force, Small Nuclear Force, Electrical Magnetic Radiation and Gravity. So incredibly powerful is the last form of energy that black holes won't even allow light out. Remember I wrote earlier about what relaxation is.
Relaxation is being in balance with your environment and using only the minimum amount of energy that is required for the activity you're performing. This activity also includes mental activity. What effectively happens when you relax muscle is that you begin a process whereby weight starts to move freely throughout the body. Basically this is what makes movement possible in T'ai Chi as well as in walking. It is this interaction of gravity (chi) moving internally from one side of the body to the other side, creating movement in the process. The only way of instigating and maintaining this process of movement is by the continuous relaxation of muscle, allowing gravity to move through the muscles, and in the case of T'ai Chi, drawing the body either forward or backward, depending on which leg (alignment) you're relaxing the weight through. Relax the weight into the front foot and this causes you to rock forward. However if you relax the weight into the back foot then you'll rock backwards, just as the T'ai Chi form requires you to. In T'ai Chi, one must never push the back foot against the ground. This would constitute a breach of the Taoist principle of non-action creating action. This is classed as a very serious sin in T'ai Chi because this involves resistance to gravity (chi of the earth), which would involve the use of muscle contraction to create movement.
If we look at the act of relaxation with the view of disengaging the majority of muscle bulk, we only need enough muscle strength to maintain body structure, alignment and structural integrity. Before we go any further we need to establish the rationale and boundaries of the saying, “non-action creates action.” Let's define any body movement that is created through the use of muscle contraction as “action creating action”. For example pushing the front foot against the ground to rock back is a classic example of action creating action. Logic would dictate that any body movement created through actively disengaging muscle would have to be classed as non-action creating action. For example rather than pushing the front foot against the ground to create action, if you instead disengaged muscle (non-action) in the back leg this would cause the weight to be drawn into the back foot resulting in an action.
The act of relaxation, the letting go of unnecessary muscle tension, facilitates the flow of gravity through the body, leg, and into the ground, causing the body to rock forward or rock back as so often is the way in T'ai Chi. Hence we have non-action creating action. If we were to continue with this process, then the back leg would become void of any effective weight, and to this process would end with the back leg stepping.
The reason why T'ai Chi and walking are so effortless is simple. When the back leg steps, that leg poses no effective weight (in T'ai Chi that leg is referred to as empty or insubstantial) and how much energy or muscle is required to move an object that is weightless? Negligible! Hence the reason why the physical act of T'ai Chi is so effortless. Whilst the act itself is effortless, getting your level to that point is anything but effortless.