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A True Story of Marshall Ho’o Dr. Ho’o once asked his class: “Who can tell me why the Chinese do not have in their culture a concept of a Supreme Being?” Since no one had the answer, he said to think about it for the week. The next week, no one brought it up. Then the following week, I asked him for the answer, and he said, “The reason that the Chinese never developed a concept of a Supreme Being is because the Emperor was supposed to be all-powerful. Wu Chi and Tai Chi The Chinese did, however, have a concept of an original, absolute and undivided whole, called the Wu Chi. It is expressed by the empty circle:
The moment there is a hint of relativity, of motion, of life or thought, the whole collapses into the Tai Chi, the Great Ultimate:
which represents the two complementary opposites of Yin and Yang. They constantly balance each other and constantly transform into one another. Tai Chi The word tai chi originally meant ridgepole, as the ridgepole of the roof of a house. Eventually, tai chi meant anything that connects two sides or two opposites. Our bodies have a left and a right, a front and a back; we connect them through our central equilibrium. A leg can be empty or full (weighted or unweighted), a hand can be energized or not; we connect them through movement and stillness. All of life is movement and change, Yin and Yang constantly moving, transforming into one another. Tai Chi is working with the movement and change. We work within, coming into contact with Yin and Yang as they relate intimately with our own bodies and gravity. At the same time, we learn to sense the energy around us. In Tai Chi we do not learn to kick and block out of aggression and fear, but to embrace and harmonize, to absorb and deflect energy to achieve a positive result. Tai Chi Chuan (translated as "the form of Tai Chi" or "the Great Ultimate Boxing") has no philosophy itself, but teaches us how to live whatever philosophy we choose. For instance, we may wish to learn to "turn the other cheek" without winding up on the floor. In that way, going from the concrete to the abstract, Tai Chi is very Chinese. However, the concepts are universal, and much of Chinese culture (the acupuncture system for example) pre-dates any known civilization. |
