“Be as still as a mountain" / “In doing nothing, nothing is left undone”. “wu wei”

The movements of the T’ai Chi form are rooted in the concept of “wu wei”, “not-doing”. In the T’ai Chi Classics, the ancient writings that have guided the development of the art through the years, there is a saying:

“Be as still as a mountain,                                                                      

move like a great river.”

In T’ai Chi we must take the quiet of winter into our own hearts and listen…. for Spring, for movement, for the timing of, “when” … when to move. We listen for what Professor Cheng called “right timing”. The question of when and how to move in T’ai Chi, is answered in this quieting of the mind and listening with the heart. In the T’ai Chi Classics this is what is meant by “Be as still as a mountain”. We listen for the timing that allows us to stay connected to the ease within the movement, to the “flow”… what the Classics describe as “move like a great river”. It is essentially a question of stillness, of “not-doing” anything that disrupts our connection to that flow. In the words of the great Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu, “In doing nothing, nothing is left undone”.

It is not the frontal cortex that decides when to move in T’ai Chi. We cannot reason our way to the timing of the flow. In T’ai Chi the “T” in “think” is too late. We have to feel, to listen, to be open, to be receptive and to follow. According to Professor Cheng, we need to “invest in loss”, so that we may learn to follow. In my understanding and personal experience, this relates to a loss of ego…to be willing to invest in the loss of subtle and not-so-subtle feelings of self-importance. It relates to the rigidity of my knowledge of how to do this thing we call T’ai Chi. On the brick wall of my self-awareness, right next to the doorway to the flow, there is an indentation. This indentation is where my head has repeatedly insisted is the correct location of that doorway to the flow.

Self-awareness comes with reflection. Just like looking at the surface of a lake, we need quiet and inactivity to see an accurate reflection…in a word, we need Winter.

One of the things I love about T’ai Chi is that what I learn in practicing the form is so transferrable to my life. 

The great physicist, Stephen Hawkings, was once asked if knowing that the Universe is so vast and limitless, with seemingly countless numbers of galaxies, stars and planets, made him feel small and insignificant. He replied that what he found amazing was that something so small and insignificant as one human being could comprehend something so vast and limitless as the Universe.

Practicing T’ai Chi with a quiet heart/mind carries within it the possibility of opening and connecting that same heart/mind to the body, to the emotions, to others, to the world and, in the immortal words of Dr. Seuss, to all that lies “On Beyond Zebra”.