Sink Into Tao
"Don't Think! SINK!"
Master Huang
Teaching on the campus of
National Chiayi University,Taiwan
I was a dutiful student. Working hard at shutting up and doing what I was told. Hard. After all, I had a lifetime of external, hard style martial arts at my disposal. I knew I had to hit it hard if I wanted to progress. And I wanted my awesome teachers to take me seriously, so I got up early, stayed late, paid attention and kept mostly quiet until a question was eating me up from the inside out. (Sifu, are you smiling???)
We were in the courtyard outside the arts building of National Chiayi University, at 7:00AM, feeling the August Tropic of Cancer humidity seep through our flesh and into our bones -- melting any resistance. Standing. And Standing...
Sifu worked his way around, a comment here, a touch there, a small joke and a chuckle. The closer he got, the harder I worked that stance. Raise Hands had never been interpreted so rigidly. I was granite! I was a statue, immobile and untouchable! I was stronger than any aspiring student had ever been! And, fighting passing out.
He got a little closer, caught my eye (and my situation) and moved to my side, put his hand gently on my rigid forearm and said, "Sink." It was a perfectly reasonable thing for him to suggest... That was the point of the exercise wasn't it? (After fifteen years, I'm beginning to figure that out...) But I misunderstood him completely, and in my solid, stressed-out universe, I heard him say, "Think!" And it made no damned sense! So I burst out, "I AM THINKING!"
There may have been a giggle... He said, "No, SINK!" and pushed me slowly down a few inches. The blood began to flow, (also to my face...) and I could breathe. He said, "TaiJi is best when you relax..." I said, "I can relax?" We both smiled, laughing...
