Jean Paul Sartre said that matter itself is "congealed movement," an observation supported by physicists (string theorists) who say that vibratory movements of the smallest units of matter (strings of matter) pulse with a frequency that determines the string's identity.

"The diversity of things, their individuality, are only an appearance, a veneer."--Sartre.

The characteristic of the universe is change or movement--an energetic rhythm that a martial artist dances to. Beside the vibrations composing the body, each mind vibrates in frequencies that change moment to moment, and no thing can be called motionless, but a martial artist approaches the heart of stillness through his perfected movements. Relative stillness can only be found by refining the motion of mind within the body.

You come to the art with habitual movement patterns that are an impediment to skillful movement. Through standing meditation, slow form practice (if done properly) and a few auxiliary exercises you begin to replace these bad habits with better neuro-muscular patterns.

"To the extent that ability increases, the need for conscious efforts of the will decreases...with growing familiarity of the act, speed of movement increases and consequently the power. This may not be self-evident but it is correct. The slowness is necessary for the discovery of the parasitic superfluous execution and its partial elimination.. The superfluous in action is worse than the insufficient, for it costs us useless effort. Fast action when learing is strenuous, leads to confusion, and makes the learning unpleasant and unnecessarily tiring..."--Moshe Feldenkrais.

The Tai Chi master who slowed the form down must have known this about physical learning, and although many modern practitioners go slowly, they've discarded the structural lessons that Yang Cheng Fu left us in his photographic record. If you follow Yang's postures directly from one to the other, you can weed out the "parasitic superfluous" movements. If you're unable to follow correct form, and can't weed out the parasitic movements then you have core structural problems that inhibit movement, waste energy, put unecessary strain on the joints, and cause you to miss the surging tides of chi. Proper form requires a balanced symmetry of bio-mental systems. "Improvement in action and movement will appear only after a prior change in the brain and the nervous system has occurred."--Feldenkrais.
Copyright 2004 by Jack Livingston