Page 80 - The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin_Neat plip book

Chen’s most inspiring classes, becaus e they wanted to be spo onf ed and di d no t
open their receptors to his subtleties.

A key movement at this stage of my Tai Chi learni ng exper ience was the
coordination of breath and mind. Thi s relations hi p is a critical compo ne nt of
Tai Chi Chuan and I think it’s impo rtant to take a moment to expl ain. Many
Chinese martial arts masters impo se a forced, old- school br eathi ng metho d on

their students. The idea is that a particular art has created a super ior metho d of
breath control and this method shoul d be followed religious ly. William Che n’s
humble vision of this issue is that br eathi ng sho ul d be natur al. Or, more
accurately, breathing should be a retur n to what was natur al be fore we go t

stressed out by years of running around a hectic world and int erna lizing ba d
habits. I certainly had plenty of those.
In William Chen’s Tai Chi form, expan sive (out ward or upw ard) movement s
occur with an in-breath, so the body and mind wake up, ener gize int o a sha pe .

He gives the example of reaching out to shak e the han d of someone you are
fond of, waking up after a restful sleep, or agr eeing with somebo dy ’s ide a.
Usually, such positive moments are associated with an in-br eath—i n the Tai
Chi form, we “breathe into the finger tips .” Then , with the out -br eath, the bo dy

releases, d e-energizes, l ike the last exhal ation bef ore falling as leep.
For a glimmer of this experience, hold your palms in front of you,
forefingers a few inches apart, shoul der s relaxed. Now breathe in whi le ge nt ly
expanding your fingers, putting your mind on your middle fingers, forefinger s,

and thumbs. Your breath and mind sho ul d both softly sho ot to the very tips of
your fingers. This inhalation is slow, gently pul ling oxygen int o your dan tien (a
spot believed to be the energetic center—l ocated two and a half inc he s be low
the navel) and then moving that ener gy from your dan tien to your fi rs.

Once your inhalation is complete, gently exhal e. Release your finge rs, let your
mind fall asleep, relax your hip joint s, let everythi ng sag into soft, qui et
awareness. Once exhalation is compl ete, you reener gize. Try that exercise for a
few minutes and see how you feel.

In my experience, when these pr inci ples of br eathi ng merge with the
movements of the Tai Chi form, practice becomes like the ebb and fl w of
water meeting a beach, the waves lappi ng agai nst the sand (in-br eath) , the n the
water trickling back out to sea (gentle, full exhal ation) . The ener getic wave is

what most people focus on, but the subt lety of the water’s retur n is also de epl y
compelling.