36

36  

WHAT is in the end to be shrunken,
Begins by being first stretched out.
What is in the end to be weakened,
Begins by being first made strong.
What is in the end to be thrown down,
Begins by being first set on high.
What is in the end to be despoiled,
Begins by being first richly endowed.

Herein is the subtle wisdom of life:
The soft and weak overcomes the hard and strong.

Just as the fish must not leave the deeps,
So the ruler must not display his weapons.

Translated by John C. H. Wu

Interpretation by Bill Bernsen

                                  BUOYANCY

Elasticity

Is the elusive

Insight of life

Master

Does not display

His elasticity

He can definitely

See it

In others

Patiently waiting

For student

To see it in him

Elasticity

Means having

The supremacy

Of returning

To its original form

Pouncing back

To childhood

With the wisdom

Of an adult

And elasticity

Between the two limits

Stretch sinews

To shorten moves

Compactness

Strengthen

Opponent’s ego

Weakens

His attention  

Think opponent

Upward

To get center of gravity

Under his center

Give him

Top heavy Chi

Then control it

Is Push Hands

The circle

With a hidden center

A ball, orange, a person

Is 3rd dimension

4th dimension is seeing

The person’s center

Using my 6th sense

The master

Must not

Demonstrate Fa Jing

Salute

Feel Master’s

Attention

Slow set

Separating water

Flesh/bone

Using centripetal force

Must empty or fill

At point of contact

Filling mean

Filling

With water (chi)

Makes for buoyance

Opponent presses

On me

It feels like pressing

On a boat

In the water

If he attacks

Suddenly/hard

It is like punching

A tub of water

When the water

Drains down

It is like going

Into a drain

Counter clock wise

The sinews

And opening joints

Must have elastic

Awareness first

Apprehension

Is keeping my

Center of gravity

Away from the opponent

Mind and touch

Remain a fulcrum

Don’t argue

About right or wrong

Better or worse

Gravity

Over comes

Mind evil spirit

Do not display

Intent

It is a weapon

That will be

Used against me

Feel connection

Between

Sinking/reaching

It is elasticity

Realized

Center of gravity

Always under gestures

Anything other

Is leaning/misaligned

Wheel

On an axle

Extreme stretching

Can be done

Once found

Elastic band inside

Pile stance is stilling

The motion

Is the stretching inside

To have apprehension

First have resolve

Apprehension = gravity

Resolve = spirit

Do not show either

When confronting

An opponent

To find Jing

In a rubber band

Just stretch it first

I have stretched

Now sink

I have reached

Now gather

I have had resolve

Now apprehension

Stretch first

To sink

Open first

To close

Streaming

Want to reach

The Masters

Must first stretch out

To them

Once reached

Then let them sink

Thru me down

To the earth

Tai Chi Chuan

Student does not

Leave gravity

And is high-spirited

What is to be closed

Must first be open

What is to be soft

Is first to be strong

High

Must first be low

What is to get it

First be accepted

What is to be pressed

Must first be gathered

Want to stretch

First root

To get Jing

First have

Clear/controllable chi

Once gotten

Jing

Hide it

Open wide

To focus narrow

Learn open

To understand close

And vice versa

To have

A strong heart

First soften thorax

So the heart

Can move outside

The chest

When the heart

Is exposed

Use caution

As to what say/do

Until I can protect

The heart

With the martial

Aspect of Tai Chi Chuan

Cannot have

Tai Chi Chuan

Unless heart is

Exposed and

Cannot expose

Heart unless virtuous

Protect it

With tai chi Chuan

1st Open

Then close

1st straighten

Then bend

1st strong

Then soft

1st stiff then

Flexible

1st sink

To earth

Then rise to heaven

Masters inside!

Bow to bow

What is ultimately

To be stretched

Must first

Be depressed

Give up

To gravity

Kowtowing

To gravity

To give up

To gravity

First be spiritually

Inspired

The heart

Overcomes

Harm

Stretch open

Via wrists

Stretch

To Masters

To connect

Once connected

They will come to me

Sink to earth

To connect

Once connected

Earth’s energy

Will come to me

Lift the art

And my life

Do not leave

The deep

Rooted gestures

Flowing gestures

To stretch out

With heart

Must root deep

In the art

To achieve

Elasticity

First be anchored

What is to change

Must first be relaxed

What is ward-off

Must first be structured

To understand

What is to listen

Is first

Kowtowed to  

What is to

Be kowtowed to  

Is first listen to  

This is the secret circle

Avoid conflict

The secret

To Tai Chi Chuan

Alignment first

With body/mind

Subtle insight

Elasticity…to the extreme

Tai Chi Chuan

Is the ability

To change with change

Cannot

If not rooted

Not open reaching

Not elastic

Have no control

Of center of gravity

Change

With the changing

Situation

But don’t let

My center

 Be controlled

The farther away

From Master

The better off

In that

I will not

Turn to him

To regain balance

Find it myself  

Apprehension (plumb)

From present

To past (rooted)

The secret

Is to get stronger

When pushed

Apply principals

Of Tai Chi Chuan

Passively

Accept it

To my roots

The center of gravity

Is where

Flesh/bones

And water meets

Separation

It is the fulcrum

Floating

Legs must support

Center of gravity

Mind controls it

Only it is free

To follow mind

It cannot be free

If it thinks it is

Going to fall

All the gestures

Are connected

To the center of gravity

Making the center feel

Like an anchor

To the end of

An elastic band

Control

Center of gravity

Control the eight

Directions

When going

Into a posture

To demonstrate

Or do push hands

Drop center of Gravity

Into support leg

Then become elastic

Felt like

An elastic band

Being anchored

At one end (apprehension)

Being pulled (resolve)

At the other end

Feel the fulcrum

Of the intent/apprehension

This is the Tai Chi

Elasticity

Spirit/mind first

Then body

Do not display

Jing/Chi

Always receive

Stretching/elasticity

String/chi/idea

Thru mind intent

Comes the wisdom

Of neither

Neither loss

Nor gain

Thereby benefiting

My transformational journey

Of attaining the subtle

Spirit of vitality

Capture opponent’s Jing

With my 6th sense

By not wanting

There is calm

Do not try to avoid

An attack

By opponent externally

Be calm

Avoid the attack internally

Mind leads

Body follows

Encounter opponent

Become bow

With spirit/gravity

At first

Do push hands only

With people I like

Results in calmness

Twist forearm

Like a towel

Energy in both hands

Results in power

In ordinary life

Self is self

Other is other

In push hands

They are the same

To contain

Something

Deliberately

Let it expand

To weaken something

Deliberately

Let it grow strong

To eliminate something

Deliberately

Slow it to flourish

To take something away

Deliberately grant it

This is called subtle

Illumination/flexibility/yielding

Lose the way

Have virtue

Lose virtue

Have humanity

Lose humanity

Have duty

Lose duty = courtesy

Lose courtesy = disarray begins

Disarray in life

Will cause more courteous

This leads to duly

The way

Produces one

One

Produces two

Two

Produces three

Three produces 10,000

Be more

Compact/concentrated

First be relaxed/open

Then stretched

To discharge

Fill opponent

With my energy

Then when I move

He moves

Dim own ego

Then hear others

.Stoop to conquer

Invest in loss

Go deeper

Into the coil

Don’t leave

The coil feeling

Like a fish

Should not

Leave the deep

Crouch

To conquer

Retain reversion

A state of original

Effortlessness/obliviousness

Do not muddle

Mind with

Other’s ideas

To play stupid

Is to take the advantage

To be stupid

Is to be taken advantage of

Masters will reduce

Corrections

To reduce the unworthy

Prior to expanding

Knowledge

Students leave

For one of

Two reasons

The unworthy

Don’t understand

The worthy

Do understand

But lack loyalty

Give the opponent

My energy

If he has virtue

Let him keep it

If not worthy

Will not get it

Tai Chi Chuan

Is never displayed

Because no one

Can demonstrate it

Chi beyond

My body

Should never

Be displayed

Opposites

Supposed

Continuously to

Be virtuous

Practice taken from

Slow Set working deeply

Brought into shallow

Push hands/weapons

Can easily end

Interest in the art

To get

A deep understanding

Of something

One must rise

Above the crowd

To see where he is

Then go back down

To get deeper

Supporting

The worthy

For every

Application

There must be

A reaction

The energy

Is stored

In the foundation

Softness

Is the opening

Of the body

So the energy

Can move

Softness = freedom of movement

Using force or power

Without connecting first

To the source

Is equal

To a draining

Of the energy

Relax = soft

Open = stretch = compact

Before it can

Be shrunken or stretched out

It must be relaxed

Before relaxed

Be strong enough

To gather (close)

First expand (open)

To be softened (loose)

First have

A strong foundation (legs)

Soft middle

Must be

Anchored

At both ends

Concentrate mind anchor

Legs anchor

Don’t put mind

Too far from center

To soon

Results in a fall

Remain elastic

In spirit/body

Extent to far

Start to fall

Remain calm

Relaxed

Spring back

Soft/loose

Overcomes

Hard/strong

Elasticity

Relax/open/align/stretch

To be hollow

Then be filled

Leave the Jing/Chi

In foundation

Do not display

Gentle Tai Chi Chuan

Slow Set body

Becomes a coil spring

Open all joints

By relax/open/stretch

Don’t demo

The secret

To epiphanies

Is elasticity

Elastic

Energy

To find

The future

Must anchor

In the past

This is elasticity

Elasticity

Overcomes

Hard and soft

Source 

Of Jing/Chi 

Find it 

In physics

Press to rollback

Bounce a ball
The Tao

Of rejuvenation

To receive

The New

Must be loss

Of the old

All things

Percussion

Eternal

Elasticity

To endure

In the present

Percussion

Presents

Percussion

Practice

Prior to

Perfection

Practice

Percussion

With

Perseverance

Steam

Overcomes

Water

Overcomes

Ice 

Elasticity

In Tai Chi

gestures

Is unseen

But felt

In self  

And others

Master

Sees it

Eternal

Elasticity

With life

And limb

Practice

Percussion

Perfecting

Postures

Precision

Present gesture

A silk thread

Connecting past/future

To be stretched

Gently

Focus on future

Anchor on past

Elasticity

In very endeavor

Proves to improve

Performance

Tai Chi Chuan

Reeling silk

Between

Yesterday 

And tomorrow’s

Practice

Tai Chi Jing/Chi

Is created by 

Vortex expanding

Like a tornado

Then compressing

As a whirlpool

Coil spring

Compressed

To express

Tai Chi gesture

Compressed

To impress

Limp bow string

Must be strung

Before arrow

Can go

Tai Chi gestures

Like a bow

Must be strung

To be pulled

Cocking to next

Gesture/application

Tai Chi postures

Perfectly Plumb

Present

Deeply rooted

Past 

Gesturing

Future

I sing

Body

Elastic

Creating

Infinite

Gestures

Slow Set

Avancing

Think

Retreating

To generate

Elasticity

To change

With change

Tai Chi gestures

Centripetal

Body

Centrifugal

Mind  

Push Hands

All successful

Applications

Are found in 

Song-kai 

(loose/open)

Gestures