58
WHERE the ruler is mum, mum,
The people are simple and happy.
Where the ruler is sharp, sharp,
The people are wily and discontented.
Bad fortune is what good fortune leans on,
Good fortune is what bad fortune hides in.
Who knows the ultimate end of this process?
Is there no norm of right?
Yet what is normal soon becomes abnormal,
And what is auspicious soon turns ominous.
Long indeed have the people been in a quandary.
Good fortune is what bad fortune hides in.
Who knows the ultimate end of this process?
Is there no norm of right?
Yet what is normal soon becomes abnormal,
And what is auspicious soon turns ominous.
Long indeed have the people been in a quandary.
Therefore, the Sage squares without cutting,
carves without disfiguring,
straightens without straining,
enlightens without dazzling.
carves without disfiguring,
straightens without straining,
enlightens without dazzling.
Translated by John C. H. Wu
Interpretation by Bill Bernsen
QUANDARY
From aware
Movement
Comes
Proper measure
And creativity
A caterpillar
Lifting his foot
Off the ground
Is a hint of things
To come
That is a Butterfly
A quandary
Thru slow set
A dilemma
Will disappear
Slowly
This is why
It is called slow set
The whole school
Seems in a quandary
This is why few continue
Some practice
As an exercise
Many laugh
Are entertained
To have
Spirit
Aloof
Body rooted
Is to be calm
To gain
One must lose
This is possessing
Yin and Yang
Everyone in class
Shares the same
Air/room/teacher
Only student’s location
In the room varies
As well as their place
In the teacher heart
The goal
Is to be the fulcrum
One must experience
The extremes
To understand balance
Extreme fatigue balances
Extreme laziness
Secret circle
Nothing is certain
Because everything
Certainly
Changes with change
Auspicious partner
Ominous opponent
Auspicious gestures
Turn to ominous gestures
Turn to auspicious
Have a bad minute?
It will be balanced
With a good minute
This is true with hours
Days
Weeks
Months
Years
Do not mother
Students
Just listen
Put 6th sense
On a fulcrum
Balance everything
That confronts
If quiet
I can hear self
And others
If I do not
Follow
I will be
In a quandary
Straighten
Without collapsing
Or locking up
Not too many teachers
Books or dirty looks
It causes me to stray
To solve
Quandary
Use elasticity
The Masters
Listens
Predicts
The future
Master teaches
Without hurting
Later corrects
Without them leaving
Pain
In a posture
Is what good form
Leans on
Lazy teaching = lazy students
Teach hard = loss of students
Care = loyalty
Down?
Soon up!
Masters
Manages
Everything
That happens
Follow
Yin with yang
Follow
Yang with yin
This is true push hand
Teach
As slowly
As slowest
Student learns
Past
60 years
A quandary
Otherwise death
Let them ask first
Don’t volunteer info
If I want them to ask
Just have to think it
If they are listening
They will answer
It themselves
Master leads
By following
Think ahead
Using knowledge
Of the past
In the present
To move
Into the future
Be a fulcrum
And listen
To heavy
With student = burden
To light
With student = drifting off
See the good
Listen for the bad
Be a fulcrum!
Holding up
Scale of life
Always look
For the fulcrum
Use a curve
To straighten
A quandary
Think it square
Think it carved
Think it straight
Think it bent
Think enlightenment
Change with Change!
Be a fulcrum
Always know
Where good starts
Evil stops
Receiving rest
Upon giving
Giving hides
In receiving
Masters
In charge
Practice
So Masters
Can correct
Worthy reposes
On wicked
Wicked conceals
Within worthy
Who knows
The turning point
Tai Chi fulcrum
Knows
Be tranquil
In practice
When I do not watch
The news
Wholesome and good
When I watch the news
I become
Calculating and unpleasant
Bewilderment
Be the fulcrum
To manage
Quandary
Good rests
On bad
Mercy rests
On malevolent
Don’t resist
Masters plan
Find the fulcrum
In all
Have a strong Slow Set
For the fulcrum
Press rests
In pull
Pull hides
In press
Mind controls
Switching point
Tai Chi Chuan Master
Uses his mind
To lift the spirit
Follow
If master is sad
I cry
If master is happy
I laugh
If master is angry
I follow
Practice negates
Bewilderment
Creativity negates
Puzzlement
Work on perfection
Of form
Tai Chi Chuan
It is forever
Tai Chi Chuan Master
Is so powerful
He can just “think it”
And it is done
The quandary
Of everyday things
Including my body
My car
My job
My family
Tai Chi Chuan Master
Is always on a scale
Art is the fulcrum
My quandary
Is dissipating
Becoming
Enlightened
Mundane
Quandary of life
Lived so far
Going to live
A quandary
Of the past
In the present
To the future
Student have been
In a quandary
Until a seminar
On applications
Bring a balance
To student’s life
Only if called
For from the heart
Align
Without force
Square pelvis
Without twisting femur
Straighten pelvis
Without staining legs
Bow
Without
Bending
Injury or illness
Cause more practice
A fear
Of losing the gift
Create
Without using force
Against force
Good for push hands
And all art
Still in a quandary
Solve the quandary
Listen to the Tao
The Masters within
Are we all grasshoppers
Only 3 seasons
Tai Chi Chuan is the 4th
Teach
Without harming
Is a quandary
If one is not worthy
Am I coming out
Of my quandary
Bewilderment
Vicissitudes
Bad fortune
Is not listening
Good fortune
Is having mercy
Depression
Is what
Enlightenment
Leans on
Ups and downs
Riding the Dragon
Exit the quandary
Via creativity
Quandary
To solve listen
To nature
Being part
Of Nature
Shows
I am worthy
Don’t teach
Push hands too soon!
Bewilderment
Sets in
Masters
In charge
Bad demo
Makes for better
Tai Chi Chuan
Must remain
A fulcrum
Never taking
Either side
Bad income $
Results in good
Outcome
Thru Tai Chi Chuan
Discover the fulcrum
Of the future
Weight all
By listening
It is worthy
Riding the dragon
Fewer the students
Cause more
Solo practice
Riding the Dragon
Have its ups and downs
Just don’t fall off
(Quit Tai Chi Chuan)
In the beginning
Of learning Tai Chi Ch’uan
The normal
Is to focus on the hands
After learning the form
Focus on hands becomes abnormal
To advance in the art
Focus on alignment
Which becomes abnormal
Next comes concentrate on energy
It becomes abnormal
So you go back
To focusing on the hands
This time with the controlling energy
Finally forget self
Only think of others
Thinking of others too soon
Impedes your progress
Bewilderment sets in
Master
Is sharp, sharp
With the worthy students
Who are connected
It is up
To the student
To seek
The solution
Master can only
Point out
The problems
Think gesture
Then to align gesture
To ward-off, rollback, press and push
Confirm the above
In one posture
Mind will understand in it
In all gestures
Poor = more creativity
Few students
Cause more solo practice
Holding the bow steady
Allows the bow
To function properly
Bow always faces
Direction of the support leg
Felt more stretching
Of joints and sinews
They are the string
Holding bow feeling
Hands pressing
On the imagined string
Then after the kick
I felt my elbows
Pressing on the string
Hands/forearms hollow
Yin becomes yang
With just a thought
And vice versa
Be a fulcrum
Like the Masters
Change with change
Less talk
More practice
Quandary
Of push hands
Correct
Via Slow Set
I can enjoy
Drinking water
Water can enjoy
Drowning me
Don’t spoil
Students
By thinking/practicing
For them
There is only new
Created out
Of the old
Chi Kung
Is not a shortcut
It is a short circuit
Uses
Internal stretching
To straighten
The curved
Tai Chi Chuan
Only shines
To people
Who are worthy
Transformation
According
To situations
Square in Chinese
Means honest too
Not listening
Good fortune
Too gives rise
To bad
Because of laziness
Too strong
Hand shake
Reveals blocking
Heartfelt gesture
Too light hand shake
Not a heartfelt gesture
Not peaceful/authentic
The common flicks
To the faults
Few feel
The fulcrum
Other Tai Chi Chuan forms
There is neither right or wrong
Just different
Beware of the charlatan
Tai Chi Chuan
Touches the ends
Without contact
Master
Bright
But not dazzling
To those who are
Connected
Master bends
The straight
Into a bow
When the Master
Makes a point
His sharpness
Does not injure
The worthy
To the unworthy
Corrections can distort
Their reality
Tai Chi Chuan
Is latent
Bafflement
Sets in
If not calm/listening
Riding the Dragon
Being on the edge
Sensitive
The edge means
Being a scale
With attention
On the support
The slightest
Negative thought
Causes the scale
To go off balance
Students gone astray
Why?
Learn to watch them
From a distance
Who is trying to outwit?
If Master
Can see me
Doing badly
He can think me
Doing good
If I am worthy
Meddling
Into students
Affairs is wrong
Let them questions/answer them
Themselves
I just think it
The secret
Is to realize
I am in a quandary
Change according
To circumstances
Change with change
Follow others
And listen
Magic is nothing more
Taking advantage
Of a person’s lack
Of concentration
Don’t use 5 senses
Use sixth sense
Magic will not work
Bad demo
Is what
Good form relays on
Find fulcrum
To balance bad/good
Too much good
Causes bad
And vice versa
Find fulcrum
More Slow Set
Fewer weapons
Until Jing/chi
Arrives
Aligns body/spirit
Taking from
Receiving from
Projecting to
Body neutral
Mind changes
Tai Chi Chuan
Is a fulcrum
Of the future
Master reveals his feeling
About a situation
By mentioning that the
Person in charge
Of the class (host)
Feels this way
Or that way
When is fact
It is Master
Feel a particular way
Should feel
The same as
The Master does
I am host
The turning point
Is within
Not with
The other
Quandary if not
Listening
To fulcrum
Let the Masters
Guide
A fulcrum
Is unbiased
Weights all equally
Find own fulcrum
Then find others
While staying balanced
Constantly adjust
Fulcrum
Of the future
There are two sides
To the same gesture
Stay as a fulcrum
Intent
To do the gesture
Apprehension
To complete it
The fulcrum
Is normal
Be a fulcrum
In all I do
Don’t answer
Questions
That is
Not asked
Riding the Dragon
Don’t dismount
Don’t quit
Apprehension
Leans on intent
Intent is what apprehension
Concealed in
Find the fulcrum
C.o.g. rooted to China
Creates the gesture
Creates the gesture
The present
Is a fulcrum
For the past and future
When in the presence
Of the Master/students
I am intimated
When Master
Is away
I acquire corrections
During solo practice
Good today
Bad tomorrow
Know the fulcrum
Of change
The pivot/Tai Chi
Is a fulcrum
Balances
Without intent
Bad direction
Good correction
Not listening
Leads to astray
Ward off
Unworthy
Without
A fulcrum
There is
A dilemma
Non-spirited gestures
Lead to abnormal
Practice
Practice
Balancing
On the tip
Of a sword
Is Tai Chi
Gesture
Practice
Without an epiphany
Can lead
To malpractice
A worthy
Connection
To the Master
Negates worry
And wander
To know
Your future
Know your
Fulcrum
The Master
Is the conduit
To the lineage
Listen/learn
Learning Tai Chi Chuan
Is like the weather
With highs and lows
Of emotions
Errors
Epiphanies
Feels like
A fulcrum
On a roller coaster
The worthy
Will find
Their own
Fulcrum
If it is not
Heartfelt
It is not.
The “V”
In virtue
Can lean
Either way
Create
Without
Welding
Tai Chi Chuan
Is practicing
The Pi
Of Yin/Yang symbol
With the diameter
Being elastic
Be governed
By lineage
Find
Tai Chi fulcrum
For future
Worthy student
Can someday
Teach
The worthy
Find
Tai chi fulcrum
To endure
Enlightenment
Slow Set
Serenity
Secures
Soul
Be passive
To find
Force
With fulcrum
When it seems
Master pays
No attention
To student
The worthy apprentice
Has Master’s
Full attention
Improvements
Abound
Learning from
Poor gestures
Which teach good
Gestures
That can go bad
This is circling
Tai Chi corrections
When Master
Is silent
Worthy student
Hears/heeds
Hence
Not hindered
Slow Set
Bad gestures
Corrected
Via diligent
Practice
Good gestures
Become bad
Via lack of
Devoted
Practice
Slow Set
Question
During practice
Causes a
Quandary
Answered only
Via heartfelt
Practice
Slow Set
When practice
Becomes
Mundane
It is malpractice
Slow Set
Poor gestures
Never precise
Perfect gestures
Never wrong
Applications
Are proof
Tai Chi Chuan
Civil to Martial
to Soon
Leads to Perplex
Practice
Paradoxically
Practice
Causes pain
Practice cures
Pain
Tai Chi Chuan
When body
Is song-kai (loose/open)
Gestures are
Ambivalent
Secret to
Change with change
Slow Set
To align
Body conduit
So, Spirit/gravity
Flows freely
Between
Master/student
Slow Set
Heart balances
Decisions
Not the weight
Of the gesture
1-8-23