Wujimon wrote an interesting post on how tai chi is taught through the transmission of touch. The lessons learnt from these corrections normally far outweigh any other class room exposure I’ve had. I especially remember the “don’t look down” criteria. I have a tendency to look down to check the posture alignment but was always told to “feel” the posture alignment rather than judging it with my own eyes.

So one night, during a standing posture training, the spine suddenly just lengthens and there was this rush of heat, what wujimon refers to as “the burn”. And then I understood what correct alignment feels like. However, since that experience, I’ve been trying to reproduce that feeling. It’s difficult. I haven’t been able to reproduce it as intensely as the first time. And then I find myself frustrated over not being able to do it. The training boils down to “searching for the feeling”.

I spend more time searching for the feeling and forgot that I must just allow the feeling to manifest itself. Self-correct based on feeling does have this disadvantage. So, what did I do? I stopped doing tai ji for a while, and went back to it when I “forgot” about the feeling. ;)