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I’m not sure if this is a common misunderstanding, but I thought I bring it up anyway to find out more from the community.

I have come to realize that some people try to learn techiques rather than try to learn the skill. They relish in the satisfaction of knowing more and more techniques, without actually learning the skill.

Is that possible? Isn’t knowing more techniques a sign of increasing your skill?

I suppose certain techniques require a different level of skill set to perform. But that’s not the point, and should not be used as the reason to perfect the technique. We should instead focus on perfecting the skill rather than the technique.

Take push hands for example. There are many ways to counter attack a person. Most ways I’ve seen are not truly using the softness of Tai Chi. Most people rely on knowing a certain way to move their hands or a certain way to turn their body and when this is perfected, they are able to wait and anticipate when to execute this technique. After this one technique, they start to accumulate other techniques and will eventually pass off this collection of techniques as skill.

While this is useful and may seem to work on the outside, it misses the whole point of learning Tai Chi.

We’ve heard of formlessness, i.e. using non-specific moves. This is when you’ve perfected an art and do not need to actually use any partiular form of that art to show that you truly understand the art. With such good understanding, you are then able to apply the art in more ways than one.

But formlessness do start with the existence of “form” to realize the power of “no form”. This is why we learn Tai Chi form first before learning the art. This is why we learn the notes of music before expressing music. This is why I learn the alphabets and some words first before writing a post like this. I don’t need a large vocabulary to write what I write. I just need to understand the words and then string them together to tell you this story.

I believe this is true for any art, and should form the reason for learning the art. So don’t just be a collector of techniques. Learn the true art.

I was a bit surprised when my teacher told me that he preferred music playing in the background when doing Tai Ji. But his was a different reason. He said the music will actually boost his performance, and will also help to relax the mind. But there’s a dark side to it. You can become reliant on music, so much so that it becomes an addiction. It may come to a point when you can’t relax until there’s some music playing in the background, which is not what we are trying to train.

I guess the reason i’m training tai chi is to learn how to relax both the mind and the body, and in the mean time, try to understand how I can apply the principles of tai chi in life.

Having music is a bonus. But I’d rather have peace and quiet anytime.

I sometimes hope Tai Chi philosophy can be used as a leadership tool. And I think losing the mind might be one of them.
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