Just stand, hold your energy in the hara, concentrate at the hara, and then just whatsoever you feel like…. For example if it is anger, then just feel the energy arising from the hara taking the form of anger like flames, spreading all over the body.

Then relax and let the body move with those flames. You will find that gestures start — they may be more like latihan, Subud, they will be more like Subud movements. So just like flames — if you are thinking about anger, then think of flames.  Then you watch the movements and then you trace them back.  Trace the energy, just go with the energy and allow the energy to take its own shape and start moving.

By and by experiment and you will be able to fix the movements — that these are the movements that always come whenever you think of anger, and whenever you think of flames arising in you and taking shape, then this happens. But you try with anger for a few days so you come to an exact formulation. Then try with some other things — sadness, hatred, jealousy — but remember not to get confused. If you try with anger then try anger only for three weeks, so it settles. It settles so much that you can tell somebody else to do the movement and if he does the movement, he will suddenly say that anger is arising in him and anger is being thrown out.

Then you try something else when you have come to a fixed pattern about anger. And whatsoever your negativities, you can search….

            In T’ai Chi some of the forms take an hour — there are many, many more movements.  When you can separate the parts, when you link it together, you just let each one go out as it goes out.

Simply let it go out, let it be dissolved into the cosmos. Don’t make a circle, don’t take it in; simply let it out. It moves into the existence and disappears…you have poured it into existence. And this has to be done silently, quietly… you can find your own ways.

           These sciences — T’ai Chi, Yoga or things like that — are arts, not really sciences, and everybody can play around and find out their own ways. One should be very, very free about them. They are not very fixed things — they have great freedom in them.

So learn the art and then use it in your own individual way — give it your own flavour.  And never become an orthodox follower of these things; otherwise, rather than helping, they constrict you. They help in a certain limited way, but if you can improve upon them, innovate, then you can be benefited tremendously.

MOVEMENTS:-

1  Warm up with proper breathing and centering.

As with any martial art, it’s not just how quickly and forcefully you can strike a board or knock a guy out. A huge part of it is having a firm grip on your mind. To clear yours, focus your chi, and tap into your potential, you’ll need to start with proper breathing (which will, in turn, center you).

• Put your feet up to shoulder width apart, no farther.
• Place your hand on your lower abdomen, about 2 inches (5 cm) below your navel. Push in lightly.
• Breathe in and out through your nose slowly (lips loosely together) from this area of your abdomen. If you can’t feel this area moving, push in with your hand a bit more.

          2  Concentrate on all parts of your body one at a time.

Once breathing like this feels normal, start relaxing every part of your body one at a time. Start with your feet and work your way up to your scalp. Get as tiny as you’d like — down to your fingernails even. You’ll find you were holding tension without even realizing it.

• If you start to sway, that’s actually a good thing! It means you’re relaxing and your body isn’t tensed to balance. If that does happen, consider slightly readjusting your feet or moving your concentration back to your balance until you’re steady again.

          3  Root yourself.

One of the concepts of tai chi is “rooting.” It’s fairly self-explanatory: imagine roots growing out from underneath your feet. You are a part of the ground, never losing balance, focus, or your centering. Your limbs sway like branches in the wind, never hesitating for fear or apprehension. You are rooted.

• This does not mean you or your legs are stiff. Quite the opposite. Just imagine roots under you, a part of you, allowing you for freedom of movement because you cannot fall, you cannot fail, and you will always be a part of the natural world.

          4  Think about your frame.

In Tai Chi, there are a few forms your positions can take. Generally each style favors a specific form. Here’s a rundown of the basics:

• Small frame style. In this style (usually Wu or Hao versions) aren’t very expansive. The movements are smaller (big surprise, huh?) and there’s less extension in general. The focus is on correct internal energy to form correct movements and transitions.
• Large frame style. The large frame style (Chen and Yang) involves low and high stances, more dramatic postures, and swinging arms. It emphasizes correct positioning of the body and alignment to channel energy.
  • There isa medium frame style, but it’s really just in between the two.^[3] If you have questions, ask your teacher!

          5  Experiment with different styles.

Because all Tai Chi is good, it’s more important that you do any rather than worry about which style is right for you. But once you get immersed in the world, you may want to experiment. Here’s a brief rundown.

• The Chen style mixes up the tempo, going very slow and then being explosive. It can be difficult for beginners.
• The Yang style is the most popular. It has a steady tempo and, as discussed above, uses large frame movements. It’s probably what you think of when you think of tai chi.
• In Wu, the movements are almost microscopic. This makes it easy to do, but difficult to master — there’s a lot of focus on powerful flows of energy and inner, pressured movements. The movements are very slow and deliberate.
• The Hao style isn’t very widely spread. You probably won’t find a teacher that practices it.

T’ai Chi means energy. The whole concept is that solidity is false — just as in modern physics. These walls are not real — it is just pure energy, but the electrons are moving so fast, with such terrific speed that you cannot see the blades separately. So it gives a sense of solidarity. The same is true with your body. What modern physics has come to know right now, Taoists have known for thousands of years — that man is energy.

It is said about a T’ai Chi master that he would tell his disciples to attack him, and he would just sit in the middle. Five or ten disciples would rush from every corner of the room to attack him, but when they came near him, they would feel as if he were a cloud; there was nothing solid…as if you could pass through him and you would not be obstructed by anything.

If you continue this idea that you are energy, it is possible to become just like a cloud with no boundaries, melting and merging with existence. This anecdote is not just an anecdote. With a man who has gone deep into T’ai Chi, it is very easily possible that when you come across him, you will not find any obstruction; you can simply go through him. You cannot hurt him because he is not there to be hurt.

T’ai Chi can be used for many, many things, and for this also, because each movement of the body can have some relevance to the emotions. That’s why they are called emotions, because they are connected with body motions: each emotion has a particular body gesture related to it, corresponding to it.

When you become angry your eyes have a certain gesture, your hands have a

certain gesture, your teeth have a certain energy, your jaw is more aggressive; you  are ready to destroy, to be aggressive. The energy accumulates in the hands and in the teeth, because when man was an animal that was the only way to be angry. Still

animals are angry with their teeth and with their nails; we still carry that mechanism.

If you try to be angry without using your hands and your teeth and your eyes, you will be in an almost impossible situation — you cannot be angry. That particular gesture in the body is a must. And what precedes what cannot be said? In fact it is just like saying: “Which comes first — the hen or the egg?” Does fear come first and then the gesture of being frightened, or does the gesture come and then fear? They both come together, they are simultaneous.

You can work it out…but T’ai Chi masters will not be of much help because they have not used T’ai Chi in that way. T’ai Chi has many potentialities which have not been used in the past. In fact, T’ai Chi has been used to repress, not to express.

All the Eastern techniques are in a way repressive. Rather than expressing your anger, your sadness or your negativity, the techniques have been made in such a way that you can very, very politely persuade them to go into the unconscious, to the basement. So T’ai Chi masters won’t be much help…but you can work it out on your own. Learn T’ai Chi from them but then you can work it out in a very cathartic way and you can throw negative emotions through T’ai Chi movements; they can be thrown out. You can develop that thing and it can be helpful For others too. It can become a new dimension in T’ai Chi.

Movements to cathart