Tai Chi and Integrity - Philosophy in Action

philosophy tai chi balance May 04, 2008

I was practicing push hands in the park yesterday with my friend, Douglas Nakamoto. He has learned from some excellent Chen teachers and has excellent insights into body mechanics. We were testing each other and then working out the body mechanics of handling an opponent's push, and we began discussing the concept of "maintaining your integrity."

There is a balanced position that you want to attain in tai chi. When you are in that position, where you can deal with attacks from any direction, you are said to have "integrity." When you find yourself becoming unbalanced, you must move in a way that brings you back into a position of integrity.

Naturally, since I love to translate the physical action into philosophical principles, this one is very interesting and I've been thinking about it. Having mental balance is to have mental integrity.

It's amazing how often our daily lives put us off-balance, from driving on the street (the drivers here in Tampa are crazy) to the bizarre behavior you encounter at work or even sometimes in your own family or relationships--something is always trying to destroy your balance and cause you to lose your mental integrity.

I wanted to throw this concept out there for you to think about. What in your life has caused you to lose integrity? What is putting you off-balance? And when unexpected things happen, as they do in push hands, how will you re-position yourself to regain your integrity?

In push hands, if you lose your integrity too badly, it's hard to get it back. In a self-defense situation, losing your physical integrity can have disastrous consequences. The same could be true in other parts of your life.

You can also say that someone who has no ethical integrity has also lost his/her balance. Taiji instructors whose students hop and fall at the slightest touch have lost their ethical integrity, and so have their students.

Fortunately, when it comes to emotional/mental integrity, losing it and regaining it can make you stronger. That can also be true in push hands. When you practice with a goal of learning and improving skills, you invest in loss and you find a more skilled person can cause you to lose integrity.

By learning and working hard and developing skill, you grow stronger and it's much more difficult for someone to put you off-balance.

A worthy goal for any martial artist, isn't it?

--by Ken Gullette

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Tai Chi and Integrity - Philosophy in Action

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