Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts Blog

A Focused Mind - Not an Empty Mind - Helps Your Tai Chi Practice

a calm mind remain centered studying internal gongfu studying tai chi studying taiji Jun 19, 2019

My favorite Zen joke is this one:

How many Zen masters does it take to screw in a light bulb?

The answer: A green tree in a quiet forest.

I love telling that joke to people who don't know Eastern philosophy, just to see the puzzled looks on their faces.

A Quiet, Focused Mind is a Difficult Goal

The chaos that our minds endure each day is no joke.

We are all on the move every day. We are bombarded with messages, texts, emails, photos and social media posts, advertising and calls. If you watch the news or see online news headlines, the negativity can really disrupt your mental tranquility, if you have any to begin with.

When we take time to practice our martial arts -- which is too little time for most people -- our minds are still jumbled with activities at work, deadlines, what to pick up at the store, what our spouses and partners need, or what our children are up to.

Or, we just dive into our practice and start working on a form or techniques.

But if ...

The Ground Path is Step One in Building a Strong Internal Structure

ground path internal body mechanics studying internal gongfu studying tai chi studying taiji Jun 04, 2019

The first concept I introduce new students to is the ground path.

We do exercises with a partner to learn how to establish and maintain the ground path and combine it with peng jin.

But some people who see a photo like the one here make the mistake of thinking, "That's useless. You can't use that in a fight."

In this photo, my training partner Tom is pushing into my right elbow and I am grounding the push into the ground through my left foot.

Tom is not supposed to push with too much force, although as you can see in the picture, this particular drill is used to show that you can, in fact, set up a pretty strong structure using the ground.

The ground path is generally practiced without too much force because the idea is not to make you Superman, to meet force with force. Tai Chi doesn't fight force against force.

The idea is to provide internal strength to your body structure, but as you hold that strength in, for example, a self-defense situation, your goal will not be to meet f...

Ken Gullette's Internal Fighting Arts

A Focused Mind - Not an Empty Mind - Helps Your Tai Chi Practice

The Ground Path is Step One in Building a Strong Internal Structure

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