Taiji is a martial art at its roots. That means that you are learning to engage with an opponent. But since we are not living in times of warfare as those times during which taiji came into being the meaning of “opponent” has new meanings that perhaps it didn’t used to have. If you are going to learn technique and applications, you will be able to apply them to an physical opponent in battle. In my journey we have learned to see opponent in new ways. One for example is to see yourself as opponent. Your weaknesses. To stalk yourself. To be observant and listen to yourself while you move. To learn to move from a point and return to it. To expand and shrink, yang yin yang. To lead the chi with the yi and the physical with chi. To pull the silk, not push it. To find wuqi even in the midst of movement. The opponent is the resistance to these things in taiji.
The internal view of the concept of opponent
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