Yang Chengfu
What Taijiquan trains is the spirit.
Yang Chengfu
The theme of this year’s Tai Chi Alchemy is “Raise Your Spirit,” so what better topic for a blogpost? “Raising the spirit” implies that we can learn to control and regulate our spirit, this invisible something that is not easily perceptible, but yet is intuited by people all over the world. Even the most materialistic among us can recognize that someone’s spirit can be high or low, depending on their circumstances. And those more disposed to sensing beyond the strictly material are aware of much more.
Yang Chengfu tells us that Taiji “trains the spirit,” affirming what many of us know to be true. Regular practice of Taijiquan teaches us to control our spirit just as we learn to control body, Qi, and mind. But what do we mean by “spirit”? There a many, many ways of using the term “spirit” in English, and there at least as many in Chinese. Context is important. Spirit means different things in, “He was moved by the spirit and began speaking in tongues,” versus “That horse has a lot of spirit,” or “The house was haunted by an evil spirit.” Shen is the Chinese term most often used in transliteration, but it is equally ambiguous. Master Yang Fukui explained to me that Shen could be considered the Yang, active aspect of spirit and Hun the Yin, abiding part—the “soul.” But just as “spirit” and “soul” can be synonymous at times, we can use Shen when such distinctions are not needed.
The spirit/Shen that we are “training” in Taijiquan is the personal spirit, the basic power or agency that is, as William James writes in The Principles of Psychology, “the source of effort and attention, and the place from which appear to emanate the fiats of the will.” This spirit is not something “other.” It is the center of the authentic Self, which includes body and mind, but is not limited to either one. It could be described as the ephemeral aspect of the dynamic, ever-changing process that is the self. All the other possible meanings for spirit have their place, but emphasis on Shen as your personal spirit gives us a toehold.
In this sense, “spirit” is a catchall for those aspects of our being that are beyond the scope of the rational mind and the five senses. It is “the source of effort and attention,” and some days we have more spirit than others. And like anything else that can be thought about, spirit is both substantial and insubstantial. It is substantial to the degree that it can be manifested or perceived. For instance, a dancer or singer shows spirit when they bring their A-game to the performance. We can’t see their insubstantiality anymore than we can see microwaves or 5G wireless, but we can see its effects. There is a special quality—a presence and aliveness—that is recognizable, even if it is not quantifiable. Each of us can make our own spirit more substantial, and have probably been doing it since birth. Anytime we psyche ourselves up to do something, we are raising our spirit—even something as mundane as getting out of bed in the morning or taking a walk.
Taijiquan goes about training the spirit methodically, first emphasizing the body, then the Qi, and then to training the spirit directly. We gradually establish patterns and shortcuts that enable us to do it more efficiently. As we become more attuned to the importance of the insubstantial aspects of life, we open our Eye of Spirit wider. We become aware of phenomena and abilities that are invisible to others, just as highly skilled musicians can hear nuances that most people would miss. (Denise Meyers’ new book, Swimming in the Sea of Qi: The Taiji Path to Energetic and Spiritual Awareness provides delightful accounts of the everyday miracles experienced by Taiji practitioners of all levels.)
One such ability is Jin, and Jin is the access door to spiritual awakening. Jin is the expression of Qi through the body, directed by intention (Yi). It is an alchemy of body, mind, Qi, and spirit coming together to create an effect. Spirit (Shen) is the commander that brings them together. We train our spirit to be more present and then to be more creative. (Presence is Being, Yin. Creating is Doing, Yang.) We learn how to regulate our state of being in order to optimally encounter the challenges and possibilities of life.
According to the Taiji Classics, Jin and spiritual awakening are mutually supportive. Conscious feeling and doing lead to understanding Jin, which leads to spiritual illumination. We gradually attune to the more insubstantial aspects of our being until they become as salient as body and mind. Spiritual awareness is a spectrum. It may come as a dramatic event, sometimes blissful, sometimes frightening. Or it may be a slow evolution over a long time. And one day you realize that all those synchronicities, telepathies, and strange feelings are not just coincidences; they are signs that your awareness is no longer limited to your rational mind, that you are capable of much more.
We train and raise our spirit through cultivating Jin.
The following video shows a simple Jin.
