Matching Theory with Reality

One of the most difficult struggles is trying to match what Bruce has described with your own experience. I’m constantly trying to do this. Unfortunately, it is still a hit or miss proposition. It would be so much easier to have access to someone with Bruce’s level of mastery telling you over and over what is what.

Expressions like yin and yang, not yin, not yang, stillness, emptiness, the tai chi space, etc. can be very confusing. Bruce says as much in his CD, “Strings of the TAO”. What complicates this confusion even further is the numerous levels of mastery within each practice and the myriad nuances of the Taoist phrases. So for example, what I consider “connected “10 years ago isn’t even close to what I think that means today. Expressions like this from the Bagua promo can mean very different things to people at different levels never mind over time as our understanding changes.

“…I think even more than that I think to have the ability to create the space in the mind that water comes out of and the connection of chi to where when you start moving you literally don’t have any sense of separation inside you.”

Even the seemingly simplest expressions can be confusing. What does a simple expression like “not yang” mean to you. Quoting Bruce, “Yin and yang includes not yin and not yang”. I think that you have to know what yang is and what yin is to know what not yin and not yang are. Is not-yang created when you stop creating yang? That’s different than creating yin.

To complicate things even further, Bruce says it is very difficult to understand yang and yin if you don’t know what the tai chi space is that they come out of. How many of Bruce’s students or instructors do you think know what the tai chi space is? So, who do you ask?

Matching the theory with your experience isn’t easy. So, there is a lot of chaos (which is ultimately one side of a big yin/yang pair). It just goes on and on.