THE CLASSICS

The Classics of t’ai chi are a bunch of old sayings from the various masters
who tried to put their advanced experience into words. I don’t think
that ‘it works too well to put experience into words but as far as t’ai chi
or pa kua is concerned it’s all we have to fall back onto.
These classics are on paper in black and white, they are physical, conscious
‘things’. If we read them and then try to do what they say we get
into trouble because we must think about it. The classics came out of
something that the old masters discovered for themselves,
sub-consciously. I don’t say that you shouldn’t read the classics because
they are all that we have to go on and give us some sort of goal to reach
for. What we should be trying to do is to experience what the masters
experienced then we can be assured that the art is truly ours and not
someone else’s idea that only they are able to appreciate. Don’t take the
classics too literally, allow your training methods to give you the classics
without having to think about them, then as you discover a certain
way you will think, “