This article considers the Daoist interpretation of water and how it can inspire us to think differently about both our Tai Chi and the challenges in our lives.
An image commonly found in Daoist philosophy is the image of water: indeed the Chinese classics are full of references to springs, streams and seas. Water, through its ability to yield and be soft, is seen as having many desirable yin qualities. When presented with an obstacle, water does not try to destroy it or attack it. It will simply flow around it and carry on with its course. The equivalent qualities in a person, yielding and softness, are equally seen in Daoist thought as being very positive qualities.
The idea of not struggling against a situation but of letting go of it and simply working with it will not necessarily be new to many people in the West – “going with the flow” is quite a common (even possibly overused) phrase used here in various classes and courses about “relaxing” and “dealing with stress”. However, the Daoist idea is much more profound than this. It is certainly worthy of a lot of thought: it is one thing to “go with the flow” when, say, missing a bus, but it is something else to understand how this concept can be applied to much bigger questions in life.
Water, for example, doesn’t care whether it gets to go on a particularly nice summer holiday or not. It does not see the holiday situation as good and the not-holiday situation as bad. Both are just different scenarios, and either can be enjoyable, or either can be disastrous. Water would say that a happiness which depends on going on holiday is a very fragile happiness indeed. True happiness is about being happy no matter what the external circumstances are.
Going further still, water wouldn’t care whether it ever gets a mortgage, meets that special person in life or has a family, or even whether it has a long life or a short one. The important thing is to find happiness in life, and true happiness does not depend on any of these things. Water only knows that it starts to flow at the top of the mountain and will one day reach the sea – whichever path it takes in between is not actually relevant.
In Tai Chi, we cultivate softness in our body, learning to yield to pushes and punches while staying grounded at the same time. To really understand what Tai Chi is about though, it is also important to think about these concepts and cultivate mental “letting go” as well as physical relaxation.