MAN AS MICRO-COSMOS
The Immortal Zhang San Feng
The Universal Law of Reality applies to the Cosmos as well as Man (which of course includes Woman). Every human is an integrated part of Ultimate Reality, unseparated and undifferentiated from It (Him, or Her for fierce female chauvinists). This is the pre-natal situation, or Transcendental Reality, called in Western terms as God the Holy Spirit. In modern scientific terms, it is the universal spread of energy before an observer perceives it as sub-atomic particles. In Chinese it is called "Wuji" or the Limitless Void.
The creation of humanity and all the myriad things, living and non-living, in our world and beyond is post-natal, i.e. after the Creation. All these things, including ourselves and all other things we may see or not see in this world, like mountains and streams, micro-organisms and faries, and all things beyond that we may or may not perceive, like distant galaxies, dark matter in science, gods and immortals, Amitabha Buddha and God the Father, are in the phenomenal realm, separated and differentiated. In Chinese it is called "Taiji", or the Cosmos.
The Cosmos and the Limitless Void are the same; it is a matter of perception. In other words, the Cosmos, whether in its micro or macro form, is the Limitless Void. It may be expressed in other terms like everyone is a Buddha, or everyone has the divine spark of God in him.
The ultimate aim of Taijiquan practice is to return to the Limitless Void. It is also the ultimate aim of all great spiritual training and all known world religions, though most followers may not understand its real meaning. Because this great Truth is expressed in different terms by different peoples, like attaining Tao, realizing Buddhahood, and returning to God, it may have different connotations for different people.
But we are not ready for this ultimate aim of returning to the Ultimate Void yet. So we practice Taijiquan for lower aims of having good health, vitality, longevity and mental clarity, attaining peak performance in our work and play, and having combat efficiency. This does not mean that we leave out the spiritual aspect of Taijiquan. As emphasized by Zhang San Feng himself, the spiritual aspect and the energy aspect are the most important. We experience spiritual joys in our Taijiquan practice, irrespective of religion, and once a while we have glimpses of the Ultimate Reality.
Man is a Micro-Cosmos
All human functions and processes follow the same laws of the Cosmos. Hence it is to our benefit that we flow with the Cosmos, instead of go against it. In everyday life, it means that when you are tired, you rest; when you are hungry, you eat. When you wake up, you work. At night you sleep. This is going with the flow. If you exert yourself when you are tired, go on a diet when you are hungry, sleep in the day and work late into the night, then you are going against the flow.
The action and interaction of yin-yang apply to humans in the same way as to the Cosmos. Extreme quiescence generates movement. When you have rested enough in the night, you wake up fresh and energetic. Extreme movement generates quiescence. When viruses attack you, usually without you conscious awareness, your natural processes overcome the viruses and restore peace.
Movement and stillness inter-react, and the operation is symbolized as yin-yang harmony. When you eat food, irrespective of whether you know the Western paradigm of classifying food into proteins, carbohydrate, fat, etc, your natural processes will digest the food. When you are exposed to negative emotions, irrespective of whether you know the Chinese paradigm of relating certain emotions to certain organs of the body, your natural processes will clear away the negative emotions.
And when cells mutate in your body, and this happens thousands of times in every person, without you or anyone having to do anything, natural bodily processes will overcome the harmful effect of the mutation and maintain your good health.. The whole complex matrix of this yin-yang operation constitutes your well-being, which is natural. Practicing Taijiquan enhances this yin-yang harmony.
All activities of human life are dependent on spirit and energy. Obviously, if a person's spirit or energy is low, his quality of life will be much affected. If he frequently stressed his spirit with countless thoughts, or is frequently being reminded that he has to remain sick and miserable, his spirit become depressed. On the other hand, if we nourish our spirit, as in meditation, and set our spirit free, as in smiling from the heart, we experience spiritual joys and freedom.
If a person drains his energy, like performing vigorous physical exercise, or block his energy flow, like tensing his muscles, he becomes weak and may not have sufficient energy to maintain his normal life processes, thus resulting in sickness. On the other hand, if we increase our energy level and enhance our energy flow, like performing Taijiquan or other chi kung exercises, we attain good health, vitality and longevity.
The pure energy of human rises to become heaven, and the impure energy sinks to become earth. When we practice Taijiquan we become mentally fresh and clear, and open ourselves to the spiritual joys of the Cosmos. Impure energy, manifested as negative thoughts, negative emotions, pain and illness, is cleansed out of our body (and mind) into the ground.
Taijiquan practice is an excellent way to cultivate our spirit and train our energy. When we attain a unity of spirit and energy, we attain a micro-Cosmos, which mirrors the macro-Cosmos.
Zhang San Feng emphasized that this teaching of the Cosmos and the Limitless Void, and of spirit and energy, is the essence of his transmission in the practice of Taijiquan. The most important is to understand the marvellous operation and benefits of the Cosmos in you and in the Universe. The marvellous operation can be concisely summed up as yin-yang harmony. The marvellous benefits can be concisely summed up as good health, combat efficiency and spiritual fulfilment. Those who do not understand this most important lesson have missed the essence of Zhang San Feng's teaching.
Having explained the philosophy of his teaching, Zhang San Feng went on to explain the practical ways of practicing Taijiquan to obtain these marvellous benefits. This will be presented in subsequent posts.
Wong Kiew Kit
23rd August 2011
Taragona, Spain
Practicing Taijiquan is an excellent way to cultivate spirit and train energy
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