Don't Try, Do

With the internal arts it's important to understand the idea of branch and root. The branch is what is most apparent and can easily be seen. The root is the key idea but is hidden.
I friend of mine is teaching himself Tuvan throat singing, of all things. Tuvan throat singing involves singing two or even three notes at one time using overtones.
"I'm starting to get the hang of it," he told me. "But if you try to make the second note it won't work."
He explained that what is required instead is to focus on singing the base note and then on creating the right conditions for the overtones to appear.
"trying to sing the second note isn't the way to get it" he told me, "you just gotta do the singing instead."

Taoist Utopia

Here are two discussions of a taoist utopia. The first is Chapter 80 from the Daodejing. The second is from a less conventional source, Charlie Chaplin. It is an excerpt from the Barber's speech from The Great Dictator.

Small country, few people —
Hundreds of devices, but none are used.
People ponder death and don't travel far.
They have carriages and boats, but no one goes on board;
Weapons and armour, but no one brandishes them. They use knotted cord for counting.
Sweet thier food, beautiful their clothes, peaceful their homes, delightful their customs.
Neighbouring countries are so close you can hear thier chickens and dogs. But people grow old and die without needing to come and go.

In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

Like Rain Falling Through Trees

A training extravaganza in Quebec City and holidays have left this blog a little slient.
Describing the difference between training Magui Bagua and Chen Taiji, my teacher, Andrea Falk said Chen Taiji is like rain falling through leaves while Bagua is like an expansion of the channels. Keep in mind that this is someone who has trained internal styles for over 25 years. She is describing her body's felt response to training not some conceptual idea of what training should be like.
Internal styles train the body to build Qi. But different styles do so in different ways. To understand this requires a clear understanding of the foundational practices of the style you train and enough attention to these fundamentals to shape your body, attuning it to the requirments of your practice.