charles wrote:First, the words he uses aren't accurately describing what he is actually doing. It is misleading and prevents students from progressing more directly. It keeps things in the realm of being mysterious. Only the smart ones will figure out that what he is doing isn't what he says he is doing.
Only "smart" people will understand what Tai Chi is about. Period.
For progress to occur, the focus should be on understanding the incoming forces and how to specifically interact with them, not on some vague notion that something called "force" should be "abandoned".
I agree and do not agree. I agree that "For progress to occur, the focus should be on understanding the incoming forces and how to specifically interact with them."
But what Mizner speak about is not any method or how to interact with different forces. He speak more about a "body standard", a standard of being as well as a standard of doing.
I like how Hao Weizhen expresses it: ”If you are able to use intention to attack the opponent [using jin through the focus on Yi and not using dum force], then after long experience, even intention does not need to be applied, for the body standards will always be conformed to.“
I do believe that both the specific and the general is important. You learn the general by practicing specific things, and you learn how to do specific things correct by focusing on general aspects. When something happen for real it happens fast. Everything goes fast. So you can not bother yourself with "specifics" or details, and instead everything must be automatized by and from a state of "Being". So IMO, both are needed.