Tai Chi: The Great Ultimate

As I stepped into the shower on this first morning after my marriage, the concept of Taiji, or Tai Chi, became clearer to me. The word, Tai Chi, consists of two linked Chinese characters. The first, means "great," and the second, means "ridge pole." In a tent, a ridegepole is the highest point and that which encompasses everything. According to scholars, this concept was created in Chinese philosophy to reconcile the central belief in Yin Yang, or the theory of opposites.

Yin Yang holds that opposites forces--such as hot/cold, male/female, up/down, light/dark, etc.--are interdependent, the one giving rise to, or contained in, each other. For example, a tiny grain of wheat, when sown, will grow into a tall shaft of when. Then it dies, releasing its seeds, which begin the cycle of life again. The seed holds both increase and decrease within.

When we practice Tai Chi Chuan, we try to incorporate concepts like heavy/light and up/down in our movements. While we are breathing in, our hands are light and floating upward, while the knees are lowering and feeling heavy. With our bodies, we are trying to be the ridgepole that serves as a bridge between the energy coming up from the earth and the that coming down from the universe and the sky.

This energy is also called "chi" or "qi," but it is not the same as "ji" which is found to "taiji" or "tai chi." Chi or qi is vital life force, which is analagous to prana in the yoga tradition or "elan vital," in French.

When we are in harmony, we have a balance between the yin yang and the qi is flowing between the opposites.

At the end of our civil marriage ceremony yesterday, the judge recited the following Apache blessing:

Apache Wedding Prayer

Now you will feel no rain-for each of you will be shelter to the other.

Now you will feel no cold-for each of you will be warmth to the other.

Now there will be no loneliness for you.

Now you are two persons-there is only one life before you.

Go now to your dwelling place to enter into the days of your togetherness.

And may your days be good and long together.

The latest addition to the pairs of yin yang opposites of Hot/Cold, Up/Down, Light/Dark, Sweet/Sour is the pair Laura/Kurt.