Choose Again

This simple two-word phrase is something that I come back to time and time again. Interestingly, I  encountered the phrase in the 1997 science fiction novel, "The Rise of Endymion" by Dan Simmons, the fourth and final novel in his Hyperion Cantos. It is just one more example of how you discover that the principles embedded in the practice of Taiji are universal and can be found everywhere if we just open ourselves to the lessens of life.

"So what message did you come up with?" I said, more to keep her talking and distracted than to hear the answer. It had been a while since she and I had just talked.

I could see her smile. "I kept working on it," she said at last, "trying to get it as short and important as the Sermon on the Mount. Then I realized that was no good -- like Uncle Martin in his manic-poet period trying to outwrite Shakespeare -- so I decided that my message would just be shorter."

"How short?"

"I got my message down to thirty-five words. Too long. Then down to twenty-seven. Still too long. After a few years I had it down to ten. Still too long. Eventually I boiled it down to two words."

"Two words?" I said. "Which two?"

"Choose again," said Aenea.

"Choose again?" I said finally.

Aenea smiled. "Choose again," she said firmly.

"Care to elaborate on that?"

"No," said Aenea. "That's the whole idea. Keep it simple. But name a category and you get the idea."

"Religion," I said.

"Choose again," said Aenea.

"ah ... political systems."

"Choose again."

So, what has this to do with Taiji? To me, everything. Note that the phrase is not "Choose differently" but "Choose again." Meaning, that we are free to make the same choice, it does not have to be a different choice, but it can be. Every day, we should consciously make choices, and not necessarily resort to habit.

In the practice of Taiji, habit is good as it supports our learning process. In the form practice, it is how we create the synaptic pathways, the muscle memory, that enables us to learn the form. But, once we have the foundation of the form, we need to explore its boundaries. We need to try different things, to express the forms in different ways. We will never know if some movement of the form, some understanding of the energy, some expression of the principles, will be better than what we know now if we don't explore, if we don't choose again.

Choice also equates to intent. Choose which form or supplemental practice, and why. Right now, are you going to do Longevity Tree, or one of the advanced forms? Are you going to focus on footwork, or breathwork, or the eyes, or your spinal alignment, or the microcosmic orbit, or, or, or? As you proceed through the practice, choose every aspect that relates to your original starting intent/choice. Or not, because that too is a choice.

So, pick a category. The choices are limitless.

By the way, this is not limited to Taiji and Qigong.

Tom Wolf