Are you afraid of inactivity?

Tai Chi - yin and yang in harmony

I love practicing Tai Chi not only for the physical benefits it brings me, but for the freedom it gives to my mind and spirit. Many western learners are made to believe that there must be new thinking patterns to obtain if one wants to learn Tai Chi. But I think otherwise. In my experience, one has to uncondition the mind and render it quiet, submissive and yielding in order to get into the Tai Chi mode.
A mind that is seeking patterns will always be restricted by patterns, whether they are old or new, good or bad. A cage will always be a cage be it made of twigs or gold. It is there to confine. A mind full of likes and dislikes, full of judgements and discrimination is also unfit for doing Tai Chi. It only likes those exercises or drills that feel pleasant to the body and mind but abhors others that are unpleasing or even painful to do. But unfortunately a lot of the things one is taught to do in Tai Chi would feel unpleasant, strange or even painful at the time. This is because learning Tai Chi is a process of cleasing the body, mind and spirit; of unconditioning - getting rid of all the tension, fear, rigidity that's been accumulating both in the body and the mind throughout one's life-time. If you'd rather hold on to what you've always known and what makes you feel comfortable and secure, you might as well not venture into Tai Chi at all. Aquisition always comes easier than letting go because the latter takes trust, faith and courage. The mind would rather clings to burdens of all the acquired beliefs and reasons because they give one a false sense of comfort and security. If such a mind is told to let go of these burdens, it would start groping in dark in desperation of trying to find some alternatives to cling onto.

The advanced Chi Kung (energy work) drills that I do daily (which was taught in my lineage by my beloved teacher, Mr. Li Lian) are extremely harsh and painful to practice and also very time-consuming. But through regular persistent practice of them over length of time, I experience an expansion both in physical strength, Chi (vitality) and consiousness. What was once a stream has now grown into a river. A typical western mind would reject such kind of practice outright because it feels unpleasant to the ego and the physique and therefore it cannot possibly be good. Also the reckless mind simply won't allow one to 'waste' all that time doing something completely 'useless'. One has to be doing something even if it is something utterly trivial, mundane and selfish or even harmful to the body and mind!
A mind that is obsessed with 'doing' will never appreciate the space, beauty and expansion experienced in aloneness, peace and quietude just like a pool of water that is being constantly disturbed will never become clear enough to reveal the jewells at the bottom.
My teacher likes quoting the following lines from Tao Te Ching (Lao Tzu) to illustrate the importance of letting go in the art of Tai Chi:-

Learning consists in adding to one's stock day by day;
The practice of Tao consists in subtracting day by day,
Subtracting and yet again subtracting
Till one has reached inactivity.
But by this very inactivity
Everything can be activated. [Chapter 48 as translated by Authur Waley]

Wu Chi - the begining and the end

The state of inactivity suggested by Lao Tze does not equal rigidity and non-responsiveness. Instead it implies a quiet, observant, submissive state of mind totally free of tension, temporal conditioning and judgements. Such a mind is yielding and responsive at the same time. There is no resentment, anger or agression coming from the ego because the ego is simply non-existent. Neither is this a state of emptiness or void because it is fully alive and vibrant. The sky is made up of space and yet it is not empty. It is there to allow the Sun, the Moon, the stars, the clouds, thunder and rain operate according to nature's law. Just because the sky is fully quiet and submissive and open, there's the possibility of  activation of all the things.
This is the state of Wu Chi - the primordial and the consumation.