In Waysun Liao's book ("The Essence of T'ai Chi" [1995] ISBN - 978-1-59030-509-6), translating/interpreting Master Wong Chung-yua's Tai Chi Classics, Master Wong states that the principle of Tai Chi is to yield oneself to the forces of the universe. This is not what we commonly think of as Tai Chi, and in the not so long ago past I would have been uncomfortable or confused at this kind of comment. I probably would have joked skeptically that the Master had been partaking in smoking too many wild growing herbs. But seriously, Liao explains the addiction we have to our egos and how it separates us from the universe with an analogy. "If a sealed bottle of water is thrown into a lake , the water in the bottle does not change. But if you pour the water from the bottle directly into the lake, it becomes the water of the lake, instead of the water of the bottle." (Liao, 1995:89-90)
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