Liao puts a lot of emphasis on breath, which makes sense since he also puts a lot of emphasis on meditation. Paying attention to your breathing is probably the commonest technique to use while learning to meditate.
After gently getting used to following your breath’s natural action, you can then use your clean and concentrated mind to give a gentle push or pull to make your breath longer, smoother, calmer, quieter, until the mind, the breath, and the life energy signal, the Chi, all seem to join together and are no longer separated.
One of the first electronic devices I ever bought did nothing more than teach me how to slow down my breathing. After 40 years of regular meditation, I find it nearly impossible to breathe “normally” when a doctor tells me to “breathe normally.” If I think about breathing, I automatically take short, deep breaths through my nose and end with long exhales through my mouth.
Liao emphasizes the importance of practicing with the proper mindset.
A small amount of good-quality practice is more fruitful than a lot of poor-quality practice. When the surroundings are calm, quiet, and you are under no pressure, and your mind is peaceful and in a happy mood, this is considered a “harvest practice.” This is the best time to make good gains in strengthening your Chi. Avoid being rushed, worried, or disturbed. If you are, you are better off refraining from doing any breathing exercise.
Liao suggests starting with a number of simplified movements that are derived from the Tai Chi form rather than trying to learn longer forms.
These single meditative movements, done over and over again, are far more effective at teaching you to feel and flow your Chi than attempting to learn a more complicated long form right away. This is because the single form style of practice gives you a chance to learn the motion quickly and easily, thereby allowing you to focus better and relax. You can then refine the movement and listen closely for the subtle feeling of Chi.
This definitely isn’t the way I learned, but it makes sense to me if the most important thing is feeling your Chi. When you are caught up in trying to perfect the form, you are constantly thinking, not feeling chi.
Whatever style of T’ai Chi you practice, whether you learn a traditional long form, a short form, a family style, or a single form style, the foundations of Chi awareness and Chi flow are crucial. Without these foundations, you simply cannot strengthen and grow your Chi. Without Chi awareness and Chi flow, T’ai Chi becomes a hollow shell of what it was originally designed to do. Don’t throw away your hard work during T’ai Chi practice, learn to feel and flow your Chi.
Most people I know that have taken Tai Chi are more concerned with the physical aspects of the form than the meditative aspects, but I tend to agree with Liao that the form offers much more than that.
Being an INTP, I was bound to try to learn more about Chi than I could learn in my Tai Chi classes, but I do agree with Liao that the most important thing is to keep practicing.
There are many resources at your disposal. However, books and information will not substitute for your own practice. It is the seconds, minutes, and hours that you spend “feeling” and “flowing” your life energy that will bring you to your goal. Your goal of reuniting with your true self can only be reached through the experience of feeling and flowing your Chi, not through any mental understanding of the philosophical or technical concepts involved.
I’m still not sure what my “true self” is, but practicing Tai Chi for nearly seventeen years has been both physically and mentally rewarding, which is why I’ve stuck to it for so long.