Silk and Steel: The Martial Arts Spirit or Shen in Tai Chi Forms

Part of what makes martial arts like tai chi or kung fu more than pretty choreography is the spirit each practitioner puts into their form. You may also hear it referred to as “shen”. It is their unique style and flavour, their soul. Often this manifests as subtle interpretations that make no two routines exactly the same. This spirit contributes to the sense of Flow. When you are moving with spirit, the rough edges are smoothed away and it is easier to act with intent.

Marvellous as this sounds, in worrying about the details it’s all too easy to lose track of your own spirit in the martial arts. There’s no room in mind or body for spirit if you’re busy fretting about whether you are looking in the right direction. Is your knee over your toe; is your weight too far forward? Are your stances low enough, are your kicks high enough? Check the position of your feet, your hips, your hands, your back, what’s the next move, don’t forget to breathe... No wonder our sense of calm is fractured and we feel like we’re lurching from move to move!

Give yourself a break. Set aside the technicalities, just for a time. Your body will remember the martial arts routine for you: muscle memory is a beautiful thing. This gives you some mental breathing space to work on your shen.

I know what you’re thinking: “Okay, how do I put more spirit into my martial arts routine? Surely if my spirit is the essence of me, I’m already as ‘me’ as it gets!” It seems too mystical, like the sound of one hand clapping. The harder you try to achieve this hazy goal, the more impossible it becomes.

To you I say: Think about silk. Think about steel. About tigers and lightning and waves on a beach and snakes striking and willow trees in a breeze.

I still know what you’re thinking: “The author is a few cards short of a full deck, one twist short of a slinky, a few sangers short of a picnic, has a few ‘roos loose in the top paddock. This article just took a left turn into Crazyville, population: 1”. Hopefully, however, you’ll find there is method to my madness.

We already know that chi follows where the intent lies. If you think about what you want to happen, your body will react accordingly. So I propose we try to think in metaphors. By imagining our body performing in a particular way, our muscles will try to follow.

You want strong stances? Think about your legs being like tree trunks, rooted deep in the ground, drawing power and solidity from the mass of earth below. Or perhaps they are polished steel, hard and immovable. You want that easy coiled energy that lets you move smoothly from a low stance up into a tai chi or kung fu high kick? Think about a tiger, hunkered low before stretching to leap. You want each move to shift seamlessly to the next, yet still have that definitive finish? Consider waves on a beach, rolling up the sand before hesitating just a moment then rolling back down again. Or the steady movements required to draw silk thread from the cocoon, extending each thread out to its maximum length before returning to pluck the next one.

Those are just some examples: use what works for you. After all, this is your spirit you want to bring forth. What are you strong as? What are you smooth as? Let your soul get its groove on.

Thanks to Nicola Nye, Berwick Tai Chi student, for this contribution

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