The Three Fearlessnesses of Tai Chi Ch'uan
1 - The fearlessness of taking pain: If a person is afraid to take pain, then there is no hope for progress. In the Tai Chi Chuan Classics it says, ‘The root is in the foot.’ If a person is afraid to take pain, it will mean that the foot cannot be dropped into the ground to grow root.
2 - The fearlessness to suffer loss: …To learn how to suffer loss one must understand that it is the same as not being greedy for gain. When a person is greedy for small gain, in the end he will suffer small loss. When he is greedy for large gain, in the end he will suffer great loss. Conversely, if a person is able to suffer small loss, in the end he will acquire small gain, but it's only when a person is able to suffer great loss that in the end he will have great gain.
3 - The fearlessness towards ferocity: Lao Tze said of a child lying alone in the wild, ‘A rhinocerous’ horn will not harm it. A tiger’s claw will not tear it. A soldier’s sharp weapons will have no place to land. It is because the baby has no concept of death.’ Lao Tze also said, ‘There’s nothing under heaven that’s more yielding and more resilient than water, yet when it attacks stronger things, it always overcomes them.’ Elsewhere he said, ‘The most resilient under heaven overcomes the strongest under heaven.’ He is not talking about ferocious things like the rhinocerous, the tiger and the armed soldier. He stresses the quality of water, saying that nothing can overcome the most resilient. This is what is meant by, ‘If I have no body, how can any harm befall me? No matter how ferocious the weapons are that oppose me, they are no threat.’
When there is fear, one’s psyche, one’s spirit and one’s body - the atoms in the body - must also be tense. When there is tension, one cannot be loose or relaxed. If a person cannot be relaxed, how can he be resilient? When he is not resilient, he must be hard, he must be rigid. Therefore for one to really understand the principle of Tai Chi thoroughly, one must have the spirit of great fearlessness.
- Translation from Professor Cheng Man-ch’ing’s ‘Thirteen Treatises.’ Presented by Wolfe Lowenthal in, ‘There Are No Secrets.’
2 - The fearlessness to suffer loss: …To learn how to suffer loss one must understand that it is the same as not being greedy for gain. When a person is greedy for small gain, in the end he will suffer small loss. When he is greedy for large gain, in the end he will suffer great loss. Conversely, if a person is able to suffer small loss, in the end he will acquire small gain, but it's only when a person is able to suffer great loss that in the end he will have great gain.
3 - The fearlessness towards ferocity: Lao Tze said of a child lying alone in the wild, ‘A rhinocerous’ horn will not harm it. A tiger’s claw will not tear it. A soldier’s sharp weapons will have no place to land. It is because the baby has no concept of death.’ Lao Tze also said, ‘There’s nothing under heaven that’s more yielding and more resilient than water, yet when it attacks stronger things, it always overcomes them.’ Elsewhere he said, ‘The most resilient under heaven overcomes the strongest under heaven.’ He is not talking about ferocious things like the rhinocerous, the tiger and the armed soldier. He stresses the quality of water, saying that nothing can overcome the most resilient. This is what is meant by, ‘If I have no body, how can any harm befall me? No matter how ferocious the weapons are that oppose me, they are no threat.’
When there is fear, one’s psyche, one’s spirit and one’s body - the atoms in the body - must also be tense. When there is tension, one cannot be loose or relaxed. If a person cannot be relaxed, how can he be resilient? When he is not resilient, he must be hard, he must be rigid. Therefore for one to really understand the principle of Tai Chi thoroughly, one must have the spirit of great fearlessness.
- Translation from Professor Cheng Man-ch’ing’s ‘Thirteen Treatises.’ Presented by Wolfe Lowenthal in, ‘There Are No Secrets.’