The Power of the Paradox

Just thinking about a quote of Wu Yinghua:

"Never let the slightest idea of attack enter your mind."

This is the skill of going along with - to give oneself up to follow the other. It is the noble art of waiting for the other to attack. I have been working on this for decades.

And then ... we are training yin-jin, the tempting jin-power:

Tempting-jin is for when an opponent is not moving, tempting them to move.
Or for when an opponent is already moving, tempting them along a path of your own choosing.
One tempts the other with action and if they react to it, they will fall into the trap.

What now???

Should I be inactive, wait and then follow or should I become active, take control of the other by tempting them into a movement, they originally did not intend to do?

How paradoxical! How beautiful!

Once yin, once yang. That is the Dao.

This is the foundation of Tai Chi Chuan. The change between inactivity and activity, between stillness and movement - one of the great skills of Tai Chi Chuan. By applying the power of this paradox, one overcomes the other with greater skill and less force.