Pushing Hands (and Hearts)

Most of the mentors that I have had, did not emphasize the practice of Push Hands.
Most of the books that one reads on Ta Chi do just the opposite, even going so far as to
posit that without doing the Push Hands practice, that the art is incomplete.

It is hard, because in my experience, Push Hands almost always buys in to the ego.
Like the childhood game of "Indian Wrestling", it becomes a contest between two people
rather than an extension of learning learning Tai Chi Power (as opposed to force).

Perhaps that is the real heart of the matter, that the Practitioner is really engaged in overcoming
the ego impulse. The books say, Push hands is essential to really knowing, feeling, interpreting the energy of another person, and of course this is usually linked to the martial aspect of the Art.

Again, doesn't have to be, just usually is.

Master H.H. Lui put it differently. He likened the practice of Push Hands to the Taoist symbol
and that it was "like two fish learning to swim together".

He would say it was like learning to 'yield in love' as in, 'can you yield and yield in love, until you find the strength in yielding'. This, he would say, is the true Tai Chi.

In other words, we are engaged in more than a physical practice. We must link
this physical to our inner life, our personal development.