Wuji (pronounced “woo-zhee”) is an important concept in Taoism and Chinese culture. It is a state of absolute balance: perfect peace and harmony. It is limitless and infinite.
When everything starts to move and you lose your balance, you also lose wuji.
In the Taoist view of the universe, if we were to look at it from a modern scientific point of view, the universe was in a state of wuji just before the Big Bang. There was a state of perfect peace and then all hell broke loose. Things separated into yin and yang. Dogs and cats living together — MASS HYSTERIA! (Sorry, I watched a lot of Ghostbusters when my daughters were little)
When you see someone performing Tai Chi, start in a relaxed posture, standing with your feet together. This represents wuji. Take a step with your left foot and stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, then relax again. I have done this with Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang, whose ancestor created Tai Chi. When he is leading a group of students in a form, and has moved into this first position with his feet shoulder-width apart, he says very slowly, “Calm down.” This is also wuji. Once the form begins, things move up and down, open and close, empty and fill: the body follows yin and yang and seeks to return, at the end of the movements, to wuji.
Many people don’t realize that Tai Chi is a powerful martial art. When Tai Chi is used for self-defense, the goal is to maintain wuji: balance and harmony; to stay focused. When someone attacks and you must adapt and change to deal with the force, your goal is to return to wuji, the balanced state you were in before the attack.
The goal is to receive the force by relaxing, adapting, neutralizing the force, and throwing your opponent off balance, making them vulnerable to a counterattack.
I enjoy working with people who have never studied Tai Chi. Almost every time a novice is working on a self-defense technique, their bodies twist, twist, bend, and lose their balance so much that there is no way they can defend themselves in a violent real-life encounter.
One of the reasons why Chen Tai Chi (the original form of Tai Chi, the style I practice) is so strict with the mechanics and structure of the body is this quest for wuji. If you train yourself to recognize when you are in a state of balance, then practice the techniques that allow you to keep your balance while throwing your opponent off balance, you will eventually achieve the skill. In a balanced state, you can defend yourself from all directions.
One of the things I have been working on with my students lately is the ability to relax when attacked. Our first reaction when force comes at us is to tense up. That’s natural, we’ve done it all our lives. It is a very difficult habit to break. We become rigid and inflexible (too “yang”), when the best course of action is almost always to relax, give in and then win, a combination of yin and yang.
One day in Chicago, I did push hands with Master Chen Bing, one of the best young Tai Chi masters in the world (he is 30 years old). Every time he pushed him, he relaxed and couldn’t find a target. He would slip my hand. Before I knew it, I would make a small movement that would throw me off balance.
This also applies to verbal and emotional attacks. At work, at home, even on the street or in traffic, some people will try to attack you with words or actions. They often intentionally try to push your buttons or throw you off balance, either due to their own imbalance or for their own benefit. Your goal, then, is to regain wuji as quickly as possible and be at peace. Don’t give your attacker a target. They allow their verbal and emotional attacks to find a place to land.
How do you do this? An effective method is to detach from the emotion that normally occurs in this type of situation. Instead of allowing yourself to get angry, relax, calm down, and feel sorry for the person. Think how unhappy his life must be for them to lash out like this. This is the best way to deal with people who act crazy on the roads. Instead of reacting with anger, try to relax and calm your mind and body.
It’s not always easy to react calmly when someone at work behaves in a way that may threaten your income and safety. In those cases, you often need to take action, just as you would against a physical attack, but focus only on the person’s behavior, with a calm and clear explanation of how harmful it is to you and the company. Explain it to him, letting him know you will not accept it and, if necessary, take it to your supervisor.
I was the news director at a television station when a selfish reporter behaved very badly and treated the assigned editor with disrespect in front of the staff. I sat her down, with the assignment editor as a witness (he was her supervisor), and explained why such rude behavior was not acceptable. Her reaction was not pleasant: he exploded with anger. I gave him 30 days to behave more professionally or leave.
After the meeting, the assignment editor said, “That was classic! Every time she snapped, you calmly steered the conversation back to her behavior. You didn’t let her control the situation.” He failed in her efforts to throw me off balance. She was baffled, because in the past, before I was her manager, she had gotten away with bad behavior.
This is not always possible when the person who misbehaves is your boss. I once had a Senior Vice President call me and yell at me, “His job is to SERVE!”
Nobody in upper management wanted to deal with this person, so I decided to start looking for another job, and within a few months, I found one. I returned to a balanced state of wuji.
This is also an important concept in the home. Spouses can sometimes get angry; it cannot be avoided whenever people live together. Your reaction to that anger is crucial. I have learned by following the principles of Tai Chi to react calmly rather than tensely, and to remain centered while my wife vents.
It is when you react with anger that the tension increases. However, with practice, you can learn to remain calm and centered, react by returning to balance, and become the safety valve that lets out steam. Inevitably, the person who is angry calms down and even apologizes for her behavior.
If you have a spouse who enjoys pushing your buttons in a destructive way, that’s a different story. You still need to stay centered, but you may never find real balance unless your spouse changes or until your relationship changes.
Whether it’s a physical or emotional attack, your life and health will improve when you use the principles of Tai Chi to maintain a state of balance and harmony, and when you don’t give way to attacks. In this way, you can maintain or return to a state of wuji.
