Laoshi Quotes

“Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to avoid the force of the attack upon your body, mind, or emotions, and apply your response to the weak point. In other words, yield to the yang and push on the yin.”
― Jan Kauskas, Laoshi: Tai Chi, Teachers, and Pursuit of Principle

“ideas—relaxation, alignment, and rootedness—are all related. In tai chi, relaxation implies poise—that is, upright posture. The better your alignment, the less the muscles have to do to hold you up.”
― Jan Kauskas, Laoshi: Tai Chi, Teachers, and Pursuit of Principle

“To be effective in dealing with people—to be someone taken seriously—people must feel you have some concept of justice and you can be trusted. But, they want to feel you are human-hearted too. Terrible things have been done in the name of righteousness, but terrible things have also been allowed to happen by those who only understand benevolence. Each must act as a brake on the other, not allowing situations to become out of balance. Being judgmental and without compassion may lead to bitter cynicism. However, being compassionate with little regard for rectitude may lead, ironically, to your own or other people’s exploitation.”
― Jan Kauskas, Laoshi: Tai Chi, Teachers, and Pursuit of Principle

“What is a good man but a bad man’s teacher? What is a bad man but a good man’s job?”
― Jan Kauskas, Laoshi: Tai Chi, Teachers, and Pursuit of Principle

“All men’s miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.”
― Jan Kauskas, Laoshi: Tai Chi, Teachers, and Pursuit of Principle

“A feature of real sword fighting is that it is more likely that both fencers will be cut, rather than one win without injury. The old adage is particularly apt here: “When two tigers fight, the outcome is certain. One will be dead and the other seriously injured.”
― Jan Kauskas, Laoshi: Tai Chi, Teachers, and Pursuit of Principle

“The value of having ‘gotten’ someone is offset by the fact that he has also ‘gotten’ us.”
― Jan Kauskas, Laoshi: Tai Chi, Teachers, and Pursuit of Principle

“While physical attack is, for most of us, a rare event, our everyday lives are often blighted by emotional conflict with wives, husbands, children, bosses, and colleagues—in fact just about everyone we encounter, including ourselves. In this respect, the punch and withdraw and push movements are metaphorical tools we can use with the goal of applying their lessons to dealing with life. While the punch, with all its power, is to be understood, respected, and mastered, its use in daily conflict is limited. It is a “battlefield” response, which (and this was important to Laoshi) may be used occasionally. It is not practical for the vast majority of our interactions through the day.”
― Jan Kauskas, Laoshi: Tai Chi, Teachers, and Pursuit of Principle

“What good is our spiritual and philosophical development if the supermarket guy can succeed in imprisoning us at the checkout and force us to dance to the tune of the bar code?”
― Jan Kauskas, Laoshi: Tai Chi, Teachers, and Pursuit of Principle

“If you do not have a sense of well-being and joyfulness, then you are experiencing one of the ten thousand faces of fear.”
― Jan Kauskas, Laoshi: Tai Chi, Teachers, and Pursuit of Principle

“Appropriate behavior comes from a deepening of gongfu, to the point where the ill-mannered behavior of others is more a matter of mild amusement than biting critique.”
― Jan Kauskas, Laoshi: Tai Chi, Teachers, and Pursuit of Principle

“It is a mark of spiritual maturity to be unaffected by other people’s opinions and to absent ourselves from the foolishness that follows as we clamor for the approval of others.”
― Jan Kauskas, Laoshi: Tai Chi, Teachers, and Pursuit of Principle

“Zheng Manqing has told us when practicing alone, we should do the form as if someone is watching, and when doing the form in public, as if no one is watching.”
― Jan Kauskas, Laoshi: Tai Chi, Teachers, and Pursuit of Principle

“Pain may be a part of life, but suffering doesn’t have to be. To a very great extent, this is why I study tai chi. It does not offer an end to pain, but it does offer us the chance to end our suffering.”
― Jan Kauskas, Laoshi: Tai Chi, Teachers, and Pursuit of Principle