Tree Wrestling - How it Works

In tree wrestling we feelize trying to move the immoveable.

Tree Wrestling aims to align our intellectual insights with the experiences we generate during the practice. It is designed to help us overcome our own obstacles.

One day, during an especially lengthy session of standing in one of Master Fung's classes at Fort Mason, I was busy creating puddles of sweat under my elbows in sixty-degree weather when Sifu approached and asked, "What are you doing?"

I began to respond, "Gripping my toes, squeezing my knees, tucking my tailbone, imagining balloons holding my joints open, pushing my head up, sinking my chest..." He interrupted me, shaking his head. "Why are you doing all those things?"

I must have looked confused, "Because you told me to?" I replied. He burst into laughter (at me, not with me) and once again called me 'silly boy'.

Master Fung effortlessly bounces me away in a demonstration of integrated strength.

I must admit, I was at a loss for words, so I remained silent and just stood there, feeling awkwardly drenched. Eventually, he looked at me and said, "You've already done that work, let it go. When you cross the river, leave the boat behind. You're trying to carry your boats up the mountain with you."

After class that evening, he elaborated, telling me I needed to stop trying to control everything with my intellect. He advised me to 'loosen up' my thinking and focus on using Yi to control Li, or else I would always be 'stuck' trying to make my mental models work.

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