Tai Chi is often described as meditation in motion, and more specifically as mindful meditation. Leading psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi studied athletes from many sports and coined the term "flow" for the focused, alert, and unconscious state of mind at the peak of their performance. Flow has been described by several athletes as the self and the activity becoming one; thoughts fade into the background, awareness of the body and environment increases (mindfulness), and there is a sense of complete involvement in the present situation.
The flow experience is strikingly familiar to the Taoist sage Zhuangzi's story of the Butcher.
A butcher was slaughtering a bull for Emperor Wen Hui. With every touch of his hand, every movement of his leg and knee, the knife cutting the meat made a sound. It was a perfect melody, similar to the magnificent "Mulberry Tree" music of Emperor Yao's time.
Monarch Wen Hui said, "It's amazing that you have such masterful skill!"
The butcher put down the knife and said: What I love is Doa, [it] is more magnificent than my talent. When I first started slaughtering, I saw the bull as a whole. After three years, I no longer saw the bull as a whole, but in parts. Now, I work on it with my intuition and do not look with my eyes. My visual organs stop working and my intuition goes its own way. In accordance with nature, I separate the main joints and insert the knife into the large gaps. Following the natural structure of the bull, I never touch the veins or tendons, I do not touch the large bones! A good butcher changes his knife once a year because he cuts meat; an ordinary butcher changes his knife once a month because he cuts bones with it. I have been using this knife for nineteen years, I have cut thousands of bulls, but my knife is still as sharp as if it had just come from the whetstone. There are slits between the joints, but the blade of my knife is very thin. When I insert the thin blade of my knife into these slits, there is enough room for it to pass through. That is why my knife is still as sharp as if it had just come from the whetstone, even after nineteen years. Yet whenever I come to a complicated point and see that there are difficulties here, I proceed with great caution. I do not take my eyes off what I am doing and I use my knife slowly. With a very light movement of the knife I cut the meat, and it falls to the ground like a clod of earth. I stand there with the knife in my hand, looking around proudly. Then I lift the knife carefully.
Monarch Wen Hui said, "Excellent! From what you just said, I have learned how to maintain my health."
(Zhuangzi Texts - İş Bankası Publications)
Being mindful, or “being present,” is important in martial practice as well as for its health benefits. Mindfulness is nothing more than being fully aware in the moment—not thinking, planning, or trying—just being and participating.
Tai Chi practice initially involves paying conscious attention to your posture, the direction of your feet, the distribution of your weight, and so on, but over time awareness opens up to the flow of both internal and external awareness. During the practice of the form, internal awareness can focus on internal sensations. External awareness can involve noticing sensations such as colors and shapes coming into your immediate and peripheral vision, sounds carried to your ears, the texture of the ground beneath your feet, the temperature around you, and the smells in the air.
Mindfulness in pair work can be awareness of complementary movements by you and your partner, of the subtle changes in position that signal a thrust, or of the subtle changes in touch pressure that signal a thrust.
In a Tai Chi sparring match, thinking ahead of your targets or where you are going to attack can cloud your awareness of the many opportunities that arise as you and your partner move. Staying in the moment with your opponent will result in your thrust or strike moving unconsciously into the open, often surprising both you and your partner—like water flowing over rocks.