Tai Chi: Energetic Coherence

I read most of a book called "Taijiquan: Through the Western Gate," by Rick Barrett. It is interesting, because he says that the most important "skill" or "principle" in Taijiquan (and, arguably, all activities) is what he calls energetic coherence. He draws several examples from a variety of fields to explain what he means by "coherence" but the clearest perhaps is the difference between non-coherent light (the light from a bulb, for example) and coherent light (a laser). His "point" basically (it sounds ridiculously simple) is that, in order to instantaneously manifest coherence all one needs to do is extend and FEEL the index finger... Sounds a bit the reverse of the old Zen saying of not focusing on the finger pointing at the moon... He goes on to flesh out this simple idea, first by discussing various ways to "test" coherence in the body (basically, a lot of muscle testing, similar to kinesiology and Omura's bidigital O-ring), and then to discuss other popular Taiji concepts through the lens of his Western perspective: for example, the concept of song (usually translated as "relaxation") he associates with the Western concept of tensegrity as manifest in the Buckley (?) ball; he also has a pretty lengthy discussion about the importance of connective tissue in the body, how it is the primary substrate of the body, and can communicate subtle signals twenty times faster than neurological reflexes. Interesting stuff, whether you're interested in Taijiquan or not...

One thing that interested me about Barrett's discussion about the primacy of energetic coherence was that he said that rooting arises out of coherence, and not the other way around. In traditional Taijiquan training, rooting is believed to be fundamental (all strength and power arises from your greatest ally, the earth); that is why Zhan Zhuang (pile standing) is (supposed to be) the first and most important exercise for all internal martial arts practitioners: it develops rooting. But here, Barrett is basically challenging this notion, saying that coherence must occur FIRST or rooting will simply be a musculoskeletal (i.e. discrete, localized, partial) skill.

I will attempt to incorporate Barrett's ideas into my Taijiquan (and other) practice...