We have enjoyed discussing There Are No Secrets: Professor Cheng Man-ch’ing and his T’ai Chi Chuan – Wolfe Lowenthal. The book is anecdotal and explores the lived experience of walking the T’ai Chi path. It was a particularly meaningful read for us, as we share some of our own T’ai Chi lineage with the professor.
One of the strongest themes running through the book is that progress in T'ai Chi is really an inner journey.
Cheng Man-ch’ing looked to relaxation as the first principle. Not as a means of switching off or zoning out, but as a way of becoming more fully alive
"As you grow more relaxed, you become less afraid.
As you become less afraid, you grow more relaxed."
The author shows that learning T'ai Chi isn't simply about perfecting postures or movements. It involves meeting our fears, tensions and habits honestly. The real practice is learning to relax in the face of life's challenges rather than withdrawing from them. Reading this, I was reminded of the Tiger's Ears postures.
In my own teaching, I encourage students to think about their T’ai Chi practice less as "zoning out" – it’s more about opening up the awareness, becoming more present and responsive, whilst not putting ourselves on high alert. I like the cat analogy in the book 😉.
If the first theme is the inner journey, the second is probably humility as strength. The book offers a very different picture of strength from the one we often see in modern fitness culture. Cheng Man-ch’ing emphasised softness, rootedness and humility. In T’ai Chi practice energy drops into the ground, the body softens and the ego quietens.
This echoes one of the central lessons of T'ai Chi - true strength comes not from pushing against life, but from learning how to work with it. Our Monkey Steps sequence underlines this point perfectly as we step backwards, but confident in ourselves, and strong in the legs.
Working with whatever life throws at us, and being grateful for the lessons, makes me think differently about our Closing Circle at the end of class. It's a simple way to end our practice with a sense of connection, acknowledging one another and expressing gratitude. But perhaps that appreciation can extend beyond the classroom too. The people and situations that challenge us often turn out to be our greatest teachers.
My third theme relates to the book's title: There Are No Secrets. The author depicts students who are looking for hidden knowledge. Yet what they repeatedly discover is that the principles are already there in plain sight. These are the principles we discuss in class each week – slow down, relax, listen, yield, stay present, return to balance.
Whether we’re talking about push hands, the principle of double-weighting, or what the author describes as the "pushless push" - the lesson is the same. Understanding comes through experience rather than intellectual explanation. Or as I put it – we put the movements into the body. This is what I mean when I say “I teach the experience of T’ai Chi.”
There Are No Secrets is a thoughtful account of life as a student of Cheng Man Ch'ing. More than a history of a famous teacher, it explores what it means to walk the T'ai Chi path. I take from the book –
Learning to relax (as the first principle!)
Being fully honest with ourselves
Discovering that the deepest lessons are often hidden in the simplest practices.
For the students who joined me on the call, some of their takeaways from reading There Are No Secrets -
Rooting the feet gives good balance
T’ai Chi helps us to gather qi energy, which we can then radiate, shifting blockages
Being here now is a powerful concept - in T’ai Chi just as in fife, there’s no destination, it’s about being in the now
If we are not soft and yielding, we can become brittle and snap. T’ai Chi brings a beautiful flow, which we can apply to other aspects of life
In conclusion - there is no magic answer, it’s about connecting mind, body and breath; listening to the body and applying the principles.
This has been such a valuable read for our students. We share some early T'ai Chi lineage with Cheng Man Ch'ing, and these stories offer a glimpse into what it felt like to learn from him. However more importantly, they remind us that the path of T'ai Chi is not about collecting secrets, but about returning to the foundational principles and continually discovering their depth through experience.