06/06/2026
"[...] Taijiquan teaches that peng jin (expansive energy, elastic force) depends on relaxation, not tension. A contracted muscle is weak, slow and clumsy. A relaxed muscle can act with speed and explosive power. Similarly, a person who always needs to win, who harbours grudges, who clings to their possessions and status, lives in a state of chronic contraction. Investing in loss is an act of letting go that makes you lighter and, therefore, more powerful. It is not the strength of the oak that snaps in the storm, but that of the bamboo that bends and survives. On an emotional level, someone trained in the art of losing does not fear failure, because failure is simply the loss of an expectation. And those who do not fear are free. And those who are free can act with a forcefulness and authenticity that the fearful will never know.
Delving even deeper, the practice of investing in loss reconciles us with the nature of reality, which is constant change. The Daodejing says: “The gentle and flexible man is a disciple of life. The hard and rigid man is a disciple of death.” Clinging is like trying to stop a river with your hands. Investing in loss is letting go. It is accepting that things, people and stages of life pass away. It is making peace with the small daily death. When you practise Taiji, every time you relax a shoulder, you lose tension, yes, but you gain circulation, you gain vitality. Applied to life, every time you accept a loss — a youth that has passed, a relationship that has ended, an opportunity that has slipped away — you are not becoming impoverished: you are making room so that something new can come in. The heart, like the fist in Taijiquan, must never be completely closed. There must always be a gap, a space for mystery. [...]"
Paco Ladera
30/05/2026
23/05/2026
16/05/2026
09/05/2026