Hello! I think this is my first post here (about a year ago I was lurking around, especially interested in a conversation about fencing vs. tai chi sword form).

Anyway, I was really interested in this article over on the e-magazine about qi as a metaphor. I have a few questions about it, some of which I suppose I should ask in the taiqiquan forum.

But mainly, I was interested in the idea of useful metaphors in martial arts practice. I'm a lousy martial artist, but I write for a living, so the idea of stories as tools was one that clicked for me. I also have had similar thoughts about qi during particularly useful taiqi classes (I was studying under Weilun Huang in Miami, but parenthood has kind of thrown the brakes on that for now).

Anyway, I'm curious – the guy who wrote the article mentioned that there were a few other useful metaphors, stories that help guide practice, or make certain things make sense.

Do you guys know of any? What kinds of stories or images have you found useful? I can think of a crane cooling its wings, hands waving like clouds… but it seems like there are more of them than that, and especially ones that aren't specifically about a single move, but about martial arts practice in general.

Got any good metaphors to share?