In all Taoist practices, there is a theme of moving like a newborn. We look to the softness, connectedness, and smoothness of their movements to re-learn and relax how we normally get around.

Taoist breathing trains you to move your belly, sides, and back in a gentle compress and release pattern that tones the internal organs.

The Opening and Closing of the joints that we train in the Marriage of Heaven and Earth qigong, teaches you how to minimize muscular force and lead your movements from the natural hydraulic pumps in the joints and cavities of the body.

In Tai Chi we follow the principle that, "when one part moves, all parts move." You can clearly see the wriggles and squirms of an infant engaging and connecting "all parts."

This week, I have been blessed with a newborn son of my own, and he doesn't know it yet (or maybe he does?), but he will be my new teacher as I watch him move, grow, and explore the world around him.

From Chapter 55 of the Tao Te Ching:

ONE who is steeped in Virtue is akin to the new-born babe.
Wasps and poisonous serpents do not sting it,
Nor fierce beasts seize it,
Nor birds of prey maul it.
Its bones are tender, its sinews soft,
But its grip is firm.
It has not known the union of the male and the female,
Growing in its wholeness, and keeping its vitality in its perfect integrity.
It howls and screams all day long without getting hoarse,
Because it embodies perfect harmony.

To know harmony is to know the Changeless.
To know the Changeless is to have insight.

To hasten the growth of life is ominous.
To control the breath by the will is to overstrain it.
To be overgrown is to decay.
All this is against Tao,
And whatever is against Tao soon ceases to be.