The Monkey's Tai Chi Ch'uan style is as much meditational as it is a theory of combat. The mind must imaginatively move the Ch'i and the Ch'i then moves the body. The Monkey stylist is Relaxed, Fluid, Rooted, and fully Present to his situation. Relaxation under stress can only be gained through extensive meditational training to control physical and mental processes, or by frequent exposure to mock-stress situations. Calmness is the product of experience.
Fluidity comes from balance and grace, from practice.
Only later does this feeling become intuitive. Rootedness for the Monkey is practiced through the mental imagery of Sinking. The heels are the roots of the Monkey's Oak and Willow, the bubbling Ch'i spring. Presentness means total commitment to the Here and Now. An old story tells of a Monkey relentlessly chased by a Tiger until the Monkey was forced over a cliff and barely managed to catch and hang on to a stubby branch to keep himself from falling to his death.