John’s Tai-Blog @ Camp Tai ChiTai Chi and anything I can relate to Tai Chi … like life

FEAR of Tai Chi

Today I’d like to talk about a subject near and dear to all of us.  Fear, yes fear, is one of those things we live with on a daily basis.  Sometimes we hear people say they have no fear, but how many truly fearless people are there really?  Personally I think you’d have to be completely insane to be fearless.

I see the fear of tai chi in students’ eyes on a regular basis, and I’ve definitely felt it myself.  What is the fear of tai chi?  Is it that we know so little in the beginning and we don’t want to appear inept?  Maybe it’s similar to fear of the unknown.  If it’s fear of appearing inept, then we’re afraid of appearing foolish because we can’t yet move like our teacher.  Either that, or the fear that we haven’t practiced enough and our teacher will know it.  I can assure you, your teacher knows what you’re feeling, intimately.

Now you may be saying to yourself, “I’ve never felt any fear around tai chi.”  Think about it; have you ever been stressed about tai chi?  If so, you’ve felt the fear.  Stress is a mild form of fear.  Fear that we can’t or won’t achieve something; fear that something unpleasant will happen.

A sense of fear can be exciting and even stimulating at times.  Fear of tai chi manifests itself in a variety of ways.  What I see most commonly is, “I’ll never be able to do that.”  Sometimes however, it manifests as, “What if I do get hooked on this stuff; will I be able to put in the time it takes to be any good?”  This, I believe is at the root of the fear of tai chi.  The fear that we’ll really will like it, but that we won’t have what it takes to stick with it.

You can use this fear to your advantage.  Fear, no matter how small, helps us feel more alive.  Most of us feel such a limited range of emotions that we need fear (stress) if we’re going to feel much of anything at all.  Don’t walk away from stress because it’ll just follow you around anyway.

What I’m saying may sound a bit ridiculous, yet feeling any emotion more deeply takes you places you may not have been since you were a kid.  It’s not really fear or stress that we need to feel more alive, but the depth of feeling.  Tai chi takes you into your body, where feelings live.  The more emotions you can feel, the better you can feel what’s going on in your body.  The more you can feel your body, the more energy you can move.  The more energy you can move, the better your tai chi.

It’s an upward spiral to a better way of life, a healthier and more balanced life.  Tai chi takes you into your body; it takes you into your feelings.  Your body is not only where your feelings live, it’s where your life energy, your chi, lives.  Maybe the fear of tai chi is nothing more that the fear of living life, really living life.

Your thoughts?

John

My Four Tai Chi Lies About Energy… and One Truth

Steven Smith from RealTaiji.com tagged me. He pressed me to participate in a meme. As he did, I’ve put it off long enough so here I go.

The meme works like this: I list five things about me. Four are untrue, one true. All are outlandish, implausible, or ridiculous enough that no one (or few) will be inclined to believe any of the listings are true.  You as the reader are to try to discern which is truth and which are lies; I decided to use the theme of energy for my meme, and I’m obliged never to reveal the truth.  Once told, I am to tag five other people, four who will likely participate and one person who might not.

My Meme:

1. As a child I loved the cartoon Johnny Quest and used to dream of being able to do the things Johnny’s dad could do with martial arts.  One day I was in the hayloft of a barn with some friends.  We were doing something stupid that kids have done as long as there have been barns, and haystacks.  We were jumping from the loft out into a haystack in front of the barn.  The haystack wasn’t all that close to the barn and we had to run and jump make it to it.   We were yelling and screaming, jumping into the haystack, and climbing back into the loft to do it again.  I got so caught up in the moment that one jump I screamed “JOHNNY QUEST!” as I ran and jumped, overshooting the haystack by about 10 feet.  It didn’t faze me in the least.  I landed on my feet rolled just like Johnny’s Dad and came up running.  When one of my friends saw that, he thought it looked like so much fun that he’d try it too.  He didn’t manage to overshoot the haystack and got tangled in the hay as he tried to roll.  He was on crutches for the next two weeks.




2. When I was in my 20’s, and just learning about working with energies, I was playing with influencing the energies of others as a way of helping them out.  I was taught I could do this only for the benefit of others.  I had agreed to work for a family member for a while as they were getting their business off the ground.  There was a woman who had caused problems in other places she worked, and was doing the same there.  I decided to test my new ability on her for the benefit of everyone else, so I collected the energy I could, placed an intention for her to become ill (only until she returned home) and sent it to her.  My friend, not knowing I was planning this, suddenly became very ill until he returned home.  I later found that since he taught this to me, he had accepted responsibility for my actions and the affects fell to him rather than the woman I was using as a test subject.




3. While studying tai chi in China I was practicing push hands with a training brother who was just learning to release energy into an opponent. He asked me if I would practice with him and then told me that if he sent energy to me I was to allow it to pass through me to my feet and then bounce it off the ground back to him, if I could.  After doing push hands for a few minutes he said he was ready and I felt a surge of energy coming toward me.  I opened myself up and allowed it to pass through me before bouncing it back to him.  He then immediately bounced it back to me and I bounced it back to him.  We continued this a few times before the cycle was broken.  It was a very rewarding experience, and pretty tiring.  I slept for a couple of hours as soon as I got back to my hotel room.




4. One day while working on my leg strength I was doing a form of the drill post exercise where I was standing with my feet slightly apart, knees bent, my upper body erect.  Instead of holding my arms in a large circle in front of me I was standing with my arms crossed across my chest, and instead of focusing on the drill I was watching television.  As my legs started to feel fatigued a magician came on the television performing an act of seemingly incredible strength.  I thought his act was fascinating and was trying to figure out how he could pull off the illusion.  I became so engrossed in his act that I forgot about my own discomfort and stood there mesmerized.  I don’t know how long I stood there but by the time I realized it my knees felt as if they were locked, my thighs were burning, and the only way I could get out of the posture was to fall backward.  My legs were sore for a couple of days and that was the last time I did this exercise without paying attention to whether or not I was doing it correctly.




5. Like most small schools, class sizes can vary depending on the time of year, the weather, etc.  During one class I had a single student so they were in effect having a private lesson.  We were working on the concept and ability of moving energy through the body.  Try as she might she couldn’t feel even the most basic of things.  What I was saying seemed to make no sense to her so I decided to try another approach.  I told her to quit trying and hold her hands out in front of her, leaving her arms as limp and loose as possible.  I took hold of her hands and began moving energy in a circle, from my right hand into her left and out her right hand into my left.  At first she said she could feel nothing, but I could see her arms and her posture beginning to go from limp to alive.  I started moving the energy faster and faster until her eyes became very wide and she quickly let go of my hands.  She said, “It almost felt like an electric shock, only there was no pain.” Although it startled her at first, by the end of that class she was able to move energy through me in the same fashion.

Well I had fun and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this.  Regarding my next responsibility of naming five people, I’d like to ask you as the reader to participate.  Take your time and post when you’re ready.  I always receive updates when someone leaves a comment, so no matter how old this post is I’ll still receive updates.  At some point in the future I’ll repost this along with the comments, assuming I get at least 5.

Your Meme (thoughts)?

John

Not All Tai Chi Done Right… or Wrong

It seems that those who draw snowflakes on Christmas cards don’t have their details quite right.  Thomas Koop of Bielefeld University in Germany noticed this inaccuracy on an advertisement for a scientific journal of all places.  It seems that true snowflakes are hexagonal in shape rather than octagonal, as depicted on Christmas cards, children’s books, and apparently even scientific ads.

Well there’s a similarity here with tai chi and it’s experts.  Tai chi, even real tai chi that’s martial in nature, appears different from school to school and even from master to master within the same style.  When you listen to many of the experts however, they’re often saying how this style or that is inferior to their style.  It often turns out this is nothing more than bravado.

If you’ve read this blog for a little while you know this is one of my pet peeves.  A capable student can be effective in almost any style.  I believe the determining factors are the amount of heart the student pours into their practice, and that the style fits the student’s body type.  Now it seems my contention not only applies to things such as tai chi, but even to snow flakes.

In fairness to snowflake artists everywhere, the idea that no two snowflakes are the same is generally reflected in their artwork.  At least Koop says this is true for larger snowflakes at any rate. 

Your thoughts?

John

Is There a Language of Tai Chi?

As I listen to others talk about tai chi, about chi kung, about martial styles, about anything, I find we are often saying the same thing.  This morning I was wondering why we often sound as if we’re speaking different languages.  Sometimes it even sounds as though some of us are speaking in tongues.

Chi (qi) energy is something spiritual in nature.  Yet if you listen to the meta-physicians walking among us, everything is spiritual in nature.  If that’s the case, why can we easily communicate about things physical while finding it difficult to talk about things non-physical?  I am of two minds on this topic: two parallel minds, two minds that do not intersect, two co-existing minds.  How very, very spiritual. 

One mind says we can understand anything, or just about anything that’s important to us.  The problems arise from our differing vocabularies.  At times we misuse words, other times we use alternate but valid meanings, and other times still we use colloquial meanings that are understood within our own circles.  No wonder we have such a hard time agreeing with one another.  We can be saying the same thing, using different words, and arguing with one another about who’s right.

The other mind says, we only think we can understand some things because we talk about them often.  We believe we can easily communicate about things physical, because we interact with the physical on a daily basis.  We listen as newscasters, or read as inane bloggers pontificate about any and all subjects in our physical universe.  We receive instructions from our bosses, or give instructions to our subordinates, and the instructions are usually followed closely enough that we seem to be in agreement.  When we talk of things spiritual however, most of us have limited vocabularies.  Our limited vocabularies let us know we don’t understand, so we don’t even try to understand that which cannot be understood.

I don’t have a definitive answer here, only more questions.  So, I thought I’d throw this out and see if it sparks a conversation.  As the infamous, ancient, and now contemporary Master of Duhism, Bob Tzu, recently posted on his blog:

“The real Truth cannot be spoken.  Why?  Don’t ask me, I can’t talk about it.”

Your thoughts?

John

P.S.  If you’d like more wisdom from the Tzu click here:  http://www.duhism.com/1216/shhhhh/,

and to give credit where credit is due, I found this picture here:  http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/articles/food-safety-communication/

The Camp Tai Chi Thanksgiving Post

Important Tai Chi Information Withheld By The Masters?

I came across a little know law that seemed to grant a license to steal based on a particular profession.  I wonder who could have written this law?  Politicians are the ones who pass laws so it must have been politicians.  Seems a bit too obvious or maybe they just didn’t care, and what in the World does a little known and slanted law have to do with tai chi.  Hang on sec an I’ll tell you.

I’ve heard tai chi masters being accused of dolling out “the secrets” slowly and carefully just so they can keep their students coming back for more and keep charging them for more classes.  Let’s take a look at this.  Maybe I’m not the best example here, but I’ve often heard things from my Teacher and from my Master that we’re a bit eye opening at the time.  Some of these things I’d even heard years before… from them.

Masters don’t need to withhold information to keep us coming back.  You see we often don’t remember things we’ve been taught and sometimes it takes being told the same thing over and over for it to sink in.  My jiejie, or older training sister, illustrated this human tendency in a very real way for me.  A few years ago she said to our teacher, “You told me that when I first started here and I just got it.”  She had been studying for 10 years at the time, and she’s a particularly talented student.  So much for withholding information.

This little known law on the other hand, seems to be a blatant attempt by some politicians to get their hands greased, “legally”.  Think about this one for a minute and I’m sure you’ll be wondering who would ever be this bold, but then again maybe not.

In Virginia, the Code of 1930 has a statute which prohibits corrupt practices or bribery by any person other than political candidates.  (click to visit StrangeFacts.com)

Your thoughts?

John