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

How Tai Chi Overcomes Embarrassment

Master Cui and Miriam Holland

What’s happening when your face turns red?  Is blood rushing to the surface of the skin on your face?  No, you’re concentrating on the wrong thing; that’s what’s happening.

When I first started practicing tai chi I wasn’t very good, so when my teacher corrected me it was no big deal.  After a year or so, I really thought I’d learned a lot.  I was at least good enough to take new students off to the side and show them a few basics or answer questions for them.

The problem with this theory is, when you start to work with someone else you really find out how little you know.  My teacher, Laoshi Miriam, was thrown into teaching by our master after studying with him for a couple of years.  Master Cui told her she new enough to share what she had with beginners, and he knew she would learn much more about herself and her abilities if she taught others how to do what she had learned not so long ago.

The usual drill for me early on was to take a brand new student and show them a few things.  Then Laoshi Miriam would come over and ask them to show her what they had learned.  After watching them she would sometimes ask me to demonstrate the move.  Then she would correct me, not them.  It was more than a little embarrassing.

Then the first time I met Master Cui I watched him give Laoshi Miriam corrections in front of everyone.  Now neither Master Cui nor Laoshi Miriam was abusive, they simply gave corrections.  All the same, it can be rather embarrassing to be given corrections in front of someone you’re supposed to be teaching.

This common Chinese style of teaching accomplishes a number of things, all of which are meaningful when learning any martial art.  Teaching is about passing on the art so that the art will live on.  We are important because we are the ones passing it on, but in the classroom the art trumps our egos.

I still feel a little embarrassment when Laoshi Miriam or Master Cui, now my master as well, correct me in front of others.  Now though I find it easier to focus on the art and not on myself.  It’s helped me develop better concentration and it helps me be a better student and a better teacher.  Master Cui still says he wishes he had listened more to his grandfather while he was alive, and I’m sure he judges himself more critically than his grandfather did.

Next time you find yourself feeling embarrassed, ask yourself where you’re focusing.   If you can set your ego aside and focus on what’s really important, embarrassment ceases to be a part of the equation.  It can be difficult to set aside your ego and look at the situation without preconceptions.  Difficult but it’ll help you focus on what’s really important, and it will also help you correct the situation rather than dwelling on what you may have done wrong.

Aside from me teaching us how to better deal with the inevitable embarrassing situations of life, Master Cui is also a great role model for how to live a good life.  He seems to treat everyone, from the street vendor to the owner of a large company the same, with respect.  His sister is same and she’s every bit as fun to be around.

Although Master Cui can be a lot of fun, he can also be a very tough teacher.  This tells me something of the family he comes from.  More often than not he seems to be able to put himself in the other person’s shoes.

I think this picture really captures what it’s like to spend time around Master Cui.  I don’t remember why he’s pointing but, as usual I’m sure he was joking with the photographer.

Your thoughts?

Chi Sensations or Just Bad Tai Chi?

I’ve been practicing, or playing, tai chi for about 9 years now.  I’m a long way from mastering the art, although I’ve always been pretty attuned to my own body.  I’d just recently heard a term that’s new to me, “chi sensations”.  It seems I’ve been aware of my body’s energy, and that of others, for a long time now.  People who are rarely “in their bodies” however, find it difficult to feel much of anything.

I recently read through an article from a martial artist and they dismissed internal energy completely.  This person accurately pointed out that many people mistakenly attribute the ‘chi sensation’ to the pins and needles feeling we experience when a part of our bodies is ‘falling asleep’.  What I believed they missed was the fact that many masters, and just plain folk, can feel what’s going on in other people’s bodies with uncanny accuracy, not to mention what’s going on in their own bodies.  Chi is a subtle energy but once you can feel it and begin to develop it, it doesn’t feel all that subtle.

When first introducing me to push hands Master Cui, my master, immediately picked up the fact that I was holding considerable tension in my ankles.  He knew it without any doubt, and said so, the second we touched wrists.  Once I was able to witness him doing this a couple of times I was able to do it as well.  I just wish I could do the same with all the tai chi skills he’s shown me.  The thing to remember here is that nothing is perfect.  Sometimes a skilled athlete is ‘in the zone’ and can do anything they choose, other times they’re not.  Sometimes I can ‘feel’ other people without even trying, other times I get nothing.

The World is full of diversity and it’s what makes life interesting.  Although it used to upset me, now I love hearing people dismiss something simply because they haven’t experience it.  You know the people who adamantly proclaim that chi (qi) doesn’t exist.  It reminds me that equally valid arguments can be made for both sides of just about anything.  I don’t expect anyone to agree with me, and I don’t really care all that much if they don’t.  To paraphrase this particular martial artist, “My assessment [conviction] comes from studying with numerous teachers, personal experience, and researching from a number of other sources.  The idea that all this ‘chi stuff’ is smoke and mirrors is ridiculous to me.”

I don’t want you to simply accept what I say.  Question it, think about it, do your best to experience it for yourself.  Master Cui says there is no real point to tai chi masters competing against each other because they both know at the moment of contact who the better player is.  He’s started studying with his grandfather, one of Yang Chengfu’s favorite disciples, at the age of four.  I trust him, and I’ve had a lot of personal experience feeling my own energy.  It’s got nothing to do with that pins and needles feeling.  Form your own opinion and then test it for yourself.

Your thoughts? (hint, you don’t have to agree with me; just play nice) 

John

World Tai Chi and Qigong Day 2010

Well World Tai Chi and Qigong Day has once again come and gone.  This past Saturday at 10:00am worldwide, tai chi players gathered and participated, creating a wave of tai chi and qigong around the world.

This year I’ve been rather busy with life in general, as has my teacher.  The school I attend and teach in, Mei Zhong Yang Style Taijiquan Assn. USA, has a regular Saturday morning class, and since we were busy this year we decided to let this be our participation in the event.

A number of people from my school are preparing for a trip to China to study with Master Cui Zhongsan and his international students this June.  I won’t be making this trip and am looking forward to traveling there later this year.  For now I’ll leave you with a link to the World Tai Chi and Qigong website:  http://worldtaichiday.org/community/wtcqd/gallery.php

I hope your World Tai Chi and Qigong Day was wonderful.

John

P.S.  If you’d like to visit the website of my school: http://mz108.com/

The photo is of me playing tai chi in Deitan Park, Beijing - a place I like to think about when practicing sometimes.

The Disease of Tai Chi

In her comment on the last posting, Naomi (from NJ), just reminded me that tai chi is the journey.  Sometimes I find people caught up in specific techniques and routines.  Master Cui Zhongsan often reminds us of this when he gives us new exercises and routines.  I used to think it was so we wouldn’t get bored.  Now, I’m not so sure.

“Any technique, however worthy and desirable, becomes a disease when the mind is obsessed with it.”  ~ Bruce Lee

Your Thoughts?

John

Mastering Tai Chi

Master Cui Zhongsan, my master, tells us to understand tai chi we must understand Chinese culture.  As I’ve learned bits and pieces about the culture I realize these lessons are everywhere around us, regardless of our culture.  At times we can even find them within ourselves.

Many of us flit from one thing to another as we struggle to feel fulfilled, or just to keep from being bored.  This isn’t necessarily and bad thing.  It’s bad only if we keep it up indefinitely.  Sooner or later we need to work at mastering ourselves, our minds.  Without this discipline we’re doomed to live the lives of TV Sitcom characters, humorously trying one thing then another with little lasting effect and no meaningful results.  If we can see ourselves in this light and have a good laugh, we can begin to look for what really matters to us without worrying about what others think.  In the end it’s our opinion that counts anyway.

How long has it been since you’ve looked for something that really matters to you, or have you already discovered it?  Maybe it’s tai chi, or maybe it’s something else.  It’s not important what it is, as long as it’s important to you.  There is value in everything, and it’s up to you to find it.

For me tai chi (taiji) is an important part of my life, one that gives my life a deeper meaning.  It’s a part of working on myself and my mind, a part of my own self-mastery.  I’ll continue to learn more about the Chinese as the get the chances to travel to China.   In the meantime I’ll continue to look for tai chi lessons in the world around me.

“No Man is Free Who is Not Master of Himself.”  ~  Epictetus

Your thoughts?

John

P.S.  I found this quote here:  http://www.taichi4all.com/quotes.php

I found this pic here:  http://blogs.myspace.com/beautifulwonderwithin

Chi, Can You Feel It Now?

Chi energy (qi) is talked about so often and in so many different ways, no wonder so many people find it confusing.  I think a good comparison to chi is love.  Love is something all emotionally functional people feel.  Sometimes it we feel it very strongly and sometimes it’s difficult to find.

Chi is a subtle energy, so much so that many people find they can’t feel it at all.  Once you’ve found it, and you’ve spent time just listening to it, you’ll find the sensation grows stronger.  The sensation grows from a barely discernible current, to a fragile flow, and finally to a ranging current.

If you’ve ever meditated on your own heartbeat, you’ll have an idea of what I mean.  At first all you hear are the sounds of your environment, then you notice the sound of your own breathing.  Once you’ve found the sound of your heartbeat, it grows stronger and stronger until the blood flowing through your veins sounds like a raging river flowing in pulses.

With Chi, once you feel it strongly you know the second your body goes out of alignment.  This alignment is what makes the chi flow more powerfully.  I’m still working at it, but my take is that once you feel it you can begin to control it, once you can control it it’s power grows.

For those who have never felt chi, or love for that matter, its meaning can be difficult to grasp.  You can’t make it happen, all you can do is look for it.  Once you’ve found it it’s a bit like waiting for a butterfly to land on your hand, if you try to force it, it won’t happen.  I leave you today with this apt quote about love.

“Love is just a word until someone comes along and gives it meaning.” ~ Anon

Your thoughts?

John

P.S.  I found this quote here:  http://thinkexist.com/quotation/love_is_just_a_word_until_someone_comes_along_and/252888.html

I found this pic here:  http://www.layoutjelly.com/graphics/1/comments/Butterfly/