Three Blessings

                      (For my son Louis and Mia, at their wedding.)

Susana and I feel so lucky to arrive at this point in our lives. This has got to be one of the happiest days in our lives. Three things come to mind. They originate with our ancestors, our teachers, and our loves.

Back before Louis was born, his grandfather Hal told me that the problem with most people was that they didn’t think big enough. 

After a while, I added to this advice two more thoughts which I’d like to pass on, to perhaps aid this couple to move forward, toward the Best Wishes that we all share for them. 

My long time friend Sally Russell once told me that her mother had once told her, “If you have the opportunity to do something nice for someone, do it.” For me, this meant, Be Kind.

When Susana and I went to India together in the spring of 2001, (Just before 911 when the world changed), I added a third bit of wisdom, which is: “And listen to your wife.” This later became, “Listen to your spouse”, and later, just “Listen”.

   And so I offer these three thoughts to aid this couple to have a great future together. 

                      Be Kind, Think Big, and Listen, especially to each other.

                                                            Thank You All.

Not Traditional T'ai Chi

I have noticed a disturbing trend of late, for the exercise industry to market a form of aerobic exercise not at all like Traditional T’ai Chi as an adjunct to their exercise offerings. 

The other morning, while I was exercise walking in the local mall with my wife, I witnessed a program offered by a large hospital chain, calling one of their weekly exercise sessions “Tai Chi”. The exercises consisted of a cross between calisthenics and zumba dance movements, with a leader at the front calling “Kick, kick, kick, punch, punch, punch, jump, jump, jump” and so on, to a large group of people. The movements were not relaxed, did not originate from the center, and did not manifest balance. Yet these people were being told that they were doing T’ai Chi.

I have been told that this has become a common marketing practice. Admittedly, this might benefit many people who would not otherwise exercise. These exercises might not, however deliver the desired results claimed for T’ai Chi by the numerous scientific studies undertaken by such organizations as the NIH (National Institute of Health), and other serious researchers. 

To oppose this new, corporate usage of the name, “T’ai Chi” might be difficult or impractical. Rather than try to swim upstream, I am choosing to call the practice of Traditional T’ai Chi, as practiced by myself (Wu style), Yang style, Chen style, the excellent Taoist T’ai Chi Society, and many others, as Traditional, Authentic, or Classical T’ai Chi. This is defined by the above mentioned internal qualities of relaxation, balance, and movements originating from the center.

It is my hope that the popularization of the term T’ai Chi by those not concerned that their misuse of the term to describe exercises which might not produce the benefits accrued to Authentic T’ai Chi exercise, which may in some ways seem deplorable, may bring many people eventually to a more authentic teaching who would not otherwise have become aware of the benefits of a more rigorous and accurate form of T’ai Chi. The practice of a form possibly devoid of internal energy might yet be a step in the right direction, if it leads one to delve more deeply into the subject of better care of their health. 

There is room for all here, and I wish not to discourage anyone who encourages good health in any form. 

Namaste,

Daniel

Some Thoughts on Push Hands

As we put together components such as mindfulness (Being Present), balance, awareness of weight shift (Stability), and the technical understanding of some of the mechanisms by which movement from the center is facilitated (The Circle and the Square), applications such as Push Hands (Tu Sho, or two person T’ai Chi), may take on a new relevance as exercises aiding an enhanced understanding of the big picture, that is, our connection with the world around us.

In an immediate sense, some relevant components of our world might be those attributes which connect us in the immediate present with that world. Some useful descriptive terms for this discussion present themselves to our awareness as we move through space. They are useful in that they help to bring us into the immediate present. 

Some terms which come to mind are gravity, balance, and so on, but also, surprisingly, to help us maintain our perspective, Infinity (most distant horizon, in Time, Space, or thought), and Impermanence (that which makes everything precious).

Like a Zen Koan, perhaps at this point I will leave these thoughts unfinished and allow you, the reader, to carry the ball forward toward your own personal goal lines.

The Agni Yoga Teachings suggest that one might wish for one :

May your God be with you.

Blessings to All for the New Year!

Living In Two Tents

An Indian (Native American) walks into a psychiatrist’s office. He says “I don’t know what’s wrong with me, Doc. Sometimes I feel like a wigwam, and sometimes I feel like a teepee.” The psychiatrist says “I know what’s wrong with you. You’re two tents.”

One’s position in the political situation of our country, on either side, somehow seems similar to our Indian’s dilemma. In the one tent, it is easy to become polarized and to take a side. (My own inclination is against bullying.) On the other side, as a healer and teacher, or even as a good human being, I perhaps shouldn’t say that I’ll only work with people who think like I do. 

The Buddhist Bodhi Satva vow, to work for the enlightenment of all beings, seems to preclude this. When someone asked the Dali Lama if he hated the Chinese, he said “There are too many of them to hate.” Indeed, there must be a path toward compassion available to everyone. 

A famous Sufi teacher, a baker by trade, once said that “Dough is dough”. He demonstrated this by asking his disciples to bring those of all cultures and beliefs to his classes, and it was said that all benefitted. (from the teachings of Idries Shah). 

Indeed, this dichotomy between knowing right from wrong, and yet still accepting people with different views of what is right and wrong, can easily cause one to be “too tense”, as was our Indian friend.

The belief that even one brought up in a culture promoting hate and fear may benefit from examples of compassion may yet unite us and foster the evolution of compassion. No one is expendable.

From the teachings of that venerable martial artist and sage, Master Po (When you can take the pebble from my hand, grasshopper….from the TV show Kung Fu), “Does the same sun not shine on all of us?”.

When Kwai Chang Kane was about to walk through the snakes in the pit (an episode in which he offered to trade a tyrant’s fears for someone’s life), he recalled in the ubiquitous flashback to his childhood lessons, that “Even snakes know heart. If one can truly become one with them, what animal would attack itself?”. 

Our problems arise when we divide parts of humanity into “self” and “other”, and lose sight of that which we all share.

Namaste

The Circle and the Square

Years ago, a T’ai Chi student who had come from New York and was studying with the Chows told me that he had heard that there was a teacher in Miami who could make the circle into a square. He was referring to Mr. Chow.

My understanding of this concept has come full circle, as it were, and I now find it useful and perhaps productive to look at this intersection more closely. The relationship between rotation, exemplified by the turning of the hips, and the reciprocal forward and backward movements manifested by the extremities, the arms and legs, hands and feet, may be viewed as the heart of this process.

These movement patterns may be likened to the transformation and transference of power which takes place, in both a steam engine, and in an internal combustion engine. In both cases, the reciprocal movement of a piston is first translated into the rotation of a wheel, and is then often transferred again into the forward or reverse movement of a vehicle.

As the hip is rotated, and one side of the hip is moved forward or back, the arm/leg is propelled either forward or back. This movement is, in the form, combined with a concept which has been described as stillness in motion.

Stillness in Motion

As the hip rotation propels the hand or foot forward, (I will use the hand here to simplify this description. It may also be applied to the foot and ankle), there is an opposite and equal rotation of the wrist, synchronized with the hip rotation, which serves to maintain the hand (fist)’s alignment with the surroundings. This may be seen in the elegant simplicity of movement that often characterizes good T’ai Chi. This is similar to the movement of a carpenter’s wrist as he/she saws a cut in a piece of wood without binding the saw blade in the slot cut by the blade.

In the form, where movement is originated from the center, as the hip turns and propels the shoulder forward, the hip rotates inward toward the center of the body, the shoulder rotates out in a complementary movement, and the wrist straightens in another complementary rotation. When the hip rotates outward and brings the arm back, the shoulder rotates inward and the wrist bends as the fist approaches the dan’tien (The body center, just below the belly button).

These complementary synchronous movements may also be seen just after the first cloud hands, when the outward hip rotation is balanced by an inward rotation of the ankle, as the foot is retreated in a straight line, also manifesting the appearance of stillness in motion.

This juxtaposition of rotation and linear movement, executed in perfect harmony, allows movement from the center to be translated into movement of the body, or of the body parts, through space. It is good T’ai Chi, because the whole body is involved in relaxed, balanced movement originating from the center.

Stability

When the weight is centered over one foot, either the right or the left, the balance is stable. This may also be described in terms of the front or back foot. Turning, when in either position, in balance, that is, without moving the weight off of the center, is relatively easy. 

When the weight, or balance, is moving between the two feet, turning often creates a subtle movement of the center. When this happens, muscle strength is required to maintain the balance, and this muscle tension may impede the flow of energy through the body. 

That is, this tension may block the connections between the various parts of the body. This inhibits the integration of movement from the center. 

Mrs Chow would refer to this condition as “Floating”, or “Being double weighted”. When this occurred, one was not grounded, or stable.

 She would demonstrate this by easily pushing one off balance. Greater size or strength was of no avail in opposition to the diminutive Mrs. Chow’s abilities. To make this even more obvious, Mrs. Chow wore heels which I’m sure made her performance even more difficult. She made it look easy. 

The opposite of this condition was referred to as “Sitting well”, and exemplified well grounded balance.

The practice of “Sitting well” allows one to deflect great strength without opposing it with equal strength, and renders strength without balance ineffective. Force applied to one who is sitting well is directed elsewhere, either into the ground, to the side, or otherwise channeled away from the intended target.

In a similar way, one might T’ai Chi one’s way through life by deflecting what life sometimes throws our way, not by the use of force, but rather by balance and integration. 

Being Present

“To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else”  

- Emily Dickinson

When we are really attending to a task, it is possible to forget, even for a little while, all of our usual distractions that often keep us from giving it our very best effort. Further, this process of prying us away from the many addictive habitual thought processes that often clog our consciousness may provide a space within which growth and healing is immensely facilitated. Such attending to our immediate situation is often called meditation. 

By focusing on what is here and now, we become free of much that clutters our mind. Our minds may then practice operating at optimum levels. This can then be applied to any new situations that arise. It allows us to be prepared not by carrying a larger and larger list of solutions with us, but rather by cultivating the ability to create solutions as they are needed. 

T’ai Chi is such a meditative process, and may be developed to higher levels by attending to one’s balance, and also, by attending to the task of creating all the movements from one’s center. This requires a lack of energy blocks between the center (hips/spine/shoulders) and the extremities (arms/hands/fingers, and legs/feet/toes). These energy blocks may be described as muscle tension, required whenever we are not in balance, in order not to fall as we proceed through the form.

The balance and relaxation and movement from the center needed are all present in each moment. Focusing on these aspects of our form brings us fully into the present moment. It is like paying attention to the breathing in sitting (Vipasana) meditation and it allows our consciousness to reside fully in the present. This process may begin when we become comfortable with the form and no longer find our minds busy attending to lists of instructions about body part positions and movements.

As we become more aware of our present condition and environment we are much more able to work with situations as they arise. Of course, Practice makes Perfect.