The only guideline is
that there are no prizes for travelling quickly. Time means little in work
of this kind. Rush ahead too eagerly, and you will soon find the need to go
back and retrace some of your early steps. Travel at the right speed, and
each step will take you, surely and steadily, to the next one. You still may
find the need to retrace your steps from time to time. We never, in a way,
outgrow the earlier exercises as we pass on to the later ones.
But if you travel at the right pace, then retracing your steps will be done
not because your earlier steps were misplaced, but because by retracing them
you will actually be continuing your journey forward.
The paradox arises because when you retrace your steps you find the
countryside around you has changed from when you first passed that way. Like
revisiting scenes in dreams, nothing is quite as it was. The journey of
meditation does not take place in a straight line nor at an even pace. We
move in and out of experiences rather like a path winds its way up the
wooded slopes of a mountain, sometimes almost losing itself, sometimes
appearing to double back, sometimes rising steeply, sometimes gently and
slowly.
(D
Fontana)
Seeing only yourself
Learning to see the art takes
time; usually an awful lot of time.
Some students are quite
arrogant; they bring
preconceptions and prior experience to
the class with them and
judge the syllabus from their limited
experience.
This is a hindrance and only hampers their
progress.
Rather than
see what is in
front of them, they
see what they are
looking for.
They want a
mirror of their expectations,
some confirmation of their knowledge.
Can you see the pitfalls in this?
Seeing the art
You
begin to see the
art a little at a time.
Small things make sense, and later, this changes again.
Tai chi is elusive; it is never just one thing.
As your understanding grows it will seems to shift and evolve, but this is an
illusion.
It is you that is changing.
Artless
Lao Tzu said that great skill looks
clumsy.
This is true of tai chi; your
advanced level form should look nothing
like tai chi.
If it looks sloppy and inexact, but in no way random or unbalanced, you are
perhaps proceeding towards formlessness.
Your tai chi should look
effortless and easy - and this is your
deceit.
The challenge for every student is to take the stylised building blocks of tai
chi and make it natural.
To make it your
own art.
Neigong
There is a tendency for people to become confused about the nature of neigong.
Neigong is not a list of attributes.
Any list or course of
study is simply the
menu, not the food.
Neigong is about moving your
body in a certain manner in order to
generate
jing.
It is inexorably connected to the form postures of tai chi; they were
designed to shape and channel energy in an optimal way.
Demonstrating the art
As
you incorporate neigong and form becomes easier, your body begins to move in the
tai chi way.
You move this way all the time; not just in class.
The art is no longer independent of you - the merging of your uniqueness and tai
chi has produced a new work of
creativity.
At this point, you feel the art in every aspect of your life.
Not as a hobby or an obsession, but in the same way that you feel rested after a
good sleep.
The art is present, underscoring your every action yet unobtrusive, unnoticed.
Tai chi is not limited by the syllabus; it is the art that emerges as a
consequence of the syllabus.
Page created 23 January 2006