Of all the people
who begin the discipline of tai chi, only a handful will continue past a
year or so. Humility, compassion, lack of ambition, non-aggression,
spontaneity and silence are not qualities that our societies value. There is
no more difficult journey than the journey to the self.
(John
Lash)
Learning a martial art
If you want to learn a martial art, you attend classes, do as you are
told and you gain skill.
Hard work, dedication and patience pay usually off.
Learning tai chi is not quite this simple.
You cannot simply be taught tai chi. You must understand tai chi in order to use
it.
Learning tai chi
Tai chi utilises insights gleaned from taoism. Herein lies the
difficulty.
Taoism is not easy for the modern mind to understand.
Our conditioning, education, opinions and upbringing make it hard for us to
relate to what taoism is saying.
There is a tendency to interpret the words relative to our own bias.
You can be taught tai chi to a point, but in order to really make all the
necessary
connections you need to comprehend taoism as
well.
Taoism
Taoism is concerned with understanding our relationship with
existence. This understanding is not intellectual.
It is more intuitive.
Taoism teaches us to move in
harmony with the natural world.
If we can accomplish this, things run a lot more smoothly for us.
The original books: I Ching, Tao Te Ching and Chuang Tzu are quite challenging to read.
It can take many years of study for you to even begin to understand them.
There are many different translations available, and it is advantageous to read
a cross-section of these.
Every translation is essentially an interpretation.
Zen
Zen
is an offshoot of both Buddhism and taoism.
Studying zen can help us to unravel the more obscure riddles of taoism.
At first glance, taoism and zen seem to be confused and paradoxical.
In reality, it is our minds that are confused, rather than the taoist/zen texts.
We no longer see things clearly.
Zen learning tools such as
zazen and
koan
help us to become quiet and centred, to find clarity and stillness, to unlearn
and see.
There are many expressions of zen - wabi sabi, art, tattoo, tea ceremony,
calligraphy, Japanese gardens - and they can all help us to see the world as it
is, rather than as we want it to be.
Most of these zen arts are Japanese.
Tai chi classics
The
tai chi classics detail the teachings of three
practitioners: Chang, Wang and Wu.
The meaning of their words will initially seem quite obscure to the beginner.
Reading taoist books and studying
zen
help to free your mind, so that you can understand the classics better.
It is not enough to simply practice tai chi.
Unless your tai chi follows the tai chi classics, it cannot be said to be tai
chi.
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Page created 9 May 1999