Space, Time & TCC

I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with Justin, yet the few times we spent chatting had a large impact on me – almost as if we had been corresponding for years. We chatted about shared interests in art, trading stocks, music, and of course T’ai Chi Chih. The discussions helped me discover a common thread running through our interests – space and time.

 
Art is about sharing a moment in time with the artist. Many great works of art freeze time, and in doing so become timeless. A great composition makes as much use of space as it does of color and form. One defines the other. Space is not empty but, if used right, dynamic and present.

Music has well-defined places for playing notes and “rests.” Both are required to create music. In music, space is alive, aware, and precise. Here too, space is not empty. Space is palpable. Good music blends precise notes and precise spaces to produce a sublime whole.

With TCC we have movements separated by spaces. One helps define and refine the other. Justin was very clear that the spaces between the movements were important. I started to look at the spaces as a defining and necessary part of TCC. The spaces between movements are alive for preparation and settling in the midst of activity.

They are not do-nothing places to hang out in while waiting for the next movement to begin. They are not places to create mental laundry lists of what you want to do after class, or to pick lint off your shirt, or to do a million other things. It is a quiet dynamic resting point. In bodywork one might call it the zero balance point.

When I do TCC, I am grateful for the anchor of a pure form to which I can continually return to explore an even deeper understanding of TCC. For me the alive spaces are part and parcel of the form Justin taught.

When asked where a foot or a hand should go, invariably Justin’s answer was, “Two inches this way, two inches that way, it makes no difference.” This was a revelation in that it meant TCC was available to me even if I couldn’t make my body work like “normal” people. Justin was adamant only about staying true to the form and the principles he espoused.

As I explored the form with Justin a few times over several years I mentioned that I had seen some changes creeping in. Some changes he had no worries about, often mentioning that different people had different length torsos, different length arms. Justin also said that as bodies age, some things will change too, and he had noticed it in himself. He preferred we not focus on those changes; let them be and simply teach the original form.

This led to minor variations, and even regional variations as different TCC groups explored some variations en masse. However, we had the freedom to explore as long as what we taught was the pure form and principles. When I asked about evolution of the form, he was quick to caution me about people’s egos getting in the way of their TCC practice. Again the message was, “Stay true to the form.”

After discussions with Justin, many things clicked about the relationships between doing and not doing, being and not being, and maintaining a center so I could grasp what was truly changing. I also understood how ego tries to make things better by tweaking things endlessly. What I got is that TCC is just fine the way it is, and there is nothing I, nor anyone, has to do to improve it.

 
Now that Justin is gone, many people will insist that they have the one true TCC. This insistence is just ego talking because I find that that TCC expresses itself through our being, not vice versa. If we put ego in the way, we are confusing a light bulb for enlightenment.

I think Justin foresaw this kind of possible conflict and chose to put in place a guide to own the form for all of us. It is a large burden for the guide, and as well a gift to us all. We have one reference point we can constantly go back to, not 50 variations on a theme. I thank Antonia for her years, and I wish her well as she takes on new responsibilities. I welcome Sandy McAllister and urge us all to support her in keeping the form as Justin envisioned it and passed on.