Dear Justin

I have a question about the pose at the end of T’ai Chi Chih’s (TCC’s) 19 movements, Cosmic Consciousness Pose. As TCC teachers, we tell our students that a rough translation of T’ai Chi Chih is “Knowledge of the Supreme Ultimate, Knowledge of the Absolute, or Knowledge of The Real.” You often write that TCC’s Essence is spiritual, the movements often bringing the quieting of the mind and the emergence of Awareness of Union with all things. In the third edition of your Photo Textbook, you write, “We come to realize that, in working with this great force, we are doing more than mere exercise — we are pursuing a way to truth, or Enlightenment. Few realize that Enlightenment is experienced in the body, though this is what the Buddha and his successors have always taught, and experience seems to prove. Whether we call this Nothingness, Void, God, or Buddha Nature, we are dealing with the same Great Reality. The quiet meditation we enjoy immediately after TCC practice, while our fingers, hands, and being are still vibrating, is a way to retrace our steps to this one that is the source. We do not have to be religious to do this.”

In Heightened Awareness, you write, “Often we find that turning to spiritual practice alienates us from people close to us who have not at all progressed in that direction. The spiritual path can be a lonely one because it brings us into more rarified strata where fewer and fewer venture.” When you taught TCC, Justin, how did you gently introduce the spiritual Essence of TCC, and did you ever mention that the term “Cosmic Consciousness” reflects the experience of feeling immense love connection to all things, described in some traditions as “Indra’s Net”?

I would like to ask my TCC teaching colleagues two questions: 1. When they teach the Cosmic Consciousness Pose, do they share the deep meaning of the Cosmic Consciousness Pose with their students? 2. How do they (or do they?) introduce the Spiritual Essence of TCC to their students without it sounding like a religion, and can they share with us their experiences with these introductions?