Making Connections

So often, students who attended a T’ai Chi Chih demonstration years before show up in my classes years later. It might not even have been I who gave the demonstration. However, T’ai Chi Chih definitely touched them during some short demonstration. They felt peace or love or the disappearance of pain when they started moving. And they longed to remember that experience again. The wonderful thing about teaching is that the experience can be repeated. We don’t have to cross our fingers and hope that it will happen again. It isn’t magic, but it is magical. Justin Stone, the originator of T’ai Chi Chih, says it so simply: “If you want to know what T’ai Chi Chih can do for you, do it.”

One of my students was surprised to hear that I had been doing T’ai Chi Chih for about 30 years. They seemed impressed and commented, “That is a long time.” I smiled, knowing that our T’ai Chi Chih practice is not evaluated in terms of time but rather according to what we get from practice, every day. If I received nothing more than the ever present peace washing over my body, mind and emotions, that helps me experience my breath, it would certainly be worth the 40 minutes. However, so much more is revealed daily. T’ai Chi Chih gives us the strength and opening to sink deeply into the well of Life. The question is how do we approach our practice?

I remember practice beginning as a race. It wasn’t until the eighteenth Rocking Motion that I became aware of moving too fast. And then it would take until the twenty-seventh movement to slow to a gentle flow, which connected me to myself. I ended up sinking deeply for only the last nine movements. It finally dawned on me that I was a slow learner. I then decided to have a full, mindful, practice — not something hit or miss. From that time on, my T’ai Chi Chih practice became very different.

Recently I taught a week-long morning session for the Science and Consciousness International Conference, with about 700 scientists, engineers, and medical professionals from around the world. One heart attack sufferer, who needed to slow down, came to the T’ai Chi Chih presentation. After one session, he asked, “Would it be okay if I did my practice faster in this class?” I smiled and said, “No; it sounds as if you need to connect with your body. It seems to be telling you to slow down. You really need T’ai Chi Chih.” He stopped frowning for the first time and said gently, “I think you’re right.” We then had a lovely chat and he purchased a video so he could continue connecting with and listening to his body. He also attended the daily morning T’ai Chi Chih session.

How wonderful to share a discipline that helps people connect with themselves so that they can love (themselves) and share the chi.