As East Meets West

Years ago, my wife and I attended a gathering devoted to creating greater public awareness of the now more widely known Nine Gates Program. The featured speaker of the evening was Dr. Gay Luce, an ordained Tibetan Buddhist monk. This was unusual in that she was an American, and a woman. She was also wonderfully unusual in her perspective on life, love, and the pursuit of happiness.

As she spoke about life, it was the first time that I had been exposed to (or, perhaps receptive to) such a vast and open perspective. Simply stated, life is its own purpose. Anything that we can philosophize or imagine will always fall far short of the reality. We would be better served to stop all such speculative foolishness and address the fundamental problems. What instincts, and processes, are inherent in the way we experience the world? Can we learn to be less emotional? Can we learn to take our life experience a little less personally? She talked about love, how our ideas about a subject so mysterious and vast are far too limited. She spoke of our tendency to measure the depth of our relationships by their duration in time, as if time was somehow involved. She stated boldly that we could be together for just a moment, just an evening, and be in love, deeply and passionately. It can happen, if we are willing to risk opening our hearts to each other. She was right. She appeared in my life for just a few hours one evening long ago. I love her still. She talked of our quest for happiness. How we search for it everywhere, as if it is to be found somewhere outside of ourselves. “You are what you are looking for,” she said. Can we willingly give up searching? Can we come to see that if we accept whatever happens to us as if we had chosen it, instead of resisting Life, we would be embracing it, and would be embraced in return? Any thing you accept fully will take you into peace. This is the miracle of surrender.

Lastly, I remember Dr. Luce saying the most memorable thing of the evening, “Without a practice we tend to get small.” The value of any spiritual practice lies in its capacity to take us beyond our habitual “personal” perspective, to move us beyond our conditioned response to life, to hone our skills of perception. The universe has hidden within us its own inclination – self-consciousness. We use it quite naturally to make some kind of sense of this wild unfathomable experience in which we find ourselves. But a much greater potential is realized when it is used to perceive what lies within. What lies at the heart of this “Life” experience – Pure Awareness. With “the ten thousand things” constantly vying for our attention, this is no simple thing. It requires great discernment. Awareness without an object appears (or more accurately does not appear) as nothing at all. Small wonder that we miss it. Regarding enlightenment, the sages over the centuries were right. There is nothing to find. It is difficult to grasp that the universe is looking out through your eyes. …until you begin to practice.

The importance of a practice such as TCC in our daily experience cannot be adequately expressed. It is a key to the kingdom that lies within. It is a way to the truth. In coming to it again and again access to insight is assured. One day at a time, it slowly works its magic. It changes things. It is simple, profound, and it can easily be shared with our fellow travelers. Justin brought into the world a gift that so desperately needed to be born. An enlightened perspective is needed. I believe an evolutionary impulse is moving us inexorably in that direction.

We are experiencing a time when the T’ai Chi and Qigong traditions of the east are moving out into the world, and helping to heal it, the only way it can be healed, one heart at a time. TCC serves admirably as a bridge between east and west and has made the many benefits of these ancient practices accessible to countless western practitioners. Roger Jahnke OMD in his book The Healing Power of Qi states that, “The arrival of T’ai Chi and Qigong in our culture may well go down in history as one of the great medical breakthroughs of the early 21st century.” It is no small thing that TCC has been helping and healing for 30 years already.

“May you live in interesting times,” goes the ancient Chinese double entendre. It appears to be a particularly crucial time; when we must determine and demonstrate through our individual actions where we collectively go from here. I hesitate to speculate on Life’s purposes these days. As Eckhart Tolle reminds us in The Power of Now, “As soon as you honor the present moment, all unhappiness and struggle dissolve, and life begins to flow with joy and ease. When you act out of present moment awareness, whatever you do becomes imbued with a sense of quality, care, and love – even the most simple action.”

TCC is a simple action that has the power to change our lives, the power to anchor us in the moment, the power to awaken us to fully realize who and what we truly are. As I move through the form with joy and ease, at home in the movement of life itself, intent on the perfection of the present moment, it is then I realize most fully the precious gift TCC imparts.