Clarity of Perception

To acquire clarity in the depths of our being, we must constantly be aware of what needs to be released as well as being alert and awake. The practice of T’ai Chi Chih provides a space and form that both invites and challenges us to experience the depths and heights of clarity that can enhance ourselves and all our relationships.

In the process of learning the entire TCC form, the new student is more concerned with how it looks rather than how it feels. This is only natural and forms the basis of learning each movement. With time and practice, a transition eventually evolves from an exterior trying to an interior flow. This is what we refer to as “maturity of practice.” Clarity surfaces in feeling the connectedness of arms and legs, of open relaxed wrists and waist moving softly in a simultaneous flow that can result in feeling as though no one is doing TCC, but that it is doing itself.

In such “ah-ha” moments we grasp a deeper sense of clarity and a deeper sense of self. When the practice is done in this way, we continue to move into new levels of awareness in timing and rhythm that continue to deepen the TCC form.

When I first learned TCC, my teacher would invite us to maintain an “unclouded mind.” This phrase meant so much to me and still does when I teach to remind students that the movements are done from the ears down. We spend all day long processing, thinking, planning, yet in the practice our minds become clear – unclouded with the concerns of life – to better focus our awareness in the body as the movements take on various circular patterns, being supported by complete weight shifts that activate Chi through the body. When we “fast from thinking” during the practice, we can further sink into the awareness of the present moment. This carries over to our lives when we can enter fully into what we are doing, being fully present and clear minded rather than clouded.

When we create space in our busy lives for practice, it seems to help us accomplish much more in the day as we flow from one event to the next, rather than rushing to get everything accomplished. Clarity of thought and focus increases; it is a natural benefit of the fasting mind.

Clarity of an alert mind freely chooses to let go rather than cling, according with impermanence; recognizes resistance that can give way to acceptance; melts away hardness into softness; becomes aware of tension and chooses relaxation; experiences disconnect but chooses continuity. Distortions of mind and body melt away in light of clarity. 

The byproduct of all of this is inner freedom. Freedom cannot be earned nor taken away from us. It can only reside and increase in the depths of ones awareness. What at one time shook us out of our center no longer has the power to do so. New levels of awareness dispel old ways of seeing and being, acting and understanding that give way to clarity throughout life. 

Can 19 simple movements and one pose really produce all of this? Try it and see. It is the experience of an ever-increasing number of practitioners. How blest we are to be able to share this form with so many.

TCC will take you as far as you want to go – or maybe where you don’t want to go as a feeling of resistance. Breaking through and staying with it can only result in total freedom, total clarity. 

the

curtain

disappears

only the Chi

remains so

clearly

thee

– Nancy Werner-Azarski

T’ai

Chi Chih

does not take

time from our lives

it brings life

to our

time

– Bill Moore

Chi

breathing

traveling

between spaces

emerging

toward love

now

– Barbara Kristoff

bright

morning

clear blue sky

do T’ai Chi Chih

underneath

that sky

smile

– Gary Swanson