Coming Home (August 2023)

Coming home to the feeling of once again being together in person to share ourselves with each other. Coming home to our T’ai Chi Chih (TCC) practice as we explore ways to feel more deeply the experience of moving in the flow. Coming home to ourselves as we practice listening to that inner voice of innate wisdom within.

This was the theme of a recent TCC teacher’s retreat held in Oceanside, California, and attended by 20 teachers. A teacher’s retreat has been held in California every year for more than 25 years, except for the past three because of COVID-19. It was with great joy that we came together to explore “Coming Home.” We shared what it means to come home — the feeling, the experience, the value.

Coming home is an experiential concept. Each person has their own idea or definition of what that means to them. But generally, it’s a comfortable and familiar place, a place where you can be yourself.

Coming home to community, our TCC family. Our isolation during the past three years has made us acutely aware of how much community means, how precious those connections are. We have walked the path of learning TCC and many have the shared experience of becoming TCC teachers. We share an identity, we are of like minds and hearts, we are explorers of the Chi. When we come together, we can be who we are uncovered. There is no need to protect or project a societal identity. Being together we learn from each other and grow.

Coming home to our TCC practice. This is a never-ending journey of discovery. As we refine our practice it becomes smoother and softer, flowing with less effort. We are more likely to practice when it is enjoyable. If, at the conclusion of a practice we notice a sense of equanimity, a feeling of calmness and clarity that can carry us through our day, we recognize the value of the practice. We are more likely to return to that comfortable and familiar feeling of flowing with ease and grace through TCC. Refining our practice brings less effort and more joy. We look forward to coming home to our practice.

Coming home to oneself. Justin often talked about Prajna, wisdom from within. Wisdom that does not come from using the mind to arrive at an answer but from within, a wisdom we are born with. But our conditioning, societal expectations, our own expectations and needs often do not let that voice from within be heard. We may hear it but our reasoning, mind, and conditioning nix our acting on it.

Some people can tap into that voice easily, while many must work to uncover and hear that voice. We need to develop a connection to our inner voice. There is no one way. During the teacher’s retreat at the end of each TCC practice we would place our hands on our tan t’ien and sit in silence — no expectations, not trying to hear, just focusing on the tan t’ien, building awareness, a connection.

Justin encouraged us to sit in silence at the end or our practice, not meditating or visualizing, just sitting. I find this a perfect time to focus at the tan t’ien as a way of developing a connection or channel to that inner voice. Our TCC practice brings a stillness to our emotions and mind allowing for an inner stillness to hear our inner voice. With consistent practice our body is conditioned to easily tap into that inner stillness and quietness anywhere, anytime even without doing the practice. We come home to the being we are without our conditioning, connecting to the essence of who we are uncovered.

Our TCC practice connects us to a community that supports our journey as we do theirs. Our TCC practice supports our health, physical, mental, and emotional. Our TCC practice connects us to the universal Chi or life force bringing us home to ourselves, that which we were before.