Community and Connectivity

Roberta Taggart, Cupertino, CA

What a marvelous gift T’ai Chi Chih is! Practiced daily with the proper motivation, it brings rapid transformation into our lives. It allows us to connect powerfully and meaningfully to ourselves (our inner breath – our vital force – chi). An intimacy develops as we turn inward to bathe in the sweetness lying inside — just waiting to be discovered (or is that re-discovered?). We begin to realize what love really is. Not sappy love – but the deep love realized by quietly turning inward. The more we sink into our practice and experience the boundless joy awaiting us, the better we are able to understand the value of this special gift of T’ai Chi Chih. Often imperceptible yet real changes occur, both emotionally and spiritually, as we move from loving self to merely loving. Teh allows us to move with intention to nourish a spiritually hungry world. But what of our own nourishment, and the nourishment of each other.

In between the self and the world-at-large lies our community — a gathering together of individuals who form a supportive network. The survival of the community is dependent upon the ability to be intimate (inner knowing) and loving – not only with ourselves, but others. While so easily said, opening the heart to move toward connectivity and communion takes trust. When you feel loved, nurtured, cared for and supported, then trust engenders the capacity to be loving and intimate in return. Through our T’ai Chi Chih community we can nourish each other, replenish ourselves, and connect at an aggregated level — gathering momentum exponentially that we cannot acquire alone. Through community, then, there is the means to gather the impetus required to move out into a more global service to humanity. Fueled by the desire to love globally and connect intimately with our fellow man, we can provide a mechanism (T’ai Chi Chih) to ameliorate the profound sense of loneliness, isolation, alienation and depression present in our modern world.

But our strength comes both from within (individually) and between (collectively). What if we don’t connect with each other? We then miss the opportunity to build relationship. The process of building communally is a powerful part of our T’ai Chi Chih experience. Together — through commitment to serve, we foster the ability to enhance intimacy in relationships that are the most important to us – family, friends, colleagues – within our community.

Written communications are meaningful links; staying connected in other ways is also important to invigorate and sustain our community. Helping each other develop as teachers, auditing a teacher training, attending or leading group practices, engaging in meaningful dialogue, working together on projects, attending annual conferences, workshops, retreats, and seminars — these activities provide the opportunity to build and strengthen our community by fortifying the bond between teachers. How fortunate we are to have each other, our community, and T’ai Chi Chih as a uniting force. Justin has provided the gift, it’s up to each of us to build community.