Compassion, When Me Becomes We

So many students come to T’ai Chi Chih hoping for a change within. Most of us think at an entry level. Will I be able to run faster, jump higher or dance better? But the mere fact that we came to TCC instead of somewhere else is a wonderful beginning. As one participant at a Healing Cancer Retreat said, “I thought I was going to be doing something weird, but this is easy and good to do. I could hardly breathe when we started, but I am breathing better now; it feels great.”

TCC rarely comes into our lives like a big brass band blaring. Like the movements, it comes softly because a friend wants to share it, or it comes slowly because our partner has been doing it for years and we have seen wonderful changes – perhaps they are more gentle, helpful, concerned or compassionate. One woman said she’d been peeking at her husband’s TCC Textbook a long time before coming to class. It helps that TCC is not connected to any religious doctrine or philosophy.

The time comes in our practice when the “I” reason for doing TCC begins to change to “we.”

As Hakuin Zenji said upon having his enlightenment experience, “After this, looking at the things of this world was like looking at the back of my own hand.” We rarely think in terms of “us” unless we are talking about things that have to do with me and mine: my home, family, city, country. But many times a crisis or our TCC practice helps us go deeper. We begin opening and caring if someone has a bed to sleep in after a tornado, or that people in a village in Africa deserve clean water and shelter from the cold, or knowing that education for all is a wonderful step forward for mankind.

At this point we begin to know what compassion means. It’s what turns “me” into “we.” Compassion is the only way out of resentment, anger or unskilled behavior. Compassion teaches us to love and share the Chi.