Four Writings After Practice

By Dora Wiemann, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Thoughts and feelings after a practice? The cool breeze coming in through my open patio door feels so good as I sit down after my T’ai Chi Chih (TCC) practice and write this. I’m thirsty from practice and drink from my nearby glass of water. My whole body is tingling and relaxed. The thoughts of the activities of the rest of my day are waiting just outside my mind’s peaceful bubble generated from practice. The thoughts can wait a while longer. I want to bask in this peaceful state of being for a bit because it feels good.

With no urge to move, I’m still aware of my living room, the sun shining on my back yard and the children playing a couple of houses away. I just feel myself in my body for a little while. 

The meditative state starts to slowly dissipate, and the activities of the day enter the door of my mind once again. It’s time to start getting on with the rest of the day. I ask myself, “What have I gained from practice?” The answer that comes is, “Nothing, really.” In this state, the possibilities are endless, but I don’t want or need anything. 

I do know for sure that I lost a few more self-made limitations that the circulation of the Chi has dissolved away.

By Dixie Adeniran, Santa Barbara, California

There is such sweetness in finding and entering the Cosmic Rhythm in our T’ai Chi Chih (TCC) practice. It is the rhythm of the universe. We know we are one with it all — connected in this fundamental rhythm.

The comfort of rocking soothes infants. That rocking — weight changing — yinning and yanging — in the rhythm of our practice profoundly comforts us.

We enter a natural rhythm that doesn’t require thinking. Like …

• The child’s swing that goes up, momentum turns, and the swing comes down.

• The pendulum swings one way, changes momentum and then swings the other way.

• At the beach on a calm day, the foamy surf line comes in, turns, and goes back out.

• In giant kelp forests under the sea, the holdfast at the bottom keeps each algae grounded, and the surge lets the remainder of the plant move to the natural rhythm of that medium.

This rhythm is home. At first, my TCC practice was mechanical. What a joy to finally find and really feel the Cosmic Rhythm. So delicious. So comforting.

By Terry Gay Puckett, San Antonio, Texas

An intuitive thought: While making coffee this morning it popped into my head why I keep teaching T’ai Chi Chih (TCC). Surely it isn’t the money. After many years of teaching for free I got up the nerve to charge a fee, because I feel that it is an incentive to practice, attend regularly, and understand that this something of great value, worthy of time and effort.

The thrill for me is seeing happy faces of returning students, greeting each other at the beginning of the first class. I have 17 people each Monday morning who want to learn, improve, and flow together. What a delightful crew. The dancer, a sculptor, the writer and travel agent, the scientist, a retired military, a CPA, the nurse, the healer, and several teachers, as well as successful retires from the business world…. They are all looking across the circular magic carpet (yes, there really is one) and sending healing and love to each other and the rest of the world.

We smile, feeling the serenity in the midst of activity, glad to be with new friends, and get unexpected benefits. My intuition is telling me that contentment is another benefit of TCC.

By Daniel Pienciak, Howell Township, New Jersey

Justin Stone wrote that “awareness is the root of T’ai Chi Chih.” TCC/Seijaku practice is, for me, always an opportunity to be mindful of how to move, feel the Chi, allow myself to “enter the cosmic rhythm,” and be one with it.

Sitting quietly, following a practice recently, these thoughts came into my mind:

I felt a pain and tightness in the neck/shoulder throughout the practice that was asking for a total letting go, a need to surrender the weight of my upper body to my feet, a need to relax the upper body/neck/shoulders. This means allowing the center (tan t’ien, or more practically from a somatic experience, feeling the entire pelvic girdle) to control, to be the impetus for moving.

And what about this thinking/feeling of my neck, my shoulders, or my tan t’ien? The inner knowing (prajna) informs me that here is no I — there is only the awareness of awareness — that which is. Even the awareness of my awareness can fool me into a state of perceived separation.

So, it behooves me always to pay attention to “that which knows.” It is this which tells me that there is one “something” that supports all that is, and that something is indeed all that is. Familiar words come into my mind:

“You will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free.” But, of course, I already am free. However, I often don’t know it, or am not mindful of it, or I perhaps even choose not to be free.

“You will be borne up as if on eagle’s wings.” But is the eagle within me, or without me? Or am I the eagle? Ah, but there is no I. So, what is there to be done?

I am grateful for the gift of TCC and Seijaku, where I can be one with an experience of being, and experience needing to do nothing.