Give The “Pause” A Cause

While at the 2016 T’ai Chi Chih conference, I was quite aware of and perplexed about the practice of standing straight with hands at one’s side after each of the nineteen moves and one pose of our beloved practice.

Yes, I had seen Justin Stone do this in practices in Albuquerque when I visited there, but I never saw it at a conference and certainly not at accreditation. I was also distracted by those who did this; they shifted their weight, looked around, and seemed to be distracted. The practice was, to me, an annoyance. Then, thanks to our fearless leader, the elephant in the living room was acknowledged and we were asked to deal with it. So here I am, making a confession to you, my TCC family.

The morning of the conference, I had read about St. Dominic, who lived centuries ago and started religious communities for both women and men. The article said that Dominic often prayed standing at attention (rather than while sitting, kneeling or prostrate) as a way of feeling ready to do whatever God/life would put before him on that given day.

The two ideas bumped together in my head and I decided to give it a try. Since conference I have practiced the standing pause. It is marvelous. Not only does it give the knees a rest from the soft or even low bend, but it gives me pause to say, “I’m ready for whatever!” and there is an added benefit: during the day, whenever I find myself standing still, I think of the morning practice and say: “I’m ready, Lord, even for this!”

In the next Vital Force I hope to share how I have used the three forms of our beloved practice to transform the dualistic tradition of Taoism into a Trinitarian practice of Christianity (which I find helpful as a woman religious in the Catholic-Christian tradition).

To Stand – Or To Stay Down – In Rest?
By Stephen Thompson, Tupelo, Mississippi

After Caroline and I led Friday’s early morning practice at the 2016 teacher conference someone asked, “When did we start standing up at the end of the movements during our T’ai Chi Chih practice?” I glanced at my watch, smiled, and said, “Well, Caroline usually rises after grounding, but today was my first time to do so in a TCC practice.” Why? Caroline had asked me to count while she led. Following her and rising together seemed completely natural at the time.

Three hours later Sandy McAlister deviated from the conference schedule and opened an impromptu floor discussion about what to do during the rest. There was quite a storm of comments. Some teachers claimed Justin taught us to rest, release, and rise. Others said his videos and texts say to hold the rest.

Sandy calmly acknowledged the two groups of thoughts on whether to stay down in graceful conclusion; or, after a short time of grounding, to rise up and release the knees and wrists. She shared that she personally stays down, but understood the reasons some might choose to rise – either because their body couldn’t hold the rest very long while remaining comfortable, or because Justin rose after the rest both in Seijaku and TCC. Sandy told us that Justin often said his rising had nothing to do with his age or discomfort and just as importantly, that Justin never corrected anyone who stayed down in rest. This caused someone to exclaim, “That’s all well and good, but what I want to know is, which way should I teach my students.”

Many of us were wondering WWJD, “What would Justin do” or say had he’d been present? Fortunately Justin was a prolific writer. Read three quotations from his 20th Century Psalms, as printed in the August 2016 Vital Force:

“The strangest thing is that people come to a teacher to learn and then try to tell him what and how to teach.”

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

The Zen Master, Tokusan, was walking through the hallway one night, accompanied by an attendant, when he came upon two monks quarreling. The Master stopped and crossed his arms, waiting for an explanation.

“Didn’t you tell us that we should do so-and-so and follow such-and-such a path?” asked the first.

“You are right,” replied the Master.

The other monk was astonished. “But I understood just the opposite,” he protested. “I thought we should do such-and-such.”

“You too are right,” agreed the Master.

At that the bewildered attendant, hearing that the two parties with opposing views were both right, exclaimed: “But they can’t be both right!”

Tokusan smiled. “I perceive that you, too, are right” was all he said.

After which Justin added these words, “We eagerly dig the pit and then wail piteously when we fall into it.”

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

And further warned, ”We believe what we want to believe and we doubt our own experience.”

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

Perhaps the division within our community can be put to rest, pardon the pun, by an observation. I noticed those who championed rising after rests were generally speaking those known to practice the advance form of TCC (Seijaku), where we rise after the rests in what Justin called “hang time”. Could it be those who defended staying down generally speaking weren’t as familiar, or perhaps as comfortable with the Seijaku way?

“Which way should we teach our students?” Teach TCC to beginning students and teach Seijaku to advanced students. “How long should we stay in rest?” Not too long, not too short. When leading a group practice, keep the time spent in rest just short enough (so those who wish to stay down can do so without discomfort) and just long enough (so those who wish to rest and then rise, will to have ample time to do so).

Sandy encouraged us to try both resting forms and to give them an equal chance. “Trust your experience, be guided by the Chi,” she said, “and allow others to do the same.” Allow yourself to move past polarity thinking and into mindfully experiencing. Rising or staying down after the rest ultimately is neither right nor wrong. It’s only TCC doing TCC. And if the yin-Chi and yang-Chi can become one during rest, surely we as a community of teachers can follow its example and do the same.