Internal Freedom

Recently I was privileged to teach a T’ai Chi Chih workshop at the state prison. Although the 15 men I worked with were in the least heavily secured area–their commons area seeming almost like a college dorm with individual rooms surrounding the lounge space–the fact is that they are incarcerated for various crimes and could not walk away at the end of the session as I could. This thought struck me with a great deal of humility and a large sense of responsibility toward those inmates.

At first, there was a fair amount of snickering, smart remarks, and “macho” behavior as the men began moving, their actions seeming much like socially inappropriate adolescents, even though a wide range of age, background, experience or non-experience with other meditative forms and martial arts was represented. (I’d been a bit apprehensive just hearing the many sets of huge metal doors clang shut behind me, and the initial response by the inmates didn’t do a great deal for my peace of mind. I wondered what I was doing there.) However, as the chi began to flow for all of us, I was able to relax more and “go with the flow” of the atmosphere, and the men, too, began to quiet and become sincerely involved in the movements.

As the day progressed, some of them even expressed that they could feel the movement of the chi and simply by the subtle changes that had taken place in their behaviors, I knew it was true. Some of the most intelligent and well-thought-out questions I’ve ever been asked were asked in that place by men who had truly been touched by what was happening to them inside. There were times when I was able to forget where I was because the movements were so much in synch between the inmates, their counselor and myself. The chi had really taken over, something, of course, that we all know happens every time a group of people comes together to practice T’ai Chi Chih, but something that occasionally needs to be brought to the surface in order to be fully appreciated.

While there were certainly still some skeptics at the end of the day, I felt very gratified when several of the workshop participants came up at the end and shook hands with me, asking me to come back and teach them some more movements of T’ai Chi Chih. All I can say in reflecting back on this quite wonderful experience is: Thank you, Justin, for bringing T’ai Chi Chih into my life and for letting it be shared in a place where it’s so desperately needed.