It’s Just A Phrase I’m Going Through (Teaching)

For the bulk of my careers I used “random voices of the universe” as material for my cartoons and comedy material, but only if I could twist it into something original. In the publishing and entertainment world we had this thing called plagiarism.

As I advanced to become a T’ai Chi Chih instructor, I was often told “…Justin would say…” It was a molar-grinder for me to copy another person’s words, especially when I was not there originally to hear him say it, how he paced it and the look on his face along with gestures, in order to fully understand and correctly channel his intent and intonation.

I began to get comfortable with the phraseology of Justin, Carmen, Pam and Sandy through their DVDs. The longer I listened and watched, the clearer their words morphed into my own images as the pieces fell into place and the vision became natural.

I say “vision” because I am a visual learner. I have to see the pictures, the type fonts, the graphics, the speaker, the “theater” in order to make anything a part of my being so that it will be there when I need the words.

As my experience began to expand, I found other terms that enhanced instruction emerging. Some of these needed work; they meant something to me but were too esoteric to be helpful to a class of beginners. Others were coined bright and shiny. Some, again, were borrowed wholly or in part, such as “Less is More” (architecture) or “Gentle is the New Strength” (fashion) or put another way, “Soft is the New Strong.” These take me back to Justin’s brilliant “The Effort of No Effort” phrase, but gave me other ways of emphasizing the concept.

When my classes fill with students expecting different things from TCC, such as a standard T’ai Chi class or a meditation class, I use the phrase, “I came for the movement; I stayed in the moment.”

In the May 2016 Vital Force, I was forced to smack myself in the forehead when I read Michele Dapelo’s words, “…TCC is actually self-centered, rather than self-centered.” Is that perfect, or what? I used her phrase that very day and have multiple times since in presentations.

Some of these utterances can be visualization plays on words: “Grounding is good for the Soles” and “Connect to the you-niverse with TCC.” These types of koans can be turned into small posters, handouts, printouts for your studio walls, or even t-shirts. (Computer-generated iron-on transfers are easy to use and craft stores sell nice, inexpensive shirts in multiple colors.)

But never forget that sometimes the most powerful utterances are silent. I received insightful instruction from Carmen Brocklehurst in the midst of a workshop and she never uttered a sound. Carmen locked eyes with me, twitched a finger, or lifted an arm or turned a hip… (or did she?)… and the adjustment was beamed into my thoughts.

This lesson was not lost on me and I have found that locking eyes with a student and smiling, or a quick wink and a nod can be quite effective… or is that stealing from Monty Python? It’s not easy to be completely original.

To close, I will throw out another expression that looms large in my lexicon: “If you take something too seriously, you are not taking it seriously enough.”