Musings About Teaching & Connecting, by Amy Tyksinski (February 2015)

Teaching TCC: Why do you do it?

I initially began teaching TCC because I was told, “It’s best if you start teaching right away.” I was an obedient student and I listened to that directive. Over the years, my focus has changed from a more mechanical approach (where do the hands and feet go?) to a more feeling-sensing approach (what does swimming through very heavy air feel like on the inside?) What compels me most recently is how to help students access the principle of “the effort of no effort” through their tan t’ien. In addition to doing lots of TCC, we play often in my classes through multi-sensory activities to get at the inner and outer sensation of the essence of “the effort of no effort” and the other principles as expressed through the TCC form. And, for the first time in 20 years, I’m taking a semester off from teaching TCC. This chosen break from teaching feels liberating and rejuvenating and a little scary.

What does it mean to you to teach TCC? What do you think you’re giving to others and what do you get?

Teaching TCC gives me the privilege of sharing a tool that can facilitate human beings to connect to themselves and their own divinity. It gives me great joy to witness the development of this connection. Also, what I’m usually working on in my own TCC practice (and in life – they are not separate) becomes a field for experimentation with my students. These days I am very intrigued by the question (paraphrasing Pema Chodron’s words), “Where am I too tight, where am I too loose?” or in other words, “Form is emptiness and emptiness is form.” I remain convinced that the practice of TCC gives us a doorway into direct experiencing of this blissful unity.

What have you found to be the most effective ways (for you personally) to keep spreading the word, interesting new students, keeping current students engaged?

For me, the most effective way to keep current students engaged is to continue to refine my ability to meet them where they are and see where they want to go. This approach means getting my own agenda out of the way and really listening deeply to the movement of Chi in each individual student while still holding a container for the growth of the group as a whole. At the same time, I seek neither to abandon the wisdom that might want to express itself through me. Learning to accord with the timing of this dance is delicious and challenging.

The other most effective way to teach TCC for me is to keep going deeper into TCC myself. The more engaged I am with the practice, the more I am led and find this path to be imminently trustworthy.

Training the next generations of TCC teachers

Do you think moving more qualified students toward becoming TCC teachers is an important part of building the future of TCC? Is this a focus of your teaching?

Ideally, I believe moving qualified students toward becoming TCC teachers is a worthy effort. However, I feel strongly about a student’s readiness therefore I am not in a hurry to produce new teachers. I am enthusiastic about cultivating an environment where students feel excited to explore who and what they are through the practice of TCC. Because my current population is high school students, I am particularly mindful of their emotional development and ability to stay grounded in their bodies (which I observe to be less formulated than in many adults). These two factors contribute to my caution in pushing young people to become teachers too soon.

What are the best ways (that you’ve found, for you personally) to move qualified students toward teacher accreditation? 

One of the most effective ways I’ve found to deepen all students’ understanding of TCC is to have them practice verbally communicating the elements of a given movement to another student or in front of a larger group. Students quickly discover what gaps still remain in how they first understand the movement in themselves and second, can communicate it to others. What happens through this interesting approach is that certain students realize they enjoy communicating in front of a group and in fact, are good at it.

The other extremely effective way I’ve found to move qualified students towards teacher accreditation is through a journal-dialogue. I interact on a weekly basis through writing back and forth with my students. This form of communication helps me understand how to nurture their TCC experience.

When I have repeat students (taking the class for multiple semesters), by the second semester we are reading more of Justin’s works and when appropriate delving into Seijaku (TCC, Seijaku, Fast Track mixture), but again with respect for where the student is within herself. I take them as deep as I can and trust that if they are meant to become teachers, this will emerge.

What are the barriers or stumbling blocks in trying to move qualified students toward teacher accreditation?

The current stumbling blocks I perceive in moving qualified students toward teacher accreditation are the age of my students (high school) and the current tiered system of intensives.

Connecting with other TCC teachers: Is it important to you?  

I feel we could make our TCC teaching community much more vibrant through specific discussions about teaching and learning TCC. Questions I would like to discuss with other seasoned teachers are: What do you notice about what you “see” (not necessarily with the eyes) when you observe blockages in your students? How do you then work with those observed blockages? What concrete and specific activities to you use to support students in going deeper in their TCC practice? What approach or focus in TCC is particularly inspiring to you as a person right now? How is that showing up in your life and in your TCC classes? What shadow work do you yourself need to do regarding your relationship to the assumptions and expectations you have around spirituality and TCC (both teaching and learning)?

What are the main ways you connect with other TCC teachers? Are these effective and enough? Do you wish there were other ways?

I prefer smaller retreat oriented gatherings. I would like to see more opportunities for gatherings where the participants show up with a willingness to move in silence, be together in silence. I feel strongly that our TCC community (and our Albuquerque community specifically) must continue to grow in its movement away from “There is a right way and a wrong way to do TCC” towards a more inclusive, “This is how I perceive the essence of TCC and this is what works for me in accessing that essence. What works for you?” kind of approach. This holistic inclusion does not mean throwing the baby out with the bathwater. It means we are all individually responsible for going as deeply into TCC as we can, with the wonderful resources Justin left us, while at the same time acknowledging that each one of us is going to express TCC in ways that are unique. Rather than being afraid of this both/and proposition, we could be excited by it.

Is there anything else you’d like the readers to know?

We all have something to offer, whether we are at the beginning of our TCC teaching experience, still have an inconsistent personal practice, or are coming from a more seasoned place. Earlier I mentioned I used to focus on the mechanical aspects more – the truth is I still address mechanics but now I am more curious about how these mechanics emerge and express from the tan t’ien through a feeling awareness more than a purely physical or logistical one. I would like to encourage any certified teacher of TCC who isn’t teaching to find a way to begin sharing this form with another in some capacity and not to worry about perceived inadequacies.

Con’t on pg. 14.