Open To Balancing Joy & Movement

BY RON RICHARDSON, TUPELO, MS

An attractive feature of T’ai Chi Chih is its subtitle “Joy Thru Movement.” In fact, this has been the driving force behind my practice of TCC for the past eight years. Somewhere along the way during more recent months, I have become aware of the possibility that the joy could get lost if we overly immerse ourselves in events where we focus entirely on trying to improve the way we do TCC.

I was the only teacher here in Mississippi for most of the eight years of my practice. Within the last couple of years, five more enthusiastic TCC teachers have surrounded me and want to get it down to a science. This is not a criticism. I am glad to see it. It’s just that this presence of new eager teachers has helped bring about an awareness of something missing in my more recent practices. Added to this, I attended the 2007 Conference where there was a heavy emphasis (as always) on improvement. I then came home to attend an area retreat. Again, emphasis was on improving the practice. I began to think, “Something is out of balance. I am loosing some of the joy that comes with the movement.” Do not misunderstand me. Refinements are very important to me. During the 2007 Conference I joked with Sandy McAlister about waiting for someone to tap me on the shoulder to inform me about something I was not doing exactly right. There was some seriousness to that.

I want improve my TCC movements. But here comes a time, as the commercial says, when we need to “just do it” and not be so concerned about trying to improve our movements. Maybe a better balance can come between joy-and-movement as we balance the need to improve-and-just-do-it. Perhaps this can happen if we practice TCC apart from our classes, or, even in classes, just do it from time to time without being concerned about teaching.

The Yang Component Of Openness

BY STEPHEN THOMPSON, TUPELO, MS

Justin often talks of vashanas, or habit energies. Habit energies help us cope, but all too often vashanas serve as barriers to prajna, our inherent wisdom. Daily clearing our minds through T’ai Chi Chih practice ultimately allows us to be more open – to see with a clearer mind, one that is free of yesterday’s clutter. If we want to be open and receptive, we must allow the Chi to soften our vashanas.

You may think openness is passive receptivity; it isn’t. Openness contains within it a highly active property – an extraordinary mindfulness, a precursor to change. Unfortunately our habit energies blind us to the infinite opportunities hovering just past the threshold of our everyday consciousness. To see and think more clearly, follow your Chi inward when you move. Consciousness will clear, barriers will soften, and prajna will open you to previously unseen possibilities.

To be open we would do well to cultivate a mind that is willing to question everything – what Zen people call a beginner’s mind. That doesn’t mean we have to go around questioning every little thing every minute of the day; it’s just an acknowledgement of how little we actually know for certain of this universe. Beginner’s mindfulness opens us up, directing us upward to a higher state where we’re allowed a greater understanding of self, of others, and of situations once foreign to us.

In Justin’s book Spiritual Odyssey (pg. 125), he says, “Self-discipline demands that we see things as they are, not the way we want them to be or the way they appear to deluded thinking.” Through such clear-mindedness Justin developed T’ai Chi Chih in 1974, which is a revolutionary change in the history of moving meditation, one that revealed a new truth, a soft but strong inward-path. It is Justin’s legacy to this world.

A commitment to staying open and inquisitive in our own lives will lead to new revelations and personal truths – truths that we will hopefully, for the sake of our growth, remain open to question. So, let the yang Chi component of openness shake you out of your vashanas of complacency; allow openness to renew your mind and bring into the light all that your knowing-something-for-certain-mind has hidden from you. Follow the Chi.