Q&A with Senior Teacher Tara Stiles

Nomadic | Accredited 1978

When and where were you accredited?

My training took place over a weekend with Justin at Green Gulch Zen Center just north of San Francisco.

How did you learn originally about TCC? Why did you become accredited?

I was exposed to T’ai Chi Chih (TCC) in Eastern Canada in 1976 — with someone who had gone through teacher training with Justin in Albuquerque. She showed me some movements and I was immediately attracted and thought, “I’m going to add this to my toolkit.”

I had studied T’ai Chi Ch’uan but it was hard, and it was tough to remember the sequences. When she showed me the repetitions, and I experienced the profound sense of flow, ease, and subtlety, it was obvious. The simpler form would make it easier to practice, teach, and share.

Talk about your classes.

Structure is important for beginners. The form is the vehicle to experience the flow. Students need repetition to internalize the practice. I taught half the movements during one six-week beginner class and the other half during another six-week class. And then I had ongoing classes. I’m someone who likes variety; that’s what’s kept the practice alive for me. Students also have different needs and different personality styles.

What impact has practicing had on you?

I’d do TCC outside while already feeling connected to Nature. After 15 minutes, I’d be in a whole different spiritual state of consciousness. My experience of everything, including my own self, would expand so dramatically. The simple TCC movements give anybody the opportunity to enter into that state of consciousness.

How has teaching changed you?

I had a significant experience with “Betty,” who was in her 70s. During her first beginning class she came across as unconnected to her body, awkward. The next week, she came back so excited because she was loving this practice. She still didn’t look particularly coordinated, but her joy was so profound. I realized it was important to not correct her. She was having an experience that she’d never had in her body. She was flowing with an ease. I totally gave her space. It was a great teaching: the flow is so important.

Any movement you particularly love?

I do Passing Clouds or Push Pull in the Four Directions. The animals and birds see you not as a human but simply part of the environment, like a branch moving in the wind. One of my favorite experiences was at a beach. A seal was so curious about the practice. He’d go off swimming, come back, look at me, dive down, not quite knowing what to do with me. I was a human but not moving like one; I was quiet. TCC is a way to be with the quietness, even if there are noises outside. We can be with the internal quiet.

Share an innovative teaching method that you have developed.

Chi drawing. I would take to class a tin of crayons and blank pieces of 8 x 11-inch paper. And I’d give students three minutes to do a few lines or scribbles with whatever color (or colors) they wanted — to give expression to what they were feeling in their bodies after a certain movement. It allowed them to deepen their subjective experience of the Chi. Each movement is different. There’s no right or wrong. It wasn’t about creating a work of art; it was a way to give form and help them experience what they were experiencing.

Most of us have been educated and when we practice TCC, it’s trains us to experience something other than mind. Experiencing the Chi and energy is very different than talking about mind or thinking about energy. It’s the difference between having an experience in my fingers or in my gut versus spending 24 hours a day believing in my thoughts.

It’s like that Chinese saying that Justin used to share about practicing: you can’t appease the hunger by reading the menu.

What lasting lesson(s) have you learned

I’ve always had a strong sense of trusting my own experience and understanding. It’s all about your own subjective experience of the Divine or of Qi. Some people have a harder time with that than others. Everyone has to do what serves them.

Some of us are born to be sharers. I had to learn that it was okay not to share in a group. But I’ll always teach on a personal level.

The beautiful thing about TCC is that it’s a simple form. That enables a practitioner to really have a connection with the Chi, which is the ultimate teacher. Any structure, any form is just the facilitator for us to have that inner relationship with the Chi, the divine, the supreme ultimate. After all these years, that is what I most appreciate about the practice.