Simple Movements, Profound Effects

In a recent T’ai Chi Chih beginner class I was teaching, practically all the students were so sincere that the class embraced the movements and were truly in moving meditation. In fact, they didn’t want to leave that precious state and stayed immersed in the quiet for much longer than I expected, or even fathomed, that a group of beginners could possibly remain.

On the third week of class we began Daughter on the Mountaintop. As the hands crossed the class went right into moving meditation. I continued to give instructions and I thought, surely, they’d come out quickly. This was not the case. We finished the left side, took a little breathing break and went to the right side. Again, I was giving instructions and we were interacting as though nothing special was going on, but the room’s quiet feeling was palpable.

I asked a couple of students what they felt, and we chatted. Everyone was still in the meditative state. I continued with Daughter in the Valley. The class was with me as we did the left side and then the right. Still, the entire class was feeling the peace and goodness of Life in that quiet, meditative space.

Finally, as we began Carry the Ball to the Side, the students were pulled out of the meditative state by the myriad instructions for the side-to-side movement. We had all changed in a beautiful and harmonious way. Feeling the weight shift, feeling the soles of our feet, we stayed grounded as we began experiencing life anew with this beautiful new knowing. Thank you, TCC.

Usually it’s challenging to get the students to allow themselves to become quiet. This amazing group loved the inner quiet and readily and happily allowed themselves to experience that inner peace with TCC. Now the challenge is to get the students to allow themselves to see the quiet, the peaceful, the goodness in their everyday lives, and to help them know that the “inner” expresses itself in the “outer,” too.

Thank you, Justin, for giving us the discipline of TCC that involves us in the world in such a special way. Such simple movements, such profound effects.