The Knowing

“If you have faith in Prajna, this inner wisdom, you will do and feel the right thing. It will almost do the right thing for you. Every word spoken to you will be a signpost to guide you, if you let it. But, can you have faith in this guidance instead of always trying to manipulate it?” (Justin Stone, September 1992, The Vital Force)

When Justin wrote these words I had not yet been led to T’ai Chi Chih. Yet five years later when a friend of mine ended a telephone call quickly with, “I’ve got to go, it’s the first night of my T’ai Chi (sic) class at the Y,” I knew I had to be in that class. I was not wrong. Or perhaps something else was right. I joined at the second session, taught by Maggie Peltier, and after I persisted through intermediate and advanced lessons, she seemed absolutely certain I was supposed to be a teacher. I questioned her judgment and her sanity, but went ahead. I am absolutely certain I also over-thought it all, but her knowing was enough to make me keep going.

Being a teacher was a position for which I though I wasn’t qualified. I didn’t realize that what teaching really qualified me for was a lifetime of being a student and that being a student forever, under the guidance of other teachers, was the real goal. But the knowing knew, because before I knew TCC, I did have experience with knowing, but I didn’t always trust it. I can give you chapter and verse of the times I discounted the knowing and reaped regret.

TCC has helped strengthen and confirm that inner wisdom that Justin spoke about. I can’t honestly say I do TCC every day. But when I do it, insights flow into the permeable consciousness that I call mine, but that is really just a little corner of the greater consciousness that I inhabit. I’m pursuing studies now that call for stillness as a precursor to higher-level spiritual contact and information. My knowing tells me that a moving practice called TCC is probably my best path, for now, to the stillness that invites more knowing.