Thoughts Shared (March 1998)

In her book, A Potter’s Notes on Tai Chi Chuan, Margy Emerson provides insights which may deepen your practice of T’ai Chi Chih. My thanks to Good Karma Publishing for placing this book in my hands in 1996 at the 11th annual Teachers Convention in San Diego. This quotation (page 27) I share with you:

“Variation: the human standard versus the standard of machines.

“Each day I perform the sequence a little differently. The timing of my breathing, the pace at which I move, the images I focus on, the degree of concentration or smoothness or balance: all these elements and many others vary from one day to the next.

“Some mornings I decide not to do Tai Chi Chuan.

“Persistence and consistence are needed. But not mechanical sameness. Within every existing thing there are infinite variables. As an expression of the dynamic force pervading everything, Tai Chi Chuan reflects this and welcomes variation.”

End Note: A Potter’s Notes on T’ai Chi Ch’uan compares the process of making art with the practice of T’ai Chi Ch’uan. Margy Emerson has made her living as a potter . . . in Springfield, IL. It was there she studied T’ai Chi Ch’uan under Kao Ching-hua, a Chinese woman who has taught since she arrived in this country just after World War II and who has always emphasized the practical application of the principles of T’ai Chi Ch’uan. (This biographical information is taken from back cover of A Potter’s Notes on T’ai Chi Ch’uan, 1988, Artichoke Press.)