Transcending Personality for the Sake of Unity

Jean Katus, Ft. Yates, ND

Justin has often reminded us that T’ai Chi Chih is not about personality or ego. It is about harmonizing our internal energy so we can help manifest our true natures to the outside world – whether that be to our families, friends, acquaintances, other T’ai Chi Chih teachers or our students.

As I looked around at the conference (this summer), I realized how many different kinds of people were represented there. We have a richness in our T’ai Chi Chih family with a wide variety of personalities – from the shy and withdrawn to the exuberant and outgoing, along with everything else in between. I thought about how some of the teachers have become true heart friends over the years (as well as new teachers I instantly felt a kinship with). I also considered that some, just like in my own core and extended family, were people I would not necessarily choose as friends; by the same token, they would not necessarily choose me as a friend. Yet, here we all were together for one purpose -that of refining our T’ai Chi Chih practice, taking in the teachings from Justin and Steve, communicating with one another about our common interest and process: T’ai Chi Chih.

Conflicting ways of being and expressing are bound to arise when any group of people comes together. We can, however, minimize the negative effects of such disagreements by making honest efforts to set aside our personalities and egos for the sake of unity within T’ai Chi Chih. It is important for all of us to remember that we are a family and, just like what occurs in our core families, we do not all have to respond the same way to any given situation, we can choose to like some members better than others, we can honor our uniqueness within our individual personalities. In order to truly get along, though, it is vital for us to always come back to the center that binds us together: T’ai Chi Chih, the one source that allows us to transcend personality and ego differences.