What Intuition Said After Practice

T’ai Chi Chih (TCC) is a story in three parts. Book One is the story of the Little Guys, those little bounding bundles of joy bouncing around your feet (like little puppy dogs) who love to jump up and play with you. They really like the ride on Carry the Ball to the Side. 

The Chi in TCC is as the moon is to the ocean (or maybe it’s as the ocean is to the moon). There is a time in each movement for gathering and then a time for letting go. Ocean waves are cool. 

Passing Clouds replicates the water cycle on Earth. Water is taken up and forms clouds, which as they pass, rain down and replenish the water. Hands going the lowest and the highest they will ever go in the same movement, gather the Chi from the Energy Sea and pass through your Original Face back into the Sea.

I once thought our hands in TCC were just along for the ride. Boy, was I wrong. I wonder how dolphins or whales or octopuses or flamingos communicate with the Chi? I wonder how inhabitants of other planets do? 

By Sue Bitney, Bloomington, Minnesota

Here is what I discerned. Often, it is hard to find words to describe all of the feelings in a T’ai Chi Chih (TCC) practice. Slowly, over these past 22 years I can more successfully move from my head analyzing my movements and just allow myself to feel what is happening. I notice when the t’an tien seems to catch my wrists and hands, drawing them across and releasing them only to pick them up and move again. Words do not capture the experience but maybe that is the point. Allowing myself to simply flow like a river without trying to interfere with the Chi. Just accepting in gratitude this blessed gift that keeps me grounded to the earth, calm to the core of my being, and connected to the universe in love and inner peace. 

By Michelle Crow, Bemidji, Minnesota

This Prayer to the Universe, is absolutely inspired through practicing T’ai Chi Chih (TCC).

Help

Me to

Be my best

And love my best

Be kind always 

To love 

Always

By Susan McGrath, Bainbridge Island, Washington

After T’ai Chi Chih (TCC), I sat right down, looked into my mind, and wrote this. It isn’t particularly a conversational tone and looks more like a poem, but here it is. A recent heart attack event has surely inspired these words.

My last years are feeling fewer than ever.

My focus veering cleanly to the most beloved…

Lemon verbena, oranges, and limes.

My unruly garden, chipmunks, and Great Blue Herons.

Painted skies and the relentless, heart-stirring saltwater waves.

My grandchildren’s laughter, my children’s hopes, my husband’s sigh.

Each gifted day my still-able body moves in T’ai Chi Chih rhythm.

Oh, lucky am I, relishing all of my heart’s joys.

By April Leffler, Prospect Park, Pennsylvania

Being aware of the mind jumping from topic to topic with to-do lists and unanswered questions, I was curious as to what intuition would say after doing my T’ai Chi Chih (TCC) practice. Shortly after beginning I began to hear: Listen… Listen… Listen… Listen… Feel… Feel… Feel… Trust… Trust… Trust…

Me: “Listen to what?” Intuition: Just Listen… Notice the quiet that begins to occur when you Listen. Listen… Feel… Intuition: Feel… Feel… Feel…

Me: “Ahhh… yes. OK, I’m feeling the soles of the feet as the weight shifts.” Intuition: Listen… Feel…

Me: “Yes. I’m feeling quieter internally. I’m feeling the flow of the movements. I’m beginning to feel ease as I go deeper.” Intuition: Listen… Feel… Trust…

Me: “The thoughts are fading away. They don’t matter. I’m present. Listening… Feeling… Trusting it all.” Intuition: Yes. Listen to the silence… Feel the flow… Trust the support and guidance. Become the energy and feel it. Surrender to it. Let go of control and trust.

Me: “Thank you.”

By Beverly Miles, Corozal, Belize

It’s all about the tan t’ien. It doesn’t happen every time. Yet, today I experienced once again the joy of the “glide.” The first time I felt this glide was while practicing the forward-to-back motion of Working the Pulley on the right side. On or about the third motion of this T’ai Chi Chih (TCC) movement, I suddenly became aware of the lack of tension formerly experienced in this movement from trying so hard. Gone was the reaching, grabbing, pulling, and stretching that I thought necessary to reel in that proverbial bucket of water. While obeying my tan t’ien, and not traveling beyond the point of its permission, I started to glide — like I was on a machine. But, no, I was the machine and the joy was immeasurable.

Today, I experienced that same joy sensation during Passing Clouds. I dropped the mechanics of waving my upward hand across my face and guiding it with my downward hand to form the movement of a frontal concentric circle. What I learned was that the tan t’ien, as it scanned the environment from side-to-side, informed that entire movement. The lesson that my teachers were trying to teach me finally kicked in. No matter whether the movement is side-to-side, forward-to-back, or up and down, its always the tan t’ien leading, and informing and gathering the Chi.

Carolyn Pogwist, Bloomingdale, New Jersey

I have returned from the Still Point where all the fragments of the human manifestation of my physical Self have come together in the process of Becoming. I am settling back to the physical world to rejoin all the selves that make up this Cosmos. I am energized and feel peaceful after practicing T’ai Chi Chih (TCC) — or shall I say dancing to the Cosmic Rhythm. Sometimes I feel the vibrations in my arms and legs of Cosmic notes that perhaps I had become when I was the music. These words are the only means to communicate what I feel and experience after I practice TCC. What it was, what it is, and what it will be are all contained in the serenity I feel after practice.

Guy Kent, Albuquerque, New Mexico

State of mind is all important. Justin told a couple of stories related to the impact of state of mind. I am paraphrasing: One was related to someone being annoyed by the buzzing of a fly. A monk suggested “Well, you should go ahead and kill it, that is what you were thinking.” Another dealt with preparation of a meal with “hostile thoughts” (resentment?). The monk chose to skip the meal, realizing the intentions under which it had been prepared (or maybe consumed) were not conducive to positive health.

As I completed my morning T’ai Chi Chih (TCC) practice I contemplated how my holding judgements about how others perform the TCC movements may be affecting my practice. Does someone else’s pace annoy me? Does someone’s commentary during a movement alter my approach or do I hold fast and resist their suggestions? Why am I finding “faults” in others when the faults are very well close to home?

Joy through movement should be simply that: The ever-elusive state when there is the realization that T’ai Chi Chih (TCC) is doing T’ai Chi Chih (TCC).