Nine Basic Skills

I had the privilege of meeting an amazing woman last weekend. She is a martial artist, culture-bearer, scholar, and a deeply kind, compassionate woman named Mama G. I took a couple of her classes at Special Training, the National Women’s Martial Arts Federation annual summer training camp and I am so impressed. Her lessons will stick with me for life. For their simplicity, their common sense and the seriousness with which she shared them and all the while the light in her eyes sparkled with good humor and love.  

Skipping, hopping, jumping, running – can you do this? When you need to pull your foot back quick from a snake in the grass – can you skip? Can you jump over trouble when you need to – lifting both feet at once? Or if you hurt one ankle, can you hop on the other? And run? – not jog with an ipod in your ear – but run, fast, like your life depended on it for help? Four basic skills that the lower body needs to live on this earth.

Ducking, weaving, pushing, pulling – can you do this? If something falls on you or is thrown at you can you duck out of the way? Weave your body to one side to avoid being harmed? How about pushing – if someone is in your space and causing trouble – can you push them out?  When you need to bring something or someone to you – can you pull them in close?  Four basic skills that the upper body needs to live on this earth.

And head-butting. Yes, head-butting is a basic skill. It requires strong neck muscles and flexibility in the body and mind to sometimes just do what you need to do. The forehead is pretty strong and bringing it down on someone’s nose can hurt them bad. Of course, the flip side of head-butting is keeping your head safe if you fall – same muscles are working to keep your head from slamming on the pavement.  

Look Mama G said – this is not self-defense – this is self-preservation. Can you preserve yourself? How are your nine basic skills? I hope and believe we should all have more than nine basic skills – these are just foundational upon which we build.  Trouble is I think most of us never got all nine, or if we did, as we aged, we let several fall by the wayside.  

I know this doesn’t sound like the kind of work that goes well with most ideas of tai chi. Some might ask where is the relaxation and stress-relief in running, ducking and head-butting?  Tai chi is not the form. The form teaches us how to take the tai chi principles into the world. And sometimes being in the world means running, jumping, pushing, and pulling – can you do what is needed, when it is needed, with least effort, an open heart and a clear mind?  

Enjoy your practice, enjoy your life.

Dorian

The form is a vehicle for the study

I got another little taste of why this is so very true the other day in my practice – you see, as I practice my mind wonders sometimes. Now I know it is not supposed to, and when I notice that it has, I gently remind it to stay present and just notice what is happening or if it must work, I give it a principle to focus on…..you know, something like “head suspended as if from a string above” or “coordinate upper and lower” or even “relax the waist” and that usually satisfies it for another few minutes. At any rate, it wonders – and sometimes when it wonders, it wonders into something good –

Like the other day, when it wondered onto a lesson from last fall. Back in October, I went to a seminar with Sam Masich in Toronto where he taught us something about the intrinsic energies of opening, closing, rising, and sinking.  And it was all very straightforward as he spoke and demonstrated, and even thankfully, a little bit accessible to me as I practiced under his tutelage. But back home….now that is another story. What? Huh? Where? How? Not to panic, not to give up….just keep practicing my form.

And indeed, what I find over time is that the lesson comes back to me in bits and pieces and dribs and drabs – gradually over the course of months of practice I start to feel the energies and my mind can name them. First it was there in commencing  - oh yes, Sam demonstrated that and we practiced it that weekend. Then a month later, it shows up in the Repulse like Monkeys, and last week I felt it again in single whip.  And so it goes. I understand and firmly believe that if I continue to practice regularly, consistently, persistently, the lessons will be learned and embodied thoroughly. The form is the vehicle for the study.

I hear so often from my students – I couldn’t practice because I couldn’t remember it. I think sometimes we expect ourselves to see it, do it, understand it, know it, and be able to practice it all at once, and in this way take on the whole of tai chi. I felt it a tiny bit after Sam’s Toronto workshop – I got home and felt - okay – that is opening, closing, rising and sinking, now experience that in my form or partner work at will.  Well - gee, guess what……it takes time. Yes, I was exposed to the information, I learned something new in the seminar.  Now I have a lifetime of practice in which to study the information, incorporate it, make it mine in my body and spirit. And that was just one seminar.  

Enjoy your lessons, enjoy your practice

Dorian

100 days – 100 reasons

This Friday marks the official 100^th day of our circle’s 100-day practice. And whether we each practiced every single day since late March or skipped a few or many – it has been a grand success. The success has been in the attention and the discovery and the dedication. One thing that this 100-day practice has really helped me  to see even more clearly is that the reasons we study Tai Chi are as different as each of us – Obvious as this sounds, as a teacher, this is one of my great lessons and challenges. You see, I only know what I know – the rest is imagination, empathy, intuition, heart, dumb luck, and a few mistakes. For sure,  what I know is my path – and that I only know as well as my own eyes can see.

I know that people study tai chi to heal from illness or to maintain health, others to improve balance – physical, psychological, or both – while still others study tai chi to attain greater martial arts mastery.  Most of us have multiple reasons, and the reasons change throughout our lives or our course of study.  But I would argue that there are core themes, unchanging,  that reflect something of who we are and what we want in this life.

I study tai chi to slow down. To teach myself in my body and spirit what it means, how it feels to go slowly and savor each moment. I figure if I could do that in a 40-minute stretch every day, that just might teach me something about how to do it at work, driving the car, cleaning the house, talking with my friends. For me, when I  slow down, I enjoy more and worry less. My body, it seems, has several speeds – ranging from lethargic to leaping out of my skin. It matters not - my mind works at one pace and one pace only – faster. Not fast - faster.  Relative to anything I am doing – my mind tends to be a step ahead.  It is as if my birthday was the starting gate and my mind has been racing ahead of me ever since – toward some finish line where prizes will be awarded. The one with the most toys does not win anything.

And so tai chi helps me to slow down – to develop other senses – not just the mind and it’s favorite source of information - the eye. But in tai chi I learn to trust other senses as well – particularly the ear, and particularly to listen inside wear the eye cannot see! The inner ear with its motion and orientation sense detectors become primary in form practice as well as partner play. My ears bring me into my body and help me find a pace more appropriate to the given activity.   So much better that trying to keep up with a mind forever racing forward.  In my practice, my mind calms down – my body sets the pace.

Whatever your practice – sporadic or steady, however many days or not, I encourage you to take a moment and think about why you practice. Let your reasons motivate and encourage you. Let your reasons become questions that your practice, that the form can answer. Above all….

Enjoy your reasons for practicing,

Dorian