Al Simon – The Tai Chi and Qigong Blog

I wanted to thank everyone who sent me comments about our last post, on A “Chi River” or a “Chi Goal” Person – Which are YOU? (click here).

A number of you left public comments, but quite a few of you emailed me directly.

Many of the emails were quite emotional.

Quite a few echoed what Jackie, John, Mary, and other “River people” posted publicly in the blog. They talked about being made to feel by other teachers or other “gurus” like there was something wrong with being a River person … that they need to be more goal oriented in order to succeed.

Many said that this was the FIRST TIME EVER they were told it was OK to be a River person!

I also received email from Chi Goal people. They talked about having Chi River teachers who didn’t understand their need for structure. The impression Chi River teachers left them with is that being a River person was what being a Chi student was about. And if you aren’t a River person, you are just not “getting it”.

Let me first say, I truly do understand what both of these groups are talking about. I’m more of a River person myself, so I understand what it’s like when most of the messages and role models you are shown and told to emulate are goal people. And I have to admit with a cringe, that 20 years ago I was one of those asinine River teachers who though that that being a River person was actually part of Chi Development.

Today, that seems so obviously wrong, and I’m really embarrassed to admit that I ever taught that way. But I heard from student after student how their teacher is a Goal person who insists on everyone using Goal methods, or a River person who insists on everyone using River methods.

The longer I teach, the more I realize that each of us is unique. We have unique ways of learning, unique ways of perceiving the world, and unique strengths and weaknesses. And that a good teacher HONORS that uniqueness, and even CAPITALIZES on it in their instruction.

I believe the best way to do that is to teach students how to customize what they are learning. Whether it’s a physical movement, a concept, or a learning approach, you need to teach the student how to make it uniquely his or her own.

It’s obvious to see how important customization is to the physical movements. I was emailing about this with one of our new students who just joined us this week.

She was telling me, “I injured my knee and shoulder through bagua. I really hate it now, I was absolutely healthy, I guess it is my fault, bagua is not for middle aged women.” Well, of course it’s NOT her fault. I told her bagua wasn’t the problem. I told her the problem was she had an inept bagua teacher, who didn’t help her customize the movements to her situation.

She also said that her Tai Chi teacher told her that because of her injuries, she shouldn’t practice Yang style Tai Chi – that Sun style was much better for the knees. I told her that I’d stay away from a teacher who would make such a stupid statement. It’s her teacher that’s the problem here, not Yang style.

As I wrote her, “Forgive my bluntness, but I’ve been there. I had injuries as a student. It wasn’t intentional on the part of my teachers. But when a student complains of injury, it’s a sign that they need to re-examine their teaching skills (or lack of them) – and not shift the blame to a ‘style’ or anywhere else.”

Well, if that’s true of the physical movements, it’s also true of the learning process. Whether you are a Chi River or Chi Goal person, there is a place for you in Chi Development. Don’t ever let any teacher, or anyone else, tell you otherwise.

Though he’s not a Chi teacher, I think Harry Browne put this best:

“You are what you are. Your greatest pleasures will be those you experience when you can be yourself completely. Only then will you be free to enjoy every good thing the experience has to offer you …

“Being yourself is actually a skill. It takes time to become thoroughly acquainted with yourself, to throw off a lifetime of pressures, to relax and accept what you see in yourself (no matter how it may conflict with social standards), and to learn to act in ways consistent with your nature.”

- Harry Browne, How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World

And if you can’t be yourself in Tai Chi and Qigong, well then, where CAN you be yourself?

All my best for your continued Chi Development,

Back in the early 1980′s, just prior to beginning the “moving meditaiton” of Tai Chi, I practiced seated Zen meditation for several years.

While I no longer practice Zen meditation, the Zen “world-view” still influences me, and especially influences my approach to Tai Chi and Qigong. Of course, both Zen and Tai Chi have a common Chinese ancestry, so that’s not so unusual.

But for me, the one thing really missing from Tai Chi, especially as it is practiced today, is the “independent spirit” found to a great extent in Zen. Zen focuses on working out who you are, and working out your own answers, rather than relying on the answers of others.

That’s why in my Tai Chi teaching, I focus on helping each student customize Tai Chi to their unique body, mind, and energy system. It’s also why I de-emphasize learning choreography and merely “following along” with a teacher or book or video.

For me, Tai Chi is not about listening to what this master says, or that book or video says, or following a certain set of principles. Instead, for me, Tai Chi is a means of self-exploration, of helping you find the “you” inside the movements and practices.

Here is one of my favorite poems by Zen Master Ikkyu. It refers to the practice of solving koans, Zen puzzles that are designed to help you with self-exploration. In that sense, you could say I use Tai Chi as a koan. But this poem really points to the independent spirit of self-exploration:

Who needs the wisdom of ossified masters?
Me, I’ve spent three decades all alone in the mountains
and solved all my koans there.
Living Zen among the tall pines and high winds.

.

.

Here is a favorite quote about Tai Chi forms and styles, from Master Jou, Tsung Hwa’s The Dao of Taijiquan: Way to Rejuvenation (Tai Chi):

“The forms and styles [of Tai-Chi] are analogous to rooms in the same hotel. Each room has a key whose superficial appearance differentiates it from all others, and provides the guest with access to that room, and to no other. Problems arise when guests begin thinking their room is best, and the particular bumps and valleys, notches and grooves, straight or contoured edges in their key are essential, and should appear in everyone’s key. As the external differences are given greater significance, ‘Tai-Chi Hotel’ turns into ‘Chuan Condominiums.’

“All the guests try their keys in one another’s doors and say, ‘Your room is no good, because my key doesn’t open your door, and I know my key works.’ This is happening among some Tai-Chi players today. Adherents of various styles become involved in describing individual differences as if they were fundamental.”

.