Monday
Your mind
People often find that their mind struggles with complex material as they age. This can be a significant impediment when learning a martial art. The answer lies with patience and practice. The older you are, the more regularly you need to practice. Little and often is best.
What is 'feeling'?
When people claim to feel this way or that way about something, they actually mean 'think', not feel.
Thinking is based upon memory, experience and opinion. It is not feeling.
Physical touch is not feeling. It is sensation.
Emotions are not feelings, they are responses to events. Emotions are related to thoughts. Emotion is commonly used as a form of blackmail.
What we think of as being an emotional 'feeling' is in fact an attempt to control events, to shape circumstances to suit our preferences.
So, what is feeling?
Thinking is based upon memory, experience and opinion. It is not feeling.
Physical touch is not feeling. It is sensation.
Emotions are not feelings, they are responses to events. Emotions are related to thoughts. Emotion is commonly used as a form of blackmail.
What we think of as being an emotional 'feeling' is in fact an attempt to control events, to shape circumstances to suit our preferences.
So, what is feeling?
Sunday
Faith
Your teacher tells you to remain soft and loose, that you can move somebody simply by shifting your weight and turning your waist...
If you don't believe them, what happens?
You use local muscle tension. You seek to accomplish the task through incorrect means.
Your lack of faith in the tai chi and the teacher results in your failure.
Half-heartedness - trying rather than doing - is caused by doubt .
If you believe that you can move the person, you will use the tai chi.
Your mind and body must join to create intention.
If you commence a task with an attitude of failure, then you will fail because you have chosen to.
If you don't believe them, what happens?
You use local muscle tension. You seek to accomplish the task through incorrect means.
Your lack of faith in the tai chi and the teacher results in your failure.
Half-heartedness - trying rather than doing - is caused by doubt .
If you believe that you can move the person, you will use the tai chi.
Your mind and body must join to create intention.
If you commence a task with an attitude of failure, then you will fail because you have chosen to.
Saturday
Rogue
Rick Faye, my kali instructor in Minneapolis, has an interesting view of the arts.In a newsletter he wrote that at the origin of every 'traditional' martial art was a creative individual, a rogue - someone usually outside the tradition - who was different from his contemporaries. Unorthodox and effective, he did what worked. What was communicated in the teachings of these individuals was basically the techniques of their art. These techniques were handed down and a 'traditional' martial art was established. Sincere exploration is not supported in 'traditional' classes, but rather obedience to the 'style'. Yet this is precisely what the founder undoubtedly broke away from.
(Ron Sieh)
Friday
The silent flute
Inspired by Krishnamurti's teachings, Bruce Lee developed a story which eventually became a film called The Silent Flute.
The film was about a martial artist who seeks truth. Instead of finding 'truth' he found himself.
(Bruce Lee)
The silent flute symbolised an inner rhythm; an inexpressible essence within each of us.
It is our own harmony with tao. Beyond words and thought, there is something that makes you uniquely you.
The film teaches us that the journey is what matters; the journey within.
Everyone is different and must find their own way.
In our school, we explore tai chi together and encourage students to learn through experience.
Once the fundamentals have been discovered, guidance and obstacles are presented.
The student is responsible for their own progress.
We offer the small circle, small frame Yang Cheng Fu form and encourage students to adhere to the correct sequence.
How they apply it is up to them providing they follow the tai chi principles and it works in combat.
The film was about a martial artist who seeks truth. Instead of finding 'truth' he found himself.
One can function freely and totally if he is 'beyond system'.
The man who is really serious, with the urge to find out what truth is, has no style at all.
He lives only in what is.
The man who is really serious, with the urge to find out what truth is, has no style at all.
He lives only in what is.
(Bruce Lee)
The silent flute symbolised an inner rhythm; an inexpressible essence within each of us.
It is our own harmony with tao. Beyond words and thought, there is something that makes you uniquely you.
The film teaches us that the journey is what matters; the journey within.
Everyone is different and must find their own way.
In our school, we explore tai chi together and encourage students to learn through experience.
Once the fundamentals have been discovered, guidance and obstacles are presented.
The student is responsible for their own progress.
We offer the small circle, small frame Yang Cheng Fu form and encourage students to adhere to the correct sequence.
How they apply it is up to them providing they follow the tai chi principles and it works in combat.
Thursday
Dogma
I have several friends who studied in the Cheng Man Ching tradition of tai chi chuan.
These people have as the foundation and trademark of their art the tai chi set that was modified and shortened by Cheng Man Ching.
They are very meticulous concerning the choreography of that set: fingertips level with the eye, just so far away from the body,the weight exactly seventy percent on one foot, thirty percent on the other.
Typically there is no deviation.
These people have as the foundation and trademark of their art the tai chi set that was modified and shortened by Cheng Man Ching.
They are very meticulous concerning the choreography of that set: fingertips level with the eye, just so far away from the body,the weight exactly seventy percent on one foot, thirty percent on the other.
Typically there is no deviation.
There is also a pride and certain arrogance in having studied with the man who many consider the authority, the lineage holder (although the Yang family disagrees) of Yang Cheng Fu's style of tai chi chuan.
Yet none of the disciples come close to what Cheng Man Ching could do, and all seem unwilling to explore outside the dogma of their teacher's teaching.
Yet none of the disciples come close to what Cheng Man Ching could do, and all seem unwilling to explore outside the dogma of their teacher's teaching.
(Ron Sieh)
Spontaneity
When the hands are clapped, the sound issues without hesitation. When flint is struck with steel, the spark comes out at once.
(Alan Watts)
(Alan Watts)
Standing in your own way
A stiffness corrupts the tai chi when people refuse to let go.
They become locked in the act of trying...
It is the product of thinking rather than feeling, forcing rather than allowing.
In your effort to achieve, you actually hamper your own progress.
Tai chi is the process, the how, the way, the nature - not the outcome.
Pay attention to the means and the end will take care of itself.
They become locked in the act of trying...
It is the product of thinking rather than feeling, forcing rather than allowing.
In your effort to achieve, you actually hamper your own progress.
Tai chi is the process, the how, the way, the nature - not the outcome.
Pay attention to the means and the end will take care of itself.
Wednesday
Tuesday
Newcastle Tai Chi classes
Our classes are a forum for discovery. They operate as workshops for experimenting with tai chi.
If you want to just come along and copy, you are in the wrong school.
We want you to undertake your own journey of creation.
You need to be burning with imagination and curiosity, playing with every aspect of the training - honing, adapting, changing and learning.
Making it yours.
You cannot wear somebody else's shoes. Be yourself. Do not try to be somebody else.
If you want to just come along and copy, you are in the wrong school.
We want you to undertake your own journey of creation.
You need to be burning with imagination and curiosity, playing with every aspect of the training - honing, adapting, changing and learning.
Making it yours.
You cannot wear somebody else's shoes. Be yourself. Do not try to be somebody else.
Monday
How do I 'not do'?
Simple - you stop.
When an object in motion is left to settle, it eventually comes to rest.
Tai chi only starts to work when the student stops trying and doing.
Stillness and silence cannot be forced.
Do you force your heart to beat?
Your body does not require your intervention.
When you cease doing, nature is allowed to act according to its own way.
Wu wei requires that you do not interrupt the flow.
Our approach to tai chi is concerned with feeling how the body wants to move and letting it move that way.
When an object in motion is left to settle, it eventually comes to rest.
Tai chi only starts to work when the student stops trying and doing.
Stillness and silence cannot be forced.
Do you force your heart to beat?
Your body does not require your intervention.
When you cease doing, nature is allowed to act according to its own way.
Wu wei requires that you do not interrupt the flow.
Our approach to tai chi is concerned with feeling how the body wants to move and letting it move that way.
Freedom from the known
Tai chi requires you to unlearn what you have learned, to forget what you think you know.
People are reluctant to let go.
This is a hindrance to learning.
Free your mind from the past and be prepared to discover the new.
People are reluctant to let go.
This is a hindrance to learning.
Free your mind from the past and be prepared to discover the new.
Sunday
Transcendence
Some people subscribe to the view that a student is defined by their teacher.
They believe that the student cannot exceed the teacher.
This is a 'lineage' approach and amusing when you consider people such as Einstein or Mozart.
Clearly Einstein exceeded the sum of his teacher's expertise; he is considered to be one of the most powerful thinkers of all time...
What was his physics teacher called?
Every good teacher wants the student to exceed their own limitations.
They believe that the student cannot exceed the teacher.
This is a 'lineage' approach and amusing when you consider people such as Einstein or Mozart.
Clearly Einstein exceeded the sum of his teacher's expertise; he is considered to be one of the most powerful thinkers of all time...
What was his physics teacher called?
Every good teacher wants the student to exceed their own limitations.
The barrier
Ultimately, tai chi is not about exercise or self defence. These are by-products.
Instead, tai chi exists to show you that there is a wall in your mind; a wall so familiar and complete that you do not notice its presence.
If you are relaxed and let-go, the wall does not exist.
If you push the wall with your body and mind, it will not yield - tai chi cannot be forced, cajoled, coerced or dismantled by thought.
Only when you yield, will the wall cease to exist.
The wall is your conflict, your resistance, your need to control what cannot be controlled.
Years can be spent in unnecessary frustration, as you seek to will your way through the system - and for all your apparent accomplishments, you will have nothing.
When you can see the barrier in your mind, you have come a long way.
Awareness is the beginning of change.
If you stop pushing and forcing, you will find that you possess energy in abundance.
Instead, tai chi exists to show you that there is a wall in your mind; a wall so familiar and complete that you do not notice its presence.
If you are relaxed and let-go, the wall does not exist.
If you push the wall with your body and mind, it will not yield - tai chi cannot be forced, cajoled, coerced or dismantled by thought.
Only when you yield, will the wall cease to exist.
The wall is your conflict, your resistance, your need to control what cannot be controlled.
Years can be spent in unnecessary frustration, as you seek to will your way through the system - and for all your apparent accomplishments, you will have nothing.
When you can see the barrier in your mind, you have come a long way.
Awareness is the beginning of change.
If you stop pushing and forcing, you will find that you possess energy in abundance.
Saturday
Our way
There are many aspects of the syllabus that will be different to how other schools approach the material.
Every school has its own agenda and focus, and the way in which tai chi is practiced will reflect the character of the teacher as much as anything else.
We are keen to avoid the 'cult of the personality' and feel that the teacher should remain in the shadows rather than the forefront of the class.
Our syllabus follows martial science and the tai chi classics, rather than the opinion of one individual.
Every school has its own agenda and focus, and the way in which tai chi is practiced will reflect the character of the teacher as much as anything else.
We are keen to avoid the 'cult of the personality' and feel that the teacher should remain in the shadows rather than the forefront of the class.
Our syllabus follows martial science and the tai chi classics, rather than the opinion of one individual.
Losing fatigue
The root of fatigue is to be found in the way in which we do things.
Our approach to tai chi emphasises the process above all else; if you do not consider the principles involved, you do not fully understand a topic.
Fatigue comes from attitude.
We do too much, we are greedy, we do not rest, we use too much strength, we have forgotten how to relax, we eat the wrong types of food in the wrong amounts at the wrong time of day.
Our approach to tai chi emphasises the process above all else; if you do not consider the principles involved, you do not fully understand a topic.
Fatigue comes from attitude.
We do too much, we are greedy, we do not rest, we use too much strength, we have forgotten how to relax, we eat the wrong types of food in the wrong amounts at the wrong time of day.
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