RDTC Swansea
What inspired me to learn Tai Chi?
My first connection with Tai Chi was in September 1985. I had recently separated from my first wife and was struggling with a great deal of anger and resentment and also feelings of guilt about how this would affect my 5 year old daughter. I came across a flyer advertising a talk and demonstration about Tai Chi, the next evening. At some level, the flyer called to me to accept the invitation. I knew that I needed to find some release for the tension that I was experiencing or else sink further into an unhealthy behaviour of escape, denial and survival.
I can still remember watching Richard Farmer play the Short Form: The flow, grace and power of the movements, his presence, authority, relaxed manner and ease. And I knew then that I wanted that!
And so I joined a Short Form class and very quickly realised that, what Richard had made look so easy, would take me a long time to come anywhere near. I have since learnt that wanting, grasping and forcing were not going to help me in my journey to find the stillness I sought. Little did I appreciate then the depth and mystery of Tai Chi.
Almost 25 years later, I have played the Form at least 20,000 times. Now I can feel the beauty, power and calm of Tai Chi Chu’an in my own movement, and yet I now understand that Tai Chi is not something I can perfect. Just like a musical instrument, it is something that allows me to explore my True Self; and when I think I’ve got it and know it, it shows me that there is more, always more.
So, for me, Tai Chi is a journey that never finishes. It inspires me to keep learning and it continues to surprise and fascinate me as its mysteries unfold.
I sometimes wonder how my life would be now if I hadn’t gone along to that demonstration; how much less rich, fascinating, mysterious, healthy and happy and ALIVE?
What gives life to the Tai Chi I teach?
When I began teaching Tai Chi Chu’an in 2005, my motivation was to share with others some of the benefits that I had experienced through my practice.
Certainly in those early days there was a satisfaction in seeing how some students really seemed to get pleasure from the classes. It was very pleasing to get their feedback about how Tai Chi was improving their health, their posture, their self-confidence, their ability to deal with stress etc.
But what I have come to recognise more recently in my teaching, is that Tai Chi Chu’an is more than just a form, a sequence of postures that can help people to feel better. More than this, it is a vehicle through which the spirit of Tai Chi and fundamental principles for living Life can be transmitted –if only I can get out of the way.
So now, before each class I remind myself that I am in a privileged position to be teaching as part the Rising Dragon Tai Chi School. I ask myself again three questions that my teacher once posed to me:
• Who is teaching?
• Who are you teaching?
• What is it that you are teaching?
From that place, I am reminded that I too am a student of Tai Chi and Life; that I need to be present in spirit and mind as well as in body; that I have an authenticity that comes from always trying to live the essence of what I am teaching; that I have a relationship of Heart with those people that take up the invitation to come to class; that these are people who are so much more than they think they are; that Tai Chi is an amazing art that can help to transform peoples’ lives; that the principles that underpin the mechanics of Tai Chi Chu’an also show themselves to apply to every aspect of Life; that I believe that passing what I know about Tai Chi on to my students is a precious gift, both for them and for me.
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