Tai Chi Chuan - Goalposts and خبر

Tai Chi Chuan - Goalposts and خبر

There are (at least) two kinds of growth experiences in tai chi.

One is the خبر, another is the goalpost.

OK, خبر is basically “khabar” (Arabic) and it means a piece of news. It is specific, like a news item.

I’ll call it khabar from now on!

In any given class, you are given a khabar. Some detail that needs to be corrected. Usually you need to be fairly comfortable at this point so that you have mind left to absorb it. Often this is very rewarding. You’ve gotten something new, it helps, you are better for it. Usually it doesn’t take all of you in order to get it. Often it may be a detail that has to be given to you because otherwise your habit or lack of understanding prevents you from seeing it. In this way, it can be an eye opener.

You want as many of these as you can possibly get. To get more, listen to the corrections that other students get. You may or may not need that correction, but you can again zero in on the detail and take note. You can also check in on the teacher as you do the form with he/she. I myself often looked at Maggie, even after many years. I note few of my students take a look at me. Sob. They use class time forms to just do the form.

But they are missing an opportunity to grab a khabar.

How many khabars do you need to improve your form? To say this is a slow method is stating the obvious unless you take private classes. And even then, overload may stop you from actually getting what is being given. Comfort and even a kind of confidence is needed with the khabar.

The goalpost is much more difficult and gives you much much more growth. However, often it involves lots of time, repetition, and some sort of pain/strain. It may be physical pain, as in holding postures for a long time, or mental strain as in paying attention to something over and over and over and over again, much like following the breath in meditation. Either way, you are expanding your capacity and the effect is far deeper than the khabar. You are going past a limit, a boundary. This is rarely fun. And it is often priceless.

Actually, one way to make it more fun is to do this with a group. I have not a clue as to why that is so, but this has been my experience. Perhaps it's simply we are all in this together, suffering for the greater good, for the benefit of each other and ourselves. The oneness here can be powerful.

Both styles of growth are necessary. Many students love the khabar, but resist the goalpost.

A few love the goalpost. A few. Masochists.

A word to the wise!

Tai Chi Chuan - Judge/Compare; Explore/Experience

Tai Chi Chuan - Judge/Compare; Explore/Experience

I have two themes that relate to each other.

I run into a curious resistance in teaching a tai chi exercise.

Some students like to Judge and Compare. That is, they have an instant judgement about the exercise. This is backed up with comparisons to other teachers or exercises, thoughts or readings, another class, another time. Perhaps it validates this current exercise, or gives the student permission to avoid it because they determine it violates some other rule they hold high.

For me, it is never Judge and Compare, it is always Explore and Experience. Whatever that other idea, exercise, teacher was, did, etc. is not here now. And even if you have experienced the same material in a different dress, this time it may be different. So any sense of judgment and comparison to that past experience rarely helps. Actually, this is often the hard part because the need to validate, eliminate,
categorize, recall the past, is so strong that being with this moment, this experience is rarely achieved. And so this specific tai chi experience is never under your belt.

JUST DO THIS.

I recall working on an exercise with a group of students. The exercise directly addressed something I didn’t see in their form. Immediately after, one student tells me of another teacher where something was similar to what I was doing and he had drawn a connection. Another told me that they had already done a lot of work on this in various ways and that the exercise was not so helpful. Nice to know, but I hadn’t seen what it was that I was teaching, and this exercise literally forces you to move in the right direction. He didn’t even see that he had completely missed it. Probably missed it before and definitely missed it NOW.

Maggie used to get around this by having us do a movement again and again and again past all that chatter and judgement. Eventually, you simply did the work and felt the effect. You got past the boredom, the judgement. You just got into the pool with all the other fish.

Another way of NOT DOING THIS is to think of OTHER elements that you might practice while doing THIS exercise. Stacking the deck with all the other tools in your tool kit actually detracts from the exercise.

These tools may be 100% right, but that’s not the point. This, just this. Not this and this and that and that and that and the other that and the one after that, and the really good that, and… .

THIS, JUST THIS is hard to do. Clutter is what we are used to. In our minds, more is better.

An exercise in the sense that I am talking about is an act of “doing”. The focus is small and specific so that you can enlarge that part of the tai chi experience. It is limiting for the sake of growth.

Putting it all together is a different experience, one of “non-doing”.

Hopefully an exercise pulled and stretched out some aspect. But the form is really the act of non-doing.

So you don’t DO this aspect or any other aspect. You allow it all, as best it can, as best as you have it in your DNA. But you don’t DO it.

Certainly you can do a form with something specific in mind, holding it tight to seal the deal and insure that this element gets incorporated into the form. But this is still somewhat limiting. It may be necessary as well. I’m not calling this BAD. A great deal of my own practice has been looking after this or that as I do the form.

So drop Judge and Compare, and work with Explore and Experience.

Incidentally, if any given exercise is not satisfying or leaves you with doubt, by all means look at it, judge it and compare. Here is where J&C can be helpful. Slice and dice, alter, remove, enlarge, minimize, see what someone else has to say if possible, or just let it pass you by. We all have different needs at different times.

But try to have the experience that the exercise is trying to give you. It’s just a tiny piece, but it may create big changes.

Once you have it, you don’t need to attend to it. It will take care of you.