A seminar to celebrate World Tai Chi & Chi Kung Day. To join with practitioners around the World and to share the energy of a day’s practice together

This 3 hour seminar costs £30 and will run from 2-5pm on Saturday 25th April at Shefford Community Hall, 60 High Street, Shefford, Bedfordshire, SG17 5AX.

To book contact Ian Deavin on 01462 621970
e-mail: [email protected]

After 40 years I can finally venture that the reality of martial arts practice involves close working with others to explore the relationships we have internally and those we have externally. This obviously involves studying the dynamics of conflict and it’s resolution in both internal and external situations.

The reality therefore is of physical, mental and emotional work in co-operation with others.

I recently read a piece by Osho – a Buddhist teacher ( posted by an old friend of mine – thank you Chris for the reminder ) about the way that meditation is simply “a device to make you aware of your real self” and realised that in our Tai Chi we are doing exactly the same thing, with our bodies and our minds – so explaining the close link with Buddhism.

We are seeking to release that movement which we could have if our body worked freely and naturally. This includes it’s free relationship with our mind and our emotions – where meditation is important in developing this relationship.

We then seek to optimise this free movement in a powerful and resilient way – by using Tai Chi exercises and practice to understand it’s capabilities and limitations.

It is clear from the outset that learning Tai Chi is difficult – but, in that respect and many others, very similar to a wide range of activities. Different people learn at different rates, in different ways and to varying levels of skill.

However, in any difficult project we need to address the question of “how to keep going?”

First perhaps it is important to understand why we are engaged in the project and the level of energy and other resources we are prepared to devote to it.

Second, we should continuously review our progress and in light of that then review the level of commitment we are prepared to invest in the activity.

Thirdly, we should recognise that regular frequent practice is necessary to nurture and achieve further skill.

In doing this I have found it is important to realistically assess progress and benefits as it is the positive achievements and outcomes that can provide the motivation to continue each day.

This regular frequent practice is absolutely vital in developing skill and understanding.

Recognising outcomes such as enhanced health management, improved balance and physical mobility, increased skill in partner work such as push hands or greater fluidity in movement such as in practice of forms, coupled with internal power such as expression of power  (fajin ).

On a daily basis these changes can seem imperceptible but by tracking these outcomes over the time span of our practice we can see that month to month and year to year we change positively and with the change comes greater enjoyment of our bodies and of our lives.

Thus, from daily practice we build our skill – the gentle layer upon layer creation of inherent ability we call our accumulated Kung Fu.

Our time as we reflect upon our changes and observe them occurring we naturally gravitate to practice of those things that we enjoy and find useful – in short we find a motivation to carry us through the hard work, the difficulties, the confusion – which all ultimately melt away, leaving us the fun and the rewarding experience of working with our bodies, our minds and our spirit.

Having for centuries borrowed from everywhere else in developing martial arts, those same ideas and practices are being fed back into the mainstream of society, for example by use of Tai Chi as a source of meditation practice, by use of partner work in developing co-operative approaches, using mindful physical practices to improve balance and mobility for falls prevention in old and vulnerable people, as a therapy for people with special conditions such as Parkinson’s, ME, Alzheimer’s etc., and many other potential avenues.

Personally I have come across many “good” people but few balanced human beings. In fact I think our society positively discourages the path of balanced humanity by seeking to drive out what are considered unacceptable but perfectly human behaviours – thus denying them rather than dealing with them – risk aversion being one such social attitude – emotional expression being another.

Read further here about the link between health and martial arts.

I was talking to a student last night about having a quiet mind and calm body – about reducing and observing the chatter that we become aware of in our practice or in meditation. The conversation got me thinking – a bit like this:

Think of yourself like a group of linked individuals – a shoal of fish, a flock of birds, a pack of wolves, a team of engineers, a troupe of actors, – or a lone hunter – an eagle or a shark. The group has no purpose other than to observe, it mills around idly doing a bit of flying or swimming, or just chattering and so on – staying connected – until an individual has a vision that it communicates to the group which gives it purpose – maybe food or a project. If they were all siting around literally doing nothing, not communicating,  then it would take a substantial time to gain their attention and communicate – but in low energy motion the inertia is greatly minimised – all it takes is to give your body purpose. Likewise the lone hunter lazyly drifting, scanning, observing in a state of mindfulness until something stands out as possible prey – then the mind directs and the lazy movement accelerates to high speed co-ordinated action.

Mechanically speaking at least have the engine running and the car in gear while waiting for someone to wave the start flag!

So the mind needs to be clear to allow us to notice and it is helpful to have some internal movement ( some energy available ) in order to have something to direct – and it is important not to have a purpose while observing as this will distract us from simply observing.

We should remember the Tai Chi Classics ” In performing the forms, you should be like the eagle which glides serenely on the wind, but which can swoop instantly to pluck a rabbit from the ground.”

In class I have often used the analogy that learning Tai Chi is very like learning to play a musical instrument , or golf or indeed probably many other things.

We all go through similar stages a bit like these:

1. Like it/attracted to it

2. Start and find it confusing but see the possibilities

3. Practice – find some things come clearer, but more things even more confusing

4. A measure of capability, becoming aware of how much there is to go

5. Start to feel the body, movement, music, rhythm etc.

6. Understanding starts to dawn

7. Relaxed capability in some areas

8. Further exploration

9. Comfort with own ability, respect for that of others and for beginners. Developing the feeling of the movement.

I have found my balance improving recently and reflecting on my falls prevention work with older people who report similar experiences when practicing Tai Chi – so when a student mentioned her problems with Vertigo I thought I would do a quick bit of research. It seems that this is quite well documented so here are some links which I found interesting:

http://vestibular.org/sites/default/files/page_files/Improving%20Balance%20With%20Tai%20Chi_2.pdf

http://healthland.time.com/2009/10/05/treating-vertigo-and-dizziness-with-tai-chi/

http://www.livestrong.com/article/328265-neck-exercises-vertigo/

http://www.healthyhearing.com/content/articles/Research/Vertigo-menieres-bppv/44307-Tai-chi-vestibular-disorders

One of the favourite sayings of my teacher Karel Koskuba is that “everything is otherwise” (attributed to Rabbi Loew of Prague) – and recently looking at my New Scientist I saw a piece on quantum weirdness that pretty much discusses the idea that quantum physics is weird only because we cannot understand it – sort of following the idea that it doesn’t matter why we think it works – it just does work, very well – so “shut up and calculate”. A bit like Tai Chi.

Further on I found an article about jumping Bullfrogs which chronicles the experience of a laboratory experimenter getting frogs to jump in the lab – only to find that out in the real world frogs actually jump a good deal further than his did in the lab.

All of which led me to think about the idea of an “internal art” where we work with our mind in the laboratory of our body. Now most of us are not lucky enough to live/train in a martial arts school (or choose not to do so) which means that to compare with the laboratory metaphor, we are training ourselves in isolation (without feedback) according to principles which we may not even be capable of understanding.

We are constantly refining the training of our lab animal (ourselves) and the sensitivity of our equipment (again ourselves) according to a model that is not accurate by definition. Unless we constantly update that model according to the real world then we risk going into a fantasy mix of remembered experience and illusion that works only in our own mind.

So we should get out a bit. Expose ourselves to external forces and develop our ability to deal with them.

How can you do this? Well of course by doing partner work in classes. If you can’t do that then work with a teacher who does – and on the health side by interacting with your own medical conditions and medical advisers or alternative health practitioners in promoting resilient structure and dealing with stressors.