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| The Challenge (2) | ||
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Coping with doubt
After an initial spurt of enthusiasm, even the most ardent student
may suffer from doubt.
The mere promise of tai chi skills, good fitness, flexibility and
martial
prowess are no longer as meaningful. There must be something else.
Other interests and commitments may begin to encroach.
It becomes easy to miss lessons. To stop training. And to consider the
possibility of quitting.
No instructor can guide you through this period of doubt.
You will either come to see the art as being something you want to persevere
with, or you will simply quit.
You may see that the art is
more than the
sum of its parts.
That it has changed you in ways that you may not be able to explain.
Students who choose to stay often recognise that they have lost faith and
become half-hearted.
They train harder, attend more training opportunities and quietly make space
in their lives for the art to flourish.
The obstacle of laziness
It is raining outside and cold. You are tired from working all day
long. You haven't trained since last week's lesson.
There is a warm fire in your living room, a beer in the fridge and your wife
is looking forward to your company.
Going out to class is not always easy.
Laziness can cripple anyone.
We all have a compulsion to stay where we are. To stop extending ourselves.
To stagnate.
This is human nature.
The only cure for laziness is work.
Not necessarily your actual job, but any activity that demands something of
you.
That requires you to make an
effort, to take
risks, to extend your realm of interest beyond the safety of the familiar
and the comfortable.
The effort
And what price did you really pay for all that training?
Where was the hardship?
How did it hinder your life? You missed a little TV. You spent time training rather than
idling. So what?
Black belt and beyond
Many people labour under the illusion that the black belt symbolises
some sort of martial arts graduation.
This is most odd.
Passing a black belt simply means that you have a firm grounding in the
basic precepts of an art.
It is not the pinnacle.
It is the end of the beginning.
Becoming experienced
When you become more experienced, everything you know so far must be dismantled
and reconsidered.
Many new
fighting skills must be acquired.
Each movement you make has to imbued with countless
neigong concerns.
The journey is now suddenly far steeper and vastly more interesting.
Your
skills will expand in directions you never
imagined.
Refinement and subtlety will reveal unseen facets of the art and you will
explore wholly unanticipated new concerns.
Those who can do, teach...
Having gained experience in tai chi, you will discover that the art
is deeper and richer than you expected.
As you learn how to break down the art, you may be encouraged to consider
teaching.
If you are keen, your instructor will offer you new goals and challenges,
testing your sincerity and your compassion, seeking to determine how earnest
you are.
It will take a number of years for you to become a competent tai chi
teacher.
To become a skilled instructor you must be very committed to the art,
possess great skill and be genuinely interested in the
wellbeing and progress of other people.
Your ego must be quiet and you must have no desire to promote yourself or
show off.
A martial arts instructor needs humility and insight, not a desire for fame
and attention.
The way and its power
To bring the art full circle you need to study the
manuscripts that led to its creation.
This will involve research, discovery, reflection, prolonged contemplation
and a lot of soul searching on the long road to
wisdom.
It will be the final leg of your journey.
Reading these ancient
insights is a
fascinating endeavour that changes your consciousness in ways that cannot be
described.
In conclusion...
There is no conclusion to the practice of tai chi; simply an ongoing
exploration of existence, relationship, mind, body, balance, movement...
Nothing is completely mastered.
You simply keep on training. Continue studying.
The passing of the years will bring you good
fitness,
martial skills (that require
very little physical
effort), calmness, insight, clarity, humour and humility.
You know that there is so much that you do not know.
You have the wisdom to see that the world is vast, and we are all so very
small.
In quietude and obscurity you find an ample measure of peace, and realise
that the journey was worth the effort.
You have gained extraordinary insights and enjoyed the mystery of it all.
The challenges and the obstacles were not impediments at all. They helped
you to grow. They kept things interesting.
Page created 11 April 1995
Last updated
16 June 2023