World Tai Chi Day

This last Saturday was World Tai Chi Day. It would been interesting to know how many Tai Chi players got out to celebrate by themselves or in groups. We here in Port Townsend, met at one of our waterfront parks to share our love of our art.

Port Townsend and surrounding areas have a very small population, certainly not more than 30,000, yet at our get together, there were seven instructors! How fortunate for us instructors that we have a community that will support so many people who want, and need to share.

There were group demonstrations and follow alongs ( various chi kung forms, Yang 10, 24, 34, 108, Chen, Sun), as well as demonstrations of partner forms and weapon forms. Very interesting. I love that everybody interprets the forms according to their own philosophy. It is easy to get stuck into thinking that your form is the correct or best one, but sharing, points out the fact that others are equally on the path to achieving their goals. That is how Tai Chi evolved from the Chen style to Yang to Wu, Sun, etc. I remember thinking that the form shared by Master Choy was the only correct form, as there was no other information about Tai Chi at the time. No books, no internet. Nothing but the word of the instructor.

So learn all you can from your primary instructor, and then do workshops with other instructors to get another point of view. Even if your instructor is good at the movements, it doesn’t mean that he or she really understands the principles and philosophy. Dig deep and you may discover the real truth.