Monday Morning Tai Chi Training Tips #406
Turkey
With the Earthquake so much in the news, it brings to mind my time spent in one of the earth’s most interesting countries, Turkey, and how it relates to Tai Chi.
As I’ve shared with you before, I was a student of Advita Yoga, and the personnel chef of Master Subramuniya in Kauai. This was 1970-71. I had met Master Choy in 1968, and I was exploring both Tai Chi and Yoga. At some point I decided to go to India and explore the roots of Hinduism in its home ground. I took a plane from San Francisco to London, then hopped onto a Green Tortoise bus (the cheapest way to go) headed to New Delhi (a 77 day trip). What an adventure!
Some of the most interesting parts of the trip were riding through the length of Turkey. From underground cities, dug out by the early Christians to escape persecution (Cappadocia), to cities carved out of natural mounds of rocks (Goreme Valley). The bus would stop so we could explore something of interest and either camp out at night or stay in a hostel. Once we got settled, I would usually find time and place to practice my Tai Chi. Especially positive after spending all day or much of the day sitting in a bus. That’s when I heard the Turkish word “Keyif”, and how it relates to Tai Chi.
One of the drivers of the bus, came up to me after one of my practices, and asked what I was doing. I said Tai Chi. He replied, “Man, that is so Keyif, so cool.” I didn’t know what Keyif meant, but, in the early 1970’s, cool was a much used term. He was my buddy after that.
Keyif is a word that describes a mood or feeling that derives from a pleasurable feeling that comes form meaningful idleness. Those of you who practice Tai Chi can understand. It is similar to sitting on a beach, and watching the sky change colors as the sun sets. No goals, nothing to attain, only idle pleasure and the resulting feeling of well being. It is not often I run across a single word that conveys the feeling of release after moving through the form.
So, when you finish your practice, take some time to just allow the feeling of Keyif to wash through the body and mind.
P.S. I never made it to New Delhi. I ended up getting off the bus in Afghanistan and spending a couple of months there. I played Tai Chi on the head of what was then the tallest statues of Buddha, carved out of a cliff in Bamyan, but that is a whole other story.