IS THE MARTIAL ART AN END IN HIM?

 

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 It is easy to understand that our body is the main tool when it comes to practicing a Martial Art (be it an Internal or External style), at least of entry. Then the orientation or focus of the practice will depend on the lineage, style or even teacher.

We have the possibility to choose the approach that best suits our way of understanding training. We can find more sporty or competitive proposals, others that emphasize more the physical, emotional and spiritual therapeutic aspect, others that look more for an aesthetic image...

 

 I have always considered Martial Art as a discipline in constant evolution, alive. That does not mean that they change their bases and principles, the attributes to be achieved or the biomechanical laws. Evolution consists in developing, searching, researching, integrating and returning to the bases. Evolution is a movement to come and go, to inspire and exhale, round, circular, spiral.

 

I am not attracted to trends that seek only physical combat and be the best fighter. They are really very good fighters, but I don't understand the training aimed at winning and being the best; the fact of dominating and submitting to the other before knowing oneself and dominating oneself is preceded. Although many martial arts techniques and strategies are seen in these combats, they are closer to the sport-competitive, it is a fight to win or lose. Martial Art is not a sport or a career, it is a Way; although more and more martial arts are considered sports...

Martial Art trains and works combat as a tool, not as an end. Tool to know oneself, to overcome, to win in humility. Although we practice combat with our partners, the real combat is internal with oneself, with our lacks and blockages. Our practice should lead us to make our ego smaller and smaller and not vice versa. Martial Art is one of the Ways that are "back," not one way. In the end, Martial Art should serve to "avoid" combat.

 

 Nor do I identify with schools that emphasize the practice of innumerable forms, katas or series. As far as my understanding goes right now, I think the easiest to be able to delve into a sequence of movements that many at a time. Deepening is not simply learning and practicing a form, it should be understood and integrated. Normally they are movements of arms and legs that are too long and although relaxed, they overload our spine. I recognize that they are very beautiful to watch, you can watch spectacular videos on the internet, perfect coordination and smoothness... but you run the risk of falling into something visual, aesthetic and therefore out. For me, the sense of martial art is more inward. As in the previous case, I fully respect the decision to choose such an approach, but again we are not talking about a Martial Art, it is closer to dance and body expression.

 

 Finally, I am not interested in the idea of having a teacher to imitate or worship. I understand that belonging to a family with a leader gives a lot of security and tranquility, even emotional balance.

We each have our idea of what it means to have a teacher. Martial arts are linked to introspection, the meditative, spiritual, and in some cases ritualism. Therefore, the "best" would be to have an impeccable teacher, covering all aspects of Martial Art: Physical, Energy, Mental and Spiritual. Exist? They exist, but they are not usually well known, they are in the shade. In any case, the problem is not that we are with a teacher like that or not, but the projections that we each make about our teacher. I have met many people who after a long time admiring their teacher, are disappointed when they see his "weaknesses" and falls into "worldly" mistakes. They decide to leave the teacher, but also the practice and the path. In reality it is more a lack of its own, a need to have a "perfect dad" than the practice that is transmitting us. We should not confuse the practice with the person who gives it to us.

The problem I see is that we get carried away by the teacher (even if he doesn't want to...) and we forget a little about ourselves. It is closer to the mental-emotional, the center of gravity is very high, a good base is missing. And if something is sought in Martial Art it is a Good Base. The teacher will not take us by the hand, he will not do the practice for us. Each one must travel the path, accompanied but alone; It is the paradox.

For me, a teacher is someone who accompanies me on a path and transmits me a practice. It gives me the tools to go through it and gives me all the freedom to search, experiment and discover. A person with whom I can share and contrast each other's experiences and conclusions and always from mutual respect. But we all have inconsistencies, - "whoever throws the first stone is thrown out of guilt" - and sometimes life leads us through difficult paths to face and we react as we can... And this should not affect the practice itself. It is not the person, it is the Way that is important to travel. The practice has above all an individual mood. Although we need the teacher, classmates and students to train and verify, we make the way alone.

 

 My practice has always been in Internal Martial Arts, no matter what, for me they are just names, it is Martial Art.

When I started, it was in a school where the corporal thing was essential, but it was not really an internal work, it lacked a method of learning, of development of the bases and principles of an Internal Art. This lack was completed with a skillful and interesting approach to the emotional, which is truly another way of working internally. Although I generally agreed with this school, I did not quite see my path in it. I felt that I could not deepen my practice because I lacked a method. It was not really the idea I had of Internal Art from those who read or heard and imagined...

After four years I met another more "traditional" school, where the physical was equally important but there was an order of learning. I lived six months with them. In this case the emotional aspect was obvious. It was pure and hard practice. The problem I had is that in the short time I was there I had access to the entire system. I learned many ways and countless techniques. I practiced them (for seven or eight years) almost every day all of them, in addition to what I knew from the previous school, where I was still learning and teaching The problem I saw was that as much as I practiced (and I talk about my case) I didn't feel what I was doing, I didn't I understood I lived it somehow as something external, even aesthetic. Having learned so much in such a short space of time did not allow me to deepen, there was a rhythm error in teaching... "who much covers, little squeezes”. Nor was my idea of Internal Art.

 

 I had been taking what I considered most essential of all the schools and teachers that I had had in a few years, in an attempt to form a training to suit me. I came up with very interesting exercises and in my own practice and in the classes I offered there were considerable advances. The trouble is that I always needed new things to be able to continue on this eclectic path. I realized that I was doing the same thing: too many things, techniques, movements... And I still couldn't go deeper into the Internal Art. What did I intend without knowing what "internal" really was? To access what we don't know, we need a teacher who knows how to travel the Way, right? Someone to give us the clues to have an address. And of course, it was impossible to find a potpourri master who had "invented" me...

 

 I decided then to leave 90% of everything I had learned and began to apply my experience as a physiotherapist. I wanted to understand bodily, really feel every muscle, every joint. I wanted to feel how the movement originated. And for this I began to practice the most basic, the body structure...

Soon, it appeared from the hand of a friend, now my teacher, a simple and complex method at the same time, logical and orderly to integrate each stage, each step. Where each exercise has an educational purpose for the body and its movement. Where the basic principles are developed naturally. Where the emotional and the mental does not feed or become obvious; they are aspects that accompany us because they cannot be separated, we are body-mind-spirit.

Throughout the road it is essential to understand Relaxation, Release, Abandon and deepen them. Studying our structure and developing internal connections lead us to feel and move from a body unit. A Unit where everything is connected, up-down, front-back, right-left, inside-outside; The eight directions. This leads us to understand the opposites. The name given to this Unit in the Internal Arts is that of “Body T’ai Chi”.

As we move forward, we must also abandon our beliefs and "ways", way of being, way of exerting a force, way of moving. Very difficult patterns to "unlearn". Even abandoning things that we have previously learned in this same practice, in order to move forward. In this way, an ever-deeper transformation and internal understanding is taking place. And as this understanding progresses the changes are more interesting and subtle.

And I don't mean a self-suggestive mental understanding that goes. The exercises are designed so that if you practice them you will integrate them, and this transformation will take place almost automatically. It is not something you imagine; It is something you embody.

It is a practice that emphasizes work with the body, position, precise movement and with small details to adjust each joint, but it goes beyond the physical body as we perceive and understand it from our senses - in fact, this practice helps to perfect proprioception, which is the least integrated sense we have - It is a practice where stillness is paradoxically emphasized, this leads you to understand the movement, its origin. The relaxed and fluid movement is discovered from the stillness. We can feel that the movement in the stillness has no end, that the stillness is in the movement...

 

 Now I realize that we hardly need exercises, techniques, movements... to access the internal aspect of Martial Art. In fact, I use less and less. What we do need in a Method and a competent person to be able to develop it.

It is a path, we are not going to fool ourselves, for a lifetime, which has no end, nowhere to reach. At times it is very hard, rough, boring; In other fascinating moments. It is something to experience, discover, surprise and enjoy.

 

 I end up sharing a fragment of a book written by Henri Thomasson ("Battles for the Present"). He was a disciple of Gurdjieff, and the text can be applied perfectly to our practice:

“If they want to enter into themselves, they must find the correct physical position, otherwise they will not be able to sustain the effort for any period of time. It is only when all the parts are relaxed and centered around an axis that this is possible. A vertical column maintains both head and internal organs in a single line that connects with the center of attraction of the earth. Now it becomes possible to collect attention from all parts of the body in one place, instead of having it dispersed throughout the organs of perception and members. What used to be a fragmented, raw and sometimes an illusory sensation of awakening, becomes a sensitive and sharp central vibration that can truly be called "a sense of self." In this position, a special level of attention can be achieved and brings a distinctive feeling of the two natures of man: that which belongs to the outside world and the other, the mysterious source of life itself. When all thoughts and imaginations fall and only the vibration of the living body is the center of attention, the other world becomes more accessible. It is possible to belong to both worlds at the same time, but for this, it is necessary to establish a new relationship between them. The lowest nature should serve the highest, since a passive element cannot be more than a server of the one that is active. At first they seem only attention exercises, but if we can consider them as a language, in the sense that by postures, displacements and other signs they are expressing cosmic laws that are very difficult to perceive through our ordinary senses and are far beyond our current understanding Some movements seem to express a knowledge that rational thinking cannot capture at the level of the common man. You can feel a certain alchemical process happening, in which you are not only offered glimpses "of the road" but also allowed to walk in that direction. Once this work becomes possible, the movements are no longer controlled by reference to a mental image — they depend on the proper sense of self that emerges from the most active level of attention. One can say now, that the movement is made through me and not by me. Over time, movements give life, to parts of us that had previously existed, beyond our ordinary perception. A new world bathed in a strange sense of inner presence, is evoked by the exercises, and replaces the fog in which our usual mental activities exist and this, can bring a transcendental emotion. We feel we should look further. It seems that the body is an instrument of a new source of life. It becomes available for everything that is requested and finds in this act of service, both freedom and happiness of being here with a totality, in a state of relative presence towards oneself. The strange power of movements to materialize the forces of the High. So for anyone who practices the Movements, they become a means of searching to really live them and by the power it gives, to live them in this way. On such a level, they lead to the access of that world where prayer and meditation lead to other paths, in this way, it includes and makes use of the entire human apparatus completely ”

 

                                                                                                                           Juanolo,  November ‘19

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                                     YI CH'UAN

 

   "THE ART OF HEALTH AND TRANSFORMATION"

 

 

 

Yi Ch'uan is an Inner Art, a holistic and complete method, in which the main practice (especially at the beginning) is the so-called static positions or Zhang Zhuang. But even if they are the basis of training, this must be completed with movement (sheli), different types of displacement (mocapu), hand pushing, breath and shout training, the fa-jing (or strength expression), combat and "Dance" (that’s the name given to the free and spontaneous combination of the different exercises). This training is due to Wang Zhiang Zhai, who studied and deepened in different Martial Arts, especially the Xing Yi Ch'uan, Pa Kua Chang and T'ai Chi Ch'uan, and synthesized in a same method what he considered to be the essence of each of them.

 

Some people choose to study the whole method and some prefer to limit themselves to the health aspect. Actually there is no big difference, what mainly changes is the intention and certain details when it comes to doing the exercises. For those who don’t know the method, it is very difficult to appreciate the difference.

 

It would be wrong to think that the ultimate goal of Yi Ch'uan is to become a good martial artist. The Yi Ch'uan, like any way that we decide to take, goes beyond the techniques, although these are also studied; it goes beyond the structure, while working on it; it goes beyond the body itself but also cultivates it. The Yi Ch'uan is a path to achieve personal growth, self-knowledge, and how to balance the three levels: body-emotion-mind, a path to relate to others and to Nature. Martial Art envisions everything within the concept of Health and at its service.

 

From my vision as a physiotherapist and just talking about the physical aspect, the training of the body structure offered by the Yi Ch'uan fits perfectly with our natural biomechanics. The positions are never extreme, and respect the symmetries and proportions of the body, which greatly favours relaxation. This, in turn, accelerates beneficial effects such as improving flexibility, strength and recovery of many of our physical pains. After 26 years studying, practicing and teaching western body techniques, and oriental martial arts, especially T'ai Chi Ch'uan, I can say now that Yi Ch'uan offers us the most direct, fast and reliable method of all the practices I have known. But of course, this is my experience and that of any other teacher will be different.

 

In this article I will just talk about the static positions and the sheli. The rest of the training will be addressed when I have more integrated the rest of the training.

 

 

 

The static positions or Zhang Zhuang - Seeds of the inner -

 

"In ancient times great teachers were standing on the earth, holding the

Heaven, controlling the yin and yang, breathing with the essence of qi, standing alone, guarding the spirit, the body being a unit "

(Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon)

 

 

The first time the teacher told us to stand as "hugging a tree" and we were still for a few minutes in order to relax, I could not understand: it hurts!! How could I relax?

 

When someone teaches us this practice, we are surprised by stillness since it confronts the rhythm of life in which we are immersed. But as I said before, it also "hurts..." and there we are, holding and resisting until the teacher tells us to lower our arms.

 

I can fully understand that a good number of practitioners of Ch'i Kung, T'ai Chi Ch'uan and other so-called inner arts, reject this practice. At first we cannot understand what it is for. The discomfort, the pain and the boredom overcome the necessary curiosity and interest to know it in depth. Even when the teachers tell us about it or we read books on the health benefits of this practice, we still feel "lazy" to get into it. However, the fact is that if we immerse ourselves in this "Art of Health", we will experience for ourselves the transformations and benefits of which we have heard so much...

 

There are three essential things to be able to delve into the static positions:

 

• Our interest and curiosity.

• A well trained teacher able to give the correct directions according to the level of learning of each student.

• The "lack of desire" to achieve anything. Changes and progressions will come alone from relaxation and, once again, from the directions received. Sometimes, in an attempt to advance faster, we put our will to achieve what we seek and this slows down the very process.

 

 

The practice

 

Of course the first thing we encounter is ourselves confronted with pain; it takes hardly a couple of minutes to appear and remains with us throughout the exercise. But is pain good or bad? My opinion is that it can be both. We must keep in mind that pain has a double dimension: physical and emotional. Each of us has a different pain threshold and it might be higher or lower depending on our emotional response to that pain. All the experiences that we have had related to physical, emotional or mental pain since we were conceived until about we were seven years old, will determine our response to it. We cannot measure the pain we feel each of us, but the truth is that we feel its existence and discomfort.

 

The first thing we should observe when the pain appears is if we reject it by fighting against it, or if we accept, embrace and try to understand that pain. Of course the second attitude is smarter and will allow us to move forward in practice. If we fight against pain we will defend ourselves by stiffening the sore part and our mind will also be rigid and blocked (it is our mind who decides whether to hold or lower our arms). Then, to the tension generated by the pain we add the tension of our will to resist it. This "double tension" will most likely lead us to become rigid "like a stone" or even to injure ourselves. At this point, my advice is: don’t force, don’t resist, don’t endure. An acute pain that prevents us from keeping relaxed doesn’t interest us; better leave the position, move legs and arms for a while and return to the position (or leave it for the next day).

 

Pain can be a good companion when we can relax despite it, when we can cross it. That does not mean that pain will vanish, but we won’t be reacting against it permanently and thus we will be able to maintain the relaxation. This will allow us to observe it and give to that pain the opportunity to express itself, to open and to transform itself. We may discover that the pain appears because the structure has been "broken" somewhere in ​​our body and is overloading a given area. If that’s the case, we have an easy solution: by correcting the position it will disappear. But it may well be an "old" pain, a pain that accompanies us daily or even a "forgotten" pain. If that’s the case, it is not so easy, you have to be willing to observe that pain, listen and and give it some space.

 

This first stage in which pain is quite a protagonist lasts more or less depending on the frequency and diligence that we put in our practice. Sometimes we even feel somehow hooked to pain, following the old saying “no pain, no gain”, a Christian pattern deeply rooted in our culture. It does not help either to look for the pain; here again we look through our will...

 

On the other hand, it is a fascinating stage because we begin to understand and integrate our natural biomechanics, which directly helps us to adjust the different areas of our body when practicing a static position. Until the body is properly aligned, the muscles cannot relax. Conversely, if the muscles are not relaxed the body cannot be aligned. Therefore, studying the natural structure and biomechanics of the body is essential to advance in the Zhang Zhuang (the Yi Ch'uan offers a part of the essential training for this study, the sheli). As we practice we are constantly correcting the posture. The more we develop body awareness, the finer the corrections will be.

 

After this stage, when the pain disappears or stay in the background, we begin to savour our interior in a new way and start to feel the inner connection of our whole body; "when one part of the body moves, the whole body moves." The first goal in Yi Ch'uan is to get a "T'ai Chi body", unified, relaxed, balanced and stable.

 

One day you may find that your spine is stretched and you haven’t done anything for it other that, simply, stay in the posture. Another day you might feel as if your arms would "disappear". Step by step the relaxation becomes deeper and there are times when the images that have been given to us in order to practice, appear in the form of real feelings: the supports, the bamboo, our perception of the density of the air changes, "swimming in the air "... It seems that our unconscious makes no difference between the real, the imaginary, the virtual or the symbolic; he lives it all as real. So if in our mind we have an image like a balloon or a ball and our intention is to lean on it, one day we’ll find it there and our support will be real.

 

At this moment grows the sense of unity in the body, we understand what the principles of internal training and the symmetries of the body are. There are sensations of solidity and lightness, of opening and closing, of rising and falling, internal and external... that each of us will sense in different ways. They are part of the practice, but they are not the goal; they should not distract us, nor should we seek them since they come and go…

 

As for practice, time, order, rhythm... I think it is best to start without trying to remain for long in the position; five to ten minutes is fine. What matters the most is constancy. If we practice a posture just once a week, it will be impossible to go deeper. We need to be steadfast and constant to truly “enter” into this practice. In fact, this applies to all practices. It is this constancy that will lead us to make longer statics, because in a few days 10 minutes will be easy, it’s a very cumulative practice. Anyway, more important than doing long static practices is to be well aligned when practicing. Be present in the position, when the structure breaks, correct, relax, and when it breaks again, rectify once and again with affection and patience. There must be a kind of satisfaction in the process, combined with respect for one's own pace, forcing nothing, but striving to do it well.

 

Some feel that practicing static positions is something passive... far from being true. Before I knew Yi Ch'uan, I used to practice static positions in a passive way. I would put myself in position and relax, nothing else. Now I understand that without the right directions is not possible to deepen in the work of Zhang Zhuang. When we say that relaxation is the most important thing, we actually seek an attentive relaxation, not “to sleep". Static positions should be "alive", as if we were about to jump or run, as if we had our "predator" on the point of attacking us. This should not lead to tension but to an attentive relax.

 

There are many details in each position but I don’t think it is appropriate to put them in writing as they can lead to much confusion, like when we read the old texts. It is information that must be conveyed directly from the teacher to the student, so that the teacher is sure that the student fully understands the work to be done. The teacher must "accompany" the student in his/her learning.

 

As I wrote at the beginning, I consider static positions as the seeds of the internal, the seeds that have all the information to develop the method. Surely that is why it is the most important part of the Yi Ch'uan

 

 

Sheli (testing the force)

 

This part of the training serves to test the strength and what we are discovering in the static positions. There are many sheli exercises and each school gives more importance to one or the other. They are done with the feet in parallel or a foot forward. Depending on the exercise we are performing, the position of the feet will change. The legs don’t move and the movement is in the trunk and arms. All of these exercises have one thing in common: movement starts at the feet and the whole body participates at the same time. For those with no experience in Yi Ch'uan, all this is imperceptible, you don’t know how or what is being done in the interior.

 

From the structural point of view the sheli will help to re-educate the deep musculature of our spine. These muscles are responsible for keeping the back aligned. They don’t get tired and can be working all day, but in most of us these muscles have lost their "memory" or function. Until this musculature has been re-educated, when we practice the static positions we use the other musculature, the one designed for movement and, of course, this musculature gets tired. Besides, it is precisely this musculature that we should relax...

 

The teacher will give us the directions and teach the exercises to advance and be able to strengthen the connections that we have begun to experience in the static positions, learning how to use bones and tendons instead of muscles. In this second stage we strengthen (not building muscle) our whole body.

 

Finally I would like to comment one of the obstacles that we can find in practice, i.e. the fact of having too much knowledge through books or commentaries from other people; to know the method and not practicing it in depth. As a matter of fact this is a lack of respect for a method that does not belong to us and which we have to integrate yet. It can lead us to an interpretive speculation that will lead us away from the same method; or it can build up a desire to develop every detail when we are not ready or relaxed enough. We do something to get something but what matters is “not doing” but to create the conditions for it “to be done”. This has sometimes led us to willingly change the position of our joints by making the practice become something "stressful" rather than relaxing. For example, actively tilting the pelvis with the intention of opening "Mig Meng" and advancing the coccyx... making this movement in the pelvis and holding it in that position can be dangerous. Lumbar intervertebral discs will suffer and dehydrate in the long run.

 

We must take into account that all the steps conveyed to us by the great masters have been discovered by them throughout their lives and after a deep understanding of their practice. It takes a great deal of relaxation so that they are given in an unforced way. The body keeps opening and changes are taking place in a natural process of relaxation, you don’t have to "do" anything special, just be in the position and internally practicing what is due in every moment. I think it's important to keep this in mind when we read old texts of Inner Martial Arts.

 

                                                                                                                              Juanolo, 22-04-2016

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                                ABOUT TEACHING

 

                     OUR MISSION AS ​​TEACHERS

 

 

When I first approached the T'ai Chi, 24 years ago, I did so from the desire to learn it and not from a conscious need. Over the years, though, I discovered the internal lack that led me to that practice. However, what I did not have was any physical problem that would make this kind of practice necessary, it was purely for pleasure. And so it was for most of us. We belonged to a tribe “hippie-romantic", in a quest to practice with sincerity something healthy, all the better if exotic and distant (rejecting what was offered in the West), and even better if it had a spiritual manifestation.

 

Nowadays a huge number of people not belonging to the above mentioned “tribe” have joined us. Now even practitioners advise their patients to practice T'ai Chi, Ch'i Kung, Yoga... to handle their physical ailments (some quite serious), psychic (learning how to relax and lessen stress and anxiety), and even emotional (joining a group to feel safer). Some people too, approach our groups with a severe degenerative disease and even in a wheelchair.

 

In this article I will express my views about this type of students, with whom we often do not dare to tackle complicated exercises, who do not come looking for the art itself but to improve their back, shoulder pain... classes could be conditioned by them and somehow become uncomfortable.

 

So, what is to be done with these people? We cannot (nor should we) address them to somewhere else. Should we have enough people of that sort, we could form an isolated group with them, but this is not usually the case. As a matter of fact, in the class we find together more or less healthy people and people who need more attention. How to handle such different needs without having to put them in different groups? There is no need to change the dynamics of the class, or lose sight of important aspects of practice such as the connection with oneself, with our own energy, body, emotions, thoughts and spirituality. It is simply about incorporating something more into our classes which is basic, therapeutic, simple and easy to remember. It is important that it is easy to memorize since it will allow them to be practised out of class. For those who are art practitioners, this will help them to deepen and advance faster. In the case of those who seek only to improve their "discomfort", it will help them in the healing process, though we shouldn’t think that practicing once or twice a week will be enough for this purpose. These additions may be placed in the initial warming or at any other time during the class, and they should not affect the whole practice.

 

More than ever before, our current practices have the potential to demonstrate their therapeutic ability. These "new" students come to heal themselves and those of us who devote ourselves to teaching have a great responsibility in giving them tools so that they can achieve that goal for themselves. But do we really have these tools? Do we really know what a frozen shoulder is, or an intervertebral disc protrusion?, a calcification of the supraspinatus?, an epicondyle?, a golfer’s elbow?, just to mention some quite common examples? Do we have a basic but useful anatomical knowledge that help us to understand the pathology of our students? Of course we cannot know all pathologies, but how many of us seek information about the ailments of our students? Nowadays the Internet can help us to get such information.

 

I’m far to say that we teachers should be also therapists, but I do think we should offer something as basic as the fundamentals and principles that govern our body. These principles are contained in all body practices I know; and no wonder it is so since they all refer to our human body. They are the essence, nature and biology of us all and, at the same time, they’re therapeutic. It is not a matter of just teaching a technique, a form or a position, we do not remain in the superficial and aesthetic. When we immerse ourselves in what is not seen on the surface of our Art, these natural principles are understood. This understanding is what will allow us to deepen the practice of our Art.

 

All this should make us think about the content of our classes. Bear in mind that they have to include some exercises that really act as a rehabilitation for the whole organism and which tackle the connection of the different corporal segments (the body as a unit). Positions that provide a clear and simple way to achieve a more relaxed state, helping the compression of body structure, and giving the basic notions of biomechanics and, above all, positions that are simple to understand and memorize by all students.

 

 

What the learner has to do

 

Here we come to an important point: the responsibility that each student should take with his or her ailment. The modern medicine has led us to believe that not us but health professionals are responsible for our health. Big mistake! From their megalomania they believe they’re able of healing us all... and that is not so. On the other hand, we must admit that we are lazy to "take care" of ourselves and therefore we prefer to pass the responsibility of healing us to our doctor, shaman, physiotherapist, osteopath or teacher. But the truth is that what they all can do is to help us to "heal ourselves".

 

The students who come to get a relief from their pains, also expect that we heal them. Therefore, our goal is that they understand they have to take their own responsibility upon this healing process. And by this I don’t mean just to tell them about that the first they come to class. In every exercise, in every position, in every movement they must feel that responsibility, and we are there to remind them about that. It is not about copying and repeating what the teacher does in class. It is necessary that they feel, investigate, discover their limits and follow an evolution path. Perhaps you can briefly propose an exercise and then teach them to study it inwardly by themselves, to have doubts, to come to their own conclusions and to share them with us. In this way they will quickly be able to practice at home what they have learnt in class without fear of doing something wrong or dangerous. The learners will be able to integrate the exercise and achieve a better postural hygiene; they will know how to place their body in different positions and movements, in the tasks that they must carry out throughout the day. All this surely increases the chances of healing. Beyond the external, what really matters is offering self-awareness, conscience, health.

 

Many teachers of T'ai Chi and Ch'i Kung, including myself, think that the forms can provide everything above-mentioned. True, but only provided there is a deep understanding of each of the movements, figures and positions that are included in these forms. The forms are the conclusion of T'ai Chi Ch'uan and Ch'i Kung, the conclusion reached by many masters after a very profound study of the art. For these forms to be Therapeutic (with a capital letter) a similar study is necessary. Repeating and repeating again the forms will not give us that knowledge "by magic" and we will not get but a superficial relaxation. It will certainly not be a Therapeutic practice.

 

Some years ago came to my class a man who had been practising T'ai Chi for three years in the city where he used to live. When I asked him if he knew the 24-Form (the most widespread in the West, designed in China for the purpose of exporting this Art) he said that not only knew that form, but also one with a sword and another with a fan... all that in just three years!! Even though he was over 60 years old, I thought it would be an outstanding artist. However, to my utmost surprise, when I asked him to raise an arm he did not know how to do it with a relaxed shoulder, nor could he lean with his back straight. How could then benefit him the three forms he had learned? I think in no way, except to increase their tensions and pains. After class that day he told me he had the feeling of having learned more about his body than in these previous three years. My class had nothing special, but with simple exercises he began to understand that it was possible to move the body with less effort than he was used to.

 

Most students, when they first come to class, have a very limited experience of their body and movement. In the West we live much more in our mind than in our body, very unlike in the East, where people live daily in their body and are aware of their relationship with the land and nature. In this light, I consider warming to be one of the most important parts of the class for this very purpose: to live in the body. But if this warming lacks body awareness and is performed mechanically, even by the teacher, it will result quite useless. What's more, it can be harmful: for example the traditional twists with which we start warming up, can damage our knees and waist. It is not a matter of avoiding these turns, but of studying and teaching them consciously. If after a useless warm-up we simply do the form once and again, and techniques of pushing hands and martial applications without consciousness, just trying to coordinate and memorize them, what we get is a very poor class. It looks more as a keep-fit T'ai Chi but with the risk of injuring or overloading our body. How many people after a time of coming to class leave it because they suffer from the neck, back or knees? Or because they feel frustration for not being able to memorize so many forms or techniques that in fact do not help them that much?

 

If we as Westerners live the body in a different way, perhaps we should teach and learn also differently. Personally I do not believe in traditional teaching in which the teacher puts himself in front of the group (even giving his back to the students) and throughout the class does exercises, forms or postures while the learners do what they can. We see this done in the parks of China and copy that model in our classes though this makes learning very difficult. Without precise indications, without help, it is almost impossible. Of course, that who is cleverer, who retains best the movements, can then reproduce forms and techniques, but cannot go deeper if there is no study and understanding of what he or she is doing. And I do not mean to know the applications of each movement, I mean to get inside each and every part of our body while working the forms, to create internal connections. We don’t want our students to become our photocopy, it would always lose quality. They must discover their own inner expression. I personally prefer not to exhibit myself. Instead, I try to watch more, to correct students with both voice and hands, to accompany them and allow them to learn from inside themselves.

 

The current western idea of “teacher training” in a number of disciplines is  very different from the traditional one, in which the disciple even used to live with his master and after many years he felt ready for transmitting the Art. Nowadays masters come here and teach a large group of people eager to learn as much and as quick as possible.

 

Very often we must get a diploma in order to teach in public or private centres, so we seek for the best available training in the market. But what is it the best training? Is it the one offering more variety of forms and techniques? That belonging to the lineage of the most famous teacher at the moment? The one taught by the most hidden and secret families? The one that most often utter the concepts of “energetic” and “spiritual”? In fact, I cannot understand the energetic and the spiritual separated from the physical, emotional or psychic. Energy and spirituality are everywhere and permeate everything. My left index finger is physical matter, which is one of the ways in which energy is expressed (therefore it is energy), but it is nourished by my spirit (that makes it also spiritual). An emotion, a thought, are also different expressions of energy and as spiritual as an index finger.

 

In this world of supply and demand there are many training programs competing in the amount of content. It is like a supermarket: back in the 70’s, Chögyam Trungpa (famous Tibetan master of meditation) already told us about the danger of "Spiritual Materialism", and we are still there. I have received three trainings: two in Ch'i Kung and one in T'ai Chi, but I finished none of them. I was part of the T'ai Chi training team for four years but I also left it. I do not believe in trainings. We are filled with knowledge, forms and techniques in a very short time. One weekend a month during two years? three?

 

Upon completing these two or three years they give us a diploma and tons of material that we will not be able to practice and much less get deep into them. Simply because it is not possible. As the saying goes “Jack of all trades, master of none”. But after having memorized so much, we have a (false) sense of security in ourselves and begin to teach things that we have not fully integrated yet. What of that truly reaches the students? Of course, the most superficial, what is not genuine, what is not Therapeutic. Better then to have little to teach, but well learned and integrated. Needles to say, the teaching experience will give us a “stage” presence or experience when it comes to teaching, but how many teachers, out of class, really get deep into what they have been teaching? Everyone can answer by himself. Are we not discrediting our own art? This is painful to me since we are biting the hand that feeds us. We are not aware of the great treasure we have. And, as a treasure, we should take care of it.

 

I remember the time when I practiced every day the nine forms I had learnt in the early years of my practice. For four years I repeated them once and again. After that time I felt very clearly that my practice was just a “show” and I got stuck in just one form, the simplest and shortest one. I loved that my students saw me and would say how well I did that form... but that was all, external and superficial. In fact, I did not really understand the forms, I needed to study them in depth and not just keep repeating them.

 

When someone ask me for advice on what training he could follow, I tell him to take the one that is simpler and offers fewer things, since it will give him a better chance to get deep in what he learns.

 

I can believe in a training which offers one form and few techniques, a serious study of biomechanics and body structure, with a good and complete method that ensures the internal connection, understanding, order and direction. But this training, let's not fool ourselves, is not achievable in two years on a weekend basis. In fact it is not a training but something that comes naturally by having a direct relationship with a teacher who fully knows a method. But acquiring this knowledge only takes place after many years of practicing with him as often as possible. After this long period, the student should know how to use his art both to get deep into it, and also to help those who approach the practice to improve their back or shoulder.

 

A method is not simply a series of forms and techniques; it is rather a comprehensive education of the body that requires a given path, a preparation, transformation and deep understanding of the human body, so that when any form is learnt, or when any technique is practised, they are understood from the beginning. This, of course, needs a serious and constant practice of those who get acquainted with the system, especially when the learner is also a teacher, since what he is discovering will help him to understand the different obstacles that his students will have to overcome, and he will know how to guide them on their journey towards a more complete health.

 

To sum up, as teachers we have to face a double responsibility: to keep developing the method with a constant practice, and to offer classes where we provide our students with the necessary tools so that the student can not only heal himself, but also to go further in the Art if so he wants. At the same time we should also address the goal that the student takes his own responsibility when using the tools he has learnt.

 

 

                                                                                                    Juanolo, 13 - July - 2016

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