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Freedom from the known
Tai chi requires you to unlearn what you have learned, to forget what you
think
you know. People are reluctant to let go. This is a hindrance to learning.
Free your mind from the past and be prepared to discover the
new.
Maximum brainpower
If you read the book Maximum Brainpower,
the authors assert that our existing pool of information and experience is an
impediment because it prevents us from using the brain
fully.
Rather than being open to new situations, new variables and new challenges, most
people respond to the unfamiliar by seeking to re-frame it in terms of what
they already know.
e.g. a karate person sees
tai chi in terms of their karate experience, a yoga
exponent in terms of yoga, and so on...
It is important, if you grew up in
a dysfunctional family, to take time to reflect on the competitive edge it
has given you. People from happy, harmonious homes may feel healthy and
well-adjusted, but they're fixed on one family model which they try to
emulate the rest of their lives.
If you grew up in a dysfunctional family, however, you may be deeply
damaged, but you've acquired a broad repertoire of negative models to
outgrow. As you go about your adult life, you should be thankful to your
parents: they have given you the kind of education that happy children,
through no fault of their own, never receive.
My parents taught me everything I need to unlearn.
(Andrew Boyd)
Not the same
People are biologically inclined to group
similar-seeming situations together. It is convenient, energy efficient and
saves on learning anything new.
Pre-20th Century, this worked quite well because human
life changed at a fairly slow pace. Nowadays, it is a major problem. Things are
in flux.
Unlearning
Tai chi students are taught a lot of new things.
Progress is contingent upon 2 factors:
How readily they can shed their existing habits
How much they practice and explore the new material
Practice between lessons is ideal, but
this alone won't work unless the student is willing to address the obstacle
presented by their existing habits of
thinking and body use.
Learn/unlearn
Lifelong learning is attainable only if we can successfully
accumulate and shed/discard
information, knowledge and skills. Acquisition alone is
worthless.
It can leave us trying to address today's
problems with yesterday's solutions. We also
need to let-go of what we have learned in the
past.
Learning how to
learn
Tai chi students in our school are required to work
on their bodies and minds continuously. New experiences are
explored, and old habits identified.
When somebody is introduced to a subject they come to realise that this
is not the final product. It is the level
they are currently capable of understanding.
As their learning/unlearning develops, the student becomes increasingly
aware that there is always a deeper, more subtle
layer of comprehension... Learning is a
journey, not a certificate.
Awakening
Taoism and Zen study are designed to take you beyond the limits of
experience and logic. They do this by
encouraging the student to unlearn, to set aside what they think they
know.
This involves recognising the drawback of words,
concepts, ideas, conventions, habits and thought itself. By dismantling how
your mind perceives reality, you begin to
see things in a different way.
You attain an altered state
of consciousness.
Wabi sabi art challenges us to
unlearn our views of beauty and to rediscover the intimate beauty to be
found in the smallest details of nature's artistry.
(Andrew Juniper)
Attachment
Zen/Tao advocates an attitude of not forcing.
Instead of just learning, we also unlearn.
Instead of forcing, we allow. The aim is not simply to acquire new
information, but to remove what impedes us.
Typically, holding and fixity
are the problem. We cling to things for security.
Our attachments to people, places, memories and ideas prevent
freedom of
movement.
If you want to discover something new, it is necessary to shed the old.
Although we are always teaching new skills, the syllabus is also concerned with
unlearning.
Body habits
New starters tend to have appalling body
habits. These have been accumulated across a lifetime;
producing a random, haphazard mess. Sometimes, the habits are the outcome of
yoga, the gym
or a sport.
The tai chi teacher usually wishes they could
dismantle the student's body and start again, but it doesn't work
like that because bodies are organic. The body needs to
loosen up, relax and
then re-grow.
This requires patience, focus and perseverance... like a gardener.
Results won't come
overnight.
Thinking habits
The thinking patterns and habits of new students are often far worse
than their bodies. Most people have never stuck any
new endeavour long enough to
understand what learning entails.
They tend to be impatient,
overconfident and naive concerning their
own abilities. e.g. we once had a man with an artificial
hip who neglected to mention it on his 'medical
liability disclaimer' because he personally didn't consider it to be
a medical matter...
If you want to reconsider 'thinking', why not
read Grit, Smarter Faster
Better, 5 Elements of Effective Thinking and Peak...?
Then put the suggested thinking skills into
actual practice.
Hope
Our information-saturated culture has produced a distracted,
lazy, bored, restless, stressed,
unhealthy population. People expect
instant gratification. They want to show off.
They want results without putting in any
work. They want to share their opinions. Speculate. Talk politics.
Not a great starting place for a new starter? However, the very fact
that the person wants to try something new is a good start. It offers hope.
The possibility of change.
At some level the individual wants to change. This is good. However, to make
any real progress in tai chi they have shed these modern, unproductive
attitudes...
A balanced body?
Tai chi is not aiming to produce a 'tai chi body'. Rather, it seeks to
restore the body to a unified condition of wholeness.
Balanced. Mobile.
Coordinated. Agile. Supple. Youthful.
Balance is a good thing to think about, but can lead to a false idea of
fixity. Our aim is not to be rigid and stable like a wardrobe or a house.
We
want to be balancing...
'Balancing' is a process of adjustment;
altering what we do in response to what is taking
place. Now, that is healthy. Mentally
and physically.
Cross-training?
Students often want to do other forms of exercise in addition to their
tai chi.
This is fine.
The question is: does the other method conflict with
the goals of tai chi? Balance? Relaxed muscles? Coordination?
If it does, the tai chi will not work and you will not get the desired
fitness benefits or any martial
skill.
Harmony
Sifu Waller has designed the syllabus such that everything works
together.
There is no discord between different facets of the
curriculum.
Every exercise, drill and
form works in conjunction with everything else.
The entire syllabus follows the teachings of Taoism
and The Tai Chi Classics.
All areas of study are in harmony.
A spanner in the works?
Most people exercise with
extremely bad
posture and poor habits of body use.
Qigong and tai chi are trying to remedy these.
If you train another system frequently
enough, the benefits of tai chi are
nullified.
It is OK to train a wide range of exercise methods without ruining
your tai chi.
The key concern is moderation.
Avoid over-doing it: over-stretching,
straining or exerting. Be mindful of posture,
poise and
tension.
Sabotaging the tai chi
Many forms of exercise can actively develop bad
posture.
They often cause serious fatigue and adverse wear and tear on the body.
The tension in the body uses energy and tires you out.
Local limb action is typically favoured rather
than whole-body movement.
Quick fix?
Martial arts training, meditation,
spirituality
and cognitive development all require a
great deal of gentle, patient,
mindful work.
Over a lengthy period of time.
Often the student is wanting a quick fix.
Lacking the tenacity to sustain on-going
daily practice, the student is hoping for an
easier route. Does it
exist?
It is absurd to think you are going to get
anywhere by giving only an hour a week to your practice or that you can
regularly skip classes. Martial arts is not like a bridge club, where you
drop in when you have nothing better to do. Martial arts will always make
greater demands on your time than would most hobbies or avocations.
(Dave Lowry)
Hack away the unnecessary
When you begin to see the essence of
the art, you stop looking elsewhere. The
how, the character,
nature,
quality of the art fascinates you. Instead of
looking afar, you look closer.
All of the (non-relevant) peripheral training
you have in your life is hacked away and you
whittle it all down to what matters. And you train that.
Your aim is to be natural, balanced, healthy.
Simplify
Clarity is contingent upon
simplicity. If you want to see deeper, you must
be willing to let go of the clutter. To release your ambition, your fear,
your insecurities, your need to be
special.
You must unlearn and become whole again.
Once your art has been stripped down to the bare bones,
understood and re-built carefully
step-by-step, you can truly begin to
appreciate it.
Will to power
Tai chi skill is not about will/force. It is not
about aggression, strength or pretty
performances.
To be skilled at tai chi you need to be
aware, to be
present, to be
peculiarly sensitive and to listen to what is occurring in this very
moment.
Instead of willpower, you learn to accord yourself
with what is happening. Your mind must unlearn. You must let-go of
the past, of your
opinions, of your
preconceptions.
Pride &
stubbornness
We live in a culture where many people believe that the
ability to regurgitate snippets of information
constitutes understanding,
knowledge or wisdom.
Instead of shedding bias, opinions and
preconceptions, people merely acquire new opinions, new information and
filter it according to what they currently think.
Often when faced with a major new challenge, the individual falsely
believes that they have invested in change, when in
actuality they haven't changed at all...
Not knowing is nearest
Some people like to have their opinions, values and ideas endorsed and
confirmed by others. It is a form of validation. They filter all new
information accordingly. This is not learning. It is bias.
It is about maintaining status quo. Learning means embracing the
unfamiliar. The new. The unknown.
Yesterday's ideas are known.
Set them aside. See what is needed today.
Page created
18 April 2005
Last updated
16 June 2023
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