Learning to Be Regular

Post Date:October 19, 2009

  The sun currently rises at 6:55 A.M. and sets at 7:39 P.M.  In between are roughly thirteen hours.  Yet, for many, there isn’t enough time in the day to practice T’ai Chi and do everything else that needs to be done. 
    This difficulty in scheduling calls to my mind two stories.  Story Number One:  during a seminar with William C. C. Chen in which I was present, someone asked “How often should I practice T’ai Chi?”  Master Chen responded, “You should put in at least twenty minutes of practice every day.  But on those days when you are especially busy with little free time, you should . . . [long pause] practice at least one and a half hours.”  Story Number Two:  A number of years ago my Ch’an (Zen) teacher, Ven. Shih Ying-Fa, was asked during a lecture at a Church in Pittsburgh “How can I meditate when I don’t have any free time?”  Ying-Fa replied, “On those days, are you too busy to go to the bathroom?”
    The issue of practice/meditation is directly related to quality of life.  When one is exceptionally busy and harried by a multitude of tasks, it seems as if nothing gets done and what does get done, isn’t done well.  As we multitask, our focus is dispersed over a broad continuum, but if we would focus upon the task at hand, and upon its completion turn to the next task, then quality would not be diminished.  Our minds, though, are always craning back and forth in time that it seems that we are so seldom in the present.  We are so intent worrying about whether we are going to get a piece of pie that we hardly enjoy the maincourse that we are currently eating.  Where is the satisfaction?
    The practice of T’ai Chi hones concentration, which is (to use current business place lingo) a “transportable skill” for all aspects of ones life.  (So list T’ai Chi on your resume!)  Regular practice provides the focus to recognize what needs to be done and the means to do it with energy and focus.  If practice becomes a daily ritual—as natural as going to the bathroom—that focus and energy grows stronger and more finely honed.  As Yang Ch’eng-Fu says in his essay “A Discussion of the Practice of T’ai Chi Chu’an,” “Although the guidance of a superior teacher and practice with fellow students is indispensible, the most important thing is one’s daily practice.” 
    Not to ignore the obvious benefits, if you practice everyday, you will feel better, be less stressful, and be healthier, which means that more energy is available for each and every task.   More, regular T’ai Chi practice translates into a deeper understanding of the body mechanics and how Chi works within the movements.  To begin to recognize the internal aspect of T’ai Chi allows for mastery over both the sequence of movements as well as a deeper appreciation of the life that T’ai Chi yields.
    To try to nudge people toward a regular schedule, tuition at Still Mountain is calculated on a flat monthly fee.  True, a flat fee does make it easier for my book-keeping, but more importantly, it creates greater accountability for each student.  Think about it.  If you don’t feel like going to class (you are tired, or grumpy, or hungry, or have a headache), but you have paid for the month, more than likely you will recognize that you are merely throwing away money by not attending.  Once you go to class, and feel better, you will be glad you went.   But if classes are paid per class, and you are tired, or grumpy, or hungry, etc., then if you skip, you will not lose money.  If you don’t come to class, you will lose an opportunity to ease physical pain, gain energy, feel invigorated, and maybe, just maybe, become fully enlightened. 
    I am always happy to have students in classes—not because each is a paying customer, but because each person is engaging the process of embracing his or her life through T’ai Chi.  Each person is become better, more awake, more human.   So practice, practice, practice.  Not because each class costs “x” amount of your hard-earned pay, but because to not practice means missing out on experiencing a deeper, un-measureable sense of value beyond dollars and cents. 

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