How to update tai chi for the 21st century

Is there a way to learn Tai Chi without relying on mysticism? Is there another vocabulary not dependant on jargon, to help us interpret its rich benefits? Why have Tai Chi practitioners not updated their vocabulary? Read on to learn the 12 Guidelines to practising an updated Tai Chi for the 21st Century.

THE TAI CHI CLASSICS: DITCH THE MYSTICISM

Hang on though, where did all this jargon come from?

​As some of you know, I've been researching for my online courses on tai chi, in which I'm trying my best to go back over all the old texts and make some sense of them for the 21st century. This week I was reading some of the Tai Chi classics, a series of collected writings by different tai chi "masters", and "recognised" authorities of the art.

I was reading one in which, It advised, "Sink your chi to your tan tien."

It reminded me of an old teacher of mine: Sifu Simon. In his beginners class he would tell us: “Sink your chi to your tan tien”. (See Sifu Simon explaining the Yip Man Bubbling Pipe Orbit in the video below)

Everyone would nod, and then fiddle about and wait for someone to start first.

Come on”, said Sifu Simon, “on the count of three, all together now....sink that chi…” Eyebrows would be raised, people would cough and pretend they had to scratch a bunion or remove an ant from their shoe. Frowns appeared, eyes flickered nervously across the room as some people tried squatting, others jogged in circles whilst a couple of people began to chant whilst lighting an incense stick.

WHAT IS CHI? PART 1

It's not surprising really is it? Chi and sinking and tan tien. 3 concepts so profound that they require courses in themselves to understand their meaning. Yet this was a beginners class. What chance did we have to grasp all that depth of knowledge and skill by listening to a complex phrase.

I realised, I had no idea of what skills we were we trying to accomplish? I felt like I was re-living the emperor's clothes, as people grunted and strained or chanted and meditated until they would suddenly stop, peer with one cautious eye across the room and exclaim loud enough for others to hear: "Well thats my chi good an' sunk. What's next Sifu?"

At which point, I remember pulling Sifu Simon to one side and asked: What is Chi? And this is what he said...

Sifu Simon: Chi, he replied, is an energy that circulates through...

mOnk: Yes, but other than what it does and where it likes to go, what is it?

Sifu Simon: Chi is the life force behind our movements and…

mOnk: Never mind what it's behind, what is "it"

Sifu Simon: It"? Said Simon, Well, it's chi, that's what it is...

DESCARTES DILEMNA

And herein lies the problem: anyone trying to define it, always starts by presupposing its existence.

As when Descartes famously uttered his phrase that was intended to conclusively prove our existence, "I think therefore, I am". He forgot that if he uses the pronoun I, he has already presupposed existence.

So when Sifu Simon commands his class to direct their chi to the tan tien, he’s asking quite a lot: That his students understand what chi is, what and where the tan tien is. Finally he is asking students to command their chi to move to a specific point in the body. At will.

It seems to me, in my mumble opinion, that's quite a lot to ask of someone new to the art. It's quite a lot of to ask of someone who's been practising a while too, but that's subject for another debate. Could jargon, ancient terminology, mystical terms and the tendency to offer vague answers to specific questions be one of the reasons why students leave classes in such high numbers? Have Tai Chi teachers been collectively mystifying their students to death?

In other disciplines, such vague and obscure language have long been banished for reasons of exclusivity, mysticism, elitism - yet in the field of internal arts these terms are not only still in use, but celebrated, embraced, protected jealously, defended in inter-school rivalry and ultimately, kept at a safe distance from the harsh investigative light of the 21st century. ​​

TEACHING

As a teacher, I've found that choice of language in the classroom has one of two effects: it is either inclusive - ie it engages and empowers people, or it is exclusive and alienates them (or sends them to sleep).

Unfortunately, (and, apologies if this may sound sacrilegious to some) I have to say that the Tai Chi Classics is not a good bed-time read, and advice from it's hallowed pages tends to fall more into the latter than the former category.

​6 suggestions for how to TEACH TAI CHI without jargon

Is there a way to define these terms, making them relevant to people who want to learn and are not happy to merely substitute an unanswered question with a Chinese ideogram? I have tried to follow these 6 simple guidelines to ensure clarity and simplicity of language when teaching a class:

1. To keep explanations simple, direct and meaningful to the lives of those in attendance.

2. Don't use words from other languages or other centuries, if you can avoid it.

3. Don't waffle.

4. Don't wear clothes inappropriate to the country and the century in which you live.

5. Don't use vague terms that collude in hiding ignorance. It will come back on you. Believe me, I have tried, it.

6. Be honest with your students, and with yourself. (It's tricky, but give it a go)

We don't know everything. We can't possibly know everything. I don't know a lot about this Tai Chi business, but I do know when someone is willing to learn, and doesn't want to be spoon-fed nonsense . So explain just what you do know. Encourage people to explore what you don't. That way, we all benefit.

WHAT IS CHI? PART 2

So this is what I tell my crowd when they ask about chi and such stuff. In my rather small and perverse topsy-turvy world, untainted by satin suits and incense gurus…I tell them to just learn a little patience and focus on sensitivity. Nothing more. Oh, and I give them this list:

12 GUIDELINES FOR YOUR MORNING PRACTICE

Instead of stumbling out of bed in the morning, half awake, dragging yourself into the kitchen or garden for a speedy-form, so that you can stumble back into the house and tick off "done form in morning" from your daily to do list, try this instead. The 12 guidelines for morning practice: 

1. Stumble out, into the fresh air, or failing that open a window wide and get close to it. 

2. Stand, leaving your body weight to slowly find its way down to the floor.

3. Breathe, let go of the tension, let the body weight sink down. 

4. Wait and watch until your breath has slowed, your shoulders drop.

5. Wait until you sense a breeze, a current of air passing by. 

6. Wait until your finger tips can detect this current, or a change in air temperature. 

7. Wait listening, twitching, feeling, tasting with every sense you can muster.

8. Then wait some more. Wait listening to your heart, the bird song, the morning traffic, the neighbours ablutions  - until this cacophony becomes inter-connected.

9. Wait until it is no longer noise, but a rhythm, a pulse, the beat of a song. 

10. Keep waiting until all these things come to you, and then, you can feel, see, taste, touch the ebb and flow both inside and outside of yourself. 

11. Only then do you move, because you now see, hear and feel the inter connectivity of it all.

12. Ride it. Breathe it in, breathe it out. Move with it.

THE MOST IMPORTANT LESSON IN TAI CHI

If Tai Chi teaches us one thing, it is the inter-connectivity of our lives - to connect what's inside with what's outside. There is nothing more important that we can teach, nothing more important that we can learn.
And - it doesn't require any jargon. Nor any words in mandarin. Nor any guru-speak.

Just a freshly brewed 21st century practice.

Check out these free Tai Chi PDFs and begin your practice today.