Just Some Quiet Thoughts 🤔

On the seekers path, the wise and crazed are one.

In the way of love, kin and strangers are one.

~ Rumi

A while ago Natalie mentioned to me that a friend of hers who is also a Tai Chi teacher (an excellent one by all accounts, old school – not one of the fly by night “I learned Tai Chi over a weekend” types!) had a chap show up for his first class only to have him dole out disrespect and prattle on about how Tai Chi was of no use as a martial art, this he “knew” as he studied “combatives” neither specifying if he meant military or medieval. This bewildered Natalie’s friend who had grown up studying karate, which if you don’t know also means being schooled in manners, etiquette and respect from day one. Granted a Tai Chi class has less formality but we still expect a certain degree of decorum.

Now after training in these arts for over forty two years I’ve met more than my fair share of these self serving egomaniacs (many of whom should really have been sectioned – sadly that wasn’t a joke) so I’ve developed something of a thick skin concerning martial Ignorance, but if you’re relatively new to the game and aren’t there yet I understand how this can rattle you and get you down, and I’d hate to see potentially great teachers quit before their time, there’s scant few enough of us as it is and we’ve so much good to give the world.

So here goes nothing.

Firstly I have nothing against any form of combatives I study them myself (as do some of my friends all of whom are most respectful people). Combatives are a case of “less is more” making them very effective to fight with, this is why Xingyiquan is so lethal having simply five strikes and by extention any other martial art be it external or internal eventually circles back round on itself and the advanced training focus is on “do less better” the idea of doing one technique well rather than a thousand techniques poorly. Obviously the net result is the same thing.

Besides which martial arts are about so much more than fighting. Translations aside Sun Lu Tang himself was once asked about the relevance of martial arts in the modern world to which he replied that if one were going to fight then one should buy a gun, however he continued could a gun grant health, strength, spirit and the whole gamut of benefits one acquires through martial study? In Tai Chi Chuan this is “Shou Shen Yang Xin”. Shou Shen means “to take care of the body.” Yang Xin means that you are very quiet, not easy to anger, relaxed and at peace with yourself.

Not every fight for your life can be won with fists and feet, the first time I caught the original covid virus I was a hairs breadth from paying the fiddler, the key to my survival was the humble fang sung kung breathing exercise which I used to stave off and control the brutal coughing fits.

Secondly respect or rather the woeful lack of it. To the best of my knowledge no martial art on this planet teaches you that it’s OK to walk into a training hall and disrespect a teacher in front of their students, it’s just not done period! (to be honest I’ve seen this done in other types of classes as well – like I said Sectioned!). As they say “manners maketh the man”, respect freely given is respect easily earned and remembered. This goes beyond the training hall you carry it with you everyday everywhere, I mean seriously it’s the glue that holds a society together.

Thirdly why on earth would you alienate yourself from a great teacher? They can be truly life changing. My first sifu had such a loving and warm demeanour it really inspired me to be nicer to myself and the people around me (trust me everyone noticed the change). It feels wonderful to be around people like that, it’s like a physical weight comes off your shoulders and you feel a kind of (spiritual) support you might not get at home or in the locale. Right from the outset I wanted to be like that for others and for myself – admittedly it’s a work in progress!

Love & Respect  ❤️

Mathew