Glasses on Foreheads

 Are you fooling yourself?

Master Hwa is right,"…not everyone wants to be a proficient practitioner…." However, I meet many people who" talk a good game." about learning Classical Tai Chi. Years ago, I visited a hard-style Kung Fu master. He was very friendly and said he admired Tai Chi, although he did not do it. He was famous on the cover of" Inside Kung Fu" Magazine. He had perfected the art of drilling his index finger into a brick. I don't remember his exact words but his words were something like this as he did not specifically talk about how to" drill." "Do you want to learn "iron finger"? Go home for one hundred days and practice punching a bag with the finger for two hours each morning and night." How many people are willing to do that and that is quite a point he made.  I question the value of using all that energy to perfect such an overly specialized art/skill. I would say that the so-called" secret" is sheer persistence.

I would say that type of "sheer persistence "is somewhat cliche. But, for the sake of argument, let's say you do that. You have what one might call" self-realization" from your persistence. But after 100 days, how have you changed? From my point of view, I have not "changed" over 40 years, particularly the last 20 with Master Hwa.

On the contrary, I have become a "changing" person. I have met many students over the years, and there seems to be what one might call a "hunger" for Tai Chi as "exercise." Down deep, what they don't say is "self-improvement." What many don't see is they are initially fooling themselves. 

As a long-time proficient practitioner said recently, many do not see the difficulty facing themselves in starting Classical Tai Chi. Like the guy who stormed out of the Tai Chi, muttering," I already know how to walk." To paraphrase what the "…know how to walk…" student said in his estimation, he is personally knowledgeable of how his body works. So how should" walking" come from" inside" of himself? As the proficient practitioner wrote to me recently. I love their analogy regarding "inner experience." "We can end up looking for our glasses when we already have them on." Yes, not everyone who starts wants to be a proficient practitioner. Many fail to realize whether they wish to continue or not is still there. One could go around for a lifetime with "glasses on the forehead," blaming Tai Chi. It will always remain for the "long haul" as a sustainable way of life, as a long haul discipline.

In other words, I don't know how people feel that Classical Tai Chi merely supplies a sophisticated justification for personal and social inertia. What makes them think it dispenses happily with organized activity and serious effort?