It's not magic, it's taiji

Those who have been around taiji masters (or viewed videos on You Tube) are often amazed at seemingly impossible moves. An aura of mystique surrounds taiji/qigong. Some teachers play up to the mystique and have their followers in awe. At Master Jesse's summer training he insisted a number of times that there is nothing "magic" about taiji. Taiji is practice—long term gongfu.
Recently, I tried an experiment to see how my rooting and peng (ward off) postures are coming along. Leaving the university sports center I met one of the football coaches. (Big guy, much taller than me, at a guess 300+ pounds of solid linebacker.) We chatted for a while and I asked him if he would push me. (Bit foolish you might say!) I assumed a peng position, bow stance, asked him to push my wrist and elbow, slowly adding more pressure. I relaxed (song) into my structure. After a while I asked him to stop. How much strength was he using? He told me about forty percent. I remained relaxed, no tension in the muscles and simply stood. I was pleased the root held.
A few days later I discovered one of my students is a college champion wrestler (number two in the country). Another experiment. After a chat, he agreed to push me and try to find my center and unbalance me. We pushed for ten minutes or so. I relaxed into my stance again. Each of seven times he was unable to unbalance me. Seven times he lost balance. He repeated a number of times, "How did you do that?" I simply smiled.
It's not magic, it's taiji.

Final sessions and return

The final three sessions of the training were push hands. What a lot I learned! And what a lot of fun. During the nine hours of pushing hands I partnered with a lot of different people, and learned from them all. To this point I had only pushed hands with my own students. It was a delight to play with those who were much more skilled than I. Overall, I discovered that I have a very strong root, but that my skill level is quite low. I learned that however rooted and centered I felt, Master Jesse (and his senior students —now my friends) could always destabilize me. So much room for improvement! Master Jesse taught us a number of techniques that helped keep our own center, while finding our partner's center. Listening to your own body as well as your partner's is quite fun.
Reflecting on the planes on the way home I realize that during the week of intensive training I learned so much that will take a good while to digest and integrate into my practice. I hope I can embody my Chen family name and "fly like a bird."

A great honor

Yesterday was an important one. In the morning Master Jesse taught us the Five Animal Frolics qigong forms, explaining the health benefits of each form. This will prove invaluable. In the evening Dr Yibin Wang did a marvelous session on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) giving us some helpful warm up advice for before taiji, explained important energy points for self healing, told us about the health benefits of food (and had brought samples for us to try). She finished with an excellent demonstration of massage (using Master Jesse as a model). It was truly a lot of fun and Dr. Wang packed an amazing amount into the time. All in all a fine day's learning of qigong!

Of most significance yesterday is that I became a formal disciple of Master Jesse and was given the great honor of Chen family taiji lineage, thirteenth generation.

Chen family style taiji is the earliest traditional taiji and can be traced to Chen Wangting in the seventeenth century. The tradition was passed through the family. In time taiji was taught to others outside the family (Yang Luchan, who modified Chen style to produce Yang style, W'u Yuxiang, Quan You, and Sun Lutang who also modified the style). The traditional Chen style was passed down to the eleventh generation and the "Four Buddha Warrior Attendents" Chen Xiowang, Zhu Tiancai, Chen Zhenglei, and Wang Xian. These four have been responsible for a much wider dissemination of Chen style in China and around the world. Master Jesse Tsao is a disciple of Grandmaster Chen Zhenglei.

It is into this noble tradition of taiji that yesterday I was accepted.

At Master Jesse's home the simple but beautiful ceremony was witnessed by my good friend Larry Ashley and Michael, one of the attendees at the training. I received a lineage name Chen Cheng Fei. Chen is the family name. Cheng means "sincerity" and is the name given to all thirteenth generation lineage holders. Fei is the name Master Jesse gave me and means "fly like a bird."

I take this as a great honor and will do my best to faithfully pass on the heritage of traditional Chen taiji to my students.

 

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