Experience life, experience Tai Chi

I believe that fellow practitioners who have visited the master’s dojo all share a common feeling: all kinds of little lives can be seen everywhere in the dojo, full of vitality and vigor, and brimming with noble spirit. Why are the lives in the dojo so vigorous?

The first is that a cause leads to an effect.

As the saying goes, you reap what you sow. This is the result of sowing the seeds. Nowadays, there are various schools of Tai Chi. Fellow practitioners are fortunate enough to follow the master and cultivate the right path of Tai Chi. Only by sowing this cause can one reap the fruit of the right path of Tai Chi. We should be confident and distinguish truth from falsehood.

The second is hard work.

Planting seeds also requires the meticulous care of a true experienced gardener, such as when to water, when to fertilize, when to weed, and when to prune. All require the old gardener to follow the way and conform to nature. Only when it is just right can one grow vigorously. The master is this old gardener, a bright lamp, guiding the way. All fellow practitioners should grow along with the guidance of the master and must not be self-righteous or go against the grain.

The third is time.

Spring brings birth, summer promotes growth, autumn brings harvest, and winter leads to storage. The transformation and movement of all things have their own time. The master once said, “What we practice is Tai Chi, not being too hasty!” Seeking quick success and instant benefits, pulling up seedlings to help them grow, and seeking shortcuts are all counterproductive efforts that fail to truly understand the truth. “Shi” and “jian”, “shi” represents Yang and “jian” represents Yin. One Yin and one Yang are called the Dao, while one Yang and one Yin are not the Dao. Therefore, sometimes one can truly understand the truth, and sometimes without it, it is difficult to achieve great things. Only by finding the right direction and taking one step at a time can you reach your destination. If you run around aimlessly like a headless fly, you will only get lost.

The master patiently imparts knowledge to us. When we encounter a bottleneck, we must calm down and reflect: How much of what the master has taught have we actually heard? How much did you understand? How much has been achieved again? One should also ask oneself: Have one truly abandoned one’s own personality to cultivate the Tao? Have you truly accepted your master’s teachings? Have you truly emptied yourself? Cultivation, reflection and correction, through the tempering of time and overcoming numerous difficulties, can one obtain the true scriptures.

I sincerely hope that all the lives carefully cared for by the master will be full of vitality, bear fruit and spread their fragrance throughout the world!

– Zhu Bo, the coach of the Tai Chi Songquan Team