A friend asked me if I had pics to share from my training with CZQ in France and that’s when I realized that I have not been taking pics. I’ve been listening carefully to what he is saying and practicing the corrections he gave me. My understanding of his family’s art has deepen with each correction. He told me that it is easy to mimic what looks right, it is more difficult to know what right is inside. He said not to think too about what the outside looks right. When the inside is correct, the outside with be correct.
The saying about when the student is tardy, the teacher will appear is so accurate. I can take pictures and videos all day long (which one student did) but to truly understand, I have to watch, listen and reflect. I need to discover within myself what’s right and what’s not and ignore what others are seeing or what I’m seeing.
Someone at the seminar asked me how long I’ve been practicing taijiquan and I said I started in 1990 (the year I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease). That’s 33 years ago!!! He said ‘oh, you must be good’. I said ‘No’. I said, ‘I only get corrections 1 or 2 times a year whenever I get to see CXX or CZQ. The rest of the times I practice the same mistakes again and again.’ Some people think they just need a workshop and they know what taijiquan is. Or, they are upset that we couldn’t finish the form during the 3-day workshop. Pour moi – only 1 jin gang is enough. Hands on corrections are the best form of corrections for me. I owe CZQ and CXX a lot for my progress.
Yesterday’s correction was minute but profound! At the end of the class Master CZQ asked – how has it changed your form. I said the changes are huge and I’m now applying that knowledge and feeling to the rest of the movements.