How Tai Chi can Revolutionise Your Life

The other day, Sifu Simon asked me to stop dancing to the sound of “RIGHT NOW” and explain to him in what way Tai Chi was a revolutionary activity. He sneered as he said “revolutionary", adopting a swagger that suggested he had been watching another of his John Wayne DVDs. 

"Maybe you are right”, I said. "Conventional notions of revolution may not be applicable,  but I believe that a Revolution, is not something made, it resides in the individual spirit or it is nowhere. It begins not in the storming of the Winter Palace, but rather in the moment we accept that things don’t have to be the way they are."
"And what way should they be then”, said sifu, donning a beret and adopting a suburban Che Guevara posture?
"Who knows what form it will take," I replied, "We should not get stuck in trying to define the final expression, but instead focus on dismantling all those things that no longer work."
"Ah ha" he said, "But you forget one thing Mr mOnk, people today only want things, not ideas."

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Things -v- Ideas

It's the summer of 2015 and it's hot in my kitchen. In fact it's hot full stop. We've been experiencing the highest temperatures on record this summer, so to cope with these conditions -  on goes the air conditioning, on goes the fans, turn up the fridge, store more frozen produce in the freezer... and yes, this means more hot air being blown out into the street, into our public media, into our minds and yes more fossil fuels being burnt to provide the extra power for us to cope with the rise in temperature, provoked by our increasing reliance on fossil fuels....

Its an old story now, a little tired, a little worn at the edges. We collectively mutter concern, pledge to watch another documentary on melting polar regions,  pledge a paypal  micro payment to some green cause,  but change little, if anything, of our habits that are expressed in Sifu Simon’s most famous martial Stance: that we are doing as much as we can.

But this article is not about global warming, it's about change and our relationship to the threat of change. All change has the inherent capacity to be disruptive, and it is the threat of disruption that generally encourages us to flee. But what if we learned to see disruption as something positive, and we had the tools to convert its force into something better?

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The chasm between Mind and Body 

How we see change, has something to do with the chasm that exists in our culture between mind and body, between theory and practice, between thought and action. It is chasm that is maintained for "good" reasons.  

We know smoking kills and we know passive smoking kills, yet still people are permitted to smoke, in public places. We have known since the 70’s that refined sugar causes umpteen diseases, premature deaths, destroys teeth across the globe and has created sweetened addicts wherever fizzy drinks have been put on sale. Ahhhh... the glorious benefits of an unfettered market…..
We know we are killing ourselves and the planet, so why do we find it so difficult to stop? Are we all so weak or are we being given the wrong tools?

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Why it is so difficult to change anything

To change this passivity, we must go beyond knowledge. Ideas must be rooted in some form of practice, otherwise they remain as just probabilities - projected on to the back of Platos cave - discussed, debated and argued over endlessly on FaceBook forums, but rarely lived with a quiet and gentle force.
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To a make an idea live, to allow it to breathe, we must exercise it, but how do you exercise an idea? Can you take it to the gym, can you take it out on a lead for a walk? Can you swim with it? Facts, like grains of sand blowing in the wind of our minds, seemingly scatter when we attempt to act upon them, and before you know it, the next thought has entered our head and dislodged the first.

We are told the facts, and then left to act. But why does information and data alone not convince us to change? Maybe, it's because it never did. It matters not how many warnings there are on food labels, cigarette packets, and the messages about environmental armageddon, we still do not act. 
They say if voting  changed anything, it would be banned. That could be said of data too. If knowledge by itself empowered, then books, films and the internet would be banned. I would be banned. Sifu Simon would rule the world and we would all be happy bunnies in an insular world of consumerist goodies.

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Outwardly conform, Inwardly sabotage

​Others claim Tai Chi is a martial art, a health art or a spiritual art. I think it is more than any one thing, it is a 21st century revolutionary practice for It has the potential to disrupt. It has the lessons within its agenda to tie in thought and action, theory and practice. And when that happens, watch out for Tai chi provides us with a way to exercise an idea.  

We get to explore notions of yielding, adaptation, resistance, grounding, we get to test the effectiveness - or not - of using force, of not using force, opening and closing, hard and soft, to be tense or relaxed. We get to interact, to engage, and, most importantly we get to play, for it is in play that we experiment, test and probe without fear of losing. ​

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Complacency in and out of the Dojo

When people ask me: "Hey TeapotmOnk - how effective is your tai chi”, it is often a rather sneaky way to relegate the discussion to that of martial technique. Yet, for most of us, daily combat does not take the form of an attack by multiple ninjas, but rather the ideological barrage of nonsense that gently, subtly, encourages us to channel our frustrations via Amazon or in the shopping mall.. Consume your way out of depression.
Want to change the world? Well, that's simple - we have the best voting system in the world, the best representative democracy that shines like a beacon for others to follow, all we need to do is vote for change. Failing that, we can all do our bit" - to turn down the air conditioning a little, to recycle the tea-bags, to drink low oat milk, to plant some basil and pat yourself on the back that you're doing all you can. 

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The problem with Tai Chi

​Tai chi shows us another way. What that way is depends on you and your path. It's not the same as mine, or my dogs. The revolution will ultimately be your personal expression, for although Tai Chi gives us the tools to challenge ourselves, our habits, and our conduct with others it doesn't tell you what to do with them.​ You are at the mercy of your teacher, the school, the lineage. To make Tai Chi yours, you will need to break with these things. 

Tai Chi gives us the tools to reshape our world, recognising that in soft-ness and adaptation, in yielding and letting go we find a better world: A world that is more just, more honest, more egalitarian. And, like any revolutionary practice it requires neither uniform, no certificate,  exams, nor incense (put away that Che Guevara beret, and put away that David Carradine flute, they are tools of another age). And much to the frustration of Sifu Simon -  this revolution requires no gurus either. 

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No Gods, No Gurus.

So don't take my words for it. Read, but don't just read. Dismantle knowledge. Throw it away if you like because, remember this, Data alone can't do it. ​It never could. Knowledge needs to link to:

• Tools that we can embrace, that are simple, powerful and empowering and can be applied to any situation, any circumstance.
• Tools that we get to try out with one another, to test out in the hope that by losing, we will learn to win.
• Tools that don’t wear out like an old beret, a Lenin beard, or an out-of-date manifesto. ​

That is the revolutionary impact tai chi has for urban warriors in the 21st century: For whatever the outcome of our choices, we learn the lesson that will stay with us forever: to fuse idea and action and to grow every time we lose.

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More Tai Chi Resources

Check out  these online courses for Empty Hand Form, Tai Chi for Health, Tai Chi Breathing.
Or collect the series of free PDF Tai Chi Downloads including:

• The Beginners Guide to Tai Chi ​

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