New students often leap into Taijiquan seeking certainty. They seek better health or longevity. When people read Taiji advertisements, marketing banners, or news in papers, they read about improved circulation, pain relief, or disease prevention; so they arrive with such certainties.
Other folks find Taiji teachers that show fighting skills and instill self-defense powers. Some develop fantastic fitness; others, philosophic finesse. But no certainty can be satisfied.
Pema Chodron, in Comfortable With Uncertainty: 108 Teachings On Cultivating Fearlessness and Compassion, offers insight about “those who train wholeheartedly….
A warrior accepts that we can never know what will happen to us next. We can try to control the uncomfortable by looking for security and predictability, always hoping to be comfortable and safe. But the truth is that we can never avoid uncertainty. This not-knowing is part of the adventure. It’s also what makes us afraid (p. 5).
The trick, then: teach slowly enough, articulate enough, and demonstrate enough real, in-depth Taiji that certainty begins unraveling. In the wake of growing awareness, we leave enough room for students to become warriors.
