Chase 2008 into the history books, and make way for the 2009. World Taiji Boxing Association Instructor Steven Smith brings Tai Chi Chuan to Provo, Utah—just in time for your New Year’s resolutions. Rejuvenate and reinvent yourself.

Out with the Old; in with the New

[Thanks for the fun...Steven Smith.]

It’s hands-down the best Taiji around. Taiji’s good for lots of things…you can search other sites for more information…but this is where it gets real. No fantasies, no tricks or deception: just Real Taiji.

• Get in Shape
• Reduce Stress
• Eliminate Fatigue
• Kick Lethargy’s Butt
• Lose Weight (or gain weight: Tai Chi achieves balance)
• Get Better Balance
• Gain Energy
• Feel Better
• Heal Old Wounds
• Rejuvenate!

Tidy combat drills provoke awareness and rejuvenate reflexes. Walk through a precise Tai Chi Chuan form that deepens inner strength and sensitivity while building energy and healing your body, mind, and spirit.

Dare ya.

Taijiquan involves each practitioner in both limbs of living: we learn strength and sensitivity. Precise, vigorous solo forms and durable pushing hands form foundations of health, fitness, and energetic attitude, and energy-work (Qigong) weaves a web of compassion and integrity.

To touch the core issues that bind strength and sensitivity, notice how Chogyam Trungpa guides the vision of Taijiquan:

In order to experience fearlessness, it is necessary to experience fear. The essence of cowardice is not acknowledging the reality of fear. Fear can take many forms. Logically, we know we can’t live forever. We know we are going to die, so we are afraid. We are petrified of our death. On another level, we are afraid that we can’t handle the demands of the world. This fear expresses itself as a feeling of inadequacy. We feel that our own lives are overwhelming. Then there is abrupt fear, or panic, that arises when new situations occur suddenly in our lives. When we feel we can’t handle them, we jump or twitch. Sometimes fear manifests in the form of restlessness: doodles on a note pad, play with our fingers, or fidgeting in our charts. We feel that we have to keep ourselves moving all the time, like an engine running in a motor car. The pistons go up and down, up and down. As long as the pistons keep moving, we feel safe. Otherwise, we are afraid we might die on the spot.

There are innumerable strategies that we use to take our minds off fear. Some people take tranquilizers. Some people do yoga. Some people watch television or read a magazine or go to a bar to have a beer. From the coward’s point of view, boredom should be avoided, because when we are bored we begin to feel anxious. We are getting closer to our fear…cowardice is trying to live our lives as though death were unknown.

Fear has to be acknowledged

—Shambhala: the Sacred Path of the Warrior, pp. 47 – 48

Look deeply into these things, as you pursue Taijiquan.

Yang Lu-ch’an wasn’t called Yang Wu Di (Yang the Invincible) for acting like a wuss, and he created Taijiquan amid violent upheaval in China. So anyone who fails to teach ass-kicking, combat-foray must be teaching something pathetic: it cannot be Taiji!

Any yo-yo who teaches something fabulous like enlightenment-without-fighting is blowing soft air up your yoo-yoo. If your teacher pushes and pushes you, punch him! As Stanley Bing suggests:

Raw, amoral, naked aggression and the over-powering will to win each time, every time, all the time. Once you have that, you can add other attributes that will not only aid you in war, they will create war (p.61).

In his book, Sun Tzu Was A Sissy, Stanley Bing poignantly and humorously examines the subtleties we grow so soft with as martial artists. He chops down our silly strategies and mops up our ridiculous, petty squabbles about energies and niceties. Too bad it’s about Sun Tzu; it could be Chen Fu Was A Sissy, or, even better, Chen Man Ching Was A Wuss.

Come on. Admit it. You want that, don’t you? You’re a warrior, aren’t you? And as such, you have certain characteristics that might be considered flaws in other people, but in you are assets:

• You’re never satisfied with your fair share.
• You are swept with great drafts of Greed, Desire, Hostility, Lust. The will to Power. Free-floating Anger.
• You suffer from a monomaniacal dedication to getting your way, a passion for having things the way you want them (p.62).

….If you don’t you’re probably a sissy like Sun Tzu (or Chen Fu) and the guys who get so excited about him…(p.63).

I recommend reading Sun Tzu Was A Sissy. Get your blood boiling.

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.

While we pursue internal arts of the martial and healing nature, we search for wisdom everyday in our form and in life’s daily challenges. Frank Rivers, in The Way of the Owl: Succeeding with Integrity in a Conflicted World, offers 8 successful sections…

1. Priorities
2. Creative Maneuver and Relationship
3. Being Clear About the Invisible
4. Aligning with the Natural World
5. Training the Mind’s Eye
6. The Way That Can Be Spoken Of
7. Forging the Internal Alliance
8. A Glimpse of Wisdom

Frank imagines the contrast between the rigid, juvenile Fledgling and the experienced and wise Owl, and offers 53 short tales and treatises leading us to Owlish Mastery.

From Test and Relinquish (The Way of The Owl, pp.73-74):

Because she deal with challenging and occasionally life-threatening conflicts, the owl places an extremely high value on discovering the truth. She knows that failure to discriminate between fact and fiction will make her vulnerable. Trying to block an imaginary punch or strike an imaginary target will inevitably lead to trouble. At best, illusion and distortion are expensive distractions; at worst, they can kill. If you want to perform with grace and fluidiity, you must address things as they truly are.

Thus, the owl practices the art of science. This art is specifically designed to strip away illusion, misconception, and fallacious beliefs and penetrate to the core of what is real.

Unfortunately, the fledling misunderstand this process. He believes that science works by postulating theories about reality and then trying to prove them correct. When he tries to follow this approach in his daily life, he generates a theory—”My neighbor is aggressive and hostile”—and then looks for “evidence” to support it—”He looks suspicious.” He then declares his theory “proved.”

This is not how science works. Owlish scientists do not just look for evidence to support their theories, nor do they prove their theories correct. Instead, they look for contradictory evidence and revise their theories accordingly. In fact, scientists are actually in the business of disproving theories.

The process begins with speculation and conjecture. The scientist generates a hypothesis, then exposes it to the test of reality. In this effort, there is no attempt to prove anything. In fact, progress comes when ideas or parts of ideas are shown to be false. When this happens, erroneous ideas can be modified or rejected. Through continual speculation, testing, and revision, the scientist can move closer to the true nature of things.

The key element in this process is our willingness to discard and revise images that are incorrect. Unfortunately, we resist this process. Our images give us a sense of security. If there is a difference between image and reality, we become angry and upset with reality and its failure to conform to the pictures in our mind.

Frank tests of Taijiquan’s form applications and pushing hands can press Taijiquan back into reality. Try it: stop theorizing chi and test the truth.

Wanted: Local Martial Artists

One must exhibit a martial arts attitude to pursue healing aspects of Taijiquan, Qigong, and Baguazhang. In other words, healing comes second; without a martial arts attitude, one inevitably lacks the courage and clarity to help other individuals or communities develop the strength to pursue health and healing.

I search for martial artists. Some real and deliberate competence, in any martial art, will qualify you to participate in Real Taiji. Black Belts: I want you. If you spent time and energy gathering a black belt, you have a firm foundation, a martial attitude, and enough competence for Real Taiji.