Spirit

Soft & open enough to allow what is there, at this time and in this place, to condense and settle onto the exchange and charge it with the immediacy and grace of spirit. Such spirit is intensely democratizing – humbling – levelling – but bringing you both up a level – to the level of spirit. Spirit becomes the teacher – it makes thing fresh, new and exciting. When teaching always look for something new and interesting in a posture – something you hadn't realized was there before – something that will bring the posture alive and transform the teaching experience into a creative and collaborative one. The students inspire the situation and on some level they should know it. Then, as well as teaching an aspect of spirit, there will be an emphasis put on posture as process rather than rigid structure. The postures are fluid and open enough to be vehicles for spirit and energy – the celebration and realization of what is unique and particular about an occasion – as well as general carriers of habitual (however beautiful or functional) form.

The big conundrum in Tai Chi is – How do I practice Form day in day out without it becoming habitual and stale? With spirit is the answer. Then each time it is different, but also each time it brings alive the spirit of the perfect Form which you never really manage to realize and you may never have seen (you don't need to have seen it), but you do manage to touch and rouse. We call this touching perfection.