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Sept.- Dec. 2015 Schedule
Date: Wednesday, Sept. 23rd
Location: Silver Spring
- Beginner 1 (Postures 1-12) 6:30 - 7:30 pm
- Beginner 3 (Postures 25-37) 7:30 - 8:30 pm
- Corrections (all 37 Postures) 8:30 - 9:30 pm
Date: Thursday, Sept. 24th
Location: Washington DC
- Beginner 1 (Postures 1-12) 6:30 - 7:30 pm
- Beginner 3 (Postures 25-37) 7:30 - 8:30 pm
- Corrections (all 37 Postures) 8:30 - 9:30 pm
Date: Sunday, Sept. 20th
Location: CityDance at Strathmore
- Corrections (all 37 postures) 9:00 - 10:00 am
- Sensing Hands (Corrections students only) 10:00 - 11:00 am
- Beginner 3 (Postures 25-37) 11:00 -12:00 pm
- Beginner 1 (Postures 1-12) 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
- Correction Sword (Permission required) 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
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follow Cloud Hands Tai Chi
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Keuka Lake Tai Chi Camp
with Maggie Newman
This magical photo of Maggie walking with Russ and Marilyn under a double rainbow is very representative of what was a magical 2015 Tai Chi camp at Keuka Lake. One of the spontaneous highlights for me was the entire camp (about 40 people) doing the Tai Chi form in a circle.
Each day usually begins with a seated, or walking meditation in the arts barn where classes are held. One morning, at the last minute, use of the barn was not possible. Everyone walked up the hill overlooking the lake and formed a very large circle. We walked the circle in silence for about 20-30 minutes. Everyone then faced the center and began doing the Tai Chi form. While each point on the circle was directionally unique, everyone's front was the same (facing the center of the circle). Following everyone's individual journey through the labyrinth of "Fair Lady Weaves at Shuttles", it was like watching a wave breaking on the shoreline as all the left ward-offs returned home, to the center, as one.
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The desert, the Tao and perspective
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I once saw an intriguing photograph of the desert. The photographer had framed the picture by taking it through the side window of an abandoned, broken down, rusting, old car. I paraphrase the photographer’s description of that choice below:
The land was like a moonscape, too large, too desolate, too overwhelming. Through the car door frame, it made sense. It gave it a border, contained it, made it feel of the right proportion.
The ability to insert a “frame”, to bring something into “the right proportion” allows us to bring a personal perspective to what can appear at first glance to be too large, too overwhelming. By putting it into a “frame”, we make it more manageable, more understandable, more familiar to our conscious mind and potentially more useful in our daily lives. With the “frame” we allow that “too large, too overwhelming desert”, to pass through the window, but in doing so, we also diminish it. In providing a border, the “frame” also places a limitation on the “desert” that we are able to see. It is similar with respect to our attempts to understand and practice Tai Chi.
Framing the Tao in "the car door window"
Tai Chi is based in Taoism. The venerable Taoist sage, Lao Tzu, once said, “The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao”. No matter how we try to “frame”/describe the Tao, we are limiting it with our description and, ultimately, describing something else.
I like to use images in my Tai Chi practice. I find that the right image helps me relax and integrate my mind and body in the movement. Whether the image is moving the hands through water, feeling the weight drop down as a balloon rises up through the body to the top of my head, or taking a step as if wearing snowshoes, for me, the image somehow bypasses my thinking, rational mind and translates directly into bodily sensation and awareness.
I asked my current Tai Chi teacher, Maggie Newman, about using images in Tai Chi practice. Her response was to not get attached to the image. She did not question its usefulness, but said there may be a day when that currently useful image would become a limitation on my growth and development.
In her teaching Maggie stresses listening and following. She often says that the longer we practice our Tai Chi, the more susceptible we become to doing it as a habit, slowly creating a fossilized form that is “etched in stone”. Images and ideas can assist us in listening to and following the path of the chi as it guides us through the choreography of the Tai Chi form. We must remember, though, that the images are a means, not an end. If the image, or idea becomes “etched in stone”, rather than leading and guiding our movements, it can dominate the chi, forcing the chi to be subservient and conform to our idea, or image. Our practice is always just that, “a practice”; never in conclusion, it is always in process. It is always open to further understanding and change. My use of images in Tai Chi practice is like the photographer using the window frame in that desert photograph. It allows me to translate, however ineptly, the overwhelming mystery of the Tao, and the complexity with which it manifests as chi in the movements of the Tai Chi form, into something more tangible and intelligible. It creates a lens through which I can bring that larger world into a more clear focus. It gives me an experiential anchor in my bodily awareness which I can use as a reference point in reaching toward that which LaoTzu said was beyond description, let alone understanding.
Exploring the Side Canyons of Tai Chi
I recently returned from hiking with my family in the Grand Canyon. We hiked about ten miles into Havasu Falls, mostly traversing narrow, dried up riverbeds bounded by towering canyon walls. On occasion, a break in the face of the canyon wall would offer a more expansive view to a massive (dare I say, even more grand) rock face miles away from our own.
*The colossal dimensions of the canyons we hiked can be seen in the photos below.
A few days later we drove along the rim of the Grand Canyon, stopping at multiple vantage points to gaze across the endless emptiness the Colorado River carved into the landscape. The ocean of space filled with towering islands of rock was "overwhelming". It is SOOOOOO BIG!...277 miles long, up to 18 miles across and over a mile deep. Absolutely beyond my ability to comprehend. That said, looking down into the Canyon with binoculars, I was able to spot some small, familiar detail similar what we had seen while hiking through "a side canyon of a side canyon" on our way to Havasu Falls. Through my experience of a microcosm of the Grand Canyon, I had some hint of what that larger reality of the Canyon might hold. Hiking in the bowels of a side canyon provided a frame through which I could interpret the immensity of the larger Grand Canyon.
Similarly, in our Tai Chi practice, if we can quiet the ego, we can then trust the reality of our experience and allow it to guide us toward deeper understanding. It is imperative that we remain unflaggingly dedicated to "keepin' it real", to authenticating our experience each and every time we enter into our practice, insuring that ego driven ideas do not dominate and dictate the movements. In this way we can follow, letting the chi lead flowing movements as they carve a pathway of understand that runs as deep and wide as......
..... Well, maybe we should start with Rock Creek Park.
Top Photo: Panorama to the Colorado River from Desert View Watchtower overlook
Collage below: Upper left, the side canyon leading into Havasu Falls.
Lower right, view to the Grand Canyon via Bright Angel Falls trail.
In between, people providing perspective.
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Saturday Morning Practice
A great way to start the day! There is nothing like a few rounds of Tai Chi to get the body up and moving. We meet every Saturday morning from 8:30 – 9:30 am. No experience is necessary. It is a great way to be introduced to Tai Chi, brush up after the summer break, or just get outside and enjoy doing some Tai Chi with a nice group of friendly people.
Saturday morning practice
8:30 - 9:30 am
Location: Veterans Plaza (directly in front of the Civic Building)
At the corner of Fenton Street and Ellsworth Avenue
Silver Spring, Md 20910
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