This is a post I found drafted but had not published. I thought I would finally share what I had written two years ago in 2018. It’s now March 2020.
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The value that you get from Master Chen Zhonghua’s Practical Method workshop is immeasurable. This is was my fourth workshop and I cannot explain just how much was packed into the two days.
Master Chen walked us through the history of Taijiquan and how Practical Method came to be. It never ceases to amaze me how fortunate we are to be able to have this knowledge passed to us in a manner where the veil of mysticism is stripped away. It is just a matter of whether or not the student is open enough to see everything that they are being taught as it is, and not what they “think” it is.
It has been a real journey studying Practical Method. I must say that I have not been the best student. Why? It’s because I let my perceptions get in the way. I choose to remember what I interpret from what I have been told or shown, not exactly as how it was told or shown. I try to understand things based on what I already think I understand of the world. In the first three years of study, Master Chen has said that this is when we are a baby. Just as a baby, we should only be copying. We don’t know enough to understand why, but we just copy. I wasted so much time interpreting and relating; not to mention, not practising daily.
