How I tried to Apply a Tai Chi Principle in real life

How I Tried to Apply a Tai Chi Principle in Real Life

And Why This is Beneficial for Everybody

I often spend my Saturdays with my 16-year-old daughter. I always try to practise life skills that will be useful for her in the future. I usually take concepts from martial arts as they have excellent real-life applications.

On that Saturday, I went with the principle of following or going with the flow. It is a great way to declutter your mind and therefore reduce anxiety.

We ambled to Southampton City Centre via the park and examined the flowers that had opened their flamboyant beauty for our inspection. We set out to smell them all, turning our noses into busy bees. “Ah”, I thought, “Ting time.”

Time for Ting

Ting or Jing in Tai Chi is the ability to listen to what is. We, as humans, often see little, and without even realising it, we make up everything we don’t see by using experience or expectations. Therefore, we are reacting to things mainly made up by us.

Ting is used in Tai Chi when people practice pushing hands. Practitioners try to be sensitive to the intention of the person who is pushing them. The first thing to do is just to listen and not try to fight back. It is the time to gather knowledge by listening with all your senses. Later, we work on ways to react.

But for now, it was a time to fill my mind with only the things my senses can show. Sadly, it was not meant to be.

A Hungry Hungry Caterpillar March

A Brexit March stomped past, tooting horns and shouting for the Government to respect their voice. We have all heard of the hungry, hungry caterpillar but this was an angry, angry caterpillar made up of people. We moved on.

Perhaps the art in the gallery would arouse an epiphany for the senses. I would use Ting to see what my senses told me. My senses yawned.

So, we sat in the set of an American Diner, and I pretended to be a New Yorker. It was fun, but it didn’t seem like an application of Enlightenment.

Perhaps I should have listened to the Buddha when he said, “With our thoughts, we make the world.” Hadn’t I already mentioned we tend to make up our world with expectations? Unfortunately, my expectations had not allowed me to enjoy what was. Right, time to try again.

A Turn of Events

My daughter and I wandered into the promenade and read the chalk inscriptions that were being carefully scribed by a young chap donning dreadlocks. There was a whale with a speech bubble declaring it was his world too. Extinctions are happening 1000 – 10,000 times faster than predicted. How many trees have been cut to support palm oil plantations? How many sea beds have been scraped by fishing nets the size of St Paul’s?

Then there was an announcement on the mic. “Are we ready to march?” There were only 15 of them. It was shameful because I’d seen thousands on the way to watch idiots kick a football. (Insert saints football club joke here.)

My daughter was eager to join in. We held their eco-friendly banners. Our small band marched the high street, and my daughter and I copied the chants.

Power to the People! (echo)

The People got the Power! (echo)

Tell me can you hear us! (echo)

Getting stronger by the hour! (echo)

Power! (echo)

People! (echo)

People! (echo)

Power! (echo)

People gonna rise like the water, Gunna shut this system down, Hear the voice of my great-granddaughter, Saying: Climate Justice Now!

People looked on with a mixture of admiration and guilt. I held my head up with only a dash of ego, sprinkled with the fingers of moral-high-ground.

Yes, failure again. I had let my ego party.

Ego is one of the biggest rewriters of reality. The Buddha said, “Ego is like dust in the eyes. Without clearing the dust, we can’t see anything clearly. So clear the dust and see the world.” But to be fair to me and my ego, he also said, “Ego never accepts the truth.”

A part of Ting is realising when you are not actually listening. It is then you can restart your efforts.

Third time lucky?

We walked past the brand-new showcase Cinema and before I knew it, we were in a vast foyer surrounded by white steel and glass. The small band collapsed to the floor and did not move. It was eerie. They resembled dead bodies. My daughter went slightly white, and then she smiled and joined in. I took the middle ground and sat.

It was the Cunard cruise ship operator reception. Cruise ships are heavy polluters, but they are cheaper to live on than most elderly care homes are to live in, and you get better food.

My daughter and I sat for as long as it took for security to arrive. (No martial rule of strike hard, strike often.) We all moved on.

We said our goodbyes, and my daughter said, “You know Dad, that was really good for my anxiety.”

Mission accomplished, and we’d gone with the flow and began to walk a more venerable path.