The Journey Within

I am another year older now, but still, I am holding a Harry Potter book on my way to work. The train journey seems pretty short nowadays. The usual “are we there yet” has given way to “oh no, only one stop to go!” as I hurried through the pages before I need to alight and head for my office desk, which seemed extremely uninviting these days – I would rather be with my book. I try to make time at night, but it makes the morning a torture. Do this a few days and work suffers. *Ssssh* nobody knows.

Sometimes, I can’t believe I can lose myself in a kid’s book. After all, it’s “just a storybook”. But when reading it, I gladly succumb to the world that is Harry Potter. Somehow, losing myself into the fantasy world beats going back to reality. But the book has to end, and when my nose finally lifts out from the book, I am another year older. Time doesn’t stand still, but it’s worth dipping into dreams now and again, after all, all realities started off with a dream, or an idea – just like writing Harry Potter.

Well done Ms Rowling – for giving me a different excuse to keep awake.

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Compassion has a bad name in the competitive world. It means losing. It means you’re not up to standard. It means you’re not promoted. It means you don’t know how to play the game. But sometimes, in order to learn, a teacher has to show you what not to learn. And that is when he needs to “lose” to show you the way. Sadly, such teachings are only effective if the student is ready to learn. If the student is out to “win” the teacher, the loss is more than what the teacher is giving up, the loss is the lesson itself.

To put this into context, I first noticed this in a tai ji push hands class. The thing about push hands is that the more muscle you use, the harder you fall. Then I saw my teacher resisting the temptation to let that happen, but allow the student to continue to push him around, so that the student can learn and not just “push and be done”.

I don’t know about him, but I would think it must be boring for the teacher to continue to let the student push around and yet choose not to fight back. And yet, my current teacher is doing it over and over again. This is sometimes a more worthwhile lesson than push hands itself – compassion to teach.

My current teacher said that he has fused his life with Tai Ji’s teachings. This is probably one of the fusions. If only more students realise what a gift the teacher has been presenting. Maybe you might notice this in one of your class one day.

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I never realised I was looking, until I found it, only to realise that I have been looking for it all along.

I have been looking for a way to give something back to the society, be it through work, business, or a charitable organisation. I’ve finally stumbled across something which speaks to me on a fundamental level.

I’m not sure if you have thought of what does charity mean. So far, to me, the word “charity” means giving away money to the poor/needy, most of the time with only a vague idea of where that money is going. I don’t like giving just because I pity the person. I would rather give so that the person will be empowered to do something about his/her situation. This thought did not fully materialise until I read about Room to Read.

I’ve recently read a book by John Wood – Leaving Microsoft to change the world. As the title suggest, he left Microsoft and set up Room to Read, an organisation providing children with the opportunity to learn. He started off with an aim to give books to children in Nepal, as their biggest school library has only 20 books, made up of leftovers by travelers, with books like “The Lonely Planet Guide to Mongolia” and romance novels by Danielle Steel. From that small aim, it evolved into building schools and libraries for several countries, on top of the original aim of supplying books to these group of children.

I’m sure there will be more blogging entries to come about this, but why not visit the website for yourself. See if this speaks to you as much as it did to me.

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My third teaching session – only one student. I must be really boring my students! When my teacher commented about a student who didn’t turn up, he made a comment which I didn’t fully appreciate at the time. He said:

“for students who can’t turn up, they should actually tell me in advance out of courtesy…”

For my students who didn’t turn up, I actually had to ask if they were coming, just to realise only one could make it that day.

I wonder if it’s because the classes are free and hence less appreciated than paid-for classes. My initial thought was to make them pay at least a little bit so that they have a financial stake in the class. And I was planning to donate the proceeds away just as an added incentive for turning up for classes.

I voted against it to see if any students will turn up in the first place. Will see how this goes. But somehow, learning Tai Ji IS boring, until you get the “joy” of it. While performing just to show them the full form, someone commented on how I was “enjoying” it. He had a hard time describing what he saw.

I guess it’s a compliment in a sense, although to the trained eye, I’m probably still quite some way off! The more important point is, how to make a Tai Chi class more interesting. Some people like being shown the applications, some like the fact that they’re learning something, some like the social aspect of it, some treat it as a form of dance choreography – once you get the movements, you have learnt Tai Chi.

For starters, I guess I have to cater to all tastes, just to get them through the “door”. If you have any other suggestions on how to make a class more interesting, please suggest away!

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