norwich fei-yan taiji & qigong school 01603 465189 e mail: taichischool@ntlworld.com

I guess this offering is as much a confession as an essay! I've recently become more involved in online forums revolving around taiji. It's been an interesting experience. The more polite, humble and sharing of the participants encourage one to be similar - to share one's insights, to be open-minded, to not be boastful etc.

There are some however, thankfully a minority, who are either convinced that they alone understand taiji principles or that their teacher or school is the best. They also like to quote from other people's books rather than from their own experience!

So taiji, like music, literature, sport and probably every other human activity, can bring out the best and worse in people. As I get older, the urge to show off diminishes, the urge to compete diminishes, but the urge to simply improve what I do and help others to develop their potential too actually gets stronger. As we mature, the gravitational pull of our ego hopefully weakens somewhat and we can become both more objective and more self-accepting.

I begin to strongly dislike competitive push hands and competitive comments from taiji teachers. I still love push hands and talking about taiji but the urge to win or be the best has had its day. And I don't want to encourage that sort of mindset in my students either. Taiji is a journey, a long, rewarding, challenging journey that I'm so grateful to be involved with. As in nature, co-operation is just as much a part of evolution as competition.

I'm glad there are some thoughtful, generous, humble and open-minded people out there in cyberland. I will do my best to be one of them.