Aron’s Seminar report (Rimetea)

9 years have passed since the last European Yuan-Chi intensive seminar and 9 years since physical contact with Sifu.

Sifu set up the stage for going into the subtle from the first day. The daily routine consisted of early morning Sahaja Yoga meditation, morning dance, morning lesson, afternoon lesson, and free practice. We had coffee talks, serving meals in between, plus siesta time.

The practice and lessons were mainly focused on push hands and meta-therapy, those parts that are very hard or almost impossible to transfer without physical presence and physical contact. Both methods practised the Way of the Tao, by being “neutral” revealed slowly the essence of Yuan-Chi and the Dance itself. It wasn’t easy to absorb and live it, I took as much as I could with me. I do feel the need to dig deeper into the spontaneity during my practices.

Push hands: failed several times with Sifu, as being unbalanced by thoughts, resistance, and assistance, depending on my internal state each fraction of the second made different parts of the body act in different ways. When I was too permissive (yin) with my arms my body turned too much causing resistance, action, and stiffness (yang) in the shoulder and other parts of the body; unbalanced. Sifu felt this immediately and could easily push me. When I was too stiff (yang), I was unbalanced in the first movements. The subtle sensitivity towards the central path is still to be developed and established.

Pushing hands into meta-therapy was a specific exercise and experiment of letting go, and then going with the flow with Sifu till all gentle movements and motion stopped. These 2 or 3 experiments gave me a different meaning to the dance of Yuan-Chi, the sense of being moved.

During the 108 dance there were moments in styles like Left Grasp Bird’s Tail, Turn Chop Fist when feelings from meta-therapy push hands arose spontaneously, as if my body had been moved by the arms.

Sifu warned us several times how easy it is to diverge from the central path and corrupt the meta-push hands. It is enough to simply be resisting or assisting, having a “happy ego” by creating mental projections of “being on the Way” but in essence already being diverted from the Way.

It was an unforgettable seminar that filled quite a few missing pieces from the puzzle, from the whole picture. Lots of on hands-on practice, teachings, failures, and learnings on a large spectrum: yuan-chi, therapies vs meta-therapy, push hands, tai chi chuan without and with sword, meditation, sahaj experiences, and lots of discussions on history…

Wishing all the best,
Aron

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