Perspective and the Taichi Family

Good morning. I'd like today to talk about something that's very important and that is the Marshall family of Tai Chi Tuan. I come from a broken family and I know all the symptoms and the causes and I see them all over the place. I think fellow practitioners of this art need to understand that it's a matter of perspective. We all have our own pride in our particular lineage and that's both a good to bad thing. The bad thing about it is it's tended to close people's minds. I've observed that painfully many times where I'm trying to help somebody and they don't even want the answer.

Um, it's a matter of perspective. All the different frames, large, middle, fast frame, small frame, usage frame, boxing frame, lift legs frame. All these forms were made by the family to acquire particular skills. I'm not going to get into a big discussion on that, but essentially when someone is doing a form with their hands in the seated posture and someone else is doing it with beautiful lady's wrist, they're trying to acquire different skills.

Uh it's beyond foolish to ever cast dispersions on any practitioner doing something you do not understand. Um, everyone has their perspective and from their perspective everything is beautiful. If I had someone here with me right now, I could give you some physical examples but essentially there are different ways of doing every posture based on the internal mechanics and the internal mechanics have to match the external mechanics in the traditional forms.

People do not necessarily do these things and they acquire parts from all over the place and try to kind of make something that works. Um, bottom line is all I'm trying to suggest is you should keep your mind and heart open to someone is teaching you, but don't be afraid to look at what someone else is doing. One thing I've observed in life is the more someone tries to hide something from me, usually the more valuable that thing is. So, you should try to keep your minds and hearts open and share with each other as brothers.

Don't leave your little brother dragging behind or your little sister pick them up and carry them if you need to, but make this a family. At least in my particular lineage, it's got to be that way. I'm not interested in uh what I see going on here in the world. Everyone else can compete with each other. We are family and anyone who comes to me from any lineage will be treated as family. They will also have me protect their teacher.

I do that all the time. I've deliberately not engaged with people that I knew would cause a problem for someone else. This is called compassion and empathy. I highly recommend you endeavor to engender some of these qualities and not just push someone around. Thank you for your time.