Looking back, I can laugh out loud at my spiritual journey because I believe I missed the obvious.
The brother of my best friend in high school studied personally with the Dali Lama and he tells a story about the first time he saw the Dali Lama speak. To the best of my memory, the story goes that after his talk , the audience was able to ask him questions. A student asked the Dali Lama what the secret was to living a spiritual life. Everybody took out their notebooks and with baited breath waited to write down the profound words of wisdom that they were about to hear. The keys to the kingdom. They were ready to write down many words and many sentences. As the Dali Lama was about to speak, everyone focused in , not to miss the the pearls that would change their life forever.
And then came his answer. “Be Happy”. It seemed too simple. Was that all there is?
Now I can't say for sure this story is true because I wasn't there, and the details may not be correct, but I think it has a great point.
How often do we make being happy so difficult, so complicated, so unimportant. I know that for most of my life spirituality was burdensome. So often in the past, I got stuck in trying to be happy or convincing myself I was happy. I would list in my mind all the things I had that other people didn't necessarily have like a good paying “professional” job, ability to take excellent vacations, athletic ability, I was good in math, etc. That is how I tried to convince myself how great my life was, but I wasn't authentically happy. Authentic happiness does not have to be explained or rationalized. I can see that for me, the thing that most kept me from being happy was my mind.
Many spiritual seekers, I believe, make the mistake of thinking that the mind has no place in spirituality because it gets in the way. However, from my study of Tai-Chi, I have found that the mind is just as important to my spiritual growth as my heart and it is actually aligned with my heart, soul , and body in its spiritual functioning when I use it correctly.
When practicing Tai-Chi, I have noticed that when my mind is engaged in a way that is trying to figure out things and explain them , I am completely out of sync and have no idea what is happening around me, even though I think I do. I can't listen to my teacher because I am too caught up in a world of knowing. He will ask me to do something differently and I will do it the same way I always did it.
When my mind is in an observation mode, noticing the details around me, I am present to what I am doing and adjusting as I go along so that I can improve from my teachers instruction. My observational state of my mind allows all my other intelligences (body, heart, emotional) to work freely, effortlessly, and powerfully. That state creates authentic happiness. I may not get the Tai-Chi move correctly, but I know the next step for me and it is fun.
So the magic of practicing Tai-Chi for me is that I am training myself in a way to have authentic happiness in my life because I am learning how to use all my gifts together. I can have my spirit, my heart, my body, and emotions all work together and bring myself to that “spiritual” state even in stressful circumstances.
Spiritual principles are nothing new, but we often don't get to practice them consistently. The magic of Tai-Chi at DojoKitchen is that it gives me practical tools to practice being authentically happy. Practice makes permanent.
Do you talk about being happy without authentically being that way? I honor your desire to be happy. It is said that seek and you shall find. Part of seeking I have found is finding the right tools. Tai-Chi is that tool for me.
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