Page 77 - The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin_Neat plip book

study of numbers to leave numbers. My understanding of learning was abo ut
searching for the flow that lay at the heart of, and transcended , the techni cal.

The resonance of these ideas was exciting for me, and tur ned out to be huge ly
important later in my life. But for an eight een- year-old boy, more than
anything the Tao Te Ching provided a framework to help me sort out my
complicated relationship to material ambi tion. It helped me fi e out wha t

was important apart from what we are told i s impo rtant.
When I returned to America after my time in Eur ope, I wanted to learn
more about the ideas of ancient China. In October 1998, I walked int o William
C. C. Chen’s Tai Chi Chuan studio on the recommendat ion of a family friend.

Tai Chi is the meditative and martial embo di ment of Taoist phi losophy, and
William C. C. Chen is one of its greatest living masters. The combi na tion was
irresistible.

*

I think what initially struck me that fall evening, when I watched my fi st Tai
Chi class, was that the goal was not winni ng, but , simpl y, being. Each of the

twelve people on the dojo floor seemed to be listening to some qui et, int erna l
muse. The group moved together, slowly glidi ng thr ough what looke d like an
earthy dance. The teacher, William C. C. Chen , flowed in front of the stude nt s,
leading the meditation. He was sixty-four years old but in the moment he

could have passed for anywhere between forty and eight y, one of tho se age less
beings who puts out the energy of an anci ent gorilla. He moved dreamily, as if
he were in a thick cloud. Watching Chen , I had the impr ession tha t every fi r
of his body was pulsing with some strange electrical connect ion. His ha nd

pushed through empty space like it was feeling and drawing from the subt lest
ripples in the air; profound, precise, no thi ng extra. His grace was simpl icity
itself. I sat entranced. I had to learn m ore.
The next day I went back to the school to take my fi st class. I remembe r

that as I stepped onto the floor, my ski n prickled with excitement. Everyone
was warming up, swaying around with thei r fists slappi ng into the ir lower
backs in what I would later learn was a Qigo ng exercise. I tried to follow but
my shoulders felt tight. Then Chen walked ont o the fl or and the room was

silent. He smiled gently as he found hi s pl ace in front of the class. The n he
slowly closed his eyes while exhal ing deepl y, his mind moving inw ard,