Page 91 - The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin_Neat plip book

fish, floating along a two-dimensional world witho ut any sense for the go rge ous
abyss below. When these societally induced tenden cies translate int o the

learning process, t hey have devastating ef fect.

*

Let’s return to the martial arts. I thi nk it is safe to say that many pe opl e
consciously or unconsciously associate the term martial art with legend and
film. We think of ninjas passing inv isibl y thr ough the night , or shr oude d
heroes running up walls and flying thr ough the air in Crouching Tiger Hidden

Dragon. We see wild leaping Van Damme kicks and Jackie Chan fl ps . We
watch completely unrealistic choreogr aphy, fi med with sophi sticated aerial
wires and raucous special effects, and some of us come away wanting to do tha t
stuff too. This leads to the most common error in the learni ng of martial arts:

to take on too much at once. Many “Kung Fu” schools fuel thi s pr obl em by
teaching numerous flowery forms, choreogr aphed sets of movement , and
students are rated by how many forms they kno w. Everyone races to learn more
and more, but nothing is done deepl y. Thi ngs look pretty but the y are

superficial, without a sound body mechan ic or pr inci pled foundat ion. Nothi ng
is learned at a high level and what resul ts are form collectors with fanc y ki cks
and twirls that have absolutely no martial value.
I had a different approach. From very early on, I felt that the moving

meditation of Tai Chi Chuan has the pr imary martial pur po se of allowing
practitioners to refine certain fundam ental princi ples. I Many of them can be
explored by standing up, taking a stance, and incr ementally refi ng the
simplest of movements—for exampl e pus hi ng your han ds six inc he s thr ough

the air. With the practice of this type of simpl ifi motion you can feel the
subtlest ripples inside the body. You become aware of all the tens ion tha t
resides in your feet, legs, back, and sho ul der s. Then you release the tens ion,
step by step, hour by hour, month by mont h, and with the fadi ng of tens ion

comes a whole new world of sensation. You learn to di rect your awarene ss
inside the body, and soon enough your finger s come alive with tingl ing, you
feel heat surging up your back and thr ough your arms. The Tai Chi system can
be seen as a comprehensive laboratory for internal izing good funda ment als,

releasing tension, an d cultivating energetic awareness.