Teaching stories

This year I have begun collecting the rich and varied teaching stories from our schools and tradition. They include my own from 20 odd years of T'ai Chi adventures, Mark's, John's, Dr Chi's and some attributed to other masters of the lineage, such as TT Liang, with whom John studied for a time, a few from my earliest T'ai Chi teachers, buddies and colleagues, and some from books that made a real impression. All of them are used in our oral tradition for teaching, that is what makes them a real living breathing thing, I realised today. I read a lot of great poetry and myth at the moment, which is wonderful, but sometimes I think, where are my stories? Then I remembered, right there in my mouth or my ears ears every few days at class!

It'll take me a couple of years to get them all down, at least. In the meantime, send me texts or emails with your favourites to add to the list, to prompt my mind: 'You know, the one with the guy who tried to steal from your backpack on the bus,' or 'That one time where Mark said 'the theme of the week was The Dark' and Pax started howling'. Some stories are slight and can be told in a few sentences, others will take a bit of shaping. Many collections of stories are from one place, or a particular culture, from an era or moment in history. Ours span different original languages, eras, countries and contexts, but are held together by the practice and the telling. Words, when aligned with actions (or in our case non-doing, sometimes) can find their true role, shedding light upon things, rather than obscuring them.

Teaching stories, in fact stories in general, are living things, best treated as gardens to be nurtured rather than inanimate objects to be handed on. I love the fact we all have our own T'ai Chi or meditation stores to add to the store, so if you have your own ones (even if it's  'the one where Caroline did such and such...) we shall gather them together and see what we have. Feel free to write some up and send them to me, if you are so inclined. I like the idea of a few versions of the same story appearing in my inbox...

First one to follow shortly.