Instructors and lineages

[Anonymous]

I’m reading TaiChi secrets 2.0 and a couple of things struck me; I hope this will generate comments.
1. How can the beginner tell if an instructor, who boasts some lineage, is legitimate?
2. How can a beginner know if a teacher really knows how to put the Chi in the motions or if s/he’s just speaking nonsense?
3. Weekly/daily lessons for 10 years is expensive (money and time)…. Can the average Jane/Joe, with goals additional to TaiChi gain proficiency and credibility via hard study of books, DVD’s and episodic workshops? This is especially important where real, thorough masters may not be available.
=> I guess point 3 can romantically be re-worded “will Heaven really help those who help themselves”? Especially owing to the need to earn a living and the out-of-proportion increase in the cost of living.

I’m thrilled that my local library has a good collection of Bruce’s books, so the idea is to get maximum productivity from them.
Cheers!

[Anonymous]

Hi, Robin.

Bruce answers these questions in detail in his Big Book of Tai Chi. (The title may have changed since I bought it but you can figure it out if you go to the store and look.) I think you can get a lot from the Tai Chi Mastery program, but I didn’t have a lot of success working with books and DVDs when I was a beginner. I’ve been doing Tai Chi now for almost 30 hears, 12 years with Energy Arts teachers and now I can get a lot from Bruce’s materials, but if there’s any way to study with a live teacher, even for a short time, it will elevate your practice immensely. There’s a lot that goes on that isn’t communicated verbally.

Good luck with your practice. It’s worth it and just keeps getting deeper and cooler the longer you do it.

Best wishes,
Matthew

[Author]

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