By Sheppard Ferguson
Shep is a Tai Chi student at Wu Dao
Shep is a Tai Chi student at Wu Dao
I have hung-in at Wu Dao because there is a visually compelling aura to the movements of Shi-Fu Tim Hartman and some of the more advanced students of Wu Dao and because Shi-Fu Tim’s disciplined, patient and frequently light-hearted teaching style has energized me to believe I could connect with Tai Chi and enjoy the process.
The add-on to this is the good story that goes with it: 1500
years of history at the Shaolin Temple in China where Tai Chi was developed. Bits
and pieces of this story are strewn through our training and accompanying
conversations; they flavor the whole stew of yin and yang, parry and strike,
tighten and release, concentrate and relax at Wu Dao. Certainly, for a
Eurocentric person like myself, who has never done Yoga, Asian martial arts are
foreign; so, a good story has helped validate the weird stuff I’m doing,
lubricated the process, helped me understand the peculiar intensity and beauty
of Shi-Fu Tim’s coiling movements. And kept me involved, progressing millimeter
by millimeter. For me, Wu Dao has become entirely credible, if a slightly
lesser version of mythical martial arts on mountain-tops in China.
Then along comes Shifu Shi De Cheng.
In seconds the placidly calm man explodes into movements one
barely sees though they seem to
shake the building’s foundation, then instantly he returns to his friendly,
affable pose. Anyone watching asks, “What the … was that? How did he do that?” Next
door to Burger King, 1500 years of Shaolin become very real, a definitive explanation
of everything I’ve been struggling
with in my years at Wu Dao: Shifu Shi De Cheng made the vision into the here
and now, the tradition become reality.
I had thought that being in a workshop or at a talk with
Shifu Shi De Cheng would be like witnessing the extraordinary athleticism and artistry
of a brilliant forth generation Eastern European circus acrobat in an unapproachable,
ethereal world. But, I was surprised to find that I walk
on the same earth with the Shifu. And, inspired to keep walking
