A frog was living in a well. Every day he played in the moss at the bottom of the well, jumping from stone to stone. Every day, he also looked up at the little bit of sky that appeared through the top of the well and enjoyed the sunshine for a few minutes, always thinking “isn’t this wonderful!”. Every time another animal peered over the edge of the well, he would call him down saying “Come and join me in the well, it’s so beautiful here. We have moss. We have a few rays of sunshine every day. Isn’t this the most beautiful place in the world?” Little did he know that all the time he was missing out on the wonders of the world outside: the vast expanse of sky, the beauty of the trees and flowers, the peaceful gurgling of clear streams – all these he was unaware of…
This story represents the state that we are all in when we start learning about Tai Chi. As beginners we cannot appreciate the full scope of Tai Chi, because it goes into areas we have never come across before, therefore we have no concept of them and cannot appreciate their importance. However as we learn, as our awareness starts to expand, we start to see that there is so much more to it than we could have understood previously.
My personal experience is that over years of Tai Chi training I have found myself being the frog in the well over and over again. For example when I started understanding applications and their purpose, I started to see myself, my relationships to other people and my place in the world in a completely different light, from a much bigger perspective. I realised that what I thought was a rich experience of life was actually very limited, and that life could actually be so much richer still.
Going through this process, realizing you are the frog in the well, can be both wonderful and deeply disturbing. It can be wonderful as your horizons expand and you discover new things. Equally it can be disturbing as all the points of reference that you previously had are shifted. It is a process that everyone needs to go through in their own time – but the results certainly are worth it.