Wednesday, April 4, 2007

End of the Carpet

(Amituofo! Occasionally, we will feature the thoughts of a guest contributor. Today, Branden aka Quantou asked to put up a post. Xie xie, Quantou! Chi!!)

In class Shifu always tells us to use the entire floor for the line forms. As class goes along and people get tired they end their trek across the floor earlier and earlier. We end up walking a few precious feet to get back in line, precious because they could be used to do another movement or two. After stretching, the walking to the end of line gets even worse…people doing waibaitui and zhengtitui only do 4 or 5 kicks and then walk the last 10 to 15 feet of the carpet!! Sometimes space is tight, but there is always a little more room.

At my new job over the past few months there have been a few financial projects that I had spent a significant amount of time putting together. Finally the projects were in what I would consider to be a finished form. I would then sit down with my director and we would review. Inevitably there were a few details that she could always find to modify. Her corrections were sometimes banal and sometimes a miss on my part. These misses were infuriating for both of us.

As of yesterday I understand the small misses on my part were because I was not making it to the 'end of the carpet'. No matter how much chi I had to propel myself to the end, once I saw the end was near, I relaxed and started walking. I can now see making it to the end everytime has so many benefits in the temple and out. One more chance to sharpen my form, get stronger and do it correctly the first time.

3 comments:

  1. Yes, let's push ourselves!!

    However, as one of those who are towards the end of the line, especially for waibaitui and zhengtitui, sometimes I find it difficult to do more than 4 or 5 kicks mainly because those who are at the beginning of the line are already starting the next bunch of kicks, and it's dangerous for arms and legs as we pass by each other.

    If anyone who is more towards the beginning of the line reads this comment, can you please be mindful of those of us in the rear and try to start closer to the dragon columns so we have space to do a few more to the end of the carpet, as Quan Tou suggests? Amituofo!

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  2. heng zhou once said at the beginning of class to decide now where you are going to stop. this perplexed me because i thought we were supposed to go to the end of the carpet. in my experience, this isn't always up to me, especially when the folks i am training behind stop short before the end of the carpet & there is suddenly no room to continue.
    it does take the cooperation & mindfulness of everyone to make this work. we can teach the newer students by example! we need to make the most of our larger & beautiful new temple.

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  3. Last night, I was close to the end of the line when starting the second half of the class and we were doing waibaitui. I only had a chance to do only 1 waibaitui because the beginning started earlier than usual. It was somewhat frustrating. Whether you are in the beginning of the line or at the end of the line, we both have to mindful. :) My thought is that the end of the line have to be a bit quicker to catch up with the beginning of the line. Amituofo! :)

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