Playing the Lute for Well-Being

Harold Recinos, Ph.D.

Anthropologist Clifford Geertz notes that one of the most significant aspects about the human condition is that we all begin with the natural equipment to live a thousand kinds of life but end in having lived only one. As an anthropologist, I believe that cross cultural awareness helps us appreciate that our particular culture is just one way of life and adaptation strategy to environmental and social conditions among the thousands of linguistic and cultural possibilities represented by human beings. In childhood, my appreciation for cultural difference issued forth from an early start in the world of Asian martial arts. The bodily training and movement practices I first learned in Eizan Ryu, Ju-jitsu (a Japanese martial art I practiced for over twenty-five years) helped me act in and upon the world with structured perceptions and feelings unlike those constituted by my inherent culture. In time, I surmised martial arts training challenges the Cartesian dualism that separates mind from the body, and ultimately, helps one understand that the physical self the body as a subject of culture, a field of perception and action in a socially constructed world has a legitimate place in social theory and the interrelation of the self, culture and society.

My chief instructor in Ju-jitsu often said martial arts involves the training of the mind, body, and spirit, yet he mostly trained students to fight or in self-defense techniques. By the time I entered graduate school in New York City, I was eager to enrich my study of martial arts beyond Ju-jitsu. I wanted to start a new stage of development in a martial art tradition that both focused on practical self-defense techniques and disciplined centralization of thought and action. The rich tradition of self-cultivation and meditational training found in the Chinese internal martial art of Tai Chi Chuan intrigued me. As I explored the meaning of Tai Chi Chuan by reading literature on this internal form, I was convinced it offered not just exercise and martial arts skills development, but an encounter between structure and process, exercise and balance, stillness and motion, and ultimately, yin and yang.

I longed to be taught to perform the seamless and rhythmic movements of Tai Chi Chuan to experience improved physical and mental well-being. I expected the daily practice of gently strumming the lute, grasping the birds tail, parting the horses mane and waving hands like clouds to provide me with a feeling of serenity. I began my Tai Chi Chuan study at the Times Square studio of Master Chu who taught me the Cheng Man Ching 37 movement form. The day I walked into his studio I heard the light sound of an Eastern flute filling the practice hall and I saw people of various ages and sizes gracefully moving their bodies. After a year of study at the Tai Chi Chuan Center, I was invited to join the faculty of a graduate school in Washington, D.C., which resulted in a long absence from formal training in Tai Chi Chuan.

I spent fourteen years teaching in Washington, D.C., but could not find a serious school to pursue Tai Chi Chuan. I found schools mostly inspired by the so-called "human potential movement" that deemphasized martial art training. Because Tai Chi Chuan is more than a mostly slow moving health exercise, I was interested in learning nothing less than the complete tradition. Of course, the regular practice of Tai Chi Chuan stimulates the central nervous system, lowers blood pressure, relieves stress and gently tones muscles without strain. But Tai Chi Chuan is a martial art that must be studied with a teacher who reflects a depth of knowledge and remarkable martial art skills. During my search for a teacher who taught the complete system of Tai Chi Chuan, I discovered that Robert Smith was living in the Washington, D.C. area; however, when I contacted him about lessons he had already retired from teaching. I stopped searching for an authentic school of Tai Chi Chuan in Washington, D.C. and focused on my passion for long-distance running and occasional Ju-Jitsu practice sessions during visits to the New York dojo. After accepting a faculty position at Southern Methodist University about five years ago, my search for a genuine master and unrivaled teacher of internal martial arts was finally over.

I like what Buddha said of teaching, "Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened." In my view, Sifu Wuzhong Jia is that singular candle passing light to others seeking a way in the dark. I have trained with Sifu Jia for three years in Tai Chi Chuan and plan to follow him for many more. I am glad to train with Sifu Jia who has dedicated his life to promote Chinese martial arts and consider myself fortunate to learn the various families of Tai Chi Chuan from him. Sifu Jia reflects the highest standards of teaching, shows enormous patience and communicates the subtleties of internal martial arts with clear examples of body movement. For persons interested in Tai Chi Chuan or internal martial arts for the purpose of achieving greater improved health, flexibility, balance, sense of well-being, martial art skills and deeper levels of awareness, I highly recommend you train with Sifu Jia at the Hebei Martial Arts Institute. In conclusion, these few words from Chuang Tzu who was a Taoist sage, living sometime before 250 B.C. bespeak the learning process at the Hebei Chinese Martial Arts Institute: "Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate." Please join us.