In Such Silence, Is My Soul Awake

by Dr. Gregory T. Lawton

I remember a morning several years ago when before dawn I was doing my Tai Chi forms by a lake. It was still dark as I began the intimate movements of my form. As the sky lightened I became aware of a Great Blue Heron standing within inches of my right leg. As it happened, I was in a Tai Chi posture called “White Crane Stands on One Leg,” I was standing on my right leg, and my friend the Heron was also standing on his right leg!

By appearance Tai Chi is a dance in slow motion. But this unhurried grace is simply a mask to be lifted away, layer by layer, until reaching the seed of spiritual and physical energy within. Tai Chi Chuan has been described as moving meditation, but I think of it as a dance of the spirit and I call my Tai Chi, Shen Wu, or spirit dance.

I have been a Tai Chi teacher for many years, but I have learned that what is really important about Tai Chi simply can’t be taught, it has to be experienced and the only way to experience it is to practice and to practice very hard. In Chinese martial arts this is called “eating bitter,” which simply means you can bend yourself to a task that is so difficult that it hurts you on every level of your being.

The concept of a teacher in oriental philosophy is as a guide on a journey. Artistic expressions of teachers usually depict a leader leading a group of students along a trail. In this visual representation of a teacher, the teacher is only but a few steps ahead of the students, but still the teacher leads.

Although some expect it, I tell my students that I cannot teach them everything. There are many hidden truths that are meant only for them to find. I have suggested that even if I could tell them “everything,” it would be like a mirage to them. When you experience something yourself, it becomes your deepest truth. Why look to a teacher for this knowledge, doesn’t the crutch weaken the leg?

The experience of Tai Chi is an experience that changes us; when we end the dance we are not the same person that began the dance. Tai Chi is like a millstone turning; it grinds against us turning us into humble flour, common bread for God’s table. To me it is just a dance. Some call it yoga, others enlightenment, some Karate and others Kung Fu.

So let us finish the dance, let us dance until dawn, dancing our whole life long, and if we tire? Time enough to lay our selves down, tucked in tight in our blankets of earth, and to dream of dancing and dancing, dancing until dawn. In such silence, is my soul awake.

Dr. Gregory T. Lawton is a graduate of the National College of Naprapathy and the National University of Health Sciences. He is a licensed chiropractor in Michigan, he is a licensed naprapath in Illinois, and he is a certified acupuncturist in Idaho. He is nationally board certified in acupuncture, chiropractic, physical therapy, and radiology. He is the founder and owner of the Blue Heron Academy of Healing Arts and Sciences in Michigan and Indiana with nine training centers. He is the author of numerous health science publications ranging from medical massage and medical acupuncture, and to holistic health care and clinical nutrition. Dr. Lawton is the author of three titles on martial arts. He has enjoyed 53 years of training in the oriental martial and healing arts and when he is not treating and healing, he is “beating students up” in his martial arts training center and enjoying it greatly! This also provides him with an endless supply of injured patients and a permanent income.