A compassionate teacher always loses

Compassion has a bad name in the competitive world. It means losing. It means you're not up to standard. It means you're not promoted. It means you don't know how to play the game. But sometimes, in order to learn, a teacher has to show you what not to learn. And that is when he needs to "lose" to show you the way. Sadly, such teachings are only effective if the student is ready to learn. If the student is out to "win" the teacher, the loss is more than what the teacher is giving up, the loss is the lesson itself.

To put this into context, I first noticed this in a tai ji push hands class. The thing about push hands is that the more muscle you use, the harder you fall. Then I saw my teacher resisting the temptation to let that happen, but allow the student to continue to push him around, so that the student can learn and not just "push and be done".

I don't know about him, but I would think it must be boring for the teacher to continue to let the student push around and yet choose not to fight back. And yet, my current teacher is doing it over and over again. This is sometimes a more worthwhile lesson than push hands itself - compassion to teach.

My current teacher said that he has fused his life with Tai Ji's teachings. This is probably one of the fusions. If only more students realise what a gift the teacher has been presenting. Maybe you might notice this in one of your class one day. :)