Issue 51 - Tse Qigong Centre

whole family. So no teacher would want toacknowledge a bad or incapable student.A photograph of a teacher sat down with astudent is a traditional method ofacknowledgement.If the teacher has taught for morethan several years, then there should besome good senior student. Perhaps not asgood as the teacher, but good enough toteach, and sure of their facts. Looking atsenior students is like looking at the future,like looking at what you might become. Ifthere are not many senior students, thenwhy not? Perhaps the teacher isn’t willingor able to teach, or perhaps the seniors haveleft because the teacher has tried to exploitthem in some way? Perhaps the teacherlikes to beat students up, or perhaps it is acombination of many things, ask people andfind out why.All the time one should notconcentrate too heavily upon one’s own skilljudgements, and rely mainly upon the crossreferencedevidence of other people’ssituations and attitudes. Reasoning in thisway can tell more about a teacher and hisclass than one’s own comparisons of skill,because it is impossible to judge a skill whichone does not have, particularly a high levelor internal skill. These by definition, can beelusive to indoor students.Objectivity can also be a big problemfor people with previous experience,because all good students take pride in whatthey’ve learnt and, also, in their teachers.It is difficult to admit to oneself thatsomething or someone else could be better.Even when one makes the effort to lookaround in a so-called open-minded fashion,it often happens that all we really hope todo is to grin smugly to ourselves in a selfcontentedand superior manner, watchingother people struggle for nothing. In otherwords, to vindicate all the hard work thatwe’ve done and our faith in our teachers.Whether we stay put in a class orcontinually hunt around for better, is a matter for ourselves todecide. Much must depend upon what we hope to get out of aclass and what we are prepared to put in to it. But, whereverone looks, the best of any class is found in its heart, and to getto the heart takes time, patience and persistenceby Martin LavelleThis article firstappeared in QiMagazine issue 9,July/August 1993.Throughout the Chinese Systems, be they Qigong or Gong Fu, traditionally therelationship between teacher and student was very close.This tradition was deeply ingrained in days gone by and is still true in some casestoday. However, in many cases, the term ‘Sifu’ has lost a great deal of its originalsignificance.The tree is presented here with all the significant names and relationships.Elder UncleSIBAYounger UncleSISUKElder BrotherSIHINGYounger BrotherSIDAIFounder of styleSIJOSkill Great GrandfatherTAI SIGONGTeacher’s teacher’s teacherSkill GrandfatherSIGONGTeacher’s teacherSkill FatherSIFUTeacherYouSonTODAIStudentGrand SonTOSHUNStudent’s studentGreat GrandstudentTO SUKStudent’s student’s studentElder AuntieSIBAYounger AuntieSISUKElder SisterSITSEYounger sisterSIMOIQi Magazine 4110th Anniversary Special 10th Anniversary Special 10th Anniversary Special 10th Anniversary Special 10th Anniversary Special 10th Anniversary Special 10th Anniversary Special