The interview with Faye Yip was led by Nils Klug in the context of a Workshop on Ba duan jin given by Faye in the Tai Chi Studio, Hannover, in Summer 2016.
Teaching philosophy
What is your teaching philosophy, what is your goal?
That is a big question.
… yes, I know…
That’s a big question! My goal, I guess some longterm goals… Longterm, I start by the whole thing – I go over it and I ask myself many times why am I doing what I’m doing. Sort of in terms of longterm goal I think, in the heart with me, I just really want to build this bridge to let the profound meanings behind Tai Chi and Qigong – why is it so important for our lives? – enlighten people to wake up, to understand that the values of Qigong and Tai Chi have a profound improving, turning people’s lives for the better, to almost like to “stimulate”, unlock, unleash the inner potentials and to be free from the inner Qi in this field. So I think that probably is a longterm vision. So everything I try to achieve by courses, by training and by all of that, by training a team of my instructors is to see that vision, to see that we can all – given time and practice and dedication – we can have a life.
I want to get to that – so you call it – “philosophy”: it is to truly understand why we are suffering, why we all are stressed and emotional and all of this. We suffer one way, physically or emotionally, psychologically… – Why we are suffering? And in a way, if this is the bigger philosophy, then the actual living: by engaging yourself, by experiencing the way that is giving you that tool, the “golden key”, to understand what is behind, what is going on. It is not academic by intellectually studying. It is not a study, it is a way of living, a way of experiencing life. This is the longterm “philosophy”: my way – because I can see it, I feel I can see it better over these many years. By practicing, every time when you practice it is a new journey to understand yourself, it is a new way to discover how the body reacts. So, this is why I want – all of my instructors, every time when we have this [training] – that they understand or share my vision.
This is important with the instructors training. It is not just ticking boxes, not just “I have done this, I have done this.” – I have done it and that’s it. “I have got a t-shirt, I have done it, I have got a t-shirt.” – No! It is a changing of the mentality, of seeing life differently and actually having that light switched on very, very deep. That is longterm.
My immediate [goal], from workshop to workshop, is really to help people, to improve the techniques, to improve the practice, to inspire them to practice regularly to improve and still feel that there is still room for improvement and not just “I have done this, I have done this”. – Or: it is not one day or two days – it is for longterm benefit, regular practice. So each workshop I try to help them, to let them feel something immediately they can do and they can change and then continue to work on it.
Images: Faye Yip and Taiji Forum
The interview with Faye Yip part 7 – Voluntary work and rich life
The interview with Faye Yip part 6 – The British Health Qigong Association
The interview with Faye Yip part 4 – own school and the repertoire
The interview with Faye Yip part 2 – competition landscape in Tai Chi
The interview with Faye Yip part 3 – Moving to the UK and beginning to teach