Nature Is Still the Teacher

I wasn’t looking for a lesson.

I wasn’t reading an ancient text or practicing a form. I was simply drifting quietly across a peaceful lake on my paddle board at sunset. 

A short distance away, I noticed a crane. It had one foot in the lake and one planted on the sandy shore, its slender body nearly blending into the tall grasses surrounding it.  

It had caught a snake.

For several minutes I watched, hardly believing what I was seeing. The crane would strike. The snake would twist and resist. Each moved according to its own nature—one long and fluid, the other tall and precise. 

It felt as though I was witnessing the live-action version of a famous legend—the battle between crane and snake that had inspired Tai Chi’s founder Zhang Sanfeng. 

Generations of practitioners have looked to nature as their teacher. They watched birds, snakes, water, wind, and trees, searching for principles instead of techniques.

Standing on my board, I understood why.

The crane wasn’t trying to be graceful. The snake wasn’t trying to be soft. Neither was trying to “win” in the way humans think about winning.

They were simply expressing exactly what they were, moving in a way that was in accordance with their own nature. 

That is what Tai Chi asks of us.

Not to imitate a crane.

Not to imitate a snake.

But to discover our own natural way of moving through the world. To discover and connect more fully with our authentic selves. 

As I paddled away, I realized something else.

Nature doesn’t just teach us about the Tao; it gives us the opportunity to experience it. 

I wasn’t looking for a lesson.

But nature had quietly offered one.

--Rhiannon