Many of the histories of, and stories about teachers, masters, grandmasters, and so-called great grandmasters, particularly in the martial arts, are stories of human vainness, one way or another.

As a teacher of a bodymind practice stop elevating yourself by defining yourself as a student of a famous teacher, a well-known lineage, or by declaring yourself to be a lineage holder in a certain lineage—or generally by relying exclusively on human teachers. It is best not to think of them and of yourself as anything special.

You find a focus on patterns and modes of (interspecies, “inter-being”) communication—languages much more fundamental than human language—in Taoist philosophy because of the Taoist “educational” and cultural goal of long-term sustainable human integration into smaller and larger ecosystems.

As a teacher of a Taoist bodymind practice you therefore let non-human elements in your environments (things, matter, plants, animals, natural phenomena, landscapes, …) take ever more important roles on your endless learning path. They are your companions, fellow students, and teachers. In a Taoist bodymind practice, you do not only follow individual human beings. You “follow”, you do your best to integrate into the ecosystems you are a part of. As a teacher of a Taoist bodymind practice, our task on this learning path is to become a linking and supporting element—as infinitesimal as it might be—within the continuum of natural cycles, the succession of generations within our ecosystems—rather than just being a teacher of a mere movement practice. It is about the transmission of profound information with simple tools.