Tai Chi Chuan ~ Chi Kung ~ Somatics ~ Meditation ~ Testimonials

Testimonials

"Tai Chi Chuan instruction (and also Chi Kung and Somatics) with Horacio Lopez is an insightful tour of a system of energy transformation within the Mind, Body and Spirit. Very skillful and dedicated, Horacio shares his knowledge in incremental doses that carefully match the student's needs. A valuable tool, useful for people of all ages, cultures and times Tai Chi Chuan supports a healthy, relaxed and balance lifestyle." - Drs. Perales and Laven

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" ... under the guidance of Master Horacio Lopez, I have enjoyed many benefits including : greatly sustained focus and mental clarity, increased physical endurance, improved posture and significantly enhanced physical and mental energy. Students also gain insights into traditional Chinese cosmology, thought and perceptions related to the practice of tai chi." - Roberto Botello, teacher

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"Horacio's investment in contemporary and ancient writings, seminars, videos, and competition is vast and ongoing, and extends into philosophical teachings that harmonize with the principles of TCC. His school gives San Antonians an opportunity unparalleled anywhere to learn Tai Chi Chuan in depth." - Jim Dawes

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Making Salad and Learning T'ai Chi
Mary Francine Danis, Ph.D.
Dean, College of arts and Sciences
Our Lady of the Lake University

Almost every time I make a salad, I think about my father, God rest his gentle soul. Daddy used to recite his father's instructions for dressing a salad: "Add vinegar like a miser, pour on oil like a spendthrift, and toss like a madman." That combination is a perfect analogy to describe my t'ai chi instructor, Horacio Lopez. He administers the vinegar of correction in tiny doses; he doesn't quite lavish the oil of praise like a spendthrift, but his compliments make you feel as if you've acquired a fortune. And though his instruction rises from a deep well of peace, he is passionate about the gentle martial art form, t'ai chi.
I should mention that Horacio's assistant, Jacqi Crow, was my very first t'ai chi teacher, and she has absorbed the virtues that I admire in him. Throughout this essay, I pay tribute to Horacio; but almost everything I say applies, in miniature, to Jacqi as well.
When I began learning t'ai chi in January 2001, I often commented that it had an important side benefit: it was valuable for me, a perfectionist composition teacher, to feel stupid and imperfect -it helped me sympathize with my students. My frustration came, though, from my own impatience and inadequacy-not from the way that Horacio taught. He didn't then, and he doesn't now, try to correct everything we do wrong. Instead, he observes while we practice the entire form; then he gathers us around and re-teaches two or three central points-both in words and in action. Sometimes he individualizes the instruction, making direct eye contact with someone in particular, and that person knows, "This part is meant for me." At other times, he singles out a person-but never in a way that belittles us. His approach lets us practice in the security of double knowledge: he sees where we need to improve, and he'll tell us about it when the time is right.
And when we do something well, he pours on the oil of encouragement. He once said, "When I watch you do the form, I'm not just looking for mistakes to criticize. I'm watching so I can enjoy how much you've learned." If he's been offering tips on the way we shift our weight, then he notices when we've succeeded in making adjustments. Just a simple phrase like "Good, Francine" can go a long way toward reinforcing what we've learned.
My dad's formula for salad-making didn't mention the seasonings. In the salad of Horacio's instruction, the oregano and black pepper come from his analogies. He spices up his teaching and makes it memorable with metaphors like these: "Round your arm as if you were reaching around a tree trunk"; "When you stretch out your arm, imagine that you're offering a pie to someone"; or "Imagine that you're about to step into a boat and you're handing a baby to someone who's already in the boat."
If you can create a mantra for tossing a salad that's as pithy as "add vinegar like a miser, pour on oil like a spendthrift, and toss like a madman," then you have a healthy self-awareness of your craft. This too applies to the way Horacio Lopez teaches. He is what Donald Schön calls a "reflective practitioner"-someone who practices a profession in a manner that develops as the person's own thinking matures. Horacio reads to us now and then from writers like Osho and Krishnamurti, commenting on how their reflections apply to our practice. And he asks us occasionally to talk about why we continue practicing t'ai chi. Thus he invites us in turn into deeper self-awareness.
For me, one of the chief elements of reflective practice is remembering that we need to return, over and over, to the basics. Horacio regularly reminds us of the central principles of t'ai chi (lift your head; sink your weight; balance inner and outer, and so on). He does this, not in a way that implies we're stupid to have forgotten the basics, but in a gentle, matter-of fact manner, aiming to help us incorporate those fundamental principles into our every move.
This gentle, respectful, passionate, funny, observant man is teaching me the joy of disciplined, purposeful movement; he has helped me increase my sense of grace, balance, and centeredness. In addition, he has taught me much about the way to teach and the way to live.

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