What struck me most about The Professor was how through the accounts of his students, and even through the scenes of Cheng Man-Ching practicing himself or helping his students, you really got the sense of how special this man really was. His ability to connect with his students on such a deep spiritual and emotional level even across a language barrier was evident in how Tai Chi for so many of his students became a lifelong practice. It is a relatively recent understanding in Western medicine and psychology that caring for the mind benefits the body, and caring for the body benefits the mind. This is the basis for many Eastern philosophies and religions. From yoga and meditation in Hinduism and Buddhism, to Tai Chi in Taoism, there is an understanding that exercising the body is simultaneously an exercise in spiritualism. In terms of Western psychology, there is that understanding just in a less spiritual sense. Exercising the body is known to help the mind by reducing stress, but it it rarely talked about in terms of a spiritual experience. At one point in the video, someone said that those practicing Tai Chi and really focusing on the movements and postures don’t even realize that they are meditating. That really struck me as a key point in the video. It seemed like a lot of the students were drawn to Tai Chi as a new, unique form of exercise, but stuck with it because of the immense spiritual benefits they discovered along the way. I think in a lot of ways there is a tendency in the west to not trust tradition when it comes to medicine or understanding how the body and mind works, and while Western medicine and psychology certainly has developed a lot over the last century, there is a reason much of Eastern medicine and psychology has remained relatively unchanged in the last 5000 years.

I found that The Professor was similar in many ways to Brilliant Moon, a documentary on Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, a Vajrayana Buddhist master who was instrumental in the preservation of Tibetan Buddhism after the Chinese invaded Tibet. The practices and philosophies behind Tai Chi seem very similar to a lot of Buddhist practices and philosophies. Additionally at their cores, both deal with how tradition is preserved in an ever changing world. I would highly recommend Brilliant Moon to anyone who enjoyed The Professor or who is interested in Asian philosophies. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed The Professor and learning about an aspect of Asian philosophy and practice that I hadn’t known much about before!