Stefan: I think that’s one reason why this particular teacher-student relationship works so well, because you’re looking at two perfectionists, looking at two professionals, two folks who have a higher vision about whatever their craft is, and they recognize that about each other. I think there’s a link.
LR: One of the things I thought about when I learned more about Ren, apropos of what you just said, he has concentrated on this his entire life. Period. Me, I’ve concentrated on music pretty much to the exclusion of other things. And even within that to sound and tone. And I’m good for hours on that particular subject. Magnets and speakers, gears, tubes, what kind of tubes, wood, what makes a good guitar. All my stuff’s custom.
That’s what I do. I mean, there are peripheral things I do, I do photography, I write plays, I have books published, but that’s neither here not there. Essentially it’s been concentrating on this one thing. I’m not joking around when I’ve said occasionally, trying to learn how to play a D chord properly has been a very big thing for me. The exact way to get this tone, which I can now do all the time, has taken forever, it seems like forever. When I think about that for X number of years experimenting with wood and pickups, if you actually thought about it you’d say, that person’s crazy. But that’s what I do. And with him, and his background, I say, ah, I recognize that! I know what goes into that. And appreciate that.
Lou pauses to take a sip of his coffee.
M: (to Ren) What do you think about working together with a different kind of master and artist?
Ren: I was very surprised that he was very serious when I teach, and he’s been training very hard. I remember one time he practiced before one class, one hour. Then I come in and he’s training for 2 hours, after that he comes to my class, and practices for nearly two hours, and that’s total of nearly 5 hours. That’s very difficult!
LR: But in this particular instance he had showed me something, and I know I have a very short attention span, and have to always compensate for it, so I was very much afraid that if I didn’t stay on top of this thing, I knew the next day we’d go over the very same thing again. But I didn’t want to have him show up and then I couldn’t remember it, couldn’t do it, you know. I just knew if I went to the class (after our lesson) and reinforced it, it would last until the next day and then we could go further, faster, than if I just went enough is enough, my mind is tired.
I try very much, whenever I do projects, whatever it is, there’s only one thing on my mind, only one thing. And nothing interferes with that, it doesn’t matter, the house could be burning down, really. So doing tai chi now, it’s like that. And I know myself well enough to know, if it’s not clear in my head I’m gonna forget. Is the hand this way or is it this way? I don’t want to wait until tomorrow and waste all that time. There’s only X amount of time. You can do whatever you want with that time. It’s your time. Nobody can practice for you.
Ren: For Lou Reed, it’s not really very hard. He practices very seriously. I’m very, very lucky, I’m the teacher of Lou Reed!
At the beginning, I didn’t know his music. I was talking to a friend and I said I was teaching a musician now, his name was Reed, and later he came and said to me, “Do you mean Lou Reed?” I said yes. He said, “Are you kidding?” I say, I’m not kidding. He says, “Wow, he’s very, very famous!” I go, oh I don’t know! After I tell people I teach Lou Reed tai chi, they don’t believe me.
He’s very good, very nice, all the time, very, very – keqi – what is the word?
Stefan: Very Respectful. And he has the instinct which is important for the traditional martial arts student-teacher relationship.
Ren: And he’s very smart. His form now is very good, he practices very hard. Some form, I teach him, a few times, he follows me very, very close. He surprises me too. Sometimes he kicks, and it’s very high, he’s very, very happy. I’m happy too. Sometimes he thinks he can’t, then after it goes up he’s surprised too … (laughs)
LR: With Master Ren, if I’d tell him I can’t do that and he’d say, yes you can, and it turns out I very much can do it. So I really pay attention to what he says and I don’t say I can’t do that any more.
The first time it was like a reflex, he was doing one of those kicks and I said, no no no, and he said, “Well, do this.” I was like, I can’t do that! “Do this then,” he says. “Now do that.” And I did. He said, “I thought you couldn’t do that!” And I said, shows you what I know! So I have nothing to say about that any more. It’s a different level.
Bodily changes take place, like the thing with the kick. I think just two days after he showed me these points, I was doing the form, I wasn’t trying to do a higher kick, I just did the kick and it went voop! And we looked at each other, and he said, “You’re surprised.” I said, I am, I didn’t expect that, I wasn’t trying to do it either. You know, when you’re relaxed, you’re putting it out there, and then it comes, oh, I can do that. But it’s the things that preceded it that made that happen, and of course now someone like me thinks, well, if I can do that…then there are a lot of other things that are possible.