Dr Michael Greger (author of How Not To Die) recommends 90 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise every day.
The three doctors who wrote The Okinawa Program maintain that tai chi - with its ancient origins and incredible health benefits - is the ideal workout for modern people.
If this sounds like a lot of exercise, why not chop it up into smaller increments spaced throughout the day?
When you are in class and something is being explored, do not be passive. Think it through, understand it. Find the strengths and weaknesses; figure it out for yourself.
Following another is pointless; it will simply lead to ignorance and dependency, neither of which is desirable.
Within every lesson surrounding the tai chi practice there is a Taoist insight that pertains to how we interact with the world around us. The insight may concern physics, biology, philosophy or human relationship. There is never just a surface meaning.
A skilful student intuits what is really being taught.
The word 'lesson' has two common definitions:
A structured period of time where learning occurs
A moral or message
Tai chi lessons should not be comparable to learning Spanish cookery at night school or line dancing. They should combine both meanings of the word 'lesson'.
Students should learn new physiological skills and also gain an increasing perception of the underlying significance involved. Learning movements is not enough; there must be a deeper level to the tuition.
Balancing your tai chi with reading Tao helps your mind find harmony in life and you see things quite differently. Literal examples in class encourage you to see things differently.
How we were educated to regard reality is not the only option open to us.
Our classes challenge conventional wisdom and cultivate an inquiring mind that seeks out alternatives. Problematic situations now seem innocuous, and life becomes easier as your barriers soften within.
Form collecting is a modern habit which arises when a student is unwilling to commit the necessary practice to mastering a form. In short, the student gets bored.
Everyone becomes stronger in our classes. We condition the body to endure more exercise and develop some serious stamina. Age is not a problem unless you have serious health concerns. Nobody is ever pushed; they proceed at their own pace.
Slowly, patiently, the body re-grow. We test this emerging strength to encourage further development and confidence in the training.
Many students feel drowsy at the end of a tai chi session and feel like going to sleep. Yet they also feel pleasantly alert, but without any anxiety. Their muscles are relaxed and their minds are calm.
Ultimately, you reach a point where this dreamy state of relaxation remains throughout the day.
Beginners sometimes want to collect a whole series of forms. Why?
Form offers embryonic moves that teach the underlying principles, not set responses.
Form was designed to contain all the applications of the system without need of additional sequences/forms.
As a consequence, you only need to train one style of tai chi.
If you have trouble remembering the form, then take one movement home with you from class and drill that movement every day until the next lesson. Watch the Form DVD of you own it.
The following week, take home two movements, and so on... Pretty soon, you will have an entire sequence.
Tai chi is not like gym work or other martial arts.
Once a week training at your local karate class may result in a black belt in a few years, but this approach will not work for tai chi.
We are looking to move instinctively and naturally - without forethought or hesitation - and this entails regular practice of the form sequence.
People frequently complain that they have no time to practice tai chi at home.
A beginner only learns section 1 of the form and that section takes 2 minutes to perform.
Is there anyone on the planet who cannot set aside 2 minutes of their day for something useful and productive?
It is all a matter of priority.
Tai chi form was never intended to be a once-a-week exercise. It was designed for daily practice.
Ideally, 15-20 minutes should be set aside for form because the complete sequence takes that long to perform.
A beginner may only have 2 movements to train or a 2 minute sequence, but they should still consider committing up to 15 minutes practice to what they have learned.
Qigong offers an interesting way to exercise the body. When performed correctly, qigong feels to be so mild that it is hard to believe that anything is really happening.
There is no sweating, straining or panting for breath.
The term 'qigong' refers to a variety of exercises designed to cultivate the flow of blood and oxygen around the body, as well as released trapped energy within muscle tissues.
Other spellings commonly used - qi gong or chi kung. It is pronounced 'chee gung'.Our energy is more precious than all the gold in the world. It is a more powerful anti-aging tool than anything else.
Energy regenerates our liver and other tissue cells, flushes toxic waste from the body, helps maintain our ideal weight, keeps our skin smooth and our hair healthy.
The more energy we have, the better we feel and the more beautiful we become.
(Kimberly Snyder)
When you think of exercise, images of sweaty runners, straining weight lifters and exertive yoga postures come to mind. Qigong is not like this.
Few exercises in the world are as easy to perform as 'moving qigong'. No hardship, no suffering, no pain. The main challenge lies simply in doing the movements 'naturally', healthily and comfortably.
Almost anyone is capable of doing qigong; but the real trick is doing it correctly...
Once your body has begun to lose the old habits, it is ready for something new.
Neigong is concerned with instilling physical patterns that strengthen the body from the inside out.• Starts simple but becomes more challenging
• Increases stamina and endurance
• Improves balance
• Stress-relief
• Encourages a calm mind and composed emotions
• Energises
• Does not strain the body
• Strength-building
• Emphasis is placed upon mobile joints, relaxed muscles and natural movement
• Improves skeletal alignment, poise and coordination
• Low-impact
• Can be practiced by most people
As an instructor, it is disappointing when students start lessons wanting to learn a martial art and never get past the beginners qigong class.
Everyone can learn the basic exercises if they commit time, effort and patience to the task.We can address balance and connection once the muscles soften, the joints relax and the body opens. The psoas muscle needs to lengthen naturally; this will aid in strengthening the body without tension, as well as providing stability.
Qigong and neigong serve to internally work and support the body as you perform tai chi. From this foundation, you learn how to move in a tai chi way.Sometimes people have studied a similar system before and use this as a benchmark for comparison; rather than The Tai Chi Classics.
Comparison has some potential flaws: the first is you and your ability to correctly interpret what you are seeing. With tai chi, what you see is not usually what you get - the whole point of the system is to hide the substance.
It is quite common for people to attend a tai chi class and never return. This is alright; tai chi is not for everyone.
New starters also imagine that they can gauge the teacher's ability and understand the syllabus after just one lesson. This is absurdly naive and somewhat arrogant.
Imagine watching a movie such as Project Hail Mary for the first time... If you switch it off during the title sequence, can you honestly claim to have the remotest grasp of the film? You need to see it through to the very end to do that. Having watched the film, you may understand the plot but can you say how it was made, why it worked and be capable of making it yourself? There is clearly much more to a film than the final product that you see onscreen.
A tai chi syllabus is a complex journey of physical practice and psychological change, and only the most dedicated student will ever reach a stage where it makes sense to them.
Not all classes are the same.
We recognise that ours is a little different from the mainstream. Rather than simply perpetuate an unthinking approach to tai chi, we encourage students to engage with the art, to be creative and to ask questions.Judo, ju jitsu, karate and wing chun will reward the dedicated person with some degree of martial skill in a reasonable amount of time. The internal arts are not quite the same; the time commitment is longer and the expectations differ.
It is not enough to evade, grapple, punch and kick. How you do it matters more than the application itself.
In taijiquan, the skills must be applied without using localised strength, aggression or any loss of composure. This is not easy.
For our tai chi students, nothing is better than working with the teacher directly. You feel how they move, how softly they make contact and how little effort takes place. This is an invaluable experience.
Your teacher offers you a physical illustration of what is to come. They should embody the very characteristics and qualities you are currently working towards. Without working 'hands on', this understanding is not possible.
The martial art of tai chi is comprised of physically easy movements that do not tax or strain the body. Anyone could perform them in theory.
In practice, tai chi is quite hard work. The easy-seeming movements are actually very subtle, and require good coordination, timing, rhythm and balance.
Copying the outer appearance of tai chi is not sufficient. What matters in tai chi is the internal, the substance - the things that are not so easily seen.
The enigmatic nature of the Tao Te Ching is due fundamentally to Lao Tzu's realisation that we make sense of living by entering it directly, not by trying to understand it as detached observers.
We cannot escape ourselves. To use a Zen metaphor, the sword cannot cut itself. Neither can we make sense of living through a haze of intellectual constructs; living is larger and more elusive than the systems we invent to explain it. So we never quite understand ourselves and the universe in which we live. The Tao is the freedom that comes with not-understanding.
(Ray Grigg)
If your personal commitments are such that you cannot (or do not want to) put a lot of time and effort into your tai chi, that is fine. You must do what feels right for you and your lifestyle.
People all get something different from the art.The Tai Chi Classics tell us that an old man defeats a gang of youths. But he cannot be using strength. So how does he do it? A young, fit person can tense their muscles and force a result.
An old man cannot. He must rely upon:
As you grow old, your external strength will drain away. Whole-body strength does not fade in quite the same way.
With understanding, and the correct application of the tai chi principles, you can hope to maintain a level of fitness and martial competence well into old age.
A tai chi person must behave as though they had the limited strength of an old person, and rely upon the internal rather than the external.
You must never resort to force or brute strength. The moment you start to tense your muscles, your whole-body strength is gone.
A lower level student has difficulty coming to terms with the nature of whole-body strength.Letting go of your old habits and trusting that whole-body strength is present requires a leap of faith. You must simply move and then evaluate the consequences later. How do you do it?
There is no doing. It is like the koan: When you can do nothing, what can you do?
Whole-body strength will be there when you stop all the doing, all the preparation, anticipation, the physical and psychological tension.
The doing was all the work that developed your whole-body strength. Like ingredients used to bake a cake.
To apply whole-body strength, you must simply relax and move as softly as you can - using the whole-body.
Being soft and gentle is the key - the less effort you make, the more whole-body strength will emerge.
Those who use force soon exhaust themselves.
And what can be accomplished with exhaustion and struggle?
But those who follow Tao become one with the Tao.
Because they move with the world, they become one with the force of its moving.
Because they are one with the world, great things easily happen.
Therefore, those who trust the Way of the world are empowered by the world.
(Lao Tzu)
In Asia, ghosts are depicted as having no feet. They float. A tai chi student cannot float but their sense of being 'suspended from above' should feel as if they do.
Asian ghosts don't have heavy footfalls. In fact they make no sound on the ground at all.
Many people have very loud steps. Concussive. Vibrational. Loud. This indicates weak, collapsed muscles. They have succumbed to the pull of gravity...
Instead, we must lengthen upwards and be light and silent. Like the old Kung Fu TV show where Kwai Chang Caine must walk on rice paper without tearing it?
Students train whole-body strength but deny themselves the benefits of their hard work by clinging to old habits of tension. It is not enough to perform qigong, form and neigong.
If you want to use whole-body strength, then you must employ it. This means letting go of your past.
So long as you dither and doubt, and persist with the use of local tension, there will be no internal skill. Resisting force is simply not the way of tai chi.
As they progress through the syllabus, students study weapons and the associated training teaches agile footwork.
The range of a weapon is greater and you need to avoid being hit. In order to utilise the weapon fully, a student needs to move freely and comfortably. Lumbering footwork is not adequate.
Weapons practice teaches fast, responsive footwork and rapid direction changes.
Dr Michael Greger (author of How Not To Die) recommends 90 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise every day.
The three doctors who wrote The Okinawa Program maintain that tai chi - with its ancient origins and incredible health benefits - is the ideal form of exercise for modern people.Most people start class with very lazy feet and poor physical sensitivity.
They are reluctant to step, and will stretch out their arms instead - effectively disconnecting the upper and lower body immediately.
Alternatively, they bend their knees too much and then find stepping difficult. A martial student must become nimble, agile and fluid.
Beginners practice a variety of footwork drills from the very onset of training. In order to avoid being hit or caught-up in a struggle, it is necessary to get out of the way.
The Long Yang form encourages the student to perceive stepping as being an 'adjustment'. You alter position favourably by stepping. But you only step if and when you need to.
The Long Yang form does not involve any fancy footwork. There is plenty of stepping throughout the form, but it is far from dynamic. How come?
Many beginners think that they do not need to warm-up. Skipping a warm-up will automatically result in pain later on, and that will restrict your fighting abilities. A good pre-workout warm-up protects against future aches and pains. Furthermore, it is also an immediate factor in improving performance.
(Frederic Delavier)
Your mind perceives reality and then determines how, when or if to act. The clearer your perception, the more appropriate the course of action you take.
Clarity does not emerge spontaneously.
Few people think clearly. Cultivating clarity takes time, contemplation, study, meditation and patience.
When luxury and excess begin in high places,
the effects spread everywhere.
When leaders have more wealth than wisdom,
they prefer fancy clothes and exotic foods,
foolish amusements and self-indulgence.
When they place their own wellbeing
above the care of others,
They are worse than common thieves.
(Lao Tzu)
There is a danger in seeking to be gratified or entertained. Comfort is a sword that cuts both ways. A modicum of hardship keeps us alive and alert.
Rather than indulge in that trip to Cambodia, go and work at the soup kitchen.The unfamiliar may cause apprehension and uncertainty but that is the entire point. Undertaking new pursuits and interests breaks you from lifelong bad habits and the risk of indolence.
You will also meet new and unexpected people.You are what you eat. No matter what you do with your body or your mind, nutrition remains paramount. Take the time to find out what qualifies as high quality nutrition and eat to stay alive.
Most studies agree that there are a number of key personality characteristics that are important for healthy aging: easygoing, cheerful, self-confident, adaptable, active, independent, creative, happy, relaxed, satisfied, calm, open, agreeable, conscientious, sociable and having a high tolerance for frustration being mentioned most often.
The traits that lead to an unhealthy, shorter life? Being repressed, dogmatic, stubborn, hostile, neurotic, angry, guilty, sad, fearful, anxious, depressed and aggressive.
(Dr Bradley Wilcox, Dr Craig Wilcox and Dr Makoto Suzuki)
Most people exercise with extremely bad posture and poor habits of body use. Qigong and tai chi are trying to remedy these.
If you train another system frequently enough, the benefits of tai chi are nullified. It is OK to train a wide range of exercise methods without ruining your tai chi. The key concern is moderation.
Avoid over-doing it: over-stretching, straining or exerting. Be mindful of posture, poise and tension.
Students often want to do other forms of exercise in addition to their tai chi. This is fine. The question is: does the other method conflict with the goals of tai chi? Balance? Relaxed muscles? Coordination?
If it does, the tai chi will not work and you will not get the desired fitness benefits or any martial skill.
Tai chi is not aiming to produce a 'tai chi body'. Rather, it seeks to restore the body to a unified condition of wholeness. Balanced. Mobile. Coordinated. Agile. Supple. Youthful.
Balance is a good thing to think about, but can lead to a false idea of fixity. Our aim is not to be rigid and stable like a wardrobe or a house.
We want to be balancing... 'Balancing' is a process of adjustment; altering what we do in response to what is taking place. Now, that is healthy. Mentally and physically.
Our information-saturated culture has produced a distracted, lazy, bored, restless, stressed, unhealthy population. People expect instant gratification. They want to show off.
They want results without putting in any work. They want to share their opinions. Speculate. Talk politics.
Not a great starting place for a new starter? However, the very fact that the person wants to try something new is a good start. It offers hope. The possibility of change.
At some level the individual wants to change. This is good. However, to make any real progress in tai chi they have shed these modern, unproductive attitudes...
The thinking patterns and habits of new students are often far worse than their bodies. Most people have never stuck any new endeavour long enough to understand what learning entails.
They tend to be impatient, overconfident and naive concerning their own abilities. e.g. we once had a man with an artificial hip who neglected to mention it on his 'medical liability disclaimer' because he personally didn't consider it to be a medical matter...
If you want to reconsider 'thinking', why not read Grit, Smarter Faster Better, 5 Elements of Effective Thinking and Peak...? Then put the suggested thinking skills into actual practice.
New starters tend to have appalling body habits. These have been accumulated across a lifetime; producing a random, haphazard mess. Sometimes, the habits are the outcome of yoga, the gym or a sport.
The tai chi teacher usually wishes they could dismantle the student's body and start again, but it doesn't work like that because bodies are organic. The body needs to loosen up, relax and then re-grow.
This requires patience, focus and perseverance... like a gardener. Results won't come overnight.
If your muscles are working optimally, they should move your body around without there being any sense of work taking place. Everything will feel comfortable, easy and smooth.
When you are chronically over-working your muscles, this is not the case at all. You exert constantly. You apply vast amounts of energy to the performance of simplistic tasks that require almost no energy to accomplish.The largest impediment faced by a student of tai chi is their own perception of strength. Invariably, the student is convinced that their physical experience of strength is strength.
Quite often they are wrong. What they are feeling is not strength at all. It is tension.Looking is focussed and narrow. Seeing is expansive and open. Meditation is the condition of being present, of seeing without impediment.
You are very much in the immediate moment: feeling, seeing, experiencing. There are no thoughts and no worries.Modern people are seldom fully present. They try to 'multi-task'. Even when there are no obvious, visible distractions, they somehow manage to be elsewhere.
These same people worry about Alzheimer's disease...Science is the attempt to understand the nature of reality.
In martial terms it refers to the techniques and strategies used in real combat, as well as the physical requirements that make the system operate effectively.Tai chi is often described as "meditation in motion," but it might well be called "medication in motion." There is growing evidence that this mind-body practice, which originated in China as a martial art, has value in treating or preventing many health problems. And you can get started even if you aren't in top shape or the best of health.
Tai chi differs from other types of exercise in several respects. The movements are usually circular and never forced, the muscles are relaxed rather than tensed, the joints are not fully extended or bent, and connective tissues are not stretched. Tai chi addresses the key components of fitness — muscle strength, flexibility, balance, and, to a lesser degree, aerobic conditioning.
(Harvard Medical School’s Harvard Health Publication, May 2009)
Making very small movements is difficult initially. In modern society, our bodies are not encouraged to make small, smooth, controlled movement. Everything is jerky and abrupt.
Jerky movement agitates the nervous system and this in turn leads to anxiety and a lack of calm.
e.g. if you simply flick the wrist, the joint is not exercised properly but if you move the wrist extremely slowly, you feel a very notable stretch throughout the entire movement.
It is easy for most people to perform large, extended movements that rotate the shoulder joint or bend the elbow. No particular skill is involved.
Whilst large movements may indeed exercise some of the muscles and the joints, they fail to address the full range of potential movement.A student needs to be intensely curious about human biomechanics: balance, leverage, structure, stability, mobility, coordination, range & reach, natural order...
They should research different methods of using the body: other styles of tai chi, other martial arts, sports, yoga, Pilates, Alexander Technique, ergonomics, rehabilitation therapy.Many people have no idea what the sacroiliac is or what it does. Often the joint is frozen and other joints are required to compensate for the lack of movement.
Frequently the knees are tasked to do the work of the lower back.
An alternative to upper back fat can be a serious lack of muscular development between the shoulder blades. This is the outcome of neglect. The back looks hollow and sunken.
People who don't use their scapula in a healthy manner can develop extensive fatty deposits between the shoulder blades. This is essentially a large slab of fat located on the upper back.
Shoulder and neck tension can occur from stooping, leaning the head forward/craning the neck and from exerting with the arms. (There are no doubt other reasons too).
Computers and TVs have flickering, hypnotic screens. Craning forward forces your shoulders to compensate for the weight of your head.
Resting is not the same as relaxing. To rest is to stop all activity. If you make the time to rest properly your spine will widen and lengthen quite naturally.
The weight of your head and ribcage should be supported by the spine and by the strong muscles of the lower torso.
If the muscles are weak and the skeleton slumps forward, the weight of the bones/muscles/internal organs are supported by a slouched spine.Computers, driving the car, sitting and poor day-to-day standing can lead people to stoop and slouch. Modern technology does not help.
Poor alignment, unrealistic ambitions and a failure to warm-up thoroughly enough result in back problems.
Many people go to the gym, lift heavy weights and then suffer from injuries, or run with an unhealthy, unbalanced, tension-filled technique.Instead of relaxing the lower back and allowing the pelvis to remain neutral, many people shorten the lower back.
The spine loses its natural curvature and becomes weaker; more vulnerable to injury. They are typically unaware of this habit because it is 'familiar' and seems 'normal' to them.Finding quiet places requires some degree of effort. They may be subject to time, day or season. You might need to get up very early or stay up very late. These places can be found.
In order to find these places, you must slow down. You must want to step off the treadmill, into the shade and find peace.There are quiet places to be found in every city and every town. You just have to seek them out. Lost places, where people seldom go. Leaves overgrown the streets and wildflowers are abundant.
Nature flourishes. The air is cleaner and there are no cars and few people.Most people exist in a bubble. They wake in their own home, get into their car and then go to work/shops/wherever. There is seldom any time spent being calm.
Homes, cars and public places are usually filled with noise and stimulation. Visual images, flickering screens, twittering voices, gossip... Where is the peace in your life? The stillness?That is a good question.
The effectiveness of the martial art depends upon the person doing it and appropriateness of their actions when assaulted. It has nothing to do with strength, speed, gender or experience; it is your ability to keep a cool head and apply the art with awareness and skill.
Sifu Waller trains students to respond in a manner that feels right to the individual. Although everyone adheres to the tai chi principles of body usage, movement and relationship, the application of the material differs according to the person.
Edward De Bono:
A carpenter can use all the tools of carpentry but at any one moment uses the tool that seems appropriate for the situation.
Yoga has been practiced since the dawn of recorded history. So has qigong. The principles and precepts of tai chi are ancient... These methods have been proved over millennia.
Talking is considered to be a form of restlessness, of agitation. Curious? Only when the mind is both silent and still can deeper thought take place, unimpeded by chit-chat.
The mind must settle. Relax. Stop.People seek to feel vital and alive as they grow older. They engage in vigorous activities and work hard to keep their thoughts continually occupied.
Hurrying around, taking on new commitments, watching the news, playing with technology, gossiping, getting upset about political issues...If you remain well within your limits at all times there is less risk of injury.
Most people exceed their natural range of safe movement frequently throughout the day without realising it.
The 70% rule encourages them to be aware of their natural range.
In self defence, over-commitment is a serious flaw because you have little room for failure.
Holding 30% in reserve is a useful safety precaution.
If you were to perform every tai chi action to 100% of your physical limit - in terms of stretch and endurance - you would be working at maximum capacity.
The 100% capacity approach is the 'no pain, no gain' attitude to exercise.
It opens you up for strain and injury because you are fully committed at all times.
We recommend following the 70% rule.
Making very small movements is difficult initially.
In modern society, our bodies are not encouraged to make small, smooth, controlled movement.
Everything is jerky and abrupt.
In the first movement of the form, we must place the palms down (as if on a table) then smoothly lift the arms up to shoulder height.
As the arms lift, the wrists must gradually flex so that the hand changes from a flat shape to a bent shape.
The arms then lower and the hand moves from bent back to flat again.
This movement of the wrist must be very slow, smooth and gradual.
If you simply flick the wrist, the joint is not exercised properly but if you move the wrist extremely slowly, you feel a very notable stretch throughout the entire exercise.
When you slow down, you begin to notice things. The study of neigong is a refinement of awareness, in which certain qualities are allowed and cultivated. By being slow, you can pay attention to what is happening.
Rushing is not healthy. Fast movement is often at the expense of good body alignment and can indicate a loss of composure. The unhurried pace of tai chi allows you time to experience life in a more complete fashion.
Modern life involves a lot of boring activities. People are accustomed to daydreaming or 'spacing out'. The difficulty of tai chi necessitates complete attention. It helps the mind to become calm and centred.
Slow motion practice encourages your mind to remain captivated by the immediacy of the moment, to feel every nuance of every movement. This degree of awareness is very healthy.Tai chi is about changing our internal environment so that life becomes a joy to live and not a burden to drag into old age and death. It is about helping your body to let go of the past and your mind to slow down and cease churning. Tai chi encourages your internal focus to shift toward cherishing and remembering all that is wonderful in your life. It predisposes you to look forward to ways to make life better, rather than remembering how unsatisfying it has been.
Most importantly, tai chi gives us the ability to realise a greater human potential in ourselves and to have genuine compassion for others. Tai chi, with its gentle strength, moves us closer to feeling more truly alive.
(Bruce Frantzis)
Neigong requires a certain kind of body movement that naturally produces fa jing. Nothing is forced.
Some methods involve shouting and aggression, with abrupt jerky actions that may cause tension in the body and problems if you are prone to migraine.
Although the muscles remain soft, there is a definite jarring element to it.
Bruce Frantzis sees this approach as giving-in to your animal nature, instead of sublimating it within the human.
Tai chi hides its secrets in the open. Your inability to comprehend them is a reflection of your own occluded nature. To unlock tai chi, you must change yourself.
If you are not discerning and scientific in your study, years may be spent practicing material that conflicts with The Tai Chi Classics, and does not really follow the way of tai chi.
He taught me to vibrate the breath and body rather fiercely and loudly like a growling lion, stretch the tendons, turn the waist like the motions of a food mixer, hit my own body and then flap my arms in the air. I started accruing some fa jing, although of a more shocking nature, rather than the smooth kind that can come from tai chi.
The drawback is that it made my energy jumpy.
(Bruce Frantzis)
Can you actually master tai chi? To do so suggests a degree of self-consciousness incongruent with tai chi practice. Surely you need to be mastered by tai chi?
Your body and mind must flow with what is happening; undisturbed and without resistance. Yielding, surrendering - until the 'you' is no longer present. When you and tai chi are indivisible, there is no master, no perfection.
Returning is an important theme in tai chi; the movements should not start and stop. Energy must release and return constantly as the body expands and contracts. Similarly, if your mind wanders, you return to what you doing and continue.
If you make a mistake, you identify, accept, correct and then begin again. Every time you practice, you start the form afresh by returning to the beginning. There is no end, no perfection. Just endless returning.
Tai chi needs to be considered according to its own nature... Each movement has particular characteristics; both energetically and martially.
What is the essence of each movement?
The body must adjust to express the appropriate energy, remaining utterly loose, balanced and relaxed at all times. Your muscles must be soft but not flaccid.
Inhale when your arms come in, exhale as your arms move out.
Inhale as the arms lift, exhale as they lower.
Inhale as you lift to kick...
This may seem odd until you consider the difference between a hand or leg strike. With the hands or body, you shift from one leg to another as you strike. Yet, with a kick the weight is in one leg only - the supporting one. As you lift the body and kick, you inhale. If you exhaled as the leg rises, your balance would follow your breath.
We only exhale for kicks that are inclined downward, and are using gravity and weight.
Your body knows how to breathe already. It is important to remember this before considering any kind of 'breath work'.
First of all, do not be caught by words - you understand?
The word is not the actual thing, the word 'tree' is not the actual tree - that's simple.
The word will not help you to touch the tree; you have to come into contact with it,
to put your hand upon it. We are slaves to words, slaves to ideas, images and symbols.
To come into touch with something directly the word must not interfere.
(Krishnamurti)
Even more tragic than our separation from the world is our separation from ourselves.
How many times have you stood in the kitchen slicing tomatoes for supper?
Where was your mind? What was your soul feeling?
Were you aware of the feel of the knife against against the palm of your hand?
Did you feel the texture of the tomato as the knife sliced through it?
Were you aware of how your hips, shoulder, abdomen,
and wrist aided the hand in the slicing process?
The answer to all these questions is, probably, no.
(John Lash)
This is a reasonable question, and most people could not give a decent answer.
Did anyone teach you:
Timing
Balance
Rhythm
Leverage
Footwork
Biofeedback
Coordination
Biomechanics
Proprioception
Mind/body unity
Optimal body use
Kinaesthetic awareness
How your muscles work
Healthy skeletal alignment
Ambidextrous use of the limbs
How and why to relax your body
Your parents probably did not teach this to you.
School did not teach it either.
PE or physical education in school translates to mean 'sport' and sport is not teaching you how to use the body.
It is not easy to commit to daily training. Your mind will resist. There are many pleasant alternatives.
Yet, over time, the habit of training takes hold and your body begins to experience unexpected strength and mobility. Eventually, you reach a point where you could not imagine ever missing your daily training.High repetitions dull the mind. Aim to train little and often instead. Be thorough, accurate, aware.
Cultivate familiarity and ease. You want your movements to be natural, relaxed, smooth and controlled.Consider this situation:
The Long Yang form is often known as the 'slow form'. The slow, deliberate movements encourage concentration and allow the student time to become familiar with the coordination.
There should be no attempt made to speed up the sequence. Slower movement will also develop muscular strength and body control.
Some of you have talked about learning a short form of tai chi, which has certain transitional motifs eliminated. The reason for these repeating transitions is to help you flow within the form - to ride over it without thinking. When these repetitions are cut out, some of the major movements become awkward and jam together. The sequence loses some of its smoothness.
(Chungliang Al Huang)
The Chinese symbol called 'tai chi' or the 'supreme ultimate' contains yin and yang. Yin is black and yang is white. Tai chi combines yin and yang to produce a process of dynamic balancing.
The art of tai chi employs this Taoist principle at all times.
Taoism is not a religion in the formal sense. It is concerned with the observation of life, of nature and then the literal application of insights gleaned through seeing and contemplating what took place.
There are 3 main books to read:
The Way and Its Power
The Way of Chuang Tzu
The Book of Changes
It is well worth exploring a variety of interpretations and translations in order to discover which one makes the most sense to you.
We aim to address self defence without resorting to undue violence. Violence against violence can lead to further escalation. We simply desire to evade conflict and escape unharmed.
There is no ego involved, no desire to win or claim a trophy. We learn how to incapacitate the attacker smoothly and easily. Then we walk away.
The source of all conflict resides within. We experience reality within our minds. Our minds interpret what our senses encounter, and we filter that information relative to our conditioning. The difference between a peaceful person and an aggressive individual is perception.
If we want to get along with other people we must address our own mind and emotions. This is where the problem lies.
Compassion is not about being soppy or becoming a monk. It is about caring. When you wake up and see that everyone else is pretty much the same as you, you stop being such a jerk. Instead of treading on people, you help them. Instead of causing conflict, you avoid it.
People who see themselves in others start treating strangers quite differently. We all want pretty much the same things: love, food, shelter, piece of mind, security, kindness, financial and emotional comfort. What is so special about you? Aren't you just the same as everyone else?A selfish person is pushy. They like to get their own way. They are quite comfortable pushing others around. Do you like being pushed around? How does it make you feel?
Bullying other people is unpleasant. It is one of the less savoury aspects of human conduct. Are you a bully?
