Tai Chi
“In a very real sense one can consider Tai Chi Chuan [Supreme Ultimate Force] to be a physical expression and manifestation of the principles and philosophy of Taoism.” (Taoism and the Philosophy of Tai Chi Chuan--http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Philosophy/Taichi/taoism.html)
On a balmy Monday afternoon, EAC students in the Area Studies Course participated in a two-hour Tai Chi class. It took place on the grounds of the Imperial Palace in Kyoto next to an old gnarled pine tree on a patch of manicured grass. The instructor, Taka-sensei, was a long-time Tai Chi practitioner. The course consisted of easy warm up movements, stretches, basic kicks and punches, and a short sequence of the Tai Chi form. Taka-sensei used very few words, only the most necessary to convey his intended meaning. His used simple explanations, performed examples with animated and clear movements, and gave encouragement and correction in a very soft and unassuming manner, making it easy for every student to participate. When a student was frustrated he softly guided him or her into the correct form, without criticism. The effect of practicing Tai Chi was both centering and relaxing, but why?
Tai Chi was first introduced to Taoist practice as an exercise to compliment the intensive meditation of Taoist monks who spent nearly their entire time sitting. Bodhidharma was said to have brought the forms from India, but it was the Taoist philosophy that cultivated Tai Chi into the sacred practice that it is today. Tai Chi is considered a martial art, but it is, more importantly, an internal contemplation of nature, producing an outward representation. Many of the techniques are named after animals, weather, or constellations as they were invented after observing the natural world. For example, “white crane spreads its wings” is the embodiment of that action.
Taoist practitioners often observe nature to find harmony and balance. In Tai Chi, the path--or Tao-- is performed outwardly with the body to compliment the inner meditation. The internal and more esoteric practice of the Tao involves recognizing duality such as light and dark, life and death, masculine and feminine, form and emptiness, movement and stillness, simplified into the yin and yang—or the essential truths of duality. Taoists believe that these qualities cannot exist independently of each other, but are in harmony, pushing and pulling, expanding and contracting. This harmony represents the ultimate truth of oneness through the trinity of polarity of each opposite and the harmony between them.
Yield and overcome;
Bend and be straight.
Tao Te Ching (22)
He who stands of tiptoe is not steady. He who strides cannot maintain the pace.
-- Tao Te Ching (24)
Returning is the motion of the Tao. Yielding is the way of the Tao.
-- Tao Te Ching (40)
These few quotes from Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching depict the guiding principles of Tai Chi, for the form is fluid in motion, grounded in mind, controlled in action, and yet based in inaction. Tai Chi is an art of combining feeling with movement, and using forces greater than the self. These forces are the yin and yang, which, when working together, are the path of balance. There is no goal beyond the path, but only existing in harmony.
The forms of Tai Chi consist of contracting and expanding—in contraction there is the yin, in expansion the yang—but in the fluid movement between forms, and in the embodiment of nature there is harmony and non-duality. Taka-sensei cut right to the truth of this in his class on Monday. Each form either consisted of a closed stance, drawing yin energy, or an open stance, channeling yang. Movement followed each to the complimentary stance, and the transitions were slow, silent, and full of grace. That is why it was centering, and that is why it was relaxing. He taught a method of finding balance and harmony in this turbulent life of ups and downs, rights and wrongs, miracle and catastrophe.
On a balmy Monday afternoon, EAC students in the Area Studies Course participated in a two-hour Tai Chi class. It took place on the grounds of the Imperial Palace in Kyoto next to an old gnarled pine tree on a patch of manicured grass. The instructor, Taka-sensei, was a long-time Tai Chi practitioner. The course consisted of easy warm up movements, stretches, basic kicks and punches, and a short sequence of the Tai Chi form. Taka-sensei used very few words, only the most necessary to convey his intended meaning. His used simple explanations, performed examples with animated and clear movements, and gave encouragement and correction in a very soft and unassuming manner, making it easy for every student to participate. When a student was frustrated he softly guided him or her into the correct form, without criticism. The effect of practicing Tai Chi was both centering and relaxing, but why?
Tai Chi was first introduced to Taoist practice as an exercise to compliment the intensive meditation of Taoist monks who spent nearly their entire time sitting. Bodhidharma was said to have brought the forms from India, but it was the Taoist philosophy that cultivated Tai Chi into the sacred practice that it is today. Tai Chi is considered a martial art, but it is, more importantly, an internal contemplation of nature, producing an outward representation. Many of the techniques are named after animals, weather, or constellations as they were invented after observing the natural world. For example, “white crane spreads its wings” is the embodiment of that action.
Taoist practitioners often observe nature to find harmony and balance. In Tai Chi, the path--or Tao-- is performed outwardly with the body to compliment the inner meditation. The internal and more esoteric practice of the Tao involves recognizing duality such as light and dark, life and death, masculine and feminine, form and emptiness, movement and stillness, simplified into the yin and yang—or the essential truths of duality. Taoists believe that these qualities cannot exist independently of each other, but are in harmony, pushing and pulling, expanding and contracting. This harmony represents the ultimate truth of oneness through the trinity of polarity of each opposite and the harmony between them.
Yield and overcome;
Bend and be straight.
Tao Te Ching (22)
He who stands of tiptoe is not steady. He who strides cannot maintain the pace.
-- Tao Te Ching (24)
Returning is the motion of the Tao. Yielding is the way of the Tao.
-- Tao Te Ching (40)
These few quotes from Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching depict the guiding principles of Tai Chi, for the form is fluid in motion, grounded in mind, controlled in action, and yet based in inaction. Tai Chi is an art of combining feeling with movement, and using forces greater than the self. These forces are the yin and yang, which, when working together, are the path of balance. There is no goal beyond the path, but only existing in harmony.
The forms of Tai Chi consist of contracting and expanding—in contraction there is the yin, in expansion the yang—but in the fluid movement between forms, and in the embodiment of nature there is harmony and non-duality. Taka-sensei cut right to the truth of this in his class on Monday. Each form either consisted of a closed stance, drawing yin energy, or an open stance, channeling yang. Movement followed each to the complimentary stance, and the transitions were slow, silent, and full of grace. That is why it was centering, and that is why it was relaxing. He taught a method of finding balance and harmony in this turbulent life of ups and downs, rights and wrongs, miracle and catastrophe.
posted by Kyle Weaner at 9:20 AM
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