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TAI CHITHE SUPREME ULTIMATEInstructors in Tai Chi encourage - " BECOME LIKE A CHILD"...... No, don't spray-paint your neighbor's dog....but release your entire body, head to toe. Find your center. Begin generating vital energy, radiating warmth and health within and beyond.
Learning the fundamentals of Tai Chi can be the beginning of a personal lifelong program of health, self-confidence and insights into a wide variety of seemingly unrelated areas. As the fundamentals begin to merge with minute to minute daily activities, the paradox of dynamic relaxation arises. Health. Wisdom. Tranquility. Of all the exercise disciplines for health and physical agility none can be more simple and yet more profound as can Tai Chi Chuan. With correct instruction, natural inclination and perseverance one can achieve lifelong health, wisdom and happiness. The school founded by Cheng Man-chi'ing is one of the most authentic. Visit them at www.taichichuan.org for an overview and class locations and scheduling. The following are excerpts from TAI CHI CHUAN by Cheng Man-ch'ing, Master of the Five Excellences. "When Dharuna the Indian Buddhist (who arrived in China in the 6th c. A.D. and founded the Zen school of Buddhism) originated the Shaolin Temple, boxing was still conceived in terms of physical courage and muscular strength. It was well towards the end of Sung Dynasty (960-1278 A.D.) when a Taoist by the name of Chang San-feng first applied the philosophy of Huang Ti (Yellow Emperor, 27th c. B.C.) and Lao Tze to boxing, and substituted pliability for hard-hitting muscular power. This marked the beginning of Tai Chi Chu'uan". "...a tornado is but the massed movement of air and a tidal wave that of water. As a whiff, nothing is more pliable than air; as a drop, nothing more yielding than water. But as tornadoes and tidal waves, air and water carry everything before them. Mass integration makes the difference. The entire weight of the galaxies of stars and universes do not rest on foundations more solid or weightier than they are themselves, but on the buoyancy of an immaterial "substance" referred to as ether! A similar kind of mental effort should enable us to perceive and understand the mass integration and mass movement of ch'i in Chang San-feng's theory. "The Taoist constantly inquire: "Can you concentrate your ch'i and bring about a pliability like that of an infant's?" From this idea, Chang derived his concept of the "body" of Tai-chi Ch'uan. The Taoist speak of "the most pliable galloping the most powerful and unyielding as a horseman gallops his steed." From this Chang derived another concept: that of the "function" or practical value of T'ai-chi Ch'uan- a concept exclusively based on the principle of " conquering the unyielding with the yielding." "How then, Should a novice begin his training? The answer is that he should relax. The relaxation should be overall, that is, throughout the entire body. And it should be thorough, that is without the least strain anywhere. When he has done this, he will be in a position to talk about ch'i. To start with, he should let his ch'i sink right down to the tan t'ien. To do this he should first relax his chest; for the ch'i can only sink freely when the chest is relaxed. Gradually, the ch'i will be felt to circulate throughout body. After that, the novice will be ready to direct the movement of the ch'i at will by means of his mind. This movement is technically known as "propelled movement", for there is propulsion behind the movement just as an automobile or steamboat or aeroplane which does not move itself is moved by the gaseous power in the engine. In this sense, the limbs or other parts of the body during the exercises are moved not so much by means of local exertion or by means of expending local stores of muscular energy as by force of ch'i. In other words, when we speak of "propelled movements" in Tai-chi Ch'uan, we are not thinking so much of the stances and dances of the body or it's parts as of something invisible, which we are mentally aware of as movements of ch'i."
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