Imbalances in our body may not be obvious. They can, however, develop into something serious, from discomfort to illnesses. Tai chi can help overcome many of such imbalances.
Unfortunately, most of us start tai chi only too late in life.
It’s better be late than never.
The beauty of thai chi is that it takes the whole system of mind, body, and spirit into one. Even if you are doing it only a small amount a day, so long as you can do it regularly, you will see improvement somehow pretty soon.
Something every health enthusiast needs to know is that you can be fit, but NOT healthy.
In other words, being fit does not necessarily mean being healthy.
Of course, if you’re fit, chances are that you are healthy as well. The two statuses, nevertheless, are not equivalent.
You can be a weight lifter who boast muscular physiques, or marathon runners with excellent stamina, and yet, at the same time, suffer from heart problems, joint damage, sexual dysfunction, or inability to handle stress. For the same token, a healthy person may not be fit — he may not have the muscular strength, and can even look frail — but enjoys a clean bill of health and is emotionally balanced.
While being fit is not necessary being healthy, it of course does not mean you cannot stay fit and healthy all at the same time.
You can be fit and also healthy.
The question is: which comes first? Health or fitness?
Many people tend to work on the fitness first, giving little thoughts to the importance of health. They do push-ups, jog and swim; but eat unhealthily, slouch in sofa, and do nothing to control their emotions.
In the Chinese health systems like tai chi and chi kung (qigong), nevertheless, the body is built in a reverse order.
They make you cultivate a healthy body first. Only then that you would work on the physique if you choose to. The process can be insipid. You stand motionless and perform slow-moving movements. When you massage your internal organs from the intestines to the kidneys by visualizing your chi, people may not know that you are performing an exercise at all.
The system, nevertheless, ensure that you are healthy, before you add fitness as a bonus. The fitness, when you work on later, is always a happy complement to good health.
This explains why embedding in tai chi chuan and qigong are secrets of happiness and longevity.
Even if you’re not practicing taiji and qigong, I’m sure you will benefit from this approach to health and fitness.
Are you practicing ‘tai chi’ (taiji) or ‘tai chi chuan’ (taijiquan)?
Even in the Chinese language, the two descriptions are often thought to be identical. In other words, ‘tai chi’ is ‘tai chi chuan’.
They, however, can have different implications.
Let’s first find out what tai chi is, before we try to understand what it has to do with the word ‘chuan’.
Tai chi is a concept derived from the Chinese cosmology.
In the Chinese cosmology, the origin of Universe is an undifferentiated void, known as ‘wuji’ (无极)– which literally means ‘boundless, infinite’. Wuji is nothing and everything. It, however, has no form. Tai chi, which means ’supreme ultimate force, or ultimate energy’, is a creative force that turns wuji into form, creations and existence.
In this sense, everything you see in this Universe is a tai chi (太极). The Universe itself is a tai chi, so is the house you stay in, and the body in which your soul resides. Tai chi ultimately is an energy. In itself, it consists of opposite forces, known as yin and yang. When it interacts with others, it is interacting with another tai chi, and therefore, another set of yin and yang. The yin and yang energies — either within a creation like your body, or between creations — are opposite and yet complementary.
When you are practicing tai chi the exercise, you learn to regulate the yingyang energies within and around you, making them into and interconnected continuum. This is achieved through the fluid movements of the exercise. In the process, it balances and integrates the energies within you, taking your physical and mental capacities to a higher level.
So much about tai chi. What about ‘chuan’ （拳)?
‘Chuan’ is a much easier concept. The Chinese character it uses means ‘fist, or boxing’. Tai chi chuan, therefore, means the martial arts that employs the philosophy of tai chi. Here, the implication of self-defense is obvious.
We may, therefore, distinguish between tai chi and chuan tai chi in the following manner:
If you are practicing the martial art simply to cultivate internal strengths, rather than using it as a tool for self defense, then you are practicing tai chi.
If you are practicing the martial art for combat, you are practicing tai chi chuan.
The purpose of knowing the minute difference is purely for you to have a better understanding of the exercise. In fact, the two concepts are highly integrated. You cannot practice the martial art effectively without an understanding how the movements are employed in self-defense. On the other hand, your grasp of the art is superficial, if you see it only as a system for combat.
The first thing that you have to learn about chi kung (qigong) is the use of mind, not the physical movements.
There are many forms of chi kung in existence. All of them, without fail, involve the control of the vital energy, known as chi (qi), in your body.
When you are performing the exercises, you learn to use your mind to control the flow of chi. Your arms, legs and other parts of the body may be used to help in the process, but they play only the complementary roles. It is for this reason that, in fact, while many forms chi kung are performed with physical movements, some are motionless.
You can also do it by using a variety of postures — standing, sitting, or lying on your back.
Tai chi is a form of chi kung, so is Taoist sitting meditation.
Since the performance of chi kung hinges on the use of mind, its improvement on the vital energy is reflected not only in better physical health, but also clarity of mind and spiritual enlightenment. If you practice the exercise regularly, it will enable your body and mind become functionally younger. In this aspect, chi kung has been used as a means in the East to stay healthy and achieve longevity.
So when you’re seeing someone doing chi kung motionless, do not assume that he’s ‘resting’. His body could be working very hard without your knowing.
You see the sun slowly rising, listen to water cascading and birds chirping.
You appreciate the life in slow motion!
This is a time that you are thoroughly relaxed; a time when you can visualize life from a different perspective; a time when you get closer and closer to the real you.
It is refreshing!
How you wish you could do this again and again, day after day?
The good news is: you can, if you practice tai chi.
Tai chi chuan, through its slow, steady and balanced movements, slows you down.
It brings you the moments of truth, even only a few minutes a day.
It leads you to become aware of many things in your body that you have not thought material. You feel the subtle changes in your arms, legs, joints, tendon and internal organs. You are glad that the fleeting mind jumping about no more, which bring you ever closer to you subconscious minds, shedding lights on nuances you are yet to realize.
Physically you get healthier. Emotionally, you enjoy life with more depth.
One of the common complaints from beginners of tai chi chuan is that they cannot feel the chi (qi).
Chi is the life energy in our body. Without it, we are dead. When you’re full of chi, you are energized. It makes you more alive, more cheerful. When your chi is weak, you feel tired and get sick easily.
Tai chi helps you to regulate chi in your body, so that it can move around smoothly in your entire body. Without chi, it is difficult to perform the tai chi effectively, as your movements would be no difference from movements of any dances.
What happen, nevertheless, if you simply cannot feel the presence of chi?
The answer is, “Do not worry about it!”
In the first place, chi is in your body anyway, even if you do not feel it. It is a product of the air that we inhale and the food that we eat. So long as you continue with your chuan tai chi movements, you are working on your chi.
What is even more important — chi can move smoothly only when your body is not tensed up! The meridians and channels through which your chi travels in your body are like a network of highways. Whenever there is tension, there is a traffic jam. So the more you worry about not having chi in your body, the more you can’t feel it. It is blocked by your worries.
There are some simple way to feel the qi. May be you should try them out first. One of them is to put your two palms pararel to each other before your lower abdomen. If you can be truly relaxed, you will feel current of your chi moving in the empty space between the two palms, which can turn your two palms warm, and something give them a tingling sensation.
Tai chi chuan used to be well guarded within the closely knit of clans and loyal disciples, as it was a supreme form of self-defense.
It was meant only for a privileged few, and was difficult to get access to, even if one was willing to pay an exorbitant fee. The masters demanded absolute loyalty from the disciples. You were expected to practice the art single-mindedly for life once accepted as a disciple.
The invention of the fire arm changed these all together.
It is more lethal, but it requires almost no learning.
While taichi chuan takes years of practice to become competent for combat, use of fire arm requires only a press of trigger. It no longer commands an unfair advantage, as far as the self-defense is concerned.
This is, nevertheless, a blessing in disguise.
While tai chi — along with other forms of the martial arts — has lost its absolute advantage for combat, it has the many health benefits that it can bring to bear.
The tai chi maters continue to be in demand. In fact, they are busier! There is no longer serious need to guard the secret of tai chi, and it can now be taught to the million and million of people as a health exercise.
In this perspective, the fire arm have given tai chi a new life.
During the last half-century, tai chi has become an exercise for the masses, and many are doing it without knowing that the techniques they practice used to kill.
There are two styles of tai chi chuan that shares the same pinyin ‘wu’. So do not be confused.
One of them uses the Chinese family name ‘吴’. It is pronounced in the second tone (wu2). The other is written as ‘武’, and is pronounced in the third tone (wu3).
Wu (吴) style taiji is known for its relative high stances and minimal arm movements. If you like the style, you will enjoy the performance by Master Zhu Datong （祝大彤）from Beijing. The video was taken in October 1998 in Hangzhou, and was meant for teaching.
You may wonder why tai chi chuan is described as an internal form of martial art.
Put it simply, the real power of tai chi is not in its outer movements. It is in the maneuvering of the internal energy, which is transformed from the chi (qi) — or vital energy — flowing in our body. In order to regulate the chi, you will have to allow your body to work in the natural ways. You will have to relax in such a way that chi can flow freely in the body without obstructions. This explains why tai chi emphasises precision in movements and coordination of the body.
As the power of tai chi is internal, you are unable to detect it visually with an untrained eye.
In the video below, the old man who has mastered the art of the relaxation taiji way asks the two young, able-bodied men to life him up. The young men, however, are unable to move him a bit. Neither his arms nor his whole body. However, he can easily tilt the young men off balance with a brush.
The master stresses in the video, “The secret of tai chi chuan is to useyour mind, not your physical strength.”
The old master is Zhu Datong, a Wu style (吳氏) tai chi grand master from Beijing.
Probably, you can gain an insight from here as to how the internal energy of tai chi works.
Another major style of tai chi chuan that we see today is the Yang style.
The founder of the Yang style tai chi was Yang Luchan, who was born in 1799.
In order to learn the tai chi chuan, which had been protected as a family secret and passed down only through the Chen family line, he disguised as a servant to work in the household of a Chen style master Chen Changxing, He spied on how the master performed the martial art, and secretly practiced what he had seen. He was found out eventually. Instead of punishing him, Chen was impressed by Yang’s excellence, and decided to break the rule and invited Yang into his school.
In comparison to the Chen tai chi, which is more combative, Yang tai chi is more at ease and lighter.
It is the most widely practiced tai chi style today.