Tai Chi Chuan
By Lisa Neuweld 
Calligraphy by Master Abraham Liu (©2002 Abraham Liu)

Introduction

For several years, I have had the good fortune to study with a wonderful teacher, Master Abraham Liu, who personifies what is best about Tai Chi. The credit for many of the ideas and insights in this article belongs to Master Liu. The misunderstandings are my own.


Why Practice Tai Chi?
The practice of Tai Chi cultivates relaxation and mindfulness. It teaches you to move easily, without tension, so that your mind and body can function smoothly. This is perhaps its greatest health benefit and the source of its spiritual power.

Tai Chi is designed to open you up, mentally and physically. Mentally so you can concentrate, your mind isn't easily distracted. Physically, so you can relax until all the residue of tension is gone. In this way, Tai Chi teaches you to move in harmony with yourself and your surroundings.

The ability to move easily, with a sense of relaxed power, will manifest in your everyday activities. Eventually, you will move differently, open doors differently, carry packages differently, stand differently. You will also approach conflicts differently, whether in a family, with co-workers or with friends.

Lao Tze spoke of the virtues of water: Water is unselfish, life giving, never asking for reward, able to infiltrate into and out of every place. Nothing is softer than water or more fluid. Water doesn't struggle. It does not resist. It goes into any space available. It takes the shape of its container.

"When my opponent is strong, I am soft. This is called "yielding."
Like water, Tai Chi flows smoothly and offers no resistance. It yields, changes shape, moves into any available space. Like water, Tai Chi meets hardness with softness. If someone pushes you, you yield and change shape. Like water, Tai Chi can be soft as four ounces or powerful as a thousand pounds.

It is important to remember that you don't yield for nothing. You yield to place yourself in a better position. This is the life strategy of Tai Chi.


How to Practice
Tai Chi is usually practiced at a slow, meditative pace. This develops balance, coordination of breath and movement, concentration and relaxation. It is easy to ride a bicycle quickly, but it is much harder to ride a bicycle very slowly. It requires more balance, focus, and deliberate movement.

Each step should be deliberate and careful. Let the foot that takes the step be completely empty. Then it can be placed very deliberately, with heel first, then toe. Be soft but not sloppy. Be strong but not hard.

In Tai Chi, the sequence is always the same: the foot steps, the weight shifts and the body turns. The turn of the body causes the hands to move. If the body doesn't turn, the hands don't move.

We often speak of the nine joints of the body. This is a reference to the nine principal joints involved in each movement, but also encompasses all the small joints and segments of the body. The nine joints refer to the three joints in the leg (ankle, knee and hip), three joints in the arm (shoulder, elbow and wrist), and three joints in the spine.

The Tai Chi classics say that energy is developed by the legs, commanded by the waist and manifested in the hands. Each time you perform a movement, you visualize the energy moving sequentially through the nine joints. Ideally, the energy moves through the inside of the joints, opening them and lubricating them. The low stances and flexibility allow the nine joints to act like the pearls on a string, each responding to the movement of the one before so that energy flows smoothly and efficiently.
The Efficiency of Tai Chi
In Tai Chi, we say that the soft force overcomes the hard force. How is this possible? There are two problems to overcome in a confrontation: speed and strength. To match speed for speed and strength for strength is the normal way of fighting. Tai Chi uses deflection to overcome strength and "sticking" to overcome speed. The action that connects these techniques is "turning".

Deflection overcomes the problem of matching strength for strength. Deflection (or yielding) does not require strength yet it redirects the opponent’s strength away from you, in a harmless direction. The classic saying is that four ounces can deflect a thousand pounds. This is true only if the four ounces are applied at just the right time and place. Timing and sensitivity are required to deflect well.

Sticking overcomes the problem of speed. If you are able to stick to your opponent, you don't need to be quicker than your opponent. First, you must intercept the incoming punch or kick. Once contact is made, you continue to stick to your opponent. By sticking, you borrow your opponent's speed. You ride on your opponent's speed like the rider on a horse. You borrow your opponent's speed and add your own.

The connection between these two techniques of deflection and sticking is the action of ‘turning’. In every action in Tai Chi, the body is turning. The challenge is to learn to turn in time, not too soon and not too late. This is the skill that Push Hands teaches. You work with your partner to find the perfect synchronicity of turning, sticking and deflecting.
"I put myself in a good position and my opponent in an awkward position. This is called "turning."
Tai Chi Practice

Yang Chang Fu, one of the greatest Yang style teachers, wrote a short list of the ten important points of Tai Chi practice. Five points are about proper posture; the remaining points are about coordination. Click here to see the list.

There are three main stages of Tai Chi practice: the solo form, push hands and tai chi sparring. The solo form teaches you to open up, to relax mentally and physically. Push Hands teaches timing, turning and sticking. Tai chi sparring teaches self-defense applications, distance and speed.

There are three levels of training at each stage : postures, applications and coordination of breath with movement. The initial level is to learn the postures, simply to learn where to place the hands and feet. This includes the basic shape of the movement, and the transitions between movements. According to Wang Zhong Yue, it is through mastery of the postures that you develop an insight into the nature of flexible strength. Mastery of the postures is only obtained after long and diligent practice.

The next stage is to understand the energetic and self-defense applications. Many people are first attracted to Tai Chi as an energy exercise. Practicing the form usually calms and energizes the practitioner. It does this in two ways : it eliminates the impurities caused by tension and it stimulates energy to flow through your body. The flow of the energy cleans out the body, washing out the obstructions and blockages.

The shape of the movement influences the flow of energy. Expansive moves tend to push energy out to the extremities; contracting moves cause it to withdraw towards the core.
The sequence of postures in the form is also important to this energetic aspect of Tai Chi. The sequence of movements acts like a bellows, pushing the breath/energy through the body, by alternating the expansive and contracting postures.

Each movement also has self-defense applications. Even for people who don't study Tai Chi as a martial art, it is important to understand these applications in order to keep the movements precise. If the self-defense aspects are ignored, the tendency is to make the movements larger and larger. Energetically, larger movements feel stronger but the nuances of the movements may be lost.

Many books have been written about the self-defense applications of Tai Chi. Click here to see a recommended reading list. The general rule is that every move can be done at three levels (high, middle and low) and in five directions (left, right, back, forward and center). The combinations become like three-dimensional chess.

The third stage of training is the coordination of the breath and the movements. Typically, you inhale with movements that lift or roll back, and exhale with movements that press or sink. However, not every move will require a full breath. This coordination between breath and movement is something that happens gradually, and in unexpected ways. Your body finds its own breathing rhythm. It is not recommended that you force your breath to coordinate with your movements.

Eventually the form becomes formless, that is, you abandon the learned sequence of moves and go easily from any move to any other move. The transitions become smooth, seamless. It is just a short step to take this free flowing form and apply the same principles to your everyday life.
The Principles of Tai Chi

The classic Tai Chi text by Wang Zhong Yue states, 'Tai Chi is born of wu chi (nothingness) and is the mother of yin and yang. In stillness, yin and yang unite; in action, they separate.'

The Tai Chi symbol represents the yin and yang principles - the two dynamic forces of the universe. Each of the dualities of our world can be seen as a mixture of different degrees of yin and yang: male/female, light/dark, hot/cold, heaven/earth. They are all parts of a whole. Tai Chi Chuan is the relationship between these two forces. At the beginning of your practice, you separate the yin and yang energies. With experience, they flow back together. This is Tai Chi: the movement of yin and yang energies in harmony.

Text: ©2002 by Lisa Neuweld. All Rights reserved.
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