Beginning Tai Chi

[Anonymous]

Hello
I have a lot of different experience : 5 years kung fu, 8 years zen meditation, 3 years chi kung and so on.

I am very interested in doing some tai chi, these graceful movements.

Recently I learnt Dragon & Tiger, in about 5 days from the video and it seemed quite straightforward because the instructions were very clear with fine tuning, and feeling the energy and knowing a bit about chi theory makes it clear what you are meant to experience internally.

Now the problem I have the myriad of traditional tai chi forms is … I could learn them, but how do I know whether I am doing them right. If my arm is 2 inches inside or outside, or lower or higher, or the legs are tenser or more relaxed.

How can I tell what is intended. Many of the moves I see could be done in countless ways … and if I cross-check different practictioners, watching for the subtleties they seem to be doing things very very differently.

In the teaching material I have seen with instructors going through, even they don’t seem quite clear what is really intended internally.

You see … if I knew what was intended, then I would know how to do it …

What is the aim of a particular form ? Say you see some form … what is the aim ? Is it to enter the absolute ? Is it to stimualate the heart and merge it with the dantien ? Is it an integration of the dantien and heaven energy ?

Is it emotional integration ?

Without guidance … you could do it a million different ways.

Of course, you could give some basic rules … balanced, holding your centre, focussing on the dantien, open the joints … and so … but why is one form different to another ?

In this form there are 13 moves .. what is the intention behind the moves ?

[Anonymous]

Couple of other comments :

I just saw a thread from BKF where he was proposing producing tai chi dvds … it was back 2010 … but it seems none have been done.

I went to some classes last year for Yang lineage style, and the teacher went through the beginning of the form with us a few times.

In the past I have done Wu Shu, and the moves are very clear and the reasons for doing them also. This is a block, this is a strke, and so. Likewise in the Qigong I do, this move opens the front channel, this move regulates the heart chi, this move opens K1 and so on.

Very clear.

Now with this instructor … what was he really done. We did some moves, over and over again. It was very wishy washy. It was not really clear precisely what the movements were, or what the internal intention was.

We may as well have been in the park doing some dancing or something !!! And I don’t want to waste my time.

I would like that clarity … which means that the instructor actually knows himself or herself what they are doing, and why and what is happening inside. I get the impression many people actually don’t know and don’t care !

…

[Anonymous]

Just browsing round the internet for various instructors teaching step by step tai chi forms … what they teach is basically additionally positioning information about the body. Like … the hand should be level with the hips in this posture.

And that’s it. They don’t seem to be aware of any internal meaning or energetic meaning of the form.

And the problem then is … how do you know the form isn’t bogus ? Somebody could remember it badly, somebody could have invented it. And there is no way to check because there isn’t any internal guidance … and if you don’t know what it’s supposed to do, then you can’t check that it is doing it.

[Anonymous]

I’ve been getting a lot from the Tai Chi for Beginners program, which presents the mini-form of the Wu style and also has Tai Chi Circling Hands, too.

http://www.energyarts.com/tai-chi-beginners-and-tai-chi-circling-hands-program

The Wu form is more geared towards meditation, but, in that regard, it offers everything you are going to find from any tai chi style yet you are also getting the meditation side of things too; you get all the energetics and healing and whatnot but, as an added bonus, you get inner-dissolving as part of the package. Pretty sweet deal!

Also, Tai Chi Circling Hands is majorly awesome. It does the same thing as Marriage of Heaven and Earth qi gong but, from what Bruce says and certainly from what I’ve experienced, it is a much simpler way of getting the openings and closings going. It shows up with the second payment/installment and I haven’t even really started to crack through all that is in it. But, it is extremely dynamic and really makes the movements of tai chi, and even further to all forms of qi practices, start to make sense; you start getting a sense of the circularity of movement and how this connects to the deeper aspect of what’s going on.

[Anonymous]

These seem like a valid-‘self’-inquiry to keep coming-back to.. (in the sense of, am I getting what ‘I’ want- out of this art-, vs what others say is important. and what is ‘my’ progress.. as irrespective of what others do/or don’t/ gain.. its what each gains from their own practice).. but at the same time:

it is like browsing websites, and promotional brochures, for various graduate level colleges and research-labs… is what is presented as “Sales i.e. freely avail intro”.. or even in the most accessible presentations & classes going to show the depth of what is avail?

or- is what goes on, at the “cutting-edge” in such a facility not going to be seen via this access (thus need contact with those..

communicating with the Profs and Researchers that are doing the ‘big work’.. need know who those are (have read those papers- ala publish-perish.. speak that language.. ie you are in those ‘circles’) And thus how do you present how you are..

(in olden Martial Arts, often a student of a teacher would be a first contact, vs Sr Techers or the Main Instructor- and the they ask to see your/the questioners art… just something to show what attributes/qual they have.. but most of all to show some type of GungFu (demonstrate something that showed one had developed-via-struggle)… then something might be shown— which would give a different impression than what an Introductory demonstration (whether on :stage” at in Expo/Event, or on “screen” vid-clip or YouTube itself..)
===
Not a simple answer- but a good, and not simple, question: in short, my perspective (whatever its worth, perhaps not much).. how to “judge a Book by its cover” – as the old saying goes..?
You can’t assume there is info value, nor really assume there isn’t, once deeper in.. (best actually is to grasp a sense of how such a school/group/system structures their learning and culture.. if you can recognize that, then you get an idea of what their “foundations” are which may be often quite a different context- what is first and then second, vs later- between different groups… Thus if you wonder, why is XYZ emphasized here?

………….
Lastly- the micro-postural adjustments “I think” (just an opinion) is from custom fdbk, a teacher adjusts to optimize compression and stretch in each part (in balance, and not too much- but enough possible to free up.. which the system integrates and then go shift more, as if feels comfortable and ready- encouragement: the hawk circling watching the mouse-hole)… This can be fully individual (thus requires one-on-one, and can’t be standardized on video).. BUT so many things are in common.. people usually have tension (for ex- these days) in Neck-shoulders- pulling up from top of lungs along neck- disconnecting down.. and major skeletal aligns, espec leg-hip. and “opening up cramping-stuckness in organs and diaphram.. etc…
So in that regard- if assume most students have that, a demo of this movement exactly here- “May” have come from that.. in most schools, I that has become tradition– its about a shape, and list of pts.. so it may not be in contact with that..

(the key is if you feel- from a practitioner that “Has it”- what the movement-posture/practice is supposed to feel like/ flow, that bio-electric zing, or the hydraulic surge-slosh.. or whatever.. then you have it- and then adjustments- either given to you, or you tweak yourself.. are like fine-tunings of frequency to clear-up a channel… but until you know what you are fine-tuning for.. (or if you haven’t felt contact with it).. then can’t do this yet.. (once have a flow, then keep it, and encourage that to grow, via each posture, and between them)…
and key- what we think it should “feel like” (and what it is capable of) is not what the feeling is (nor what this can possibly do for you)… Like Bruce has said, you can hear so much about “taste of orange”… but no matter how good a description, it won’t be the taste (even if it is close. let alone if you don’t understand what the describer means).

I hope this might help someone who reads this (espec as these arts have sunk their roots so deep in my being, my soul, my life.. and grown from a tiny sprout to a different plant than I expected.. and the questioning of this OriginalPost I think was a part of that for-me.. rechecking my Navigated path.. on the way..)

[Anonymous]

All very good questions. As a practitioner of more than 7 years, I can say that your first and foremost advantage is your curiosity and desire for in-depth knowledge. It can drive you on for as long as you want – actually, as long as you live!

My knowledge and experience tells me that when people start learning tai chi, they have enough to cope with without bothering about the energy aspect or actual manifestation of basic principles, even with former martial arts background. Many people need all their concentration just to stay focused on what their hands are supposed to be doing, let alone legs, upper and lower body coordination, breath coordination, energy movement etc. So teaching these things at a beginner’s level would do more harm than good by actually scaring people away with the sheer depth of the subject. That may be the cause you don’t see too many of these advanced principles when you start up.

From what I’ve learned and experienced, tai chi circles around the daoist concept of yin and yang, empty and full. In a form, this usually gives it a pulsing nature where at one time you expand, at the next you withdraw. This could easily be interpreted as simply attacking and defending, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Yin and yang does not only transform into one another in subsequent moves, but also your limbs will change from being yin to being yang from move to move. When you have your weight on your right leg, that leg is yin and your left leg is yang. When you’re pushing your right leg down, the energy generated in your leg and directed by your hips will have to find and output in your opposing hand, in this instance, the left one. So you have one active leg and one active hand, but that also means you have one passive leg and one passive hand. An active hand is usually engaged in one of the 8 basic moves of tai chi, while the passive hand is usually defending. So it’s not always easy to say about a move: this is a punch, this is a deflect, this is a kick, because while one part of your body might be doing exactly that and as being the active one, it might be the more spectacular of the things you’re doing, another part of your body might be doing something very different in nature.

If you’re looking for ways to learn tai chi online (or at least not in person), try to look for signs that the teachers will touch on the points you’re interested in at least some point later. Don’t look for them in a beginner course though, most likely you’ll not find them. What you’ve outlined in your questions is a quest for life in tai chi and in my opinion, takes the better part of a man’s life to master it. An easy way to spot a bogus instructor is their promise that you’ll get there by the end of the month. You won’t even get there by the end of the decade, but it’s the journey not the destination that makes it worthwhile.

[Anonymous]

And what is the purpose of pulsing yin and yang. It might be useful for the body or fighting, but the body is dead anyway. So I ask what use is it ?

My own experience is that pulsing puts you more in touch with the energy body, and I could speculate that at a certain point you can live fully in your energy body withdrawing from the physical body, and pulsing becomes a fundamental activity of that body and it’s activities.

For my own purpose I am no longer interested in slowly learning; in my experience (I am 45) if you don’t feel the interior now there is no point doing it, it is just robotic.

Sudden awakening is the way to go, and that is available. And this is the same in medicine and many fields, falling in love also. For me this is the right way, otherwise the mind tells stories about how in the future it’s going to be worth it etc..

Not that the path doesn’t take time, but at the beginning you must taste blood.

As for the quest of life, I note that Lao Tse made comments that “a man lives long because he does not care to live long”, and that a man of the path is absolutely useless.

Considering these 2 things … brings into question (or at least into the spotlight) many practices that fall under the taoist umbrella. Not that longevity practices are useless, but that they seem to point in a different direction from Lao Tse and that one can easily mis-use them. They would be valuable if you use the added time to follow the path, but doing them for their own sake not. Which I suppose is like Westerners doing yoga as an exercise, which most, if not nearly all, do.

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