Not knowing

If you think you know what tai chi is about, then that very knowledge will hamper your progress.

Knowing assumes familiarity and understanding.

To learn, it is crucial to let go of what you think you know. Learning is a process, not a conclusion.

Teaching & learning

The aim of our school is not to give you an evening's workout.

We seek to pass the skills onto you.

That way, you know tai chi for yourself and you can practice at home whenever you like.

The joy of learning

Gaining skill is an occasion for enthusiasm and fun.

If you are studying something you enjoy, it should not feel like hard work.

As your abilities improve and your insight deepens, you recognise how much you have learned.

 When you come to the dojo, it is a recognition the teacher there has something you want. He will give it to you in his own way. You must accept that. If you do not, you are free to leave. The dojo, however, is never run by consensus.

(Dave Lowry)

 Our next induction course is Monday 6th July. 

New starters are welcome!

 What is the meaning of elbow energy?

Its method relates to the five elements.

Yin and yang are divided above and below.

Emptiness and substantiality must be clearly distinguished.

Joined in unbroken continuity,

the opponent cannot resist the posture.

Its explosive pounding is especially fearsome.

When one has mastered the six kinds of energy,

the applications become unlimited.

(Tan Meng-hsien)

 In tai chi the hands do not move.

This doesn't mean that they stay fixed in front of you

but rather that they do not move independently of the source of their movement.

The waist.

(Cheng Man Ching)

 What is the meaning of push energy?

When applied it is like flowing water.

The substantial is concealed in the insubstantial.

When the flow is swift it is difficult to resist.

Coming to a high place, it swells and fills the place up;

meeting a hollow it dives downward.

The waves rise and fall,

finding a hole they will surely surge in.

(Tan Meng-hsien)

Tai chi does not mean oriental wisdom or something exotic. It is the wisdom of your own senses, your own mind and body together as one process.

(Chungliang Al Huang)

The way

People commonly translate 'tao' to mean the way.
The danger with this translation is that 'way' can mean more than one thing:

1. path/road/route

2. nature/how/essence/character

Invariably, people interpret 'way' to mean the first option, when in reality it might well be closer to the second.

Neither definition can be considered entirely accurate, but at least the second definition is speaking about a characteristic rather than a route.

Defining the Tao

Lao Tzu began Tao Te Ching by saying that 'Tao' cannot be defined and that any definition is incomplete.

Words cannot extend to reality.

This is a very logical statement. After all, you cannot eat the word 'bread'. Nor could another person share your experience of bread through words alone.

Reality is tangible. It has substance.

As soon as you try to capture reality verbally you fail. Words are too limited. Thoughts are incomplete.

Reality is far too vast. The word is not the thing.

 The answer is that there are no answers. All questions are wrong. Struggling with wrong questions will never give right answers. Finding right answers misses the tao.

 (Lao Tzu)

Eastern ways

The culture in which tai chi evolved was foreign to our own.

They had very different approaches to living.

To understand tai chi, you must see what the Taoists saw.

 Almost all your anger comes from someone standing in the way of your attachment, doesn't it?

(Anthony De Mello)

 If a beast big enough to swallow a wagon

Should leave its mountain forest,

It will not escape the hunter's trap.

If a fish big enough to swallow a boat

Lets itself get stranded by the outgoing tide,

Then even ants will destroy it.

So birds fly high, beasts remain

In trackless solitudes,

Keep out of sight; and fishes

Or turtles go deep down,

Down to the very bottom.

The man who has some respect for his person

Keeps his carcass out of sight,

Hides himself as perfectly as he can.

 (Chuang Tzu) 

 Let your practice be short and intense, focussing your attention one one single action, where body and brain meet at the same point at the same time.

(Vanda Scaravelli) 

 What is the meaning of rollback energy?

Entice the opponent toward you by allowing him to advance,

lightly and nimbly follow his incoming force

without disconnecting and without resisting.

When his force reaches its farthest extent,

it will naturally become empty.

The opponent can then be let go or countered at will.

Maintain your central equilibrium

and your opponent cannot gain an advantage.

(Tan Meng-hsien)

What is the meaning of wardoff energy?

It is like the water supporting a moving boat.

First sink the qi to the tan tien,

then hold the head as if suspended from above.

The entire body is filled with spring-like energy,

opening and closing in a very quick moment.

Even if the opponent uses a thousand pounds of force,

he can be uprooted and made to float without difficulty.

(Tan Meng-hsien)

 Many excessively bounce around learning the next 'new' form or movement set without ever extracting the real internal value from any of them.

 (Bruce Frantzis) 

Principles

To practice the tai chi skilfully, it is necessary to learn the tai chi principles.

The art relies upon gravity, softness, balance, rhythm and timing rather than speed or brute strength.

Students must cultivate an unusual kind of power.