Tung Ying-Chieh said, "T'ai Chi-Ch'uan is an internal system.  If the postures are correct and the inner principles understood, then this is T'ai Chi-Ch'uan.  If the postures are not correct and the inner principles not understood, even if the postures resemble T'ai Chi, there is no different from external systems."  He also said, "Learning self-defense applications is indispensable in T'ai Chi-Ch'uan.  Students who are primarily interested in exercise must also study applications. . . . The purpose of mastering self-defense applications is not to bully people, but to study the marvelous principles with friends."

Class Times

Saturday - 10:00 am - 11:00 am

Tuesday - 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm (Beginning July 6th)

Rates

Class Card

So here we meet as friends to grow as individuals...

... using an art form that fell out of the long sieve of human history.  One interpretation of the story goes; sometime late in the Sung Dynasty, Chang San-Feng found two spears and the 'T'ai Chi Stick-Adhere Spear' manual from which he "extracted the essence of each word and transformed them into a series of postures".  The principles are principles, because they are in essence unchanging.  When these ancient techniques are embraced in moving our bodies around in everyday life, the affect is refreshing and enlivening.

We will be constantly reviewing and discussing these principles in class.

So the question on my mind is, "How do I convey this marvelous art to you in a manner sufficient enough to kindle interest?"  I know each of you would love it once you got to a point of flow and ease in the movements.  It takes a short while to start getting what the movements are about, then it can really start feeding back benefits that have a tendency to induce perpetuation.

If I can get you to experience at some point in class or a moment at home in your practice, what I experience each time I do T'ai Chi, then I will have succeeded in pointing out a direction that will lead to more of the same, if you choose to keep up your discipline.  The Dali Lama recently defined discipline as, "that which you do to protect your own self interest".  I must agree.  So here is my life preserver thrown in your direction to try and pull you through the doorway of potential, lest you drift off in another current.

The thing we are trying to accomplish is "relaxed movement".  That's it! If it is truly relaxed, it will have no leaning and no undue imbalances.  Having not practiced this slow movement art, people are often shaky when they first try.  This soon assuaged, by correct practice.  Much of proper actualization comes from approaching it with the correct state of mind.  Metaphors like, "walking like a stalking cat" or "moving like Quai Chang Kane on rice paper", assist in attaining the proper state. Just embrace it! Do it! How could your body do something different than what your mind told it to do?  Imagine 'you', moving like thin silk cloth waving and curling in a gentle breeze.  Now sensitivity comes online and more subtle levels of the world begin to be revealed.

The body does not argue with the mind.  It can only do what is asked of it, to the best of its abilities.  Our task then is to develop and expand the range of our abilities to a point where what is asked for, is given.  This is our true natural home!  This is our best means of protection and self-preservation, existing as the vital human being living on planet Earth.  Alive!  Capable!  Certain with confidence!  We are trying to become civilized, wild, men and women.  Sympathetically inspired and Para-sympathetically actualized, T'ai Chi turns the "flight or fight" response into a measured and focused maneuver.

T'ai Chi is what we have always done to move our bodies through the interacting world.  This is the living that dances between yin and yang.  T'ai Chi-Ch'uan is the art form that continues training our sensitivity to the variations in that dance.

The reason the end results seem so magical, is because our true potential is so far beyond what we typically believe.

So you're standing in the doorway to a different future than you thought you would be facing.  A new set of options is being offered.  What does it mean? Somewhere in the distance, very nearat hand lies the 'mysterious pass' that is the gateway to innate movement.  You already possess the key to open it.  You stand before it every moment of each day.  It opens from time to time, in situations that require action that is quicker than rational thought.  It's the flash reflex that helps you catch the falling baby, because you had to, because all along you had it in you to do it.  Functioning fully is just a matter of training that reflex into continuous operation and that is exactly what T'ai Chi-Ch'uan does to bodies that are run through its wonderful mill.

'The Mysterious Pass' is the state of being that opens when both mind and body are centered.  In that calm vertical posture the strings of the great marionette are free to move us and we dance to the necessary dance of the moment. Accurate and impeccable!

One of the early great masters of T'ai Chi explained that, "when the vital breath fills the body, there is not the slightest awkwardness".

This is life at it's fullest, most enjoyable vibrance, which is the natural result of strength, tone and a deep and guiding harmony in your body.

Come play T'ai Chi with us for the benefit of your total self and the loved ones around you who wish you to remain strong, safe and resilient in the years to come.

~ ~o~ ~

One of the strongest proponents and transmitters of Yang style T'ai Chi-Ch'uan is Yang Cheng-Fu who passed in 1936.  In his first book on Tai Chi, he said,

"The most important thing in studying the postures is not the external appearance, but to grasp the idea."

"One day's efforts produce one day's benefits, one year, one year's results."

"Those who practice faithfully will see profound results in three years."

David Alan Arnold     4-2-2010