Tai-chi Chuan (Taiji Quan) translates as Supreme Ultimate Fist. It is a Chinese martial art and is considered a ‘soft’ or ‘internal’ system. Tai Chi cultivates and employs the principles of correct postural alignment and genuine relaxation or ‘song’ (release) to produce power.
Here is a quote from my teacher that I feel sums up the purpose of Tai Chi as an internal training method. It also speaks to why Tai Chi is good for you.
“As I teach it, the purpose of the internal training is to achieve balance and harmony. When yin and yang are in balance and the mind and body in harmony we can maintain zhong ding (equilibrium) and live in peace” Sifu Adam Mizner
This statement certainly makes clear pragmatic sense to me and with direct experience of the health benefits of Tai Chi for mind and body I am personally not left needing any further explanation.
That said, we live in a modern world that demands to quantify everything. Even that which is beyond the grasp of explanation. The first line of the famous Taoist text attributed to the sage Lao Tzu, the Tao Te Ching tells us ‘’the way that can be spoken of is not the true (eternal) way’’ warning us against the foolish requirement to intellectually constrain ultimate truth and thereby inevitably miss it entirely. Such as it is, here are some further factors to point out the way.
The slow physical movements that characterise modern Tai Chi are known to produce robust health benefits. In reality if we are only moving through learned choreographic sequences then the health benefits of Tai Chi would be much the same as dance or a similar discipline or expression of movement at best. That is to say that Tai Chi could be considered good for circulation, co-ordination, balance, awareness, memory, posture, strength and mobility.
However, when the correct foundation is taught, learned and practiced through repetition the conditions of mind and body / internal and external are changed. That is that the ‘jibengong’ or training of fundamental skills will transform the practitioner toward what my teacher calls the ‘’Tai Chi animal’’.
In Tai Chi, we strengthen the body via Qi. This sounds mystical but anybody who has trained authentic methods of Zhan Zhuang (standing pole) will quickly tell you otherwise. Holding static postures for periods of time, we train correct postural alignment in order to allow the muscles to relax. When the skeleton is aligned the soft tissue can release.
This is a major part of the process that gets too easily referred to as ‘sinking the qi to the dantien’ (a bigger conversation for another time), and it is challenging training both physically and mentally.
Through this neigong or internal process, we are training the principles of correct structure and release. On the physical level of the body this supports bone health and density through weight bearing, nourishes the connective tissue which is stretched via the process of release, promotes improved posture via attention and correction to skeletal alignment and allows for release of unnecessary muscular tension.
Naturally, through training the body in this method of structure and release, these qualities are transposed over the mind. Personally, I could not think of a more desirable condition to cultivate than a mind and body which is both structured and released.
At HME Melbourne, I will teach and train you in the authentic internal methods passed down to me as a direct disciple and recognised level two instructor of Sifu Adam Mizner – Heaven Man Earth International founder. Experience directly for yourself the calm and power of genuine Taiji Quan (Tai Chi).