Many Martial Systems and Healing Schools base their advertising or their dialogue on philosophical statements. Ideas of integrity and honesty resound in such schools, across the country, and these schools often proclaim Wondrous Abilities and Dramatically Peaceful Ideologies. Fantastic, hopeful visions saturate our martial and healing arts.
Neither the philosophies nor the principles that guide our Institutions, Economies, or Nations are grounded. Religious fervor, manic profit motivations, and ideological agendas flood pulpits, corrupt corporate boardrooms, and blanket the news. And although Many Of Us search for Realistic Ideas, Compassion, and Acts of Kindness, we are, either through hope or despair, desperate for help.
Along comes Tai Chi Chuan and Yoga and a New Age. Sifus and Gurus and Masters demonstrate Apparent Powers by pushing students remarkable distances, contorting bodies, and reading into minds and futures. We live in an age where Fantasy suppresses Truth and Word oppresses Knowledge.
Severed from Natural Existentials, bathed in Luxuries of the Modern Age, and (seemingly) protected by Law from Aggression and Violence, we discover difficulties in examining Fighting and Healing from Real Perspectives. Martial arts tournaments keep safe with rules, and healers make a killing (HMOs — don’t get me started!). Neither tie us to Reality nor tether us to the Heritage of Being-Human.
Over years, T’ai Chi Chüan has degraded in its Efficacy as Martial Art and, therefore, in its Potency as Healing Art. In this age, finding a Good Form is tough; seeing a Quality Form is tougher; discovering a Good Teacher, oh so, difficult. If you don’t know Tai Chi, instructors are lurking in every New Age publication. Watch out.
Taiji Practice: To-Do and Not-To-Do
Our practice becomes, in part, an attempt to Be Real. We deny Faith Healers and Qi-Fakers their power. If you Seek Instruction, watch for: does the Spine or Belly in Teacher initiate movement in Hands? Likewise, does the Form look simultaneously Beautiful and Devastating? Often it looks like one or the other: Quality Taijiquan demonstrates both.
Attempt to Touch Truth, to experience the Raw Nature of the World. The practice of The Supreme Ultimate Fist is one of Plunging into the Deep Corners of: the Body, the Mind, and Spirit Energies. Some of it’s so subtle and so surprising, it’s not easy. Easy Tai Chi is Not Tai Chi. This is never a Quick Process; Learn-Fast Tai Chi is just another Hoax exposing the Desperate and Fragile Mind of us Western Fools.
That Genius who invented, what I call (the World Taiji Boxing Association’s version), Yang Lu-chen Long Form gave us a Great Gift: a long, detailed, and sophisticated exploration of Body, Mind, and Spirit. It’s this practice that’s so important. Over and over, every time, that same Form is never the same.
Practice is, inevitably, bit by bit, right now, right here. Daily Practice (maybe 2-4 times daily practice) is more potent than Loyalty to our instructors, more poignant than Paying big bucks, and more powerful than long hours of Practice Once per month. Every moment that we connect to Taiji, is another spent discovering the Confidence, Freedom, Power, and Compassion that lurks inside.
Try it now….
Yang Lu-chen’s Long Form by Erle Montaigue
Part 1: Old Yang Style Learn Taiji Free
Part 2: Old Yang Style Learn Taiji Free
