Monday, February 22, 2010

Universal Effect

[Path to Mastery 2/22/10 – Wk24 D1 (Str 9.12.09)(Ph2 11.15.09)]

Sang’s World

One of the great things about Tai-chi is that as your Tai-Chi improves it has a direct reflection of growth in the rest of your life.

Last Saturday, Alexis, one my students said “Tai-Chi is about using form to connect with what’s beyond form”.  I thought that was beautifully expressed.  

I experience this in every single class of mine with someone coming up and telling me how Tai-Chi is transforming their life and having an effect on it.  For instance, on the same Saturday in an earlier class (I chose this example since this seemed like a serendipitous days), Claudia said that the practice of extending from your shoulders really helped her with her singing.  The practice of extending from your shoulders is imagining that a line of energy is extending form the bulging tip of your shoulder muscle between your neck and your shoulder tip.  This location on the shoulder is considered to be one of the key lung points and this visualization lines up your shoulders and hips and opens up your breath pathway and your lungs.  

Claudia is a professional singer and she teaches singing.  She is of course experienced with breath work and is very familiar with it.  She said that she really like this technique because it stabilized her and it helped with her voice.  I love the fact that she started practicing Tai-Chi not to long ago and simple things like these are helping her practice.  

Tai-Chi works on getting rid of the resistance in your body so you become natural.  When your body starts functioning naturally the way it was designed to work, our hidden potential starts coming out.  When you are more fully you, and you stop fighting yourself, of course everything else is going to become easy.        

This is why Tai-Chi has such a universally transforming effect in your life.


Continuing our Tai-Chi Journey:

Before we move on, I’d like to make a quick summary of the Tai-Chi overview we have covered:

So far we have been covering the Formalized traditional system of Tai-Chi.  We are coming close to the end of covering the entire Formalized part of the training.   Before the blog opened to the public, we covered the single person part of the system:

1. Qi-Gong (Taoist Longevity, White Crane Qi-Gong)
2. Standing Meditation
3. Stepping Mediation
4. 7 Basics
5. Basic Form
6. 30 Form
7. 108 Form

We covered the Interactive training after we went public with the blog.  
1. 8 Type Pushing Hands (Covered from 2/2 ~ 2/11)
2. San-Shou (Covered from 2/12 ~ 2/15)
3. Ba-Gua.(Covering from 2/16 ~ 2/19)
    Part 1: Explanation of Ba-Gua (Covered on 2/16)
    Part 2: Yin-Yang Theory (Covered on 2/17)
    Part 3: 8 Trigram (Covered on 2/18) 
    Part 4: 5 Element (Covered on 2/19)

Now we just need to cover:
1. Weapons
2. Healing System

Sometimes it is a good idea to just look at all the information that has been covered before you move on.  It gives a good sense of where you are in the journey.  

We will continue our journey with weapons tomorrow!

2 comments:

  1. Here is my latest utube clip:

    http://www.youtube.com/user/biorisesun#p/a/u/0/4UUZvKLXnPQ


    What have I started to do differently? Now as I practice I make it a point of realizing 1. What are the angles of my elbows? and 2. Are my heels touching the ground first. 3. Trying to keep my head straight, or at least go where the spine leads it.

    As for the mirror, their are some picture frames in the basement where I train and I have tried to practice some moves in front of there. My favorite move as of right now is Carry Yolk, you will see me doing it at the end of the form, I think it is beginning to look a lot like yours. Again I have misplaced the DVD so I am watching the utube clips you have made as reference.

    As to the blog, there is not a lot to respond to. I too am glad that I am studying Tai Chi, not because I am in love with in and of itself but because I love the benefits.

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  2. Nick, Yes , go for the benefits.

    It is ironic in a way that we have to study to be natural, but the more I think about it, studying is the way to understand, so without understanding how can you be natural. If you were given a tool such as a hammer, but didn't practice with it and learn how to use it in different circumstances, than how can you be natural at it.


    We are designed to continually grow so it does make sense that we must study to become natural.

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