WHAT IS T'AÏ-CHI-CHUAN ?
But, day after day came in my mind the idea that this internet site could be reached by former practicers (even by old ones), so it could be right to give some explanations about t'aï-chi-chuan.
Traditionnally, t'aï-ji-quan is translated by "the last ultimate knock". That's
the word to
word translation. We can understand this (do you, actually ?), but it's quite
obscure.
There is a legend : a taoïst monk was watching a fight between a bird and a
snake and, inspired
by their movments, he created t'aï-chi-chuan . This is THE legend. No one knows
trully which won,
the bird or the snake? Some say the bird, some say the snake, but noone knows
really. My
answer is : the drago win. (I speak here of the chinese drago, not the
occidental specimen.)
In South America, people never talk about dragos, they just talk of emplumed
snake... Strange
sentence, isn't it? ... Neither did it have any sense to me, until i heard of
that mythic fight
between the bird and the snake. The bird and the snake mixed up in one only
being. Should the
ultimate victory be when ther are no more adversaries, when they fused in a new
being, the
fusion of verticality and horizontality, beyond the duality, recovering the
Unity ?
Please, please, do not use the term of taï-ji insted of taï-ji-quan. For taï-ji-quan, it's Taï-JI, which mean Tao, and Chuan, that we could understand by shape. The Uncreated and the Creation. If you are always talking about taï-ji, you'll practice only taï-ji, forgotting Quan, and will be no more in the real world, having no roots, no matter. Your taï-ji would be too air, vaporous, inconsistent. And the shape, it's also precision, rightness; not really unuseful things.
Nevertheless taï-ji-quan must become YOUR taï-ji-quan, adapted to your body, your problems, your research, your desires or even your daily style. I never do the same sequence. That's the way to find the true values of that practice, without sticking to a particular form (that would be to solidify, therefore to kill), but even sticking to.
Le t'aï-chi-chuan is a long life practical : it cures illnesses, it allows you to protect yourself against dangerous people, and by the meditation you'll live eternally, avoiding the 2 nd death...
One day, as i was practicing, i thaught to climbing. Slowly moving on, on a continuous rythm, always looking for its own way, till the end of the ascencion. That's also the spirit when you practice..
It's quite religious.
T'aï-ji-quan is discovering our universe through Yin-Yang, so you don't undergo
separation,
parcelling out. It's also moving balance, coming from Yin to Yang very sweetly.
It's just being
connected to Earth and Sky.
Always be right, in your moves, in your attitude, in your relationships.
Practicing t'aï-ji-quan it's discovering the move of Life.
If practice also for the liberty : those to participate or not to that mysterious magical thing, but more for my health. Taï-ji-quan allows me to no more suffer illnesses, waiting desesperately a magic pill which should blow away my sufferings. I have this power in myself, and i'm not any more condemned to suffer, silenciously or not :-( Too many people are suffering. It is an excellent remedy, always here, available, which give peace to your heart, your body and your spirit.
This page will grow up.