Tai Chi Chuan - by Marie-Claire Dubé

 

 

Most of us living in urban centres have seen people practicing Tai Chi Chuan in some nearby park. Around the world, the popularity of Tai Chi is evident. Usually, the practitioners we see are executing a bare-hand form. Occasionally, however, some are practicing Tai Chi with a sword. That’s because Tai Chi, like other martial arts, has bare-hand forms as well as forms that feature various weapons—and the most popular (and noble) of these is the straight sword. It is called the ‘jian’.  

 

Tai Chi is first and foremost a martial art.  It was developed long ago to help people nurture internal strength and learn self-defense techniques. Indeed, although the movements we see practiced in parks are slow and deliberate, they can be executed quickly to ward off a potential opponent.  Tai Chi is also a dynamic form of meditation. The philosophy and principles behind Tai Chi come with various layers of meaning. In fact, part of the universal appeal of Tai Chi is precisely that it works on many levels, and that there is something in it for everyone. Most of us, however, first come to Tai Chi as a way to stay fit or to improve our health—and for good reason. 

There are many benefits to practicing Tai Chi—with or without a jian. One of them is improved posture.  For most westerners, learning the correct Tai Chi stance often involves the unlearning of bad habits.  Tai Chi entails aligning the body in a way that facilitates the flow of energy. The checklist for correct alignment includes lifting the crown of the head, tucking in the chin slightly, and tilting the pelvis. Practitioners learn to relax their chest, eliminate tension between the shoulder blades, drop the elbows, flex the knees, and root their feet to the ground. 

As mentioned previously, better posture is only one of the benefits of Tai Chi. Because Tai Chi stretches all the muscles, bones, tendons, and nerves of the body, it contributes to overall fitness and health.  For example, regular practice reinforces the muscles around failing knee joints, providing one of the best “braces” possible. It also contributes to improved blood circulation, coordination, and balance. 

 

Along with the more obvious health benefits, come more subtle, equally important ones, which also contribute to one’s well-being. Tai Chi is an “internal” Chinese martial art: it promotes thedevelopment of internal energy and, ultimately, strength. It requires the practitioner to develop both the mind and the body together. In Tai Chi, mindfulness and intent are inseparable from stance and posture.  In other words, although you can jog 5 km while thinking about possible solutions to your personal or professional problems, you cannot practice Tai Chi without harmonizing your focus to your breath, and both your breath and focus, to your every gesture. (You have to leave your problems behind!) 

The external manifestations of Tai Chi may indeed seem like nothing more than a series of leisurely, drawn-out movements, a simple exercise.  However, in Tai Chi, what is going on internally is as important as what is going on externally. And that is where Tai Chi and other exercise routines part company.

First, the breath. When they begin to learn their first Tai Chi form, practitioners are introduced to the importance of correct breathing.  As a rule, we busy westerners have forgotten how to breathe. We have become “top breathers”, which means that air reaches only the top half of our lungs.  As a consequence, we breathe faster and more irregularly. We may be short on the “inhale”, and even shorter on the “exhale” (or vice versa). Tai Chi practitioners learn to breathe deeply and regularly, breathing in and out in equal time to match each movement.  Correct and controlled breathing is essential to relaxation, and, in Tai Chi, relaxation and calmness are crucial to the development of internal energy.

Second, mindfulness. In the practice of Tai Chi, what goes on in the mind is intimately linked to the visible movements being executed by the body. It is unthinkable—and actually impossible—to dissociate one from the other.  Take a string of pearls, and snake it across a flat surface. As it slithers along, there is no single pearl that seems to be moving faster or slower than another. Such is the objective in Tai Chi:  a body whose parts all move in unison, indiscernibly, like strung pearls.  That requires focus and mindfulness.  In Tai Chi practice, the mind is as active a player as the body.

The benefits arising from the internal manifestations of Tai Chi—although less immediately obvious—are equally significant. Practitioners are typically calm and have a relaxed mind.  At the very least, when subjected to the pressures and stresses of life, they know how to reinstate calmness. Regular practice also helps develop other, less palpable attributes: it improves reflexes, heightens sensitivity, and raises awareness.   

When practice includes the jian, new elements come into play. The slightest shift in direction is magnified along the length of the jian, and its weight is incorporated into the movement. The body then “extends” into the jian. The practitioner’s energy covers a longer path, traveling to the tip of the jian. 

Tai Chi is much, much more than a simple exercise routine. The external movements of a form, whether that form comprises, 24 or 108 postures, represent only a fraction of what is really going on when one engages in Tai Chi practice. The real surprise rests in the effect that the external and internal manifestations of the practice eventually have on one’s own well-being and development.

Although some of the benefits of Tai Chi practice require a longer commitment, others manifest themselves after merely three or four months of effort. Initially, progress may come slowly, but that should be expected.  Many of us have never realized how frozen our joints are, how stiff and immobile we’ve become. During the first year of Tai Chi practice, the body undergoes important, necessary changes. Correct and regular practice will bring enduring benefits. 

When practiced well, Tai Chi looks easy. To the observer, the people practicing Tai Chi in the park seem to be just doing.  On the inside, however, they are engrossed in stillness, engaged in developing the mind in tandem with the body. Oddly enough, that entails just doing.