The martial aspect of Tai Chi Chuan differs from many other martial arts by its principle of YIELDING. By turning from the waist, you turn away to deflect attacks. Physically, yielding involves diverting an attacker, moving within your own balance to keep from getting harmed.
It’s to illustrate the principle of yielding with balance that Tai Chi practitioners use the adage: ‘With four ounces you can topple one thousand pounds’. It’s not just any four ounces. It’s four ounces that responds insightfully and flexibly to your opponent.
Awareness of the way our bodies move in harmony and unity grows into an awareness of the way our minds can shed their programming to become truly open, flexible to the actual present. It’s this present awareness without agenda or expectations that yield both calmness and the most sensible course of action in any situation.
Philosophically, yielding implies ‘going with the flow’ or ‘wu wei’ in Taoist terms. But like a great river’s current, going with the flow means an active flow. It means following a course within yourself that comes from knowing yourself.
Tai Chi integrates the martial with the philosophical. Tai Chi Chuan can be seen as beating personal swords into ploughshares.
The martial aspect of Tai Chi Chuan constitutes the physical expression. In the practice of Tai Chi Chuan this deadly fighting ability transforms into a vision of beauty and a path to peace. At TaiChiclass.org I show you how to take martial actions and convert them into a vehicle for enlightenment. It repurposes fighting techniques into a peaceful road to unifying body, mind and spirit.