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At some point, it's less about usefulness and more about whole body-mind-emotion integration. At the very least, there may be spontaneous feeling of rightness a
by hosh 10y ago
At some point, it's less about usefulness and more about whole body-mind-emotion integration. At the very least, there may be spontaneous feeling of rightness and perhaps, happiness and joy that arises. This is true of yoga as well.
I am Taiwanese. Unlike my sister, I'm considered an oddball: Most of my friends are not Asian and I practice traditional martial arts. I tried to go and find the teacher myself, however, if I had not been so out of sorts with my mother, I probably would have gotten consistent training when I was young. I would have been the spoiled only grandson (so to speak), it's difficult to find any kid of Chinese ancestry eager for it.
I also went in for all the wrong reasons though I thought I knew why I should get into this stuff. Now, in the middle age, with my body the way it is, I recognize a lot of the motivation I had were fantasies.
My wife is of American descent. Her grandmother, also American, picked up Tai Chi a couple yeara ago. It was suggested to her as a pain management thing, and she did not want to take drugs for pain. She stuck out with it even though there wasn't a result. She said the first result came after a year: the pain went away. She could sleep. She told me she wished someone had told her about this when she was young.
But I think we both knew: if someone told her about this when she was young, it's doubtful she would have listened.
Pain management sounds useful, but the art goes deeper than that. Using a metric like "utility" to describe it's value asks the wrong question.
- agumonkey 10y agoSure youth is leaving in its own fantasy world. There's no better time for information. The time you get it is when you get it[1]. If your wife's mom saw results it's all what I was looking for. Thanks. [1] Sometimes you read the same thing many times for years, only 10 years later you realize the real meaning.
- bfuller 10y agoTai chi teaches balance and efficiency of movement. Young headstrong people (mostly) won't see the the benefits of these qualities. Older people (mostly) will.
- hosh 10y agoI think that only scratches the surface of Tai Chi.
- bfuller 10y agoWhat is your point?
- agumonkey 10y agoTell us more. I never took Tai Chi lessons. But from sports and music, Tai Chi felt very close to mechanical optimization. Surely there's more, so feel free to reply.
- bfuller 10y agoIntegrating breathing into every movement, the separation of yin from yang, lots of stuff
- agumonkey 10y agoYou people like to be mysterious. I'll try to find about what you hinted at. Thanks nonetheless.
- gbog 10y agoI was sceptical too, then I tried once with a good friend, it was not the "do you feel the qi?" thing, more like "follow my moves". In the evening, my body was so full of some electric shit I couldn't sleep. This friend went to some other part of the world, I never tried again. I remember it was the "wuxing quan", the "five elements" version.
- bfuller 10y agoI apologize for seeming vague. My father was one of the first Westerners to learn Tai chi so I grew up with it. Knowing something so intimately and being able to thoughtfully articulate and teach it are often totally different skills.