Relax, Damnit! Quotable Quotes About Tai Chi

Below are several excerpts from my readings that I felt  should share.

Life begins at seventy. Everything is beautiful! Health is a matter of the utmost importance and all the rest is secondary. Now I must find out how to enjoy excellent health in my whole life and discover the way to immortality.1

Man cannot live without exercise....If one has a space approximately four feet on a side and can spare ten minutes a day, he can practice T'ai-chi without spending a cent 2

If we naively follow our own traditions we may someday find out that we have made yet another mistake---the mistake of not questioning traditions 3

We know it [Qi] exists the same way we know sunlight and wind exist. We cannot capture or grasp these forces in the hand, yet we can experience them. Science does not need to prove their existence in order for us to belief in them. 4

Tai chi is an internal art, which means that you have to use your thinking ability....Using your mind also means allowing your mind to be open. If you're fixed on one idea and close your mind to others, then your mind is like a full cup: it can't take in anything else. On the other hand, an empty mind is like an empty cup, it is ready to take in or absorb new knowledge, and only then will you progress. 5

...it can be said that the external martial arts are based on the energy of movement, whereas the internal martial arts are based on the movement of energy. 6

...practicing [the sword form] leads to experiences of such a depth and fullness that reflections about the sword as a weapon become superficial....Something opens that is universal, that makes it completely unimportant what you have in your hand: a kitchen spoon, a tobacco pipe, a sword. The more that this inner dimension of strengths and energies opens, the more that the "external" retreats. 7

T'ai-chi Ch'uan is the art of concealing hardness within softness, like a needle in cotton. 8

It is not like a cotton ball, rather like a cotton bale: packed tightly with softness. 9

No pain, no pain! 10

...in movement, the sinews are soft and belong to yin; in stillness, the qi is hard and belongs to yang. In this way, softness manifest externally, while hardness is concealed within. Hardness, belonging to qi, internally collects in the bones; softness belongs to the sinews and externally winds around the four limbs. Therefore, when yin reaches its peak, yang is born; when yang reaches its peak, yin is born. Yin never leaves yang and yang never leaves yin. When each reaches its peak, it produces a change, and this is called taiji. 11

Consciously or unconsciously, we all change and adapt, hopefully growing and expanding as we do....Unless an art is stagnant, it must be a living, breathing art that also changes. 12

Everyone possesses ch'i and has possessed it since birth. Ch'i remains with the individual throughout life, dispersing only after death. Thee are two main steps involved in cultivating ch'i within your body: meditation and movement. 13

There are no secrets 14

The gentlest thing in the world
overcomes the hardest thing in the world.

The soft overcomes the hard
The slow overcomes the fast.

There is no greater illusion than fear,
no greater wrong than preparing to defend yourself,
no greater misfortune than having an enemy.
Whoever can see through all fear
will always be safe. 15


1  Ten Theorems For My Daily Principles (#7) from T'ai Chi Ch'uan For Health and Self-Defense by Master T. T. Liang
2   T'ai Chi: The "Supreme Ultimate" by Cheng Man-Ch'ing and Robert W. Smith
3  The Essentials of T'ai Chi by Waysun Lia
4  The Way of Qigong: The Art and Science of Chi by Ken Cohen
5  Strategies for Improving Tai Chi by Dr Paul Lam and Nancy Kaye
6  Warriors of Stillness Vol. 1: Meditative Traditions in the Chinese Martial Arts by Jan Diepersloot
7  Questions and Answers in Classical T'ai Chi Sword by Chiang Tao Chi
8    A Discussion of the Practice of T'ai-chi Ch'uan as dictated by Yang Ch'eng-fu to Chang Hung-k'uei found in Tai Chi Touchstones: Yang Family Secrets by Douglas Wile
9   not the exact quote as I don't remember where I read this, but I like the imagery.
10   favorite saying from Ron Pfeiffer of Midwest Tai Chi and Self Defense
11   New Theory on Taijiquan Movement by Zheng Manqing
12   Yang Style Traditional Long Form T'ai Chi Ch'uan by Gordon Muir
13   The Essence of T'ai-Chi by Waysun Liao
14  Title of book on Chen Man Ch'ing by Wolfe Lowenthal
15  Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu