From: Dan Mariano <yinyangdan@...>
Subject: Re: [taichi_phil] Tai Chi: Asian style, western style
To: taichi_phil@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wednesday, October 29, 2008, 11:57 PM

Roh Mih,

The way I teach TC, I emphasize to the students not to struggle in the form movements. Maintain the relax mode and feel the easiness of which and the Chi is more pronounced to be felt. Everyone is different  in body structure, so I always say that to feel the chi, it is experiential and subjective. I read the book you recommended " The Healing Promises of Qi " . A lot of statements said in there are true in my opinion. And to summarize it for TC and Qigong students, I may say spontaneous, relax, and focus heart/mind practice is the key to feel the Chi. It is said the Chi is like water, pour it to the ground and it will seek  the lowest area and can enter the smallest crevice there is. Chi enters our body all the time like water to the ground. It is a matter of being aware of it. If one crytalizes on the details of the form the mind gets preoccupied of correctness and perfection. Simply express oneself spontaneously and the Chi will be there .  Even Bruce Lee mentioned not to crytalize in the style/form. And in PH, don't we say we become formless to issue an effective fa-jing?

God Bless,

Dan

 

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From: roh mih <rbhalabaso@yahoo. com>
To: Tai Chi Philippines <taichi_phil@ yahoogroups. com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 9:56:53 PM
Subject: [taichi_phil] Tai Chi: Asian style, western style

FROM: The Manila Times online   Wednesday, October 15, 2008   COME FLOW WITH ME By David C. Montecillo Tai Chi: Asian style, western style   A few years ago I had the opportunity to take my teacher’s training and certification for Chi Gong in Hawaii, US. My Tai Chi/Chi Gong teacher was the one presiding and giving the certification. It was attended by aspiring Chi Gong instructors from across the Globe. There were Germans, Japanese, Filipinos and of course a lot of Americans.   It was a fun and intensive two weeks of learning how to be a teacher of Chi Gong and meditation. It was in this meeting of cultures that I found out how different westerners think as compared to Asians, particularly Filipinos. The movements of Chi Gong and Tai Chi are slow, meditative and mindful. It’s not like teaching people how to do fast aerobic workouts. There is a certain flow and fluidity to the movements. The trick in being an instructor is to get your students into that flowing rhythm.   There was a part in the program that aspiring instructors had to demonstrate their teaching techniques. It was then I discovered that Westerners relied more on detailed instruction and Asians relied more on the feeling of the movement.   The Westerners described the movements in geometric detail. Their instruction went something like: “As you raise your arms to about 90 degrees of your torso being perpendicular to the ground, extend your hands until they are 30 degrees slanting from the horizontal, tuck your elbows pointing downwards and let your arms fall down slowly. . . ”   Asians, including my teacher who was Chinese, instructed in this way: “Imagine you arms has no bones, there’s just smoke or water in your arms and they flow with the wind around you. Feel your body become like water. . . ”   It was obvious that there was a difference in teaching styles. Westerners were more analytical and very detail oriented down to the last degree of the body’s position. The Asian way was about using visualization and encouraging imagination to help in the learning process. The western participants were left brained and logical, the Asians were right brained and feeling oriented. So what style of teaching was the right one?   As it turned out, both styles were valid and had value. We needed to understand the detail of the movements as well as the feeling. Both were necessary to gain understanding. In the end, my teacher did nothing except observe how we taught each other. I’m guessing he was learning too like the rest of us.