Ten Essential Points of Practice for Tai Chi Chuan
William C. Phillips
No matter how long we may have been practicing Tai Chi Chuan, be it weeks, months, years, or decades, these ten points are essential for our continued development.
Approach
Approach Tai Chi Chuan with no preconceptions. Experience it as meditation, physical culture, and as an exercise of ch'i. You may develop self-defense along the way, but you may also develop that which is truly supreme and ultimate.
Patience
Every person is an individual. Some things will come quickly, others slowly, and some, perhaps, not at all. Know that each person develops at his own pace. The student competes only with himself. Therefore, a student should not feel that he is falling behind if a fellow student develops a skill in a month that he cannot acquire in six. The student may develop more quickly in another area. But even if not, remember that progress in Tai Chi Chuan, for most of us, is measured not in months, but in years.
Perseverance
While most students experience some benefit from Tai Chi practice within the first few weeks, Tai Chi is the practice of a lifetime. Ever increasing benefits of Tai Chi Chuan accrue with the decades of one's practice. Practice should be morning and night all the days of one's life.
Straight Spine
This facilitates the flow of ch'i up the spine.
Breathe To the Tan T'ien
This develops ch'i.
Empty the Mind
Tai Chi Chuan is meditation. This improves sensitivity to input, ability to react, to concentrate and to be sensitive to and to control ch'i.
Single Weight
This enhances internal sensitivity and improves balance in the form, push hands, and self-defense.
Feel Air as Substantial
If the air has substance, how much more substance will even your most supple opponent have? Also, this will aid in doing the form smoothly and at an even pace.
Softness Through Root
Develop your foothold so that five or six strong men together cannot push you. Also, develop your ability at neutralizing and softness so that you need never use that root. In this way, while having substantial root, you will always feel light and supple.
Benevolence
Never try to harm anyone in practice, teaching, or demonstration. In push hands and self-defense, as in form, you are competing with no one except yourself. If you feel a need to overpower your partner in practice, then your real need is to overpower your own ego. Your partner is there to help you develop your skills, and you, his. When you are pushed by your partner, it is not your partner who has pushed you, but rather your inability to neutralize the push that has pushed you. You will be "unpushed" when you have sufficiently overcome yourself in body, emotions, mind, and spirit.
Originally published in Tai Chi: Perspectives of the Way and Its Movement, Jul./Aug. 1981, Vol. 5, No. 4
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William C. Phillips began his study of the martial arts in 1965. He currently holds a 7th degree black belt in Karate, and a 5th degree black belt in Ju Jitsu. He began his studies of Tai Chi in l967, studying with Prof. Cheng Man-Ch'ing from '70-'75. He became the most junior student ever to become a teacher in Cheng Man Ch'ing's New York school, the Shr Jung. Sifu Phillips became interested in the field of holistic health in the early 1970's, when a lifelong allergy problem was alleviated with Chinese herbal medicine. Since then, he has studied widely in that field as well. Sifu Phillips is available for seminars, lectures and demonstrations. He has produced two very successful Tai Chi DVDs, and is currently working on a book on Tai Chi form and a third DVD.For more information...
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Patience T'ai Chi
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