Before I continue, I'm reminded of the old joke: how many tai chi students does it take to change a light bulb? Ten... One to change the bulb and the other nine to say, "that's not how my instructor taught me to do it".
I'm not sure, John. I've learned tai chi - I've won medals and trophies performing it - and I feel that maybe there was something wrong with the way you were taught (cue joke above). I consider myself a Taoist martial tai chi practitioner, which means I'm learning with a specific goal in mind. I have no ken with the more flowy, "wushu" type tai chi that one sees in most tournaments and YouTube videos :D. The (adapted) Yang style I practise is very specific and its principles mirror very much what Justin Stone seems to say, except for that finger fluttering, which is very disturbing to me. I don't want to bore your readers, but the hand movement isn't just a hand movement, there's still the potential for, and understanding of, movement even when the hand is still. For me, the fluttering implies a "LACK of flow" of chi, a blockage if you will, which is easily solved with the right mindset driving the right physical movements. I'm sorry, but that's the best I can do...it's difficult to explain in words.
Having said all that, I learnt that what I was doing was very much "Tai Chi Chuan + Qi Gong" (almost 30 years' practice) and not this Tai Chi Chih variant. I haven't felt any contradiction with the SoP (14 months' practice, still early days). My pantheon is Greek but with Taoist deities for Spirit Below/Above/Within and I have felt some response from them, so don't believe I'm meandering down a dead alley here.
Of course the Tai Chi I practise isn't "pure", if one can define what that actually means after all this time. But it harks back to the original purpose of Tai Chi, which is a very effective martial art. I was fortunate in having an incredibly gifted sifu, who combined high intellect and "breath" with the kind of streetwise smarts one can only wish for. I doubt I'll see his ilk again. (This one's for you, Keemo.)
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I'm not sure, John. I've learned tai chi - I've won medals and trophies performing it - and I feel that maybe there was something wrong with the way you were taught (cue joke above). I consider myself a Taoist martial tai chi practitioner, which means I'm learning with a specific goal in mind. I have no ken with the more flowy, "wushu" type tai chi that one sees in most tournaments and YouTube videos :D. The (adapted) Yang style I practise is very specific and its principles mirror very much what Justin Stone seems to say, except for that finger fluttering, which is very disturbing to me. I don't want to bore your readers, but the hand movement isn't just a hand movement, there's still the potential for, and understanding of, movement even when the hand is still. For me, the fluttering implies a "LACK of flow" of chi, a blockage if you will, which is easily solved with the right mindset driving the right physical movements. I'm sorry, but that's the best I can do...it's difficult to explain in words.
Having said all that, I learnt that what I was doing was very much "Tai Chi Chuan + Qi Gong" (almost 30 years' practice) and not this Tai Chi Chih variant. I haven't felt any contradiction with the SoP (14 months' practice, still early days). My pantheon is Greek but with Taoist deities for Spirit Below/Above/Within and I have felt some response from them, so don't believe I'm meandering down a dead alley here.
Of course the Tai Chi I practise isn't "pure", if one can define what that actually means after all this time. But it harks back to the original purpose of Tai Chi, which is a very effective martial art. I was fortunate in having an incredibly gifted sifu, who combined high intellect and "breath" with the kind of streetwise smarts one can only wish for. I doubt I'll see his ilk again. (This one's for you, Keemo.)