PROBABLY BASED ON AN INTERVIEW GIVEN IN THE 1970s
If you look around at the world of nature you will see that
most natural objects are curved and rounded. Think of flowers and leaves, the
curving branches of trees, hills and valleys, clouds and pebbles. The angular
crystal and sheer cliff face stand out in sharp contrast. Go into the city and
look at man’s work, at rectangular blocks of flats, straight roads, pointed
roofs. Look at people as they walk by, at their stiff square shoulders and
jerky movements which reflect an inner tension and anxiety. What can be done to
correct this malaise of modern man and help him to be once more relaxed and
natural?
There are several ways by which one can learn to relax. One
way which combines movement with relaxation is Tai Ji. As its name suggests it
comes from the East, from China, where it has been practised for several
centuries. It is often referred to as a martial art but this aspect is
secondary to its true purpose which is to link body and mind in a harmonious whole
and to promote the free flow of energy, the ‘qi’, throughout the system.
Watch a group of people practising Tai Ji. The first thing
you may notice is the extreme slowness with which the movements are performed,
demanding poise, balance and concentration. Then you may notice that these movements
are all circular: the hands and arms are curved; the legs are bent at the knee;
while all the time the back is kept straight, but not stiff; the shoulders are
relaxed and the head is kept evenly balanced on the neck.
The movements of a Tai Ji ‘form’ are as intricate as a
fugue. Just as a theme recurs in a piece of music, certain gestures are repeated
but not in any rigid repetitive way. As in a symphony, there is a steady
progression from beginning to end and no part can be removed without destroying
the flow of the whole movement.
When you discover that the short form of Tai Ji takes only
ten minutes to perform and the long form about twenty minutes, it sounds as if
the art is an easy one to learn. But when you discover that to learn the
sequence of the short form takes most students about a year and that it takes
many years of tuition and daily practice to master the art, you begin to see
that like most things which look simple when performed by an adept, it is quite
difficult. However, the benefits make the effort worthwhile. Tai Ji gives
gentle, regular exercise suitable for the elderly as well as the young. It
helps the digestion and breathing, quietens the nervous system, benefits the
heart and circulatory system, and makes the joints loose and supple.
Something else that you might notice about the practice of
Tai Ji is that as the student moves through the form there comes into the
person an absorption which gives to the whole exercise a different dimension.
Tai Ji brings about more than just relaxation (which it does), more than poise
and balance (which it does), more than health and fitness (which it does). It
is one of the ways in which the whole person achieves harmony of mind and body;
it gives an interior silence; it is a meditation in movement.
