Longevity through Tai Chi?
In the latest newsletter from TCUGB (Tai Chi Union for Breat Britian), there was a small section announcing deceased members. The three members listed under this section were respectively aged 43, 61 and 69. I rember hearing about the death of a rather prominent and renounced character in the international Tai Chi community earlier this year and he was aged 67. It doesn't take an analytical mind to notice that these ages are far below the average life span and one can't help but thinking, 'Well, all those Tai Chi they had been doing can't have done them much good...'
I'm not trying to be sarcastic, but this simply doesn't do credit to the image of Tai Chi as as a facilitator of health and longevity. Neither am I trying to make longevity the sole purpose of practicing Tai Chi. But improved health and delayed aging process are sure signs of good Tai Chi practice. I myself is a devout practitioner of Tai Chi not because I want to train myself into champions of push-hand competitions, but because of the enormous health benefits I get out of it - health being both physical, mental and spiritual. Tai Chi is a discipline for self-cultivation, cultivation of the body, mind and spirit; self-development, development of body awareness, spiritual awareness and Chi (vital energy). The elixir of life, the primordial unitary cosmic Chi is implanted in our body at our birth and then gets diminished day by day after the age of fifteen through the development of our temperament and egoistic mind. Through carrying out some energy work (Gong exercises) as passed within some Tai Chi lineages, such primordial Chi can be restored giving a new lease of life to the practitioner. But sadly, the kind of Tai Chi people practice over here (in the West) is very much mis-interpreted, mis-presented, or watered-down to say the least. The essence has been lost to a great extent. Too many instructors are making all manners of claims in effort to attract students to their classes, workshops or seminor or even instructors' training courses. If the persons leading these courses are not properly trained themselves, one can imagine what sort of students they are going to turn out just through one or two week-end courses! It's a situation where the blind is leading the blind!
Back to the issue of good health and longevity through Tai Chi practice, I cannot be sure that I'm guaranteed to live to a ripe old age myself (I'm in my late forties); but I can say with 100% confidence at this stage of my practice and my life that because of the Tai Chi I do, I feel a happier, healthier and fuller person in every sense, thanks to the self-less teaching of my beloved teacher, Mr. Li Lian of Beijing.
I'm not trying to be sarcastic, but this simply doesn't do credit to the image of Tai Chi as as a facilitator of health and longevity. Neither am I trying to make longevity the sole purpose of practicing Tai Chi. But improved health and delayed aging process are sure signs of good Tai Chi practice. I myself is a devout practitioner of Tai Chi not because I want to train myself into champions of push-hand competitions, but because of the enormous health benefits I get out of it - health being both physical, mental and spiritual. Tai Chi is a discipline for self-cultivation, cultivation of the body, mind and spirit; self-development, development of body awareness, spiritual awareness and Chi (vital energy). The elixir of life, the primordial unitary cosmic Chi is implanted in our body at our birth and then gets diminished day by day after the age of fifteen through the development of our temperament and egoistic mind. Through carrying out some energy work (Gong exercises) as passed within some Tai Chi lineages, such primordial Chi can be restored giving a new lease of life to the practitioner. But sadly, the kind of Tai Chi people practice over here (in the West) is very much mis-interpreted, mis-presented, or watered-down to say the least. The essence has been lost to a great extent. Too many instructors are making all manners of claims in effort to attract students to their classes, workshops or seminor or even instructors' training courses. If the persons leading these courses are not properly trained themselves, one can imagine what sort of students they are going to turn out just through one or two week-end courses! It's a situation where the blind is leading the blind!
Back to the issue of good health and longevity through Tai Chi practice, I cannot be sure that I'm guaranteed to live to a ripe old age myself (I'm in my late forties); but I can say with 100% confidence at this stage of my practice and my life that because of the Tai Chi I do, I feel a happier, healthier and fuller person in every sense, thanks to the self-less teaching of my beloved teacher, Mr. Li Lian of Beijing.
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