The Rising Sun School of
T'ai Chi Ch'uan

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Toronto T'ai Chi Classes at

The
Rising Sun School of T'ai Chi Ch'uan

We have no more than 8 students per instructor and you progress at your own rate. If you miss a class, you pick up where you left off the last time. We specialize in personal coaching!

Come to a free introductory class and find out about how to get one month of free classes!

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You will find many T'ai Chi books and reviews at

If you have comments or suggestions email
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An I Ching Reading for Students of T'ai Chi Ch'uan

DURATION: Hexagram XXXII from the I Ching

DURATIONis the union of inner gentleness and outer movement.
DURATION is continuity in change.
DURATION succeeds through self-renewal

Duration is a state whose movement is not worn down by hindrances.
It does not rest, for mere standstill is regression, but is, rather, the self contained and self-renewing movement of an organized and firmly integrated whole: in accord with immutable laws and beginning anew at each ending.

• Each end is reached by inhalation, contraction: inward movement. It becomes a new bane in fixed orbitsand, because of this, their light giving power endures.
• The seasons of the year follow fixed laws of change and transformation. Thus they can produce effects that endure.
• So, likewise, the dedicated person embodies and enduring meaning in her orhis way of life. Duration brings about unity of character.
• Thunder rolls and wind blows. Both are examples of extreme mobility and seem the very opposite of duration. But the laws endure that govern they're coming and going.

Like wise, the wise person stands firm: he or she does not change direction. One's independence is not based upon rigidity or immobility of character: such a person always keeps abreast of the time and changes with it. What endures is the unswerving directive, the inner law of one's being, which serves to determine all actions. A firm person can adapt oneself.

Commentary

Here we find that the hexagram Duration is telling us
that we each have an inner law that governs our actions.
This sense of inner directive is not about being rigid,
but about being firm (Yang) while remaining able to be yielding (Yin).
The substantive forces of the self are best married
to the insubstantive reality of life's constant changes,
helping to guide our choices.

T'ai Chi teaches us these same lessons.
The Form is an enduring daily practise,
which invariably changes as we study further,
and thereby the enduring principles which govern the Form
are revealed more completely.
Similarly one is drawn to study T'ai Chi
through an inner affinity for it.
Practise draws this affinity into a fuller and fuller expression and recognition.
Through the many phases of studentship
it is this inner directive which gives T'ai Chi its unique meaning for each of us.

To endure in T'ai Chi is to understand for each of us
what this inner affinity has ripened into.
The study of T'ai Chi can be fascinating,
but it is our inner directive that both guides
and impels the duration of our study.
This gives your practise Shen, or Spirit,
and so it is that the self is a critical ingrediant
to the success and duration of one's practise.

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Integration and the Transmission of Power

The inner energy is rooted in the feet,
and flows upwardly through the legs.
It is directed by the waist and expressed by the fingers.
The movements of the feet, legs and waist should be integrated;
they should move as a unit.
In this way,
the practitioner can advance and retreat freely
and can gain advantage in any movement.

The T'ai Chi Classics
T'ai Chi Ch'uan Lun
by Chang San-feng

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Commentary

An excellent image for the wave of energy
that begins in the feet with the shift of the weight
and ends in the movment of the hands,
but also arrives at the top of the head, is that of a tree.
The tree roots are represented by the feet and the legs,
which give the movement stability and solidity.
The trunk of the tree is the waist, the spine, and the torso,
whose direction governs the upper limbs.
The branches represent the arms and the leaves or fruit, the hands.

The power of the earth is expressed
through the evolutionary engineering of the human body
and that power is translated into movement.
The mind can control very carefully this wave
from the floor to the hand,
as long as unity
and the differentiation
of Yin and Yang are present
This is Duration at the level of Form practice.

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T'ai Chi is like a string of pearls

The T'ai Chi Classics

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