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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!

Plan through a study of T'ai Chi for your lifelong wellness. T'ai Chi preserves a quality of life from Youth to Eldering.

What you invest now will come back in a quality of life later! Sign on and learn the Long Form, a self contained exercise routine, which is performed daily in China by many in their nineties.

If you have comments or suggestions email
Paul McCaughey at:

pjmcohm@interlog.com

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Lao Tzu, legendary founder of Taoism wrote, "Tao is the origin of heaven and Earth and the great Tao is universal like a flood". To the early Taoist who was a mixture of philosopher, mystic, and scientist, living in accordance with Tao was to sensitively and intelligently follow rather than resist the natural course of life. Like a ship flowing on the ocean current, finding it's way rather than pursuing it's destination, this path of least resistance was felt to be the secret to a harmonious life.

Understanding nature was a central value to the ancient Chinese. One finds this expressed in Chinese landscape paintings. Here the theme is nature, not man. Though man may be present, he is part of the natural scheme. Man is usually depicted as a tiny figure dwarfed by the sheer immensity of his physical surroundings, absorbed in wonder and awe at the panorama before his eyes.

Early man was not content to marvel at his environment, but thirsted to understand the how and the why of the mysteries of reality, to find order in nature. After long contemplation and observation he discovered an underlying pattern behind the complexities and intricacies of changing phenomena.

Everywhere cyclic rhythms were manifested: On the shore with the ceaseless arrival and departure of the waves; in the rising and falling of the tides; in the sky with the daily cycle of light and dark and on the land with the accompanying change in the vegetation cycle between life and death, with spring, summer, autumn, and winter, corresponding to birth, growth, maturity and death.

From these observations, Taoists concluded that anything reaching it's extreme would automatically return to it's opposite state. From these cyclic and rhythmic motions between opposite extremes was conceived the philosophical concept of Yin and Yang, a pair of opposite and yet complementary forces that continually interact and transform into one another without cessation.

T'ai Chi is a Cosmology which describes the Universe
according to Yin and Yang

Yin and Yang represent any dual relationship such as hot and cold, creativity and receptivity, or male and female. Originally Yin denoted the shady side of a mountain and Yang the side illuminated by the Sun. The Yin side would be dark as the Sun ascended and bright as the Sun descended, while the Yang side changed as well. Both become the abstract symbols for the extremes we find in all phenomena and were expressed as a whole by this symbol.

Wu Chi is the Mother of T'ai Chi

Wu Chi is the empty circle which represents the absolute, the whole, the oneness, that gives, creates, and is undifferentiated. When Wu Chi differentiates it presents itself in both positive and negative aspects. This differentiated totality is a single continuum where Yin and Yang represent polarities. Yin, the black represents the subtle force of anything in the universe. It is the passive, feminine, night, cold, dark, receptive, and so forth. Yang, is represented by the overt forces. It is the active, masculine, day, heat, light, motive, and so forth. Once the state of Wu Chi differentiates into these polarities, we recognize the state of T'ai Chi. Wu Chi is often referred to as the mother of T'ai Chi.

" From Wu Chi to T'ai Chi to Wu Chi "

This statement refers to the process of birth, life and death. All things are born out of Wu Chi, becoming manifest and living in developmental, cyclical rythyms of T'ai Chi, until such a point when the intrinsic Qi which binds Yin and Yang together is no longer enough, and all manifestation resolves back to Wu Chi, or undifferentiation.

In the T'ai Chi form, Wu Chi is found in the commencement posture as a state of homogenous unity where there is no differentiation of Yin and Yang. With feet parallel and hands at sides, the Form begins with the breath. As the Wu Chi state becomes fully conscious, the stillness gives way to movement through sinking (into gravity). It is like the birth contraction of Wu Chi. Sinking down opens the limbs, and as the weight shifts and the hands split, T'ai Chi is born. The movements of T'ai Chi continue for as long as there is bilateral differentiation expressed as weight distribution and intent. You will find this in any gesture where one leg is substantial (Yang) and the other insubstantial (Yin), and one hand is dominant (Yang) and the other supportive (Yin). Finally, when all bilateral preponderance of Yin and Yang is resolved back to unity, the weight rises and the hands come to rest at the sides. One returns to Wu Chi until the next time.

Wu Wei, or "Not do...to do..." as Mr. Lee taught

When one examines these philosphical premises, it is possible to see how T'ai Chi Ch'uan is a daily ritual enactment of the universal cycle of birth, life, development and death. The Taoist founders of this meditative exercise and martial art saw the movement of the Universe in the stillness and motion of human beings. These Taoist adepts studied and consciously cultivated these potentials in themselves. They discovered a capacity for effortless movement which was recognized as the embodiment of another universal principle, 'Wu Wei' . Wu Wei, or 'not doing', remains the principle goal of any student of T'ai Chi Ch'uan and an essential sign of accomplishment in the Art.

How the Wu Chi and T'ai Chi Diagrams Work

Yin and Yang are intertwined to show their inter-dependent relationship. The twin forces are not separate but two sides of one whole, like heads and tails making up a single coin, neither without the other, since each exists relative to the other. There is no hot without cold, no up without down.

The line dividing Yin and Yang is not straight but curved to designate the flow and eventual union of one force into the other, just as night changes into day and vice versa., or the high tide changes into low and back to high again.

The drop of white in the dark and dark in the light represent the subtle balance of life, that everything contains seeds of it's own opposite. And to go to any extreme will lead to it's opposite as expressed by William Blake, "The extreme of joy weeps, the extreme of sorrow laughs...".

This harmony of opposites is called T'ai Chi, "Supreme Ultimate", or Tao. It is from the T'ai Chi symbol that the Taoist founders named their martial art system "Supreme Ultimate Boxing", not only because this art was based on the concept of Yin and Yang, but also because they found it could cure and prevent disease and promote longevity. As a system of health exercise it followed the natural way of the human body. The choreographed sequence was in accord with nature and Taoists used this art as a vehicle for spiritual harmony with the Tao.

Man as the Microcosm

Just as Taoists discovered rhythm in nature they found them in man also. Man they believed is a microcosm of the universe whose body is tuned to the rhythm of Yin and Yang as it is expressed through the inhaling and exhaling of each breath or in the flow of blood to and from the heart in every pulse. It is manifested in his sleeping and waking cycles, the alternating states of rest and activity, in fact man's every gesture and physical movement expresses Yin and Yang through the interplay of the muscular contraction and relaxation. Life is motion within the flux of time.

Balance and Stillness within Movement

For the Taoists the supreme goal of man is to be able to maintain balance between the forces of his mind and body from each instance to the next and ultimately to attain spiritual harmony within the flux of an ever-changing universe.

To achieve this, man must be in such a state of both mental stimulus and relaxation of the body where exists a freedom of unhealthy tension and stress. What one might refer to as being centered does not exclude motion. A Taoist verse states: "Stillness of motion is not true stillness, only when there is stillness within movement does the universal rhythm manifest itself."

T'ai Chi is a method devised specifically to achieve this stillness in movement or mind-body centering that allows man to endure joys and sorrows, the up and down vicissitudes of the human condition, as well as to achieve health, peace and harmony within the course of nature. T'ai Chi's natural way of movement is only achieved when their is union between the movements of mind and the movements of the body.

The choreographed patterns of the T'ai Chi Form reflect the Taoist view of the world. Throughout each sequence the upper body is light and effervescent while the feet are firmly planted on the earth symbolizing man as a creature standing beneath the firmament, an infinite blend of these two forces of energy, the origin of his individual existence.

T'ai Chi has been described as, "Dynamic patterns of action flowing imperceptibly into each other, like rising waves of a calm sea yet retaining their individuality, continuity, and evenness, as a part of an integral whole. In T'ai Chi Ch'uan the Tao's interminable play is discernable where one part of the body is soft, empty, and passive, and the other half remains firm solid and active."

Self Cultivation

Central to a Taoist way of life is the concept of 'self-cultivation'. Self-cultivation was practised through meditation, prayer, contemplation, ceremony and psychophysical-spiritual practices such as T'ai Chi. Ultimately, it is summed up in Mr. Lee's words: "From the self to do.." It is the self and purposeful cultivation of the self that breathes power and life into all of these teachings.

Within Taoist culture, ideals such as: "stillness in motion; longevity; wisdom; perfection; enlightenment; immortality," were held in esteem as the heights to which one could reach through self-cultivation. And yet in all of the ancient writings, these states are described as utterly simple and effortless - a return to our original state of being.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) attributes each emotion we feel as having a marked effect on the function of the major organs and systems of the body. Excess in any of these emotions are said to damage the energetic balance of the organs. Also, Shen or 'spirit' is recognized in TCM as a fundamental substance in TCM physiology, as much so as Essence, Blood, Fluids, or Qi. The presence and condition of one's emotions or spirit can either add to or subtract from one's physical condition.

As a healing paradigm, the philosophy of T'ai Chi addresses the 'dimensionality' of the human condition. Our mind, our belief system, our world view, our emotional history and behavior patterns, our constitution, our environment, our cycle of life, our spirituality, our sexuality, and how we relate through all of these aspects of ourselves will affect our total state of health and balance in life. So when we resolve as students of T'ai Chi Ch'uan to study Philosophy we begin to reach into the interpersonal and intrapersonal realm of practice and learning. In the same way we study our physical form in movement, we may study our life rhythms and movement within the world. This exploration will reveal to us both our affinities and our aversions.

The path of self-cultivation is essentially a path of self knowledge. It is not a narcissistic path where one becomes the exclusive object of attention, but a path where we learn through awareness of our relationships within the world. We sense resonance and dissonance within a continuous state of change, and come to know the Tao through the "tao of self" that knows the "tao of all things." Through T'ai Chi, we seek a kind of movement that is in harmony with the flow of life. We come to enhance our lives, to become more, and to heal ourselves of the wear and tear that comes with the process of living. The issues have not changed so very much in the past few millennia. We remain at a point of departure, seeking to balance the complex structures of civilization with the natural order that sustains us all.

"From the sentence 'A force of four ounces deflects a thousand pounds'
we know that the technique is not accomplished with strength."

The T'ai Chi Classics