Chapter

19

T’ai Chi’s Philosophy of Balance and Flow

In This Chapter

T’ai Chi is not an end in itself. T’ai Chi is a passageway to a more healthful lifestyle. Dietary changes, the inclusion of regular massage therapy, acupuncture tune-ups, and the power of positive thinking can all catapult you forward into even greater rewards T’ai Chi offers. This chapter exposes you to many interesting and wonderful tools to further your life adventure in self-awareness and limitless growth.

The Yin Yang of Diet

T’ai Chi’s movements are a blend of hard and soft, exertion and relaxation, force and yielding. In fact, the T’ai Chi symbol is the yin/yang symbol—the symbol of balance. Just as T’ai Chi and QiGong are built upon the concepts of balance, so is every other aspect of healthful living.

Chinese cooking adheres to these same principles. In Chinese cooking, a good cook balances the use of yin foods and yang foods to create a meal that is not only delicious, but also provides optimal health benefits. In a way, a good Chinese chef is almost like a pharmacist, blending nutrients, herbs, and Qi into a prescription that treats the eyes, palate, and health.

Green vegetables are yin food. They are cool and easily digested, and helpful for certain parts and functions of the body. Meat and some other protein sources are yang foods. Yang is power and provides great energy to the body, but it is less easily digested. Chinese herbs are divided into cool and hot, dry and wet, each of which is good for certain conditions. Your food becomes not only a culinary treat, but also a prescription for optimum health.

A principle benefit of T’ai Chi and QiGong are that they take stress off the body. As mentioned previously, in my classes I recommend a documentary called Forks Over Knives, which explains how a whole-foods vegan diet is much less stressful for the body to digest, thereby freeing up energy to focus on immune system function, etc. Don’t think you have to be a vegan to enjoy the benefits of T’ai Chi and QiGong. However, as T’ai Chi and QiGong help your mind, body, and heart loosen up and change more easily, you might be drawn to explore even more ways to support your body’s needs, including playing with new dietary adventures. If you do change your diet, let it happen in a way you can live with. It doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing game. You can simply start to “play” with vegan, whole-foods dishes, dipping your toe in at first. Over time your habits and patterns can change as you discover tasty whole-foods recipes. More and more supermarkets are now carrying organic foods as well, and local farmers markets are popping up everywhere with locally grown organic foods.

This ancient yin/yang symbol is actually called “T’ai Chi.” It represents two things: that everything in the universe exists within each individual thing (including you), and that we should seek balance in all things.

SAGE SIFU SAYS

Chinese Herbs and Teas for Health Conditions

Ginseng tea is made from ginseng root, which resembles a person’s head and body. Ginseng has yang qualities. If a person’s condition is overly yin, or cool and damp, an herbalist may suggest herbs promoting the yang qualities of dry and hot. For example, fresh ginger tea may be good to treat some early cold symptoms. Bitter melon soup, a yin food, may be used to treat an overactive yang condition such as nosebleeds. Consult a qualified herbalist for more detailed information. Be sure your physician is aware of any herbal therapy you may engage in.

OUCH!

Feng Shui: Architectural T’ai Chi

The Chinese believe that Qi, or life energy, flows not only through living things, but through all things. According to this belief, we move in a great ocean of invisible energy that affects and interacts with energy from other beings, nature, and even buildings. In fact, the Chinese have developed an architectural style to affect the way energy flows through your home or business to maximize health, happiness, and prosperity. Feng Shui (pronounced fung shway) is like architectural T’ai Chi, or T’ai Chi for your house.

KNOW YOUR CHINESE

Have you ever noticed how almost all Chinese restaurants have aquariums, many near the front door? This arrangement is based on Feng Shui because running water is very good for the room’s Qi.

Western architecture often uses running water for decorative purposes. However, science is now suggesting that the use of water in architecture is also functional. Many homes and geographical areas are bombarded by positive ions in the air. This can aggravate allergies or cause other physiological or mental discomforts. Some of this positive-ion overload is because of modern electricity, but some is a natural phenomenon. Running water produces negative ions, which can balance the ions in a room, home, or business, making it more pleasant and more healthful. If a restaurant makes you feel more at ease, you will likely come back there more often, making the restaurant more prosperous. So Feng Shui works on principles based on a subatomic understanding of the energy dynamics in a room, which, in the end, can lead to a happier, more prosperous existence.

The I Ching

There are many ways to use the I Ching, and there is some debate about what it really does. Some think it is a fortune-telling device, while others see it as a tool for self-analysis or self-contemplation. There are 64 possible hexagram combinations, which represent all the possible ways life can transform.

Some modern analysts compare the I Ching’s hexagram system to the Rorschach test, where the person reading the hexagrams is really defined by how she sees them. To read your I Ching, you throw out the hexagrams or shake yarrow sticks from a cup, and the way they fall tells you what to look up in books that list the hexagrams’ meanings. The meanings are often just vague enough so you must interpret for yourself the detailed meaning for your life. Therefore, when you use this method of divination, you are compelled to introspection, to understand who you are, what you want, and where you want to go in life. Seen in this light, the I Ching can be a very healthful and potentially invaluable tool. Some bookstores will have books, or even kits, so you can practice using the I Ching system yourself.

The 64 possible hexagram combinations represent all the possible forms of life’s changes, just as styles of T’ai Chi, like the one with 64 movements, represent all possible physical changes we go through. (See Chapter 13 and the T’ai Chi Long Form Exhibition on the Web Video Support to view the flowing changes.)

A T’AI CHI PUNCH LINE

Rest and Rejuvenation

T’ai Chi’s yin and yang symbol reminds us that we must balance our natures in our bodies and in the world around us. In our modern, fast-paced lives, we are too reliant on busyness and constant noise. We consider television a form of relaxation. While a small amount can be, the number of hours most Americans watch television is actually unhealthful. In fact, the American Medical Association has stated that more than two hours per day is unhealthful, and can increase chances of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, perhaps caused by the exercise time lost to tv viewing, as well as our in-front-of-the-tv eating habits.

However, emerging research is also showing that the quick scene cuts and rapid disorienting segues which comprise much modern television in their attempt to “capture” our attention, affects the alpha and gamma brainwaves by disrupting them. This is particularly significant because meditative experiences bring the mind into relaxed alpha brainwave states while also cultivating the gamma wave states of consciousness, which involves higher consciousness function, as well. So, hours and hours of stimulation and disruption of these states of consciousness may add up to more stress, rather than the relaxation we often associate with tv watching.

Just as activity is important to our health, so is absolute rest. Most of us probably find it difficult just to sit, to simply be and serenely enjoy the absence of stimulation. At first, the slowness and quiet quality of T’ai Chi and QiGong drive many people a little nuts.

SAGE SIFU SAYS

This is a cleansing process. The more anxiety we feel, breathe through, and let go of, the more we settle into a clarity and calmness that we eventually learn to enjoy. By sitting still, we become aware of anxieties and tensions we may have buried in our subconscious mind, and thereby squeezed unconsciously in our cells. These repressed feelings can manifest as muscle tension, asthma attacks, volatile emotions, and so on, unless we become aware of them, feel them, and begin to breathe through them by physically letting the muscles let go and the mind relax. The cleansing pleasure of that “empty awareness” is perhaps the most healthful thing we can do for ourselves. It gives our mind a chance to rest, heal, and recharge. This also gives our spiritual nature an opportunity to come forth. We can get a new perspective on life just by sitting. Just as a drug addict must go through a period of anxiety to let go of the craving for drugs, those of us who are addicted to “busyness” and constant stimulation (TV or whatever) must go through that same anxiety period. But eventually we tap into the bliss of stillness of mind. As always, remembering to breathe makes the transition more tolerable.

T’ai Chi Teaches Mindful Living

T’ai Chi’s slow process and seemingly endless progression from one movement to the next teaches us to let go of the outcome and be in the moment. In the West, this is called “stopping to smell the roses.” With T’ai Chi, we don’t just think about stopping to smell the roses; we simply must do it. You cannot stand to perform a 20-minute slow-motion exercise like T’ai Chi and stay in a rush-rush-hurry-hurry mentality. It is impossible. Therefore, T’ai Chi is like a magic formula that actually changes who you are. Its methodology forces us to love the act of living, just as we must love the feel, the sensation, the breath, and the motion of each T’ai Chi movement so we don’t anxiously wait for it to be over. Life becomes a sacrament, and every moment and every person we touch becomes sacred and a miracle. As T’ai Chi’s slow mindfulness causes us to subtly attune to the miracle of our own existence, we see the world as miraculous. On a physical level, as we daily immerse ourselves in Qi, or life’s energy, we connect with that quality in all living things.

The mindful living T’ai Chi teaches spills out into every aspect of our lives. To help bring forth T’ai Chi mindfulness, practice the following exercises:

Savor the smell and taste of liquids. When you take a sip of water with a lime twist or hot tea, really smell the rich aroma as you drink. Let the fragrance fill your awareness. As you swallow it, feel the heat or cold go down your throat. Experience its descent all the way into your stomach.

When you hold a hot cup of tea, watch the steam rise. Get your face right up next to it. The steam is agitated atoms that burst free of the surface and scream outward into space, just like the huge bursts that erupt from the surface of the sun. Enjoy this fabulous display of erupting atoms.

Simplify your diet. Drink more water with a lime twist and less soda or beer. Take the time to really taste and smell the lime. Lime is an exquisite gift we’ve been given. Usually we drink very sweet, over-flavored things because we don’t slow down enough to really taste them. When we’re not really tasting our liquids, that’s when we need the shock value of 13 sugar cubes and the other sticky stuff that comes in most cans of soda.

Eat more fruits and vegetables. Really stop and chew them. Feel their texture, sense their temperature, and savor their subtle flavor and smell.

When you cook, feel the food as you cut it up. Listen to the sizzling as it cooks, and really smell the richness of its aroma. Pretend for a moment that this was your last day on Earth and you would never be able to smell these smells, hear these sounds, or taste these tastes again.

Sit and watch nature. Nature cannot be analyzed or fixed. Nature simply washes over you. Watch the clouds move, the trees sway, and the weather unfold. This world is a miracle placed here for your enjoyment. Don’t take its beauty for granted.

Just listen when your spouse (or children or friends) talks to you. Observe their faces and the excitement in their voices. Let the images of their day wash over your mind. Don’t worry about how you are “supposed” to respond. Enjoy their presence.

SAGE SIFU SAYS

Observe people; experience them. Imagine for a moment that you were the only person on Earth and there was never ever going to be anyone else but you. You probably would be filled with desire to speak to others, to enjoy their existence. Here they are, now. Enjoy.

Let life wash over you. Do what needs to be done, whether it’s washing dishes or paying bills, with a sense of unhurried pleasure, like the way T’ai Chi movements are done. If we don’t run from what we must do, it can be pleasant, and all things simply work out, as if we did nothing at all. It doesn’t mean we don’t do anything; it means we allow our endeavors to become more effortless and less angst-driven.

The Least You Need to Know