I got onto a website from the UK yesterday that specialized in the taijiquan application studies and would like to talk about a few things that sprung to mind during my surfing of that site and it’s affiliated Youtube page.

First off, I was pleased to see such passion dedicated to Taijiquan (as opposed to Tai Chi) as I personally feel that any club or teacher that does not or cannot teach the applications of the art is doing a great disservice to the Taijiquan community in general.

Having given praise for the above, I now have to part ways with the philosophy of this particular club as they have publicly taken the stand the “Chi does not exist”.

I am always amazed that people will try to make their opinion stand as fact. To me this reveals a closed mind. Personally I believe it best to, yes voice your opinion, but make it clear that it is just your opinion.

Plato’s allegory “The Cave” points to this concept. If you have never read it, I highly recommend that you do. In the story, the people are very content in their ways and shun any concept that attempts to expand their view. When one person (a philosopher) has experiences that teach him new facts about the truth of their world and he tries to relate this truth, he and his message are ridiculed and shunned because no one else has had a corresponding experience and to accept the new information would be devastating to the society’s ingrained paradigm.

The reader on the other hand is objective and sees that it is the closed mindedness of the people that shields them from expanding their view of the world and basically traps them in a static and very basic understanding of reality.

So back to the Taijiquan website. To discount the teachings of qi (chi) because one has not experienced it is like saying that Africa doesn’t exist because I have never seen it.

As a player that always works with qi, I am saddened that the members of this particular club will probably never get to play with what has become a foundational part of my reality.

Peace
Rod