Tai Chi as Traditional Chinese Medicine

If, like me, you do Tai Chi; you ipso facto (as a matter of fact) give credence and endorsement of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). That is to say, if you 'do' Tai Chi - you move Chi. If you have (ipso facto) chi, and you think you can move it, you are therefore (ipso facto) in full agreement with TCM.

Though this is all quite logical reasoning, it is no surprise to find that this kind of inscrutable entrapment into complicity can disturb an average skeptical westerner. Believe me that I do understand. I understand entirly because I am that average skeptical (European) westerner!

Despite the fact that I teach Tai Chi I am also in fact, and inevitably more so every day, a westerner; and though it is true that I give Tai Chi my personal endorsement as a 'life giving form of physical and spiritual exercise', it does not necessarily follow that I must reject all of the western science and medicine that I grew up with or encourage any of my students to do likewise. No, not at all. All I do is teach Tai Chi saying, "do this a thousand times and it becomes yours". I can add with confidence "it will do you good" not because I have read this in a book but only because I do it myself and as far as I am concerned it keeps me demonstrably 'well' and it simply does seem to make me feel as good as I could wish for!

Say Ahhh

I would not think twice about going to the doctor with a physical illness, and if as consequence of my visit I am prescribed some medicine, I follow the course to the end and expect, in that time, to get better.

However it must also be said that I do not seem to need to go to the doctor that much anyway. I have in fact gone there just once in the last ten years or so, and that was only so because I lost the end of my thumb in an accident at work and it (the end of my thumb) needed to be stitched back on. I worked at that time in a Hospital by the way! Prior to this I practically had a season ticket for the surgery!

So, I cannot help but wonder. What is it that has rendered trips to the doctors less necessary as I have aged from 40 to 50 years old? My hunch is that 'it' is the regular practice of Tai Chi. But I don't bother to ask myself the next logical question - how or why? because as for how or why … I've really got no idea! I am not a doctor - I just teach Tai Chi

Just swallow it?

If the doctor gives me a pill to swallow, I expect that act to do me some good or put right an identified wrong. But the clever bit isn't the act of putting this small smooth object in the mouth and saying "gone". No, the really clever bit is what happens next - and that again is literally beyond me! Antibodies, white blood cells, chemical reaction ... whatever. Will it make me feel better? As far as the science and the theory of western medicine is concerned, this is all I want to here from a Doctor of Medicine. It will make me feel better, yes?

By the same token, just doing Tai Chi is not the clever thing ... it is what this in turn does. And what it does it do apart from making me feel good? I really haven't a clue!
Tai Chi will encourage a sense of well being, and all I have got to do is do it? I am as just as happy to go along with this as I am to go along with the doctor when he says 'I am just going to give you something to kill the pain'.

It is the theory of TCM that good health is manifest as a harmonious balance (Wu Wei: mutual benefit) of Yin and Yang.
For me, the leap from yin and yang to life enhancing physical and spiritual exercise is no greater than than that from the big bang to pharmaceuticals. I neither affirm or deny both - that's not my job, I just teach Tai Chi.

Traditional Chinese Medicine versus Western Ways

If one were to reject the theory's of TCM one would be obliged to reject the concept of Tai Chi as a life enhancing exercise. How could there be Tai Chi yet no Chi?

However, acceptance of one need not be exclusive to the other. Indeed, it is only right that in the west TCM continues to be regarded as an "alternative" or "complimentary"; accepting of the fact one is based upon one united theory and the other on a completely different yet equally united theory.

Eastern and western medicine have identical goals - a long and healthy life. Given that humanity is patently sustained in each of the hemispheres, I am myself happy to assume for now that both medical practices, eastern and western work, and that each trusted, if only 'regionally' and in cultural context. I am more than happy to consider or take advantage both!

In my own words

"Feeling good" is easy to say in any language. A smile does it in mime. Saying how or why is a lot harder in any language - even my own; so I keep it simple, confesing that I know about as mach about the science of how Tai Chi works as I do about how peneciline works.

Whenever I do teach - speak or write about Tai Chi, I have no problem with going along fully with the whole TCM theory of 'medicine'; that theory being, in short, yin and yang ... not forgetting the obligatory sub-clause of "nothing is all black and nothing is all white". So, breathing in is a yin breath, out yang. A step forwards, yin; back, yang ... and so on and so forth. It's not rocket science! Maybe it's not all right, but it's not all wrong either.

Website Rewrites

When Mark and I were making the Yang Long Form CDroms we made it mandatory that every word said or written therein was unequivocally 'our own'. With that project complete we have now embarked on a considerable update to the taichido website and I am picking my way, word by word, through all of the articles that have been on the site for longest; particularly those who authorship we are not absolutely certain of. This has provided me with the opportunity to be sure that every word on the site may be similarly unequivocally verified as 'our own' as those on the CD's.

The first piece that I selected from the site for rewrite 'in my own words' began with the sentance: "Chi pulses through the body through invisible pathways or channels called meridians". The week long pause for thought that these first few words caused me became the subject matter of this months newsletter.

Terminology

As thankfully (see most of the above) it is not my job to be master of the universe and authoritative arbiter of all that is right and wrong within it; it is not for me to come up with a new or 'neutral' word for 'chi' or any others specific to TCM, such as 'meridians' or 'hara' etc.

So, when the time comes for me to actualy get on with that first rewrite, parts of this newsletter will probably be used as a collective introduction to a to a whole series or updates under the general heading of "Tai Chi as Traditional Chinese Medicine". That introduction will clarify as I do here, that when I use a word associated with TCM (like meridian) I am only saying what it's called; and it's up to you decide what or how it does what it does. You can find that out and decide for yourself by doing it! If I tried to 'say' what such things are with new or 'original' words I would be saying no more than what I think they are. In truth, I don't know what they are, I just know what they are called.

Some say that the meridians within the human body are/is the same as lay-lines in the land. Some say that these lay-lines in the land reveal areas of increased electro magnetic energy. Some, once upon a time, said that the mountains and the valleys were scored out by the tail of a dragon as it trailed along the ground, and that lay-lines trace its path when it is soaring above us as your spiritual guide. When I do actually undertake my rewrite of the piece I shall call 'chi' chi and 'meridians' meridians.

Faith in the Heart

In NL 22 I referred to a piece @myhomedojo/dojonotes titled "The Universal Truth of No Truth" which was produced to be included somewhere on the Yang Long Form CD series. It begins:

"The Universe is a totality that cannot be rationalised and put in order or listed as - first this, and then that, and now … and there it is!

The Truth, or the Tao, in other words just … 'the way things are' - "cannot be spoken of".
Maybe one day - or maybe even right now - we may be able to say how it works; but truthfully, none of all that goes any further towards saying or confirming what it is!"

Those above are definately my own 'original' words - but they say nothing new. All I really say is "keep words at arms length" and I reaffirm that there is really no need to confirm or deny. This attitude is not new to martial art. Even Bruce Lee said "Enlightenment is simply not nameing things".

I conclude this months newsletter with a short story, and also, for those that are interested, I point towards a Buddhist Sutra from the Southampton Shin Sangha section of myhomedojo which shows again how 'non-discrimination' has always been considered as an essential element of a 'spiritual practice' that is designed to encourage "right view" and/or "right seeing". But first, my short story:

Once upon a time ...

I was attending Sensei at one of his demonstrations. We were in a back room preparing and there were about 50 people in the hall beyond, eagerly anticipating, awaiting him.

I followed him towards the door but halfway there he paused and said to me. 'When we go into the hall I will talk for a while and then, you will know when, I will turn towards you and go "huh". He breathed out hard and pushed his hands towards me. 'When I do that, you just jump back as far as you can ... OK'. And with that he walked the rest of the way to the hall with me a pace behind.

Just before we went through the door he very briefly paused again and, grinning from ear to ear, he turned back towards me and murmured "Just kidding!"

Later, he wanted to know, what would I have done if he had turned to me and went 'huh'?
"Jump back as far as I could Sensei", I replied.
"Yes, of course you would" he concluded; "and with that I provide conclusive proof of Chi to a hall full open minded people!"

From this single experience I have learnt to not blindly accept or reject anything - or to ask anyone else to do so either.

Please click here to go to "Faith in the Heart" @http://www.wheelswithinwheels.net/sss/faithinth.htm
By Sosan, the third Chinese Zen patriarch (d. 606 CE).

Gassho, Gary