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太極拳學習心得
 

 

Genuine Lineage of Tai Chi - Yang & Chen Style

 

Real results; no more neck pain!

   

What started out as a very half-hearted effort along with much skepticism and yet drawn by mythical shroud Tai Chi surrounds itself, without my wildest imagination would I actually dreamed of journeying this far in practicing this art.  Before coming to teacher Wu, with sheer coincident, my wife spotted a group of people practicing Tai Chi one Sunday morning just near by our house.  After going there once a week, on and off and absent about half of the time, for a duration of roughly almost three years, I found myself constantly wondering that one burning question:  how far and how much do you need to “relax” before it is “enough”, before one can really get all the benefits from learning Tai Chi?  The main reason that got me into this Tai Chi path is primarily what Tai Chi is so famously known for: its slow moving form plus the relaxation of the mind and body which is suppose to bring tremendous health to an individual.  Prior to becoming a Tai Chi pupil, like many people, I have no knowledge whatsoever thus was sold on what Tai Chi “promises”; its numerous and wonderful health benefits but lacking any real understanding of what a “true” Tai Chi is.  And yet with so many Sundays that have gone by, I really didn’t “feel” or “get” the benefits it promises.  I still come home from work everyday, tired as ever.  Many weekends of taking kids out or any social gathering would drain my energy completely.  The fatigue I have toward the end of each day is none different before I practice Tai Chi.  I knew this can’t be.  Frustration and not wanting to believe all these time I spent were wasted led me to search on the Internet.  Without knowing how, I somehow stumbled onto teacher Wu’s web site.  After reading some of teacher’s writings, I still didn’t understand a thing but decided to give a try.

 

Right from the beginning, teacher Wu talked about the concepts of Internal Martial Art and how that is different from the External Martial Art.  Teacher Wu started with some very simple exercise for the arms and then dived right into teaching “how to relax”.  The lesson then proceeded to the Eight Movements, or commonly known as the Eight Brocade that is widely practiced in many places.  What’s different from Teacher Wu’s Eight Movements is…result!  It’s not the variance of the move itself that differs from others but rather, the force one can begin to actually feel flowing in your body, if one diligently practice consistently without much procrastination.  After this, following along teacher’s lesson plan as he has layout for all new comers, he taught me Xiang Yi’s Five Element Chi, which then led to Five Element Fists, and finally Tai Chi.  Way before even getting into Tai Chi, there was one dramatic improvement of my body, which I wasn’t even thinking about it

when I came to his class.  For at least a good 15 years, the stiffness of my neck would just not go away.  It is by no means any major illness but the perennial tightness and soreness can sometimes be much more harder to endure than you could imagine. I would wake up each morning with such tightness that throughout the whole day, I would constantly massage with my own hands or strain my head in a way to lessen the stiffness.  As I was getting older and into my forties, there were many instances that without any warnings nor was I putting any pressure, the right region of my neck would snapped with such an intense, sharp pain, resulting a stiff “robot-like”, unable to turn my neck for about two weeks.  Such episode was only exacerbated with more frequency each happening more often in much more shorter duration.  I’ve bought many different types of pillow, from regular ones to memory foam, none could alleviate this symptom.  I’ve also tried the physical therapy of mild electrical pulse, hot towel treatment, and many other “external” methods, all but ended with disappointment.  I never even gave a thought about my neck problem before coming into here.  All I wanted, like I mentioned before, was to gain the energy and stamina and hopefully a slew of other benefits as well.  As I was practicing the Eight Movements one by one and before finished learning all the eight moves, I slowly began to feel some indeterminate force coming from my feet and rising up.  It started faint, almost unnoticeable, but gradually bit by bit more concrete.  Before I was aware what was happening, the tension and the stiffness of my neck slowly eased off.  It didn’t happen overnight of course, yet with each practice I piled on, the change seemed to be more and more palpable.  This realization brought me mix feelings of ecstatic that this may be my “ultimate cure” while also at the same time apprehensive if this is just another coincident with some “dumb chance” I might’ve slept a bit better during that 2-3 months which had me kept wondering, “how could this be possible in such a short amount of time?”.  In the end still left with no definite answer, I disregarded my little own predicament and decided to keep moving on.  It wasn’t until I began my Five Element Chi lesson and half way through that the force was undoubtably getting stronger before I truly accepted and acknowledged with elation and relief for the fact of my over 15 years untreatable neck problem was finally coming to an end.  This total unexpected surprise wasn’t what I sought from the beginning.  However, it stamped down the principal foundation since then, both physically and mentally, of all the other lessons I now come to learn.  Though still in novice level, to my own opinion, the amazing thing is the “evidence” that is slowly percolating from my body as I am now practicing the art of Tai Chi.  As teacher often said, it’s the energy that’s flowing which dictate the angle, the posture, or how open or close of what the form suppose to be, not the other way around.  Unlike what I was taught previously and perhaps majority of Tai Chi schools that are taught out there, trying to correct the form only for the sake of the form with no real purpose, just for the look.  It is this real substance in the body do I slowly begin to understand and appreciate what true martial art is all about, what this means to the overall health of the body… and I’m just at the beginning stage!  The question I started with can now be rested because my endurance is easily way better than when I started.  The “solidness” (I know this sounds vague and hard to use words to discretely

describe it but it’s that “wholesomeness of your body, or of the feeling that your body structure is all well connected) I feel is also another testament of the strength and energy are “internalized” and the structure of my body is more refined.  The days of dragging my feet home back from work seem to be a little more of a distant memory now.  The draining fatigue I used to feel all the time is getting much more foreign with each passing day of my practice.  I am very thankful of all the things teacher Wu’s has taught me and also corrected me from time to time of the things I did wrong.  I’m glad teacher is also very patient in repeating many lessons over and over again.  One simply cannot just learn a new movement and get all the fundamental from the first time, nor the second time, nor the third time, nor…  It really takes time and countless practice before your “body” knows it.  Slowly and surely, by the time your body “understands” it, going back to listen the same lesson will always make you appreciate the real essence of what each move is for thus enabling you go deeper into the art, hence better at it.  I believe the quintessential value of each art teacher Wu teaches in the class is validated with real outcome that builds upon from previous foundation you lay down.  No shortcut, no tricks, only with genuine methods and system of what the real martial art is supposed to be from the ancient wisdom passed down generation after generation that withstand the test of time.  I am just so glad to be very fortunate that I “stumbled” here and really able to embark on a true “healthy” journey.

 if you would like to learn Genuine Lineage Of Tai Chi Chuan in Taiwan you can contact Master Wu that also have class in Taipei, Hsinchu,

Taichun Tainan  E mail tw6889@hotmail.com  mobile phone 0918148814

 

 

 

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