Your interest in T’ai Chi Ch’uan has brought you to our school’s website. Welcome. T’ai Chi Ch’uan is often translated as “The Supreme, Ultimate Exercise.” It has many traditions, teachers, and teaching methods. All are characterized by a slow moving sequence of postures or “shapes” performed in a conscious and relaxed manner, that creates vitality through relaxation, release of physical tension and mental stress, emotional and physical balance, and increased strength, flexibility, and calm awareness.
T’ai Chi Ch’uan is an example of a Chinese neigong (internal power development) practice and what we study and practice is called “the Form.” It is a complete approach to health enhancement: a regenerative exercise, a moving meditation, a self-defense art, a path to longevity, and a philosophical way of being that promotes harmony and balance through developed consciousness and awareness of one’s body, emotions, mind, and spirit.
While the origins of T’ai Chi Ch’uan are ancient, it has survived and thrived into the modern era because it is so effective in bringing the mind, body and spirit together to prevent injury and promote physical and mental well-being. Increased interest in the West in mind/body medicine during the past few decades has resulted in many scientific studies that validate what practitioners have experienced for centuries. These studies confirm the beneficial effects of T’ai Chi Ch’uan on anxiety, depression, immunity, blood pressure, breathing, balance, athletic performance, arthritis, chronic pain, and many other health concerns.
We hope you find the information you seek on this website and that you will join us in our on-going exploration of this most wonderful art. Please contact us if you have any questions.
Stiff and unbending is the principle of death. Gentle and yielding is the principle of life.
In non-doing, nothing is left undone (wu wei wu bu wei).
Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. –– Lao Tse
The Tao is very close, but everyone looks far away. Life is very simple, but everyone seeks difficulty –– Taoist Sage, 200 BCE
Still within stillness is not true stillness. Still within motion is true stillness. –– Professor Cheng Man-ch’ing
The stillness in stillness is not the real stillness; only when there is stillness in movement does the universal rhythm manifest.― Bruce Lee
T’ai Chi is feeling…passion…expression. –– Grandmaster William CC Chen
The purpose of the Form is to perfect you…to train your body, your chi and your mind. It’s not for you to perfect the Form. Form is just an exercise. It is there to serve you. –– Sifu Adam Mizner
Peace is every step –– Thich Nhat Hanh
There is no path. The path is made by walking –– Antonio Machado
Tai Chi isn’t something you “get” and move onto something else.–– Maggie Newman
The Self is a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. –– Hermes Trismegistus
Marco Polo describes a bridge to Kublai Khan, stone by stone. “But which is the stone that supports the bridge?” Kublai Khan asks. “The bridge is not supported by one stone or another,” Marco answers, “but by the line of the arch that they form.” Kublai Khan remains silent, reflecting. Then he adds: “Why do you speak of the stones? It is only the arch that matters to me.” Polo answers: “Without stones there is no arch.” –– Italo Calvino
Tai Chi Chuan is an exercise for the invisible person who inhabits the visible one. The danger of living in the machine age is that we may attempt to model ourselves after the machines. –– Margy Emerson
Know yourself. Do your best. Make a little progress every day. Don’t overdo it. –– Master Jou Tsung Hwa
The true application of Tai Chi is to cultivate a calm spirit, a peaceful heart, and a clear and logical mind. These contribute to a peaceful society. –– Master Liu Xiheng
How come no one ever says “Try softer”? For fast-acting relief, slow down –– Lily Tomlin
The measure of intelligence is the ability to change –– Albert Einstein
The abyss of what we do not know is always magnetic and vertiginous. –– Carlo Rovelli
Anything worth doing is worth doing slow –– Mae West
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious –– Albert Einstein