Our lives are more separate than ever. We find ourselves in bubbles that are much smaller than we would like. The weaving of tradition and individual created by Tai Chi practice is a balm. It can help us connect to something bigger than ourselves, outside of space and time, while at the same time providing a solitary activity that supports individual physical and mental health.
Read moreTai Chi in Winter
You want to practice your Tai Chi form, but Toronto is covered in snow and your place is cramped. What do you do??
Tai Chi takes space. This is one of its best qualities, and also one of its challenges for us city-dwellers.
Read moreThe Spirit Gathered Within
In Toronto, meditation means sitting in silence on a cushion. But in Tai Chi practice, meditation is very different.
The Breath Set at Rising Sun beautifully lays out the basic principles of our work. In the third round, we hear the instructions, “Mind and breath to center; eyes to hands”. When Sifu taught this to me as an instructor, he explained that this brings focused intention to the interior (mind and breath to center) and then to the exterior (eyes to hands).
Back and forth. Interior. Breath in. Exterior. Follow hands.
Read moreNot Away From Your Centre
There is a collection of sayings from Mr. Lee Shiu Pak nestled into the narrative tradition of our Tai Chi work. Mr. Lee was a renaissance man. He was a martial artist, a journalist, a scholar, a painter, and—as these sayings reveal—also something of a philosopher. In my early days at Rising Sun, Sifu used these sayings a lot. Probably the first I ever heard was: “Return with kindly accuracy. Not away from your centre.”
Read more