Tai Chi has been known for a lot of things – old man’s exercise, good for health, “that group of weirdos who are waving their hands in the park”, the act of cutting a BIG watermelon, a martial art etc. I know it through a philosophical lens, and this is what attracted me to pick up Tai Chi in the first place.
Change is the only constant in the universe.
I’ve heard of this quote many times. And although I understand this intellectually, the quote doesn’t connect to me strongly on a day to day basis. It crops up when there are obvious changes in my life, e.g. quitting a job, moving from one country to another, joining toastmasters. However, subtle changes are happening every second of my life. I just fail to see them, or just choose to ignore them.
Changes like hair loss, increasing psychic clutter (information overloading), dusts, commitments… unless you keep track of every one of these changes, you are not likely to notice them. It has formed part of your daily negotiations with yourself. You just do it without realising you are doing it, e.g. buy milk, take out the trash, brush your teeth.
I’ve only ever consciously felt subtle changes by practising meditation and Tai Chi. For example, through Tai Chi, I can feel the changes going from one form to another. And I realised this recently, to master Tai Chi as a martial art, you have got to master the changes. It’s the transition from one form to another that gives you the opportunity to make a positive move in your favour.
This is the reason I like Tai Chi. It provides me a useful everyday platform that I can use to understand the world around me. It provides me with a useful tool for my journey within without journeying into realms I cannot understand. Change the world is too big a word to make sense on a personal level. Change my hand from here to there, I can understand better.
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