Discover the Art of Tai Chi: Balance, Harmony, and Wellness

I practice the Yang Style and began my journey in June of '82. I was very fortunate to have excellent teachers.  They are highly skilled, generous with their knowledge, and patient...even with those who are not easily the best students.

From time to time, I am asked to talk about Tai Chi Chuan.  It is a simple request but find that I always have a different response to that request.  And the fact that it is ever changing is because Tai Chi Chuan is an ever-changing practice for me.  There is always a need to adjust to the influences and events of life.  As I adjust so does my practice.

Tai Chi Chuan is a Chinese martial art rooted in Taoism, a Chinese philosophy. I am not a philosopher but yet I am a student of Taoism. And I especially am drawn to the Taost nation of yielding to nature and to the world around me.  And yet I choose not to be a victim if at all possible.

Tai Chi Chuan is primarily a path of self-defense.  It's movements are slow, relaxed, and always under control.  For me it is a moving meditation.  Each posture is made up of three basic pars.  The first part is to yield or avoid.  The second part is to seize or take control.  The third is to counter or strike.  Ad remember that if there is no initial aggression there is no action taken.

I have found that the gentle, slow progression of skill has been the best way for me to learn and grow.  It gives me the opportunity to truly know and feel what is going on with both mind and body.

-Michael Pilla

Accepted Student of Master Ray Hayward and Master Paul Abdella

The philosophical underpinning of Tai Chi is Taoism. Taoism is a pre-Confucian view  of the world that represents man as striving to be one with nature to achieve  balance and harmony. The most significant literary resource for the study of  Taoism is the Tao Te Ching, attributed to Lao Tzu and written more than 2,500  years ago. 

Tai Chi Chuan is a Chinese martial art, tai chi meaning “supreme ultimate” and chuan  meaning “fist or boxing”. It is most fundamentally a method of moving the body as  a unified whole, directed by one’s mind intent, and connecting those movements  though the natural rhythm of one’s breath. What we see as we watch someone  performing Tai Chi are the postures that are a sequenced martial/combat routine.  It is through the practice of these postures that the student learns to respond to the advances of another imagined student to neutralize their advance, take control, and then issue a response. The movements are learned and practiced slowly, smoothly, and one following the other as if creating a string of pearls. And as skills develop, the practice of the forms becomes a moving meditation. Of course, this takes time.  

Tai Chi is called an internal martial art in that it requires the student to look inward, to understand one’s own mind, body, and spirit. The quality of the practitioner’s effort reflects that person’s internal and external development.