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
2014.11.11
