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    This is Tai Chi: 50 Essential Questions and Answers: The Tai Chi Trilogy, #1
    This is Tai Chi: 50 Essential Questions and Answers: The Tai Chi Trilogy, #1
    This is Tai Chi: 50 Essential Questions and Answers: The Tai Chi Trilogy, #1
    Ebook96 pages1 hour

    This is Tai Chi: 50 Essential Questions and Answers: The Tai Chi Trilogy, #1

    By Paul Read

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    About this ebook

    Everything you need to know about Tai Chi, by the teapotmonk (Paul Read). With a 2023 update, this book will help you find a class, explain what happens in a class…tell you how long it takes to learn…point out the difference between the styles and give you a unique history of the art in China.  As one reader commented: "Paul Read manages to serve up a wonderful blend of information, thought provoking insight, philosophy and wisdom - while making you laugh along with his wickedly funny sense of the absurd."

     

    This fascinating book is full of insights, anecdotes, facts and humour about the world of Tai Chi. The Question and Answer format makes it easy to digest, so you will not only understand this ancient and noble art, but more importantly, feel empowered to choose the class of Tai Chi that is right for you.

     

    Paul Read is an author, podcaster and online course creator with over 30 years experience of teaching Tai Chi in both the UK and Spain. He conveys the essence of Tai Chi in a delightful, entertaining and easily understandable way.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCraving Distraction Ltd
    Release dateSep 3, 2011
    ISBN9781386684169
    This is Tai Chi: 50 Essential Questions and Answers: The Tai Chi Trilogy, #1
    Author

    Paul Read

    Born restless in the very centre of London, England, Paul Read now fidgets his way back and forth between the Uk and Spain in search of good coffee, good conversation and fresh vegetables. In the absence of finding any of these, he writes, schemes and plans for global domination but generally settles for a series of podcasts, books, and online teaching courses: All freshly brewed and 100% guru-free.

    Read more from Paul Read

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      Book preview

      This is Tai Chi - Paul Read

      Person in search of stillness

      Introduction

      2011

      This small book came about for two reasons. Firstly, many students - both actual and prospective - tend to ask the same questions when starting a new course of Tai Chi. Over the 30 years during which I have been teaching, I have heard most of the concerns and preoccupations of newcomers to this art, so I decided to compile the 50 most common questions in order to answer them as clearly as possible. I hope that the answers will be a useful guide for anyone considering the study of this fascinating and profound art.

      The second reason is due to the Internet. Since the phenomenal growth of digital content and the ease of information exchange from the 1990’s onwards, there have been consistent claims from every corner of the globe as to what is - and what is not, Tai Chi. Consequently, it has become very difficult for anyone looking for a simple introduction to sift through the mountains of opinions, anecdotes and stories that proliferate each year on the Internet. Social media and websites are so overflowing with contradictory facts and information that anyone who approached the subject with an innocent curiosity would, understandably, become confused and disillusioned by the number of arguments about authenticity of style, methods of practice and the importance of lineage.

      To this end I have written this introduction. My hope is that it conveys some of the universal principles of Tai Chi and not just the particular approach of one school over another. I have tried my best to avoid all contested dates, figures and frequent points of contention. I have not always been successful, however, but I believe by focusing on that which unites the different branches of Tai Chi, everyone can benefit from the simple guidelines and explanations presented here.

      There are nine distinct chapters in the book, each attempting to look at one particular aspect of Tai Chi: from the basic questions about class structure and what the name itself means, to something on the history and the different styles and Forms that are now taught. There are also chapters on the different applications of Tai Chi: martial, health and energy use. The final section focuses on living Tai Chi: attitudes, ideas and 21st century applications.

      Although the book has been written with a linear plan…section following section, I recognise that linear planning is not always the best idea, and that in these times of hypertext and the circularity of thought, it would be just as valuable to be able to jump from one idea to another. So feel free to do this, to dip into any section in order to take what is useful, and discard the rest.

      If after reading the book, you are keen to explore the exercises, and recover a little stillness in your life, you can work through the 3 fundamentals of breathing, walking and balance in the Basics section over at teapotmonk

      Feedback is always delightful and helps minimise the distance a digital world creates. You will find at the end of the book different ways to reach out and make contact.

      Finally, as I say to my students: Breathe easy and enjoy the journey .

      Paul Read

      Granada, Andalusia

      Summer 2011.

      A decade later

      Tai Chi posture drawing play guitar

      Since publishing the book 12 years ago, the world has changed somewhat. The struggle to introduce an audience to online learning has eased, partly due to the massive take-up of mobile digital devices and partly due to the invasive nature of a global pandemic that opened our collective eyes to other ways of learning.

      Consequently, many more people today are open to the idea of distant learning, which provides choices and opportunities that did not exist before.

      However, this decade has also thrown up new challenges. The insidious nature of social media, the endless tsunami of information and content, and now the astonishing capacity of AI to reproduce, regurgitate, and even create variations on existing material, are leaving us all bewildered and uncertain as to where to turn.

      Although the path ahead is not clear, we do know that it has never been more important to speak to each other with a clear and authentic voice about what matters to us. Tai Chi can help in these confusing times, for it teaches us a set of skills that other disciplines cannot: to listen with your whole body to the sound of the wind, to see behind the scaffolding of institutions and organisations, to read between the lines of zeros and ones, and to speak with an open and gentle strength.

      These skills are there for all to see, inherent in our breath, our smile, and our quiet step.

      My hope for the generation ahead is that these skills are brought to a wider and broader audience. This book, I believe, can play a small role in that process.

      Paul Read

      2023

      Tai Chi posture standing

      Chapter 1

      Understanding the basics of Tai Chi

      Q1. Why learn Tai Chi?

      A. Perhaps this is the question that begins our journey, but it is also the question to which we

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