Tai Chi Chuan - Tapa blanda

Is there anyone in the world whose idea of being truly healthy would not include, along with a healthy body, a fine mind combined with an ease of disposition? Fleeting glimpses of this feeling of harmony are experienced by everyone at some time in their life. The effect of body on mind and mind on body is in evidence at every turn of our lives every day. The realization of this fact is a step toward making an effort to find a technique that can "nourish the body and calm the spirit," a technique that, as an exercise, can give action to thought, and, as a philosophy, can give thought to action, and which as a composite art is so synthesized as to make the whole greater than the sum of its intriguing parts. Such is Tai Chi Ch'uan, the unique Chinese System of Soft-Intrinsic Exercise, which, dating back to a.d. 1000, is extremely popular today. This book has been written to bring to the attention of Western people this ancient masterpiece of health exercise, which, ancient though it is, is supremely suitable for us all in these modern times. I wish to create an informed understanding of what is necessary, theoretically, for a vital life, and also to arouse the interest of the reader and his willingness to apply this exercise for his own use. As an exercise that demands no physical strength to begin with, it therefore is as good for the weak as for the well, for young and old,men and women. Since the techniques are adjusted to, and develop with, individual capacities, it is practical for any disposition.