Tai Chi Classics Quotes

First you must be calm, then your mind can be steady. Once your mind is steady, then you are at peace. Only when you are at peace, are you able to think and finally gain.

If you listen to your body and your intuition, they’ll guide you well. There are countless ways to develop listening skills. Some helpful and classic practices include: dancing and drumming, sitting and walking meditations, t’ai chi or chi kung, painting or journal writing. It’s important to find what works for you, and even the time of day or night that works best for you. Whatever you choose, the commonality is that they all offer an opportunity for quieting the mind, and slowing down enough to be present and able to listen for inner guidance—and guidance from the plants themselves.

There was a jail with a prisoner in it,” he said, “who was surrounded by mountains of money. He kept counting the money and feeling so happy about his life, thinking that he was the richest man in the whole world. A man passing by saw him and said through the tiny window: “Why are you so happy? You are in prison? Do you know that?” The prisoner laughed: “No! No! It is not that I am inside the jail. It is that you are outside of the jail!

Long ago, there was a servant who served a bad tempered and impatient master. It did not matter how he tried, he was always blamed and beaten by this master. However, it was the strange truth that the servant was always happy, and his master was always sad and depressed. One day, there was a kind man who could not understand this phenomenon, and finally he decided to ask this servant why he was always happy even though he was treated so badly. The servant replied: “Everyone has one day of life each day; half of the day is spent awake and the other half is spent sleeping. Although in the daytime, I am a servant and my master treats me badly, in the nighttime, I always dream that I am a king and there are thousands of servants serving me luxuriously. Look at my master: In the daytime, he is mad, depressed, greedy, and unhappy. In the nighttime, he has nightmares and cannot even have one night of nice rest. I really feel sorry for my master. Comparing me to him, I am surely happier than he is.” Friends, what do you think about this story? You are the only one responsible for your happiness. If you are not satisfied and always complain about what you have obtained, you will be on the course of forever-unhappiness. It is said in the West: “If you smile, the whole world smiles with you, but if you cry, you cry alone.” What an accurate saying!

She gave me another side-eyed glance but didn’t speak. “The first is ‘How did it make you feel?’ in reference to my time on the Lois McKendrick as a crewman.” “Classic Zen,” she said. “Interesting approach.” “What?” “The question. It’s a classic question from an ancient Buddhist school of meditation. He didn’t ask you to answer it, did he.” It wasn’t a question. “No, I’m not supposed to answer it. Just feel it.” She grinned. I could see her teeth gleaming in her reflection. “It’s phrased to break your focus, to give your mind a split second of a break from overthinking. To put you in touch with yourself in ways that most of us find difficult. Tai chi does the same thing using the movements as focus.

The only constant is change, but one must remain constant in change.

Banhou wrote some very valuable texts on Tai Chi which have been translated by Douglas Wile in Lost Tai-chi Classics from the Ch’ing dynasty.

history is like a mirror that helps you to see through yourself.

History is experience. If you do not know the past, you will be lost in the future.