The T'ai-Chi Ch'uan Experience

Sophia Delza is a master of T'ai-Chi Ch'uan and was Director of the First School of T'ai-Chi Ch'uan in the United States.

List of Illustrations and Tables

Foreword by Robert Cummings Neville

Preface

Introductory Note: As a Beginning Experience

Classified Chapters

I. THE CENTERED MIND

1. The Mind Must be Willing

2. The Mind-Body Connection

3 Mind-Alert

4. The Unifying Principles

5. What Gives a System Validity?

II. THE TANGIBLE SPIRIT

1. The Moving Spirit

2. The Eloquence of Silence

3. With an Air of Innocence

4. Spontaneity: The Look of Ease

5. The Student Is Forever; Learning Is Forever

6. The Ending Is a New Beginning

III. THE EVER-PRESENT SUBSTANCE

1. Landscape of the Self in Action

2. The Long Journey

3. The Harmonious Anatomy

4. What Is the Nature of "Soft"?

5. The Integrated Exercise

6. A Glimmer of Insight into the Substance of T'ai-Chi Ch'uan

IV. THE BALANCED SCALE OF STRUCTURE

1. A Miracle of Movement

2. The Constant Curve: The Circle and the Wave

3. The Historically Accurate T'ai-Chi Circle

4. The Landscape of the Self in Spirit

5. Finding the Straight in the Curved

6. Form and Transition: Dual Themes in T'ai-Chi Ch'uan Structure

V. THE ORGANIC FLOW OF PHYSIOLOGY

1. How Slow is Slow?

2. The Life of the Hand: Its Significance in T'ai-Chi Ch'uan

3. The Presence of the Eyes in the Action of T'ai-Chi Ch'uan

4. The Quiet Control of the Head

5. Some Distinguishing Features of the Wu and Yang Styles

6. The Exercise-Art as It Functions Creatively for the Actor

VI. THE INTRINSIC LOGIC OF PHILOSOPHY

1. A Harmony of Change

2. The Spirit of Adventure in T'ai-Chi Ch'uan

3. Two Portraits of the Exercise-Art of T'ai-Chi Ch'uan

1. As the Viewer Sees T'ai-Chi Ch'uan

2. As the Player Lives T'ai-Chi Ch'uan

4. A Refreshing Technique: Action and Thought

5. Perspective on My Experience with the Art of Classical Chinese Theater (Opera)

6. Inherent Qualities: Form, Grace, Stability

VII. THE STEADY FRAME OF HISTORY

1. Chinese Exercise Techniques: Kung Fu and T'ai-Chi Ch'uan

2. From Youth to Old Age

3. The Art of Wu Shu: Innovations are Changing Traditional Exercises

4. Chinese Exercise-Arts from Antiquity to the Present

VIII. CAUTIONARY COMMENTS

1. On the Necessity of Never Omitting Ch'uan in T'ai-Chi Ch'uan

2. Is T'ai-Chi Ch'uan "Martial ?"

3. On Martial Art "Experts"

4. A Letter on the Subject of Music

5. T'ai-Chi Ch'uan Is Not Moving Meditation

6. On the Spirit in Teaching

7. Street Scene at Dawn: People Exercising

8. On the Abridged Version of T'ai-Chi Ch'uan

9. On Traditional Clothing for Practice

IX. LIGHT VERSE ON SERIOUS THEMES

1. Images of Equanimity

2. The Spirit of the Way in T'ai-Chi and the Ch'uan

3. The Nine Elements: A Trinity of Threes in the Structure of T'ai-Chi Ch'uan

4. A Three-Way Conversation

Mind Speaks Its Mind

Emotion States Its Feelings

The Body Expresses Itself

5. Ch'i Explains Its Presence: Objectively

6. Aspects of Self-Awareness

7. The Way of T'ai-Chi Ch'uan

Thoughtless Thoughts

Instant Space

One over Two

The Nowness of the Now

8. The Essential Quality

9. A Message on Non-Violence to the Northeast Wind (The Yin and Yang of It)

10. The Opposites Balance in the Chinese Theater

11. A Friendly Way

X. THE EXPANDING SCOPE OF AWARENESS

1. The Art of the Science of T'ai-Chi Ch'uan

2. The Promise of Things to Come

Acknowledgments

Illustration Credits

Index