Ten Principles Tai Chi

In last week’s Beginners’ class, we enjoyed a great discussion about the books I recommend on this website, and which books are of any use to someone just starting learning the art.

My own experience with books over the years is three-fold:

1. As a beginner, I simply had no common frame of reference to understand the great advice available in the great Tai Chi books.  Looking back in recent years, I can now see that many of the answers I’ve sought were there under my nose the entire time, but I simply didn’t understand enough to see that.
2. There are a great many Tai Chi books that (imho) are utter rubbish.  I don’t mean that they are written badly, but that the advice they contain is demonstrably wrong.  Much to my wife’s disgust, I collect these almost as avidly as I do the better books, and my students can look forward to the day when I share these books with them, and ask them to pick out the many flaws they contain :D
3. The books that could be called authentic are a great source of advice.  I was taught to take nothing on faith, to always seek out and verify everything I was taught by Robert.  New information can promote a path of experience to new understanding, and in the light of new information things must change.

You can’t learn from a book.  Knowledge comes from a book, but understanding only comes from experience.  Books can’t replace a good teacher, but they can certainly validate good teaching.  And they can expose bad teaching too.

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