00:04Well, if you're brand new to Tai Chi, you may like to know more about where it comes
00:08from, what it looks like, what's the big idea, what do you do?
00:12Well, the philosophical roots of Tai Chi are very old, about 3,000 years.
00:17The martial art that we see practiced by the famous Shaolin monks and the more meditative
00:23exercise version of Tai Chi that we practice date back to the mid-1700s.
00:28And Qi Gong, the companion piece to Tai Chi, is a comparative youngster, first appearing
00:34in the 1950s.
00:35In any case, the most important element is the ancient source of Tai Chi, and we can conveniently
00:42relate to the essence of Tai Chi through this famous symbol, yin yang.
00:48The symbol that we know today first appeared in the mid-1500s, but variations of it are
00:54much older than that.
00:55It's been compared to the sunny side and the shady side of a hill.
01:00It's also been compared to the phases of the moon.
01:03The hill is still the hill and the moon is still the moon, but its appearance will change,
01:09depending on our perspective of it, only to change right back again in an inevitable cycle.
01:14The shady side of the symbol, the yang, contains a small white circle, the yin.
01:20The same applies to the other side.
01:23This reminds us that it is the same hill.
01:26It is the same moon, and is subject to perpetual change, while also remaining constant.
01:32And we can apply that in many other ways.
01:35We can't know happiness without also knowing sadness, and we can't have sleep without also
01:42having wakefulness.
01:43Hot is only hot because we also know cold.
01:46Up is only up because we also know down.
01:49In and out, light and dark, even love and hate, these are not separate from each other, they're
01:56aspects of the same thing.
01:58We're talking about North Pole and South Pole of the same planet Earth.
02:04Male is not exclusively 100% male.
02:08Female is not entirely one-sided.
02:11Aspects of the other exist in both.
02:13And we are all members of the same human race, not only members of half of it.
02:18This lovely symbol can be related to many things, like incoming and outgoing of waves at the
02:25beach.
02:26The wave rolls in with purpose and intention, yang.
02:30The water draws back into the ocean, yin.
02:34When we stand in the waves, we can even feel it swirling around our legs.
02:39And this applies to our practice of Tai Chi.
02:41The hands move as partners.
02:44As one advances, yang, the other is below, yin.
02:50And then yin moves to become yang, while the other one moves in to become yin.
02:58And this is a continuous movement.
03:00Constant transitions between yin and yang.
03:04The same goes for our legs and feet.
03:06In bow stance, the weight is almost entirely on the front leg, yang.
03:11Yang, while the rear leg is free enough to move to the next step.
03:15In empty stance, the rear leg is loaded up.
03:19It is full.
03:20It is yang.
03:21And the front leg is lighter and freer.
03:24Yin.
03:24We sometimes call that the empty foot.
03:27Of course, there is a great more to it than just that.
03:31But understanding the origins of the yin and the yang and how that relates to our Tai Chi practice
03:36is one useful way to better understand it and benefit from it.
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