Taiji/yinyang philosophy: Chungliang Al Huang at TEDxHendrixCollege

little energy shift here. I'm really going to invite you to participate more with me because what I'm going to show you is really about experience and through experience you get the meaning and I'm going to use my perspective to come. from a different culture and also show you the symbol that I want to show you and explain to you what I'm doing but it's a universal symbol let me start with this one but I have a little game that I'm going to invite most of you to. willing to do it um first it's a simple gesture TIY could you just reach for the sky and open up right inside of you?

I feel like I am unlimited. I opened yes, so this is a limited notion like a little Halo at the moment when you open your unlimited arms, okay, I'm going to make some symbols there that will give you the meaning that I would like you to feel, other than just looking at what I do , okay, I'll use my whole body and eventually I hope everyone will join me with a simple little Tai that becomes universal again, but I have a little game that I play with all my students and seminarians. I always create an open circle before I make the symbol to show that there is more than just it in the graphic, okay, and I also invite people when we do this, when you see me, make an open circle, it's an experience wonderful, okay, so if you feel like saying, wow, it's not for me, it's for you, okay, okay, right now.

I'll want to surprise because it's an exhilarating experience to do an open circle right here and I appreciate this wonderful setup for me, okay, everyone ready, you can do better than that, come on, wow, okay, it's an open experience, okay, now I'm . First I'm going to make a symbol that everyone knows outside of this circle. I'm going to draw this sign for you and by now almost everyone knows exactly what this sign is. Okay, but I'm not going to fill this whole side up. because I don't want to waste too much ink, but you know, if I finish this on this side, you'll have the dark side to fill this side, the other side will be the light side, we all know this symbol now it's a universal symbol. everyone called it yingyang right or taii one thing immediately I want to explain in China we never say ying and yang we say yingyang there is no little A and D in the middle it is a complete concept but in the West in the rest of the world we are often fine that It's Yin, that's dark, that's young, that's the sunny side and that's masculine, that's feminine, that's the idea of ​​Us vs.

Them. Now this symbol started a long time ago, we don't know how it started, but it becomes a wonderful symbol that was adopted and adapted by all cultures. I wouldn't do it now. be surprised if I ask someone who has a tattoo on their body with this sign, okay, I've seen earrings, I've seen t-shirts of all kinds, this is a beautiful sign, okay, and the general idea of ​​this symbol is that we call to Tai, let's say or change. B, yes, the whole idea of ​​transformation from the

yinyang

dance is a dance of the opposite, it is about how to integrate, find coherence and balance of what we call opposite oppositions.

IT literally means the big final stretch for you, okay, now let me tie it up quickly. you and I will ask you to experience this, okay, I'll do it on this left side again. I'm going to make the circle, now you're ready for your wow, okay this time, ah, okay, now tie the symbol. of a tie it looks like this four strokes okay, I'll do it for you basically I'm going to like this wow wow wow H you see it horizontal arms spreading legs kicking this is a great human being that we call in Chinese when put go to your center here same in the lower chakra, lower dantean, your intestinal level H and you are a tii person, look it's a portrait for everyone, okay, it's a universal portrait, you know, if you open your arms, stand up straight and do like this.

I am a great human being and when you are centered you feel power in your gut, you are a good person, so that is the wild experience. I often tell my friends that, well, now that you know this is the Tie experience, you should think of this as your Self Portrait from now on instead of your driver's license photo, even your passport photo a little bigger, but it's not you, okay, little square head, right? You visualize yourself with your arms open, your legs kicking in this wonderful open position and you say: I am a great human being.

Your head is fine, why don't we open our arms? Your neighbors wouldn't care, why don't you stand up for a moment? Yes, really, you can spread out, just open your arms, let's do the tie sign, be shoulder open, chest open. say ah at the same time ah and reach for the heavy sky, up there, sky, whatever you call the highest, reach and lower it down your body and extend, open your legs and balance on the other side, and this is a great position human when this great centered human being feels the power in the center of your being you are a bound person okay, that is your self-image think about yourself now visualize your self-portrait looks like this, not this one okay, okay, that is wonderful, okay, now you can go up and down let me show you the other side now I make you start experiencing what you do and you get meaning through your whole body at home now this is the symbol for G okay, ready for wow W okay, now this It's another part of Tai G says Tai G let me do it for you explain what G says first you have a horizontal line, a vertical line and two lines down.

This is a symbol, it can be a tree. Anything that grows, you see digging with the roots branching. find out it is a symbol of nature and then you show the sky above connecting down, you find the center and then you find the yin yan and finally the earth below. That's the word, say G, say G, sometimes we mispronounce it as taii, which many of you because it says Chi for many years, but it should be pronounced Tai g g means opposite contrast the tree grows from the depth of the roots to the sky It's a stretch it makes you grow the extended arms make you grow the roots down make you grow and then the top line, I'm going to move a little wobbly, the top line symbolizes the sky, open, stretch, up, that's it the sky, now bring the energy of the sky down through your body and stretch it and find your Center and do the yinyan dance within your Center and then the most important thing is that you must find the contrast, on the contrary, you must be connected to earth, the last line at the bottom so you can see the two horizontal lines, the sky line, the Earth line, you are right in the middle, find your center, do your yinyan dance and you will grow like nature would . roots grow, they go down the trunks, they go up, the flower opens, it branches, that is the meaning of Tai, we have many words to describe it, but the most important thing is in your own experience, so let's quickly go over this again first, you you expand, you reach the highest reach. spiritually and you go through your body through the emotion and you become very grounded.

Earthly, open and stretch, but know you have a center, you can bring it all back, integrate, find that coherence coh just below your navor, below the belt, say haha. that's a GTI sound, that's a very different sound haha, that's up there somewhere, but haha, here now that you yourself and from this understanding you grow in the same way that the tree grows, the flower grows well and you find the connection between the highest reach and the The opposite of highest and deepest, you draw the energy through your body, so you literally go up and down the spine.

Could you reach up with one hand and pick something up to have two-way traffic up and down the spine? Okay, get that. energy flows I was teaching in the '60s at UCLA and you have to drive down Sunset Boulevard there's a famous place called whiskey a goo something there's a goo dancer dancer in the cage they were doing this type of Goo dance all night and people say How can you keep up? I said well, he's doing Tai G, he's connecting Heaven and Earth, the chi just circulates. You can dance all night, no problem because you make that energy circulate through the body on the opposite end if you know how to integrate the opposite of you. getting power Tai means how to find your Center Reach open and integrated finding balance coherence within yourself that's what it's all about Tai is the

philosophy

that meaning is in your practice not in ideas just the other thing about all this reach it's okay to reach to Heaven, now you have something very simple, you have the intellectual spiritual part of sight and then you have here the emotional part of sight, bring it down to your heart level, the emotional part of sight, the human part of sight and then you have the earthly part of the view, you integrate everything. three three levels of consciousness and you become a complete person, that is what the practice of taii is all about.

Many people think that Taii is a martial art, something exotic, um, but it's more than that, of course, it makes you feel good, but it's about the

philosophy

that you practice, that changes you. Basically, now I want to make a quick distinction for many of you who sometimes get confused between G and Chi. Now many of you even do exercises called chi G. Okay, let me do it here. Well, I asked for it five times. Well, I do a little. more upline because we need this one now. I'm going to ask you to sit down a little bit, yes, I want you to really feel what I'm doing through the movement of your spine and your feet touch the Earth, so the cheese comes. up the crown open the cheese going down I'm going to do The Strokes for you I'm going to teach you how to do it once you know how to do it you'll never complain you don't have the energy I can assure you so that's a good incentive look first you go up first hit second hit third stroke and you do this and then you find finally you find this which is the symbol of Chi say CH this is G when you practice Tai G you got CH well, many people confuse CH and G, now you know the difference, now let's do Chi, which is good a Once you do it, you will never want to stop doing it now, the first gesture reaches upwards, this is the highest reach you can reach, the power could be religious, it could be yours.

God could be the ultimate connection, it makes you who you are, it makes you know that I am alive, okay, now lower that energy, connect, connect with that energy that is the supreme Chi, now the next one is the easy one, open to heaven , open the sky, you will always be there. in that moment open to humanity that I'm looking at now just turn your head a little towards the people around you who have been sharing this afternoon together there is a lot of CH in this room right now okay accept it and then of course there is Chi below The Earth always cheats, okay, sometimes people come to my class.

I said, well, you look like a cut flower. You come to my class to connect. Oh, I'm so tired. I have to connect to your session. I said, why do you allow yourself to be like this? a cut flower you can always take root now everyone takes root every little blade of grass every flower knows wisdom pump the chi come on now you can always it's free it's always there for you and the sky is always just enough look for the chi funnel just channel in CH sky any time you want, your body is the perfect funnel and the Earth, you can inflate it and don't forget about the people, the family, the community colleagues, uh, we, us, and then that's a lots of tet and then you have this wonderful gesture wonderful gesture that combines all three levels of consciousness.

Let's do this, just put it together and bring it all in. Aha, you have the supreme CH, you have the Chi of heaven, you have the Chi of humanity, you have the Chi of the Earth. Here now, what more would you ask for? Well, now it's even more important right inside the tea. You have four eight directions. You go to the corner of your body. Bring the tea right here. Let's cross the body. Up here. AHA. The other side. AHA. this side and this side this side this side and if you get up later you can kick your legs and have some tea that way you can't get rid of your leg it keeps coming back yeah so you have four limbs, drink tea forward and backward you can pump up and down you can turn left and right you get all the CH of the eight directions Just with the touch of your fingers it's right there you need to learn to give and receive through your body this is another little game I play how many for most of you how many will say five in ancient China when I was a child we say nine which is the exes of four, the space between is taken as a complete concept, Yin yangan Sometimes, Yang could be the solid and the Ying.

It could be the night but the yin yang alternates that's why we don't put an n in the middle we say yiny Tai we have the maximum contrast quite the opposite how to do it we put it together to integrate it to find balance and coherence that is the practice of living that is the dance is what Chi is all about we all have a lot of Chi when you are tired let's do it one more time this is a good dance for you to take home, okay, look for your personal God, well, I hope your God doesn't have an answering machine says I am not here, now I will call you later, make sure you have a personal God is always there for you, it's okay, there are no voice messages there, it's okay, your personal guide is always there, so look for it and then here you are, connect, ah. yes, and then open to the sky, end in the sky,feel it and open from your heart to humanity, to friends, to your loved ones, to society, to the environment, ah, feel that wonderful spring energy and then, of course, learn to be as wise as a sword of grass , a simple flower to dig, no longer be a cut flower, you can always combine the three levels of consciousness, our spiritual intellectual level is important, our emotional human level is also very important and the earthly energy to pump the chi we have. but the most important thing is that you don't blindfold yourself so much everywhere near you right here extends extends across the body it's a friend smiling backwards extends up look at the light look at the stars H down there look at a wild flower going up in all directions you can get it cheap it is not necessary to have big and powerful ideas Only energy at hand sometimes we ignore the most powerful power which is to be aware be present be here it's okay, let's do it one more time hello thank you yes yes aha aha yes yes more Later, when you get up, we're really going to dance well, so that's definitely cheating after this afternoon, no more excuses, you're always available to find more cheating. rise to your energy, your well-being, okay, now these are the main symbols that I want to talk to you about, but I'm going to do the last one, which is very important.

I will follow the latest speakers with hope. idea, one more very important symbol in China that we have to examine, but I want you to participate in the strongest and most expressive wow, when I make the open circle, are we ready? Okay, I'll get a little closer. Okay, are we ready? Well, now let me quickly ask you why you think I never come full circle when I do. That's a quick answer. I have a lot of ink. The simple answer is that you don't want to come full circle. The moment you close, you limit your scale. your reach if I close the circle, which means everything will be inside this circle, that's your Halo, but if you open yourself, your aura can increase, it can change, okay, put your hand, this is a closed circle, there are possibilities unlimited, it's a simple reminder.

If you simply open your mind, open your heart, open yourself to learn to experiment and find new learnings every day. You are unlimited, let's say it. I am unlimited. I am a taii person. The yin yangang happens to me all the time after learning how to make. Chi, I'm lifting all the Che all the time and you're like wow wow wow okay, it's all there now since I only have one more p here. I want to make one of the most important symbols and I want you to keep it in mind. Your Consciousness is a beautiful symbol, just four strokes, okay, it is not a beauty, it says like this, it is a Chinese symbol called Shing, it says Shing sh Shing, when my grandson was born, he is now 16 years old, when I was little I used to paint all this In his baby room I want him to have the feeling and he saw for the first time that he could say something he said happy face see? now it is a happy face Shing is a Chinese symbol that means heart, conscious mind, all in one in Chinese language, we have no distinction between the heart that feels and the mind that thinks, they are the same because this symbol is based on the statement of the flower opens think of a flower when you go to the center of the flower, the center of your Consciousness is everything that is there, that is why in the East we have mutes we dance we create mutes the flower continues to tap your feet okay the flower has no thought mind feeling heart doing something down there now we are nature is not compartmentalized nature is from the center Shing means heart from the center C the Center The Heart of Everything says Shing and Chinese we have a simple expression King says King generally you have this King means I am so happy my heart is open my mind is open I am an open person and this is a very important symbol that I want you to take home with you when you feel a little emotionally stuffed up at some point just make a simple gesture like this say Kai Shing say it Kai you have a cut sound you have an eye sound Kai Shing it's like a bell that rings ding dong it's like inside you you start to reverberate with King every time you feel a little down, something is bothering you, you will get hot, just open your body, say a little, King, you'll be surprised how quickly your energy changes, well over time, whatever.

Once I left, I would like all of us to please move forward a little more space, now you are ready to dance with me for real. Now taii is the dance of the opposite, so come share with me with open space so you can kick your leg. getting out without kicking anyone or the chair, great, like I said, it's a mini Tai class on the philosophy of

yinyang

, which is also my contribution to the theme of this event, America versus them, there is a division that we believe It exists, but we all know it. We only recognize the vision, but the important thing is to find coherence and balance.

Okay, so it's a lesson from Min Taii. Once you do this, you know Taii because Taii is not something that is superimposed on you. Taii must be rediscovered in you. Let's say something. Boy Scout Girl Scout put your hand here and Tai G's hand on your belly says I'm a Taii dancer I'm a Tai I've always been a Tai dancer, very good, in fact, it's okay, trust it's a trust, now let's do some opposite Tai. sky over Tang in Chinese, say it Tang, any variation will be accepted, get your right brain going and then go to the opposite and then step back, why everything there is now is the opposite of everything there is, is what everything here right now. return the sky above opposite is what the earth below take a step back open your heart everything that is out there opposite to everything here so that you have the contrast again now couple take a step forward I pretend that you take two steps forward changing the action forward backward Step back forward back give and take is another Tai movement, well, left and right is a Tai movement, it balances your two spheres of all your Tai energy, so those are four basic contrasts that we call taii, it is a basic ritual Sky Bol aha, now make sure you say aha, because if you don't.

Don't say aha at some point you hold your breath aha the smile always helps the smiling face always helps and open your heart why out there you say open your eyes and bring out everything that is in yourself guess what happens if you bring the outside in you have You have to change your Inside you have to unite the exterior with the interior so that the interior landscape expands. At some point we feel so narrow. Once you understand what is outside, it is also a part of you. Here you keep changing. Now bring your change inside.

I will show myself how much more open, broader. you're why wow wow what a difference now bring it wow inside I'm going to change again show me again bigger outside bigger inside the other image in Chinese philosophy is the change we were talking about with change is the only constant we avoid change I don't like it, we want to keep things the way they are. In no way continue with the change. Flow with it. Okay, now, forward, action, forward, action back. Retire now, let me throw you a little with your Consciousness in the w, we say my future in front of me.

I leave my past I don't like behind me true that's not true in China my past is my life so far say it my life so far right in front of me let's learn from it don't leave it behind my past is in front of me, my future It's still catching up behind me, so don't run so fast, your future may never catch up with you, be still from time to time, the future will catch up with you, so we shift everything forward. and behind there is another dance so okay, it makes sense, right? Your past is what you have lived everyone says my life so far, I learn from it some not so good ones, but I learn from it if I don't learn from it.

I am a stupid person. It's okay, everything I have done helps me grow to move forward as a human being. My life so far and my future will catch up with me. I need to find my presence. I need to be here to match my future. you run like a madman always go, go, go, the future will never catch up with you, you may never have a future, how about you go there, say, go there, when you get there, where are you, are you here, there is no such thing thing like there, come on? there and being here it's okay to go there be here now go back there when you come back there where you are you are here it's very much in the language you can think about it you can understand it philosophically but if you do it in your body taii it's very clear skyb let's channel the power of heaven aha Yes, somewhere over the rainbow ah You are my sun, okay, I am my sun, oh the blue sky, smiling at me, it's there in everyday language Earth bomb Earth dig dig we can dig all the way to China, actually in America, dig down to China, inflate the T and connect the two opposites, that's Tai, two opposites don't divide you, you learn to have Dynamics to create a coherence that makes you even more powerful.

In English we say you need to be stretched, stretch me, branch out, we say you don't want to be crushed, stretch me, honey, say it, stretch me, stretch me, come down, earth, take me down, pump me, okay, why then do I change my tight inside, I show my new inside out and continue? changing I go, I go, I will be here. I always have time to reflect and return to my meditation retreat to discover what I have done. If you don't have time to reflect, you will be lost, so if you have forward action, you must have retreated back, so the simple thing is to lift forward and turn back to your Center just swing back and forth, back and forth, just feel the coherence of the roundness of your flow CH now be sure to smile and say ah aha aha aha aha we're in Arkansas now every sound can help Arkansas, okay?

How many of you from OK, from Nebraska, anyone from Nebraska when I was teaching many years ago driving up to Lincoln, Nebraska, we saw big signs like Omaha, Nebraska, many of you know this is Hindu, oh? say oh if you open up ah when you come back so I want to leave you with something so simple to remind you open your heart om express it ah and come back laughing if you can only remember oh my heart you have a movement taii you' I will never forget it, thank you very much.