Customer Reviews

The Inner Structure of Tai Chi: Mastering the Classic Forms of Tai Chi Chi Kung

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Over the last 25 years of so, my students and I have derived a great deal from a careful study of Mantak Chia's written works, and have had the great good fortune to work with several of his senior students.

Not only do most of his methods work very well, but much of his material has not been published elsewhere, except in some works in Chinese. I learned a few of the same exercises while studying in China and I was told that they came from oral traditions. That tends to give more credence to Mantak Chia's teachings. For example, one of the things that he emphasizes is the use of spiral "energy," that is not much mentioned in many books on Tai Chi and Qigong.

Tai chi was developed as both a martial art and a way to cultivate the physical body, subtle systems and spirit. People are often incredulous when they see the slow movements and hear that it is the basis of a martial art. But I have seen experts do some quite extraordinary things with Tai Chi: the key is the development and retention of internal "energy." I put quotes around the word energy, because it isn't really an accurate translation of the word "qi." Which is better translated as "influence." I have commented elsewhere that it's a bit of a misnomer to talk about "energy." This is not a semantic point, but rather something that can be very helpful in practice, particularly when using tai Chi for health and healing.

I prefer to use the term subtle "systems," to be a little more precise than saying "energies," for these subtle systems are composed of the inseparable twins:
1. Subtle energies and
2. The subtle fields that carry them.
Without energy the fields could not actualize, and without the fields, there would be nothing to carry the energy.

This book is full of excellent examples of how to stimulate and strengthen these subtle systems. Some other meditative practices, like kundalini, are not good at retaining the forces that you generate with these practices. Mantak Chia once said that kundalini yoga was a great way to heat a room!

There is a limit to how far you can go in Tai Chi and Qigong without a teacher, but this book will take you much further than most, and if you are already engaged in either type of practice, the book will give you a lot of helpful pointers.

One of the better written book on tai chi with great illustrations that explains the basic of tai chi in simple language. Explanation on chi and posture is by far the best that I have read. Highly recommended for beginner and intermediate practitioners.

Mantak gives a great overview of Tai Chi and also includes quite a lot of useful information for Qigong. In fact, depending upon your Qigong background you might find you have actually been performing "Tai Chi" exercises instead of "pure" Qigong. I find that the combination of exercises contained in this book are the perfect balance between moving and stationary Qi exercises and will facilitate quick results for anyone interested in Qi movement.

I think Mantak did a great job with the illustrations and although they are simple line drawings they convey a lot of useful information. Mantak's experience in dealing with the Western mind is evident in both the style and manner of presentation - very clear compared to many of the books by other so-called masters.

Mantak also does not promote anything that could possibly cause problems; something that some of the other books in print these days should consider. There was a reason many exercises were not publicized and one should be careful performing exercises without some form of supervision from a master.

The bottom line: a great book for a beginner and an excellent reference (to be loaned to those just starting) for people who have been practicing for a while. Good value for your money.

Mantak Chia's books are all detailed and well-organized. Although this book didn't teach me much, it did confirm
a vast amount of information that my Tai Chi instructor
has been trying to pass onto me. It's nice to get a second opinion!

For those who took a Tai Chi class at the YMCA or community
college and aren't sure whether you got legitimate instruction
in traditional Tai Chi concepts or not, this is a great book to
find out with! For beginners looking for a good teacher, this

is a good guide. For experienced practitioners, it seems more a review, but I picked up a pearl or two, and as we all know, sometimes you can attend a weekend seminar for just one new insight!

Looking at it scientifically, Chia very effectively describes
what I have been taught is the proper way to practice Tai Chi.
How to hold the various parts of your body, where force/qi
should be exerted, how to think about your internal structure or
posture when practicing Tai Chi. From what I can tell, many people who study Tai Chi do not learn these fundamental concepts (do not confuse fundamental with easy-- these concepts are easy to read, but are difficult to practice).

Chia gives general principles first. Body structure, breathing, meditation/qi circulation practices. This is the best part of the book. He then describes several different ways to practice Tai Chi, focusing on different elements each time. This is so true! There is so much to perfect in Tai Chi, it's almost impossible to work on all of them at the same time! You pick one element, practice it until you get it better, then pick another... and on and on. Then Chia gives specifics for individual postures. However...

Chia gives a very short sequence-- a Tai Chi Qigong form that is quite simple, so that you can concentrate more on structure, qi meditation, and less on memorizing the sequence of postures. The form is essentially Yang family style in terms of the postures/movements presented. Unfortunately, this cuts out many postures you might find even in the Yang Short (24 movement) Form, so you don't get Chia's interpretation for structure for a lot of the classic, well-known postures found in the short form. That's unfortunate, because reading his description of the individual movements was quite helpful, and reading his decription for all the movements would make this a better, more comprehensive book. Based on his catalog, it seems Chia practices the Yang long form or a variant thereof. How about a book, Mr. Chia?

Overall, a nice book that I will re-read and refer to as I continue to progress in my practice. Highly recommended!

The book is very well written and full of useful tips. The basis of Tai Chi (basis in this case doesn't mean "elementary" but, as in the title, "the inner structure") are very well approached and described. What I've really appreciated is that every explained concept has the related exercise, tips and correction. Although the reverse breathing is not explained in this book and all the exercise and techniques are performed by using the normal breathing, the back spine role, position and work are exhaustively described as well as for the waists, knees, arms, elbows and wrists. That's what really makes this book a worth to buy.

I've only been practicing for a couple of years so my comments come from the perspective of a relative beginner. I find this book to be an excellent supplement to my teacher's instruction. The detailed descriptions of the 13 movement form are extremely helpful, particularly the explanations detailing the focus of spiraling energy in each movement, instead of focusing on what a given posture looks like when it's complete, he describes the process of achieving the posture. (not sure I've adequately described it).

I enjoy the practical approach to his writing style, easy to read but alot of information to absorb. Very accessible to a student at my level.

Mantak Chia has always been comprehensive in presenting his materials in a clear and logical way. It is one the best reference book for practitioners of tai-chi.

Tai-chi has become the no. 1 Chinese martial art system that has re-invented itself into a complete mind-body exercise system with the largest number of practitioners. One won't go far off if one simply practices one style of tai-chi form, and imitates the graceful movement of his sifu (if not enough, one can always go to youtube and learn and imitate the graceful movements of other sifu's). Since the mind of the practitioner is focused on the gracefulness of the form, possible psychological side effect can be avoided (like chi-kung/deep-meditation/kundalini syndromes) That is the wonderful part, and the reason for its popularity.

Having said that, a practitioner certainly can improve faster through following good guidelines like many in this book, for example:

1. Structural alignment: Tai-chi is usually practiced as a flowing circular movement system, which is essential for unimpeded chi-movement for system strengthening. Structure alignment of each position might easily be neglected by a beginning practitioner. Matak Chia advised "holding the (each) position" for up to five minutes. This is actually an important classical approach, often neglected by many contemporary "eager-to-progress" practitioners (or sifu's too!). In some Wu-style, there is a middle-way approach, in that a junior practitioner has to practice a square form first, which essential is a direct/straight-line movement between each position with holding for a few seconds.

2. Power training: the wonder of the tai-chi conditioning system is that power training can be done after graceful form training of structural alignment. Mantak Chia has offered some good training technique such as spiral, knee-twisting and rooting. (Of course, a tai-chi practitioner can also pick up other power training technique from other styles: like the very simple and effective method of fighting-style zhan zhuang of the I-style founded by grandmaster Wang).

3. Training for martial art: most practitioners for tai-chi do not come to tai-chi for its martial art aspect. Mantak Chia has presented a good introduction of how tai-chi practitioners can use the eight tai-chi forces, but more for information than for actual training. These are actually pre-combat training methods only. Tai-chi practitioners fighting in the ring will punch, evade, and kick like any stand-up fighter (one can browse the web and watch Wu-style master Mr. Wu fought in the ring with a famous White-crane master in Macao back in the 50's). For various reasons, some contemporary tai-chi masters (Mantak Chia NOT included) like to mystify tai-chi fighting power using fa-jing demonstrations (like throwing people up through simple touching) or even knocking people down through no contact distant chi power!

One caveat for folks who are ONLY interested to learn tai-chi from Mantak Chia's book: one can do without his other "promotions" (like healing love or chi-weight-lifting) to gain maximum benefits from one's tai-chi practice.

The Inner Structure of Tai Chi: Mastering the Classic Forms of Tai Chi Chi Kung
By Mantak Chia and Juan Li

I highly recommend this book for any tai chi student. It is a great introduction to the inner workings of internal energy and gives plenty of practice for more advanced students. It presents understandings of how to cultivate chi and make it work for you. The diagrams are simple and as easy to understand as presentation of this material allows.

Pyramid Michael has been a tai chi instructor since 1985, student of tai chi chuan since 1981, and student of the "life force" since 1972.

If you are trying to teach Tai Chi and you want them to get the feeling of Chi flow quickly, this is a good resource. There are other books on Tai Chi and Chi Kung that are more comprehensive but the beginner may be overwhelmed and think, "I'll never get this." This takes a few easy movements from the beginning of the yang form and a couple of key "visualizations", like the energy body and swimming in golden liquid, (which some Tai Chi teachers don't teach at all) and you can feel chi in short order. Don't wait till you've struggled with the intricasies of a form for a year or more before you experience Chi! Get your energy body on!

This was a great purchase and a must for my library. How do you learn Tai Chi without understanding the inner workings? I would recommend this book for any serious minded Tai Chi player. Jimmie