Tai Ji can make Indian yoga more effective: Chinese-American master

NEW DELHI - Tai Ji, the ancient Chinese martial art and dance form, can be used for making Indian yoga more relaxing and spontaneous for effective healing and circulation of positive energy in the human body, globally acclaimed Tai Ji master Chungliang Al Huang says.

Tai ji (sometimes pronounced Tai Chi in the west) facilitates movement of energy in the body through free and sweeping gestures of hands and limbs. It opens the ‘chakras’ or the energy points in the body like Indian yoga, which also operates on the same principle, Huang told IANS.

But unlike the seven ‘chakras’ in the Indian yogic tradition, Tai Ji supplies energy to endless energy points in the body, he pointed out.

The Tai Ji master was in the capital for an hour-long demonstration and lecture on Living Tao-Ancient Wisdom for Modern Living Tuesday at the Azad Bhavan auditorium of theIndian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).

Huang, who teaches Tai Ji in New York with his American wife Susanne, has worked with Hollywood stars like Sammy Davies Jr, Bruce Lee and Mary Martin and musicians John Denver and Joan Baez.

He moved to the US at the age of 17 and has also appeared in movies like Flower Drum Song and The Green Hornet starring Bruce Lee. Huang has also collaborated with philosophers and writers like Joseph Campbell, Allan Watts and the Dalai Lama.

The Tai Ji master is the founder-president of the Living Tao Foundation and the director of the Lan Ting Institute in the sacred Wuyui Mountain of China and at the Gold Beach in Oregon.

I wanted to become Fred Astair, but my friends in Hollywood, with whom I worked in movies, wanted to learn Tai Ji from me, Huang said.

The Tai Ji master was born in Shanghai in the middle of the Sino-Japanese war and was raised in the province of Fujian, where he learnt his art in the villages by osmosis - watching others dance.

Huang has also authored several spiritual best-sellers like Embrace Tiger, Return to Mountain: The Essence of Tai Ji and the Chinese Book of Animal Powers.

These are books on Taoism - the ancient Chinese philosophy - practised before the birth of the Buddha. Tai Ji, as it is danced today, is an offshoot of natural Taosim - an animist form of taoist religion, Huang said.

He was invited to India by ICCR president Karan Singh. This is my third visit to India. I first visited the country in 1982 and then in 2000, where I met Karan Singh, Huang said.

Explaining the similarities between Tai ji and Indian yoga, Huang said: The basic principle in yoga and Tai Ji is to connect to the universal power and to bring positive energy into the being. But the difference is that yoga sometimes becomes static, blocking the flow of energy because of the stress on breathing. Tai Ji, in contrast, allows the practitioner to breathe naturally and move the body in rhythm with the chi (energy), the yin and the yang (male and female) forces.”

Huang allows his students to make sounds while dancing Tai Ji. The essence of the sounds of Tai Ji is ‘om’ - representing the heart, ‘ah’ - the throat and upper torso, and ‘ha’ - the lower chakra or the gut, the master said.

According to Huang, Tai ji has potent healing powers. Research is underway in the US to prove that it even cures cancer, the master said.