We
teach T'ai Chi for health, inner peace, and balance. As we learn to
relax and move efficiently, to stay in balance, and to develop an
internal awareness, we find that the quality of our lives changes subtly
into something better, not just for ourselves, but also for all those
we come in contact with.
As we start to learn T'ai Chi, we learn to slow down and actually look at what we are doing. From the first lessons we learn not only to move only one thing at a time, but to relax everything else. Through the practice of simple movements done slowly, we learn that we are able to move consciously rather than automatically, and as we start to do this physically, the same process starts to take place in our emotional and spiritual lives. As we come into balance physically, we find it is harder to lose our emotional balance and our spiritual balance. This doesn't usually happen overnight, and if one doesn't have patience, one should at least have the desire to cultivate that quality. This is the only prerequisite. With patience anyone can learn. Our style of T'ai Chi does not require much beyond this.
ABOUT THE LINEAGE
We are students of Chow Chian Chiu and Chow Leung Chen Ying, who taught T'ai Chi Chuan and Painting at their studio in Coral Gables. The Chows were students of Dr. Young, who was a student of Wu Chien-Chuan, founder of the Wu school of T'ai Chi Chuan. Mr. Chow studied with Dr. Young for seventeen years before he began to teach, and Dr. Young gave himself exclusively to the study of T'ai Chi with Wu Chien Chuan for many years, living in the same house with him in Hong Kong.
The Chows were famous for their Chinese Watercolor Brush Paintings, and their books on Chinese Painting have sold over three million copies worldwide. They were known not only for their Painting and T'ai Chi, which they taught "so that people can have good health", but also for the community that they created around them. Their Painting and T'ai Chi students became lasting friends through the years. Their students hope to carry on this tradition as they carry forward the teaching of Wu style T'ai Chi Chuan for health, inner peace, and balance.
(Dan Zuckerman studied continuously with the Chows from 1976 until they retired in the early 2000s, and was one of the few students to receive teacher training from them. He wrote the above piece when he started teaching in the early '90s.)
As we start to learn T'ai Chi, we learn to slow down and actually look at what we are doing. From the first lessons we learn not only to move only one thing at a time, but to relax everything else. Through the practice of simple movements done slowly, we learn that we are able to move consciously rather than automatically, and as we start to do this physically, the same process starts to take place in our emotional and spiritual lives. As we come into balance physically, we find it is harder to lose our emotional balance and our spiritual balance. This doesn't usually happen overnight, and if one doesn't have patience, one should at least have the desire to cultivate that quality. This is the only prerequisite. With patience anyone can learn. Our style of T'ai Chi does not require much beyond this.
ABOUT THE LINEAGE
We are students of Chow Chian Chiu and Chow Leung Chen Ying, who taught T'ai Chi Chuan and Painting at their studio in Coral Gables. The Chows were students of Dr. Young, who was a student of Wu Chien-Chuan, founder of the Wu school of T'ai Chi Chuan. Mr. Chow studied with Dr. Young for seventeen years before he began to teach, and Dr. Young gave himself exclusively to the study of T'ai Chi with Wu Chien Chuan for many years, living in the same house with him in Hong Kong.
The Chows were famous for their Chinese Watercolor Brush Paintings, and their books on Chinese Painting have sold over three million copies worldwide. They were known not only for their Painting and T'ai Chi, which they taught "so that people can have good health", but also for the community that they created around them. Their Painting and T'ai Chi students became lasting friends through the years. Their students hope to carry on this tradition as they carry forward the teaching of Wu style T'ai Chi Chuan for health, inner peace, and balance.
(Dan Zuckerman studied continuously with the Chows from 1976 until they retired in the early 2000s, and was one of the few students to receive teacher training from them. He wrote the above piece when he started teaching in the early '90s.)
