Inspirational quotes | ||
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Mental health
Exercising the body is only half the story with
tai chi.
To fully embrace the art, you must be prepared to rigorously
challenge and
expand the mind.
Ancient and modern wisdom
A taste of the useful insights that can be gleaned from studying the
philosophical side of tai chi:
If you
can't do it, you don't know it.
(Mike Sigman)
Don't waste another year. Wake up
early and make it happen.
(Arnold Schwarzenegger)
Compromise
to please others is not as good as integrity that annoys others. Rather than
be praised without being good, it is better to be slandered without being
bad.
(Huanchu Daoren)
How long do I need to train?
Many people have asked me. And I answer, "Until you die." They're not very
happy with that answer. In the West people want to learn fast; some people
think once is enough. But the dojo is not like a university. You have to
practice until you die.
(Taisen Deshimaru)
When a
master of tai chi faces an opponent he brings to the confrontation
thousands of years of philosophical, martial and practical thought. He has
lived most of his life according to the principles established centuries ago
and in the process, he has strengthened his body and probably earned a long
and healthy life.
(Howard Reid)
Strength training must adapt to the fighter's needs, not the other way
around.
(Frederic Delavier)
A lot of hobbies are just mental and you have
to get exercise by some other means. But if you study a martial
art, not only is it mental, it's physical as well, which keeps it
interesting. People also like the whole idea that it was invented by ancient
civilisations, that there's a history to it, and there's a whole culture
involved. The idea that some old Chinese guy up in the mountains made
something up, or used this on a battlefield in ancient China, is appealing.
People do it even if they don't really care whether they ever get good at
it, or if they are ever going to be able to fight. A lot of people just
enjoy the art of it. The Chinese martial arts have a lot of nice forms, they
are good exercise, and they're more interesting than calisthenics. You could
just do jumping jacks and toe touches, but there's a whole artistry to the
form, like a dance. So, there's a lot of different reasons why people
practice.
(Tim Cartmell)
Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.
(Confucius)
Most studies agree that there
are a number of key personality characteristics that are important for
healthy aging: easygoing, cheerful, self-confident, adaptable, active,
independent, creative, happy, relaxed, satisfied, calm, open, agreeable,
conscientious, sociable and having a high tolerance for frustration being
mentioned most often.
The traits that lead to an unhealthy, shorter life? Being repressed,
dogmatic, stubborn, hostile, neurotic, angry, guilty, sad, fearful, anxious,
depressed and aggressive.
(Dr Bradley Wilcox, Dr Craig Wilcox and Dr Makoto Suzuki)
From the moment they wake they devote themselves to the perfection of
whatever they pursue. I have never seem such discipline.
(Last Samurai)
Beware the barrenness of a busy life.
(Socrates)
What's sad in a way is that the people that are the most giving,
hardworking, and capable of making this world better, usually don't have the
ego and ambition to be a leader.
They enjoy the goal but not the process. But the reality of it is that the
true work of improving things is in the little achievements of the day.
(Before Sunset)
If we didn't
tense our muscles, we're in good balance, not interfering with our
breathing, and if we're free, tall and expansive in stature, and used a
minimum of effort, then we could say we had done the job really well.
(Noel Kingsley)
Those who lack wisdom are convinced that they are truly awake;
they think they understand what is happening;
they think that the king is really the king,
and the servants are really servants.
(Chuang Tzu)
All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.
All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it
from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual
towards freedom.
(Albert Einstein)
The
awakening of consciousness is the next evolutionary step for mankind.
(Eckhart Tolle)
Anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.
(Buddha)
I awoke, only to see that the rest
of the world is still asleep.
(Leonardo da Vinci)
There is a lot of confusion about what tai chi is.
Mostly everybody is concerned with what form is being done. "Oh, I study
from so and so, and he studies from Master Tsung - or Master Choy - and this
is Ma style and this is the Wu style and this is the Yang style. What do you
practice?"
I say "I practice the Huang style." My style comes out of all these other
styles,
and I have to develop to the point where it becomes me.
(Chungliang Al Huang)
Religion
is belief in someone else's experience.
Spirituality is having your own experience.
(Deepak Chopra)
Demand much of yourself
and expect little of others.
Thus you will spared
much vexation.
(Confucius)
Taoism is neither formal religion nor
structured philosophy.
(Tao: Sacred Symbols)
You must concentrate upon and consecrate yourself wholly to each day, as
though a fire were raging in your hair.
(Zen mondo)
Have a heart that never hardens,
and a temper that never tries,
and a touch that never hurts.
(Charles Dickens)
Befriend the man who is brutally honest, for honesty is the highest form of
respect.
(Daniel Saint)
It is no measure of health
to be well adjusted
to a profoundly sick society.
(Krishnamurti)
Don’t be too severe
in criticising people’s faults;
consider how much they can bear.
(Huanchu Daoren)
His ability to take adequate care of himself.
Not a hypochondriac or obsessed with his appearance, but not ignoring things
either.
With the result that he hardly ever needed medical attention,
or drugs or any sort of salve or ointment.
(Marcus Aurelius)
When asked how he overcame his opponents, Hadrat Ali explained,
"I never met any man who did not help me against himself."
(Hadrat Ali)
There are three classes of people:
those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.
(Leonardo da Vinci)
And so he sets off on a path to mysterious destinations. He does so in spite
of observations by others that such a way is naïve, outmoded or idealistic.
He goes because he knows others have gone before, because the unchanging
direction of the Way attracts and calls to him.
He goes because he is compelled. He sets out on a journey of a lifetime
because he senses that this way is the one to lead him to a place very much
worth the going.
(Dave Lowry)
If the body is clumsy, then in
advancing or retreating it cannot be free;
therefore, it must be agile.
Once you raise your arm, you cannot appear clumsy.
(Li I-Yu)
The highest level of tai chi practice
is high stance and small circle. In high stance and small circle you can
conserve your energy to a maximum level. This is very crucial in battle.
Endurance has always been the crucial key to survival in a long battle.
Moreover, due to high stance and smaller shape you can reach to the
deepest relaxed stage, the mind is highly concentrated, and the sensitivity
and alertness can be extremely sharp.
(Yang Jwing-Ming)
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most
intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
(Charles Darwin)
One is taught in accordance to one’s fitness to learn.
(The Silent Flute)
This is how we comprehend the abstract.
Without knots or barriers in mind we see Tao easily,
reaping good harvest from our practice.
(Loy Ching Yuen)
Confronted by limitations of
effectiveness, the martial arts of the West responded with a continuous
crafting of superior equipment. Confronted with similar limitations, the
Asian warrior responded by fashioning a better self. The warrior turned not
to technology in making his sword a better tool for fighting. Influenced by
contemplative aspects of Taoism and Buddhism and by the self-discipline of
Confucianism, he turned inward. He fine-tuned his body and mind in order to
better manipulate his sword.
(Dave Lowry)
A stupid man's report of what a clever man says can never be
accurate, because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something
he can understand.
(Bertrand Russell)
Once upon a time there was a Chinese farmer who lost a horse; it ran
away.
All his neighbours came around that evening and said, "That's too bad."
And he said, "Maybe."
The next day the horse came back and brought seven wild horses with it,
and all the neighbours came around and said, "Isn't that great?"
And he replied, "Maybe."
The next day his son was attempting to tame one of the horses and was
thrown from it and broke his leg, and all the neighbours came around and
said, "Well, that's just too bad isn't it?"
And the farmer said, "Maybe."
The next day the conscription officers came around looking for people for
the army,
and they rejected his son because he had a broken leg.
All the neighbours came around in the evening and said, "Isn't that
wonderful?"
And he said, "Maybe."
(Alan Watts)
In motion the whole body should be light and
agile,
with all parts of the body linked as if threaded together.
(Chang San-feng)
If the opponent's movement is quick, then quickly respond; if his movement
is slow, then follow slowly.
(Wang Tsung-yueh)
Most students ask too many
questions too soon. An inquisitive mind is not wrong, but too much
questioning often signifies that the student failed to practice enough or
didn't take time to analyse and investigate the problem on his own.
(Adam Hsu)
Walk like a cat.
(Wu Yu-hsiang)
We take refuge in pride because we are afraid to tell the
truth to ourselves.
(Kakuzo Okakura)
Why is the Tao so valuable?
Because it is everywhere,
and everyone can use it.
This is why those who seek
will find,
And those who reform
will be forgiven;
Why the good
will be rewarded,
And the thief who is cunning
will escape.
(Lao Tzu)
To bear that which you think you
cannot bear is really to bear.
(Nitobe)
Many people learn tai chi just so they can show off
to somebody else.
They learn certain movements from the outside,
but they the miss the inside, the essence.
And some tai chi teachers also have made this mistake.
(Chungliang Al Huang)
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
(Leonardo Da Vinci)
When attacked you should always 'slip' the attack.
Never meet force with force,
or your opponent will be able to borrow your strength .
(Lau Kim Hong)
Cord:
Who are you?
Blind shepherd: Whoever you think I am or want me to be, I am.
(The Silent Flute)
Taoism furnished the basis for aesthetic ideals, Zen made them practical.
(Kakuzo Okakura)
All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the
dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity.
But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their
dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.
(T. E. Lawrence)
Simplicity before understanding is
simplistic;
simplicity after understanding is simple.
(Edward De Bono)
When
torrential water tosses boulders,
it is because of its momentum;
when the strike of a hawk breaks the body of its prey;
it is because of timing.
(Sun Tzu)
The art of teaching is clarity and the art of
learning is to listen.
(Vanda Scaravelli)
In all the martial arts
the critical foundation that must be cultivated by the student
is mindfulness.
(Ron Sieh)
Olives taste bitter at first,
sweet later.
So the matter of practice:
Hard work discovering the true way.
(Loy Ching Yuen)
Too early in the morning? Get up and train. Cold and wet outside? Go
train. Weary of the whole journey and longing for a moment to stop and rest?
Train.
Continue on in the spirit of perseverance.
(Dave Lowry)
There
is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.
(The Matrix)
We
demand to be coaxed and comforted, to be encouraged and gratified, so we
choose a teacher who will give us what we crave for. We do not search out
reality, but go after gratification and sensation.
(Krishnamurti)
The wise speak when they have something to say, fools speak
when they have to say something.
(Confucius)
May your wishes be granted.
(Chinese curse)
I like reality. It tastes of bread.
(Jean Aouilh)
Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of
throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.
(Buddha)
Life is a process of
becoming, a combination of states we have to go through.
Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and
remain in it.
This is a kind of death.
(Anais Nin)
When you come
to the dojo, it is a recognition the teacher there has something you want.
He will give it to you in his own way. You must accept that.
If you do not, you are free to leave.
The dojo, however, is never run by consensus.
(Dave Lowry)
If all you learn is a lot of forms, you just become a good dancer.
(James Wing Woo)
Have you
noticed, in newspapers and magazines, the amount of space given to politics,
to the sayings of politicians and their activities? Of course, other news is
given, but political news predominates; the economic and political life has
become all-important. It is so much easier to throw oneself into social and
political activity than to understand life as a whole; to be associated with
any organized thought, with political or religious activity, offers a
respectable escape from the pettiness and drudgery of everyday life.
With a
small heart you can talk of big things and of the popular leaders; you can
hide your shallowness with the easy phrases of world affairs; your restless
mind can happily and with popular encouragement settle down to propagate the
ideology of a new or of an old religion.
(Krishnamurti)
Page created
12 March 1995
Last updated
16 June 2023