Pain is the sensation our body uses to influence
our judgement.
Pain tells us that something is not right - this is the most important
aspect of pain.
Resisting pain, such as masking it with painkillers, can make things worse.
The earliest symptoms of pain should be heeded.
(Philip Maffetone)
Suffering
The slogan 'no pain, no gain' is often
used in conjunction with exercise.
Being healthy sounds like an ordeal.
But not everybody wants to sweat and
strain their way to fitness.
Pain
What is pain? Surely pain is a warning.
Pain is your body suffering damage.
In tai chi you do not ignore your body and
impose force.
If you are in pain, you are doing something
incorrectly.
If you damage your body through exercise, you may have to live with it for the rest of your life.
Competition
Tai chi is not concerned with
competition.
It advocates a different approach; whereby the student addresses their own
wellbeing and is
compassionate towards others.
By focussing upon your own
mind and body, you can become
calm and relaxed.
If somebody else wants to compete with you, so what?
Winning and losing are concepts best applied to games or sport, not living.
Competition causes
suffering.
Consider sport...
Only the winner is happy at the end of a race.
What about the other competitors?
They feel depressed, disheartened,
frustrated, upset... but why?
People
become emotionally attached to the wrong things in life - 'winning' and
'losing' are no more real than any other form of
measurement.
Running around a track is not the same as finding the cure for cancer.
Will videogame victories produce a better world?
How many athletes suffer sports injuries from pushing their bodies too far?
Imagine if the time, money and enthusiasm currently invested in sport was
applied to real-world problems such as
diet,
education, homelessness,
animal conservation and environmental
concerns.
Self defence
Most
martial arts classes involve a fair amount of brutality and pain.
This is not unreasonable, since they are primarily concerned with violence.
Dynamic Balancing Tai Chi is different - it offers an alternative to pain and
potential injury.
There seems little point in learning how to
defend yourself if you get injured in the
process.
We encourage
students to
explore the way in which they are using
their own body.
Working in
relationship with other people is mutually
beneficial.
Training tai chi for health & self defence is not a brutal process; there is
no competition, no injury, no pain.
Page created 9 June 2000