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Yoga and Tai Chi





This is a video which gives you a general idea of what Tai Chi looks like.

This is the kind of music that is being used when people are doing Tai Chi.

This video shows how yoga train our body, mind, heart, and soul.

This shows the benefit of Yoga.

This is the kind of music that people listen while they are doing Yoga -- sit back and relax!



According to the University of Alabama-Birmingham, Yoga is listed and described as "exercises (to) improve flexibility, muscle tone, coordination, poise and self-confidence." And on the next page, T'ai Chi is described as “an ancient system of movement-meditation practiced by Buddhist monks" (Winter 1990, p. 35).

First, let us talk about Yoga. An examination of the yoga instruction books reveals that "Yoga in its pure form embodies and teaches timeless truths. It is a universal philosophy. Yoga teachings based on Eastern philosophies can only have operative validity if ALL human minds are conditioned to function in similar patterns," (The Road Beyond Yoga, George Randolph, pp. 9-11). Yoga is an inherent and inextricable part of the belief and practice of Hinduism. "The purpose of yogic disciplines has been described in a great variety of ways: as the discovery of Truth, as the realization of Self, as the realization of the identity of Brahman and Atman, as the unification of man and God. These descriptions all point to the underlying concepts of yoga - yoga is a means of achieving union with the inner True Self, the God within. There are a few types of yoga: Karma yogo, bhakti yoga, jnan yoga, raja yoga, laya yoga, Kundalini yoga and they all have the same aims, that is to train our body mind, heart and soul (Randolph, p. 42-44). Yes, not only taichi does foster meditation and mental development, Yoga also do so too. However, as time goes by, Western yoga has lost its base and is often regarded as a mere physical exercise with some calming and energizing benefits: it helps to control breathing, stretch, reduce stress, lower heart rate, increase strength and flexibility and encourage spiritual growth.

Tai Chi, although is also a kind of exercise, its nature and origin are different from that of Yoga. The main difference that lies between yoga and taichi is the idea of “chi” and spiritual energy. Unlike Yoga, Tai Chi is an exercise that exerts no strenuous action, there are no jumps, no aerobics, no running. The feet always rooted within the earth, the torso and arms making graceful, deliberate, and sequenced movements take on the form of physical poetry. It is practiced standing, as a slow dance-like meditative exercise. The underlying philosophy is that of Taoism. The movements coordinated in T'ai Chi represent the balancing of the Universal Energy (Chi) through the complementary actions of Yin and Yang (Ibid). The practice of Tai Chi promotes the circulation of chi or life energy within the body, transforms hard strength into soft energy, which like wind and waves becomes powerful when accumulated and directed by the mind. It fosters meditation, physical, mental and spiritual health. One major difference between Yoga and Taichi is that Tai Chi is suitable for people of all ages but Yoga requires flexibility.

Sources:
http://healing.about.com/cs/easternculture/a/taichi.htm
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Yoga-Tai-Chi-1762/tai-chi-yoga.htm
http://www.watchman.org/reltop/taichi2.htm


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