Why would anyone, repelled by the mere idea of violence, study martial art as a path to health and spiritual peace? Because the more profound your martial chi, the more powerfully you may love and heal. Symmetrically, the more ethical or loving the martial power, the more irresistible its domination.

Martial chi isn't merely a destructive power. It's even more vitally a healing agent, enhancing and motivating your immune system, emanating from you to heal the energy states of your environment and its inhabitants.

The most malignant enemy to your general health as well as your most vital ally resides inside you, and the dark wins by default when you don't train and empower the inner warrior. As an example, a patient who visualizes ferocious or martial images overpowering and routing malignant cells is more successful in managing his illness. The more powerful and hawkish the metaphoric imagery, the better the immune system responds.

A martial artist doesn't conquer outer space as much as he integrates it with the world he discovers inside himself, growing more virtuous as he becomes less fearful. Virtue, exemplified by the golden rule (do unto others because there is no other, there's only unity) is a prerequisite to mastery. Virtue leads to the holographic realization that you are a synergistic multitude of one. A proper martial artist discovers the highest spiritual point of his inner world, identifies with that, and extends it outward as a force that may be identified as healthy love.

Love and martial art seem incompatible, but what are really incompatible are love and fear, because you cannot love someone at the same time that you fear him. Other empathetic emotions may be possible toward one that you fear, but not love. A martial "artist" engages and subdues his fear, and by reducing fear, increases the capacity to love. Saul Krotki defined martial mastery as the ability to handle an opponent in the affectionate manner one would assume towards one's child. This definition of mastery seems to be very similar to the call to love your enemy (opponent) in a manner comparable to the way you love yourself.

A martial artist may have enemies, as most people do, but a high level martial artist probably doesn't fear them because he's confident that he can defend himself against them and he sees how flimsy the border separating him from others is. Logically, therefore (and maybe ironically), a martial artist who doesn't fear his enemy may be in a better position to follow the powerful edict to "love your enemy" than a mere pacifist is.

Copyright 2004 by Jack Livingston

But if you practice a form without adhering to the literal, or practical applications of the form, then the intent of the originators and the chi that went into it is compromised.

The internal nature of the art places chi energy at the heart of such martial expressions, and so, by changing the form in disregard for the combative intent, the health and energetic venefits are diluted."

Sensei Jack Livingston

The history of martial art follows an analogous evolutionary path. Chinese martial art came from India with a yogi who wanted to help some poor monks who were victims of bad health and crime. First he taught them floor work symbolic of the stage of infancy- static postures from Hatha Yoga which built their bodies' core strength necessary to get up, stand and walk. They progressed to standing and moving between fixed postures or asanas (tai chi originally was 13 postures), which were later linked as in Yoga's "sun salutation," training them to move. The movements were fighting techniques infused with meditative psychological discipline for a boost into the higher stages of spirit.

The teaching/ learning categories that I use as a curricular guide inspires and develops different but overlapping, interconnected intelligences which add up to holo intelligence. Without the systematic warm- up you may or may not reach all of the strands in the web of knowing. An Aikitaiji class is composed of mini- lessons of five to twenty minute length. You can learn many, different lessons in a class period if they involve different skills, stored in the memory in different but connected, coordinated and cross- referenced parts of the brain. In order to learn martial art, lessons must be encoded throughout the brain, tying the learner intimately to ever- wider panoramas of reality. In a class period, I teach a lesson from each of the categories outlined below, and review some that I previously taught.

1. Floor work- Tracing the evolution of movement, begin lying flat on your back, warming up from the ground. When the weight is off of your feet, a different nervous system funcions that preps the neuro- muscular- skeletal basis of upright standing. Inventory and relax the tension in the postural muscles used for standing so that you only have to use the right ones for movement. This stretching sequence will make you taller by relaxing chronic spinal tension.

2. Crawling on hands and knees, then hands and feet together like a spider, and knuckle- walking like an ape warms up good upright posture, waking an entirely different system. This is important for the core torso muscles and nerves which are relied on for coordination, standing, walking, and feeling comfortable and naturally selected for your body.

3. Bi- pedal movement

4. Standing meditation with ki tests for verification. This should be done in all postures of form and function.

5. Moving forms. Aikido staff form is a good preparation for the basic Tai Chi form and Tai Chi sword form. I also do the forms mirror- image backward which more than doubles their neural impact. When you learn a new piece of form, and before you can learn the next piece, your brain takes six hours to encode the lesson into the permanent storage area of the brain. If you learn a new piece of form, and then try to learn another new piece within 6 hours, the first piece will be lost or erased when you learn the newer one. Since you can learn only one form lesson at a time, it doesn't make sense to keep teaching form all class long.

6. Push hands- switch partners every ten minutes.

7. Tai Chi fencing involves the same skills as push hands as well as focusing chi outside your physical body.

8. Techniques with prescribed attacks and counters and specific applications from the form.

9. Chi or Ki development. There are exercises that develop the unconscious intelligence, such as the many ki exercises developed by Koichi Tohei.

10. Philosophy lessons from the classics.

Copyright 2004 by Jack Livingston

"To 'pin down' a thought, there must be movement...thinking and learning are anchored by movement."--Smart Moves, Carla Hannaford.

The realms of the brain that are developed through skilled physical training are the same areas that govern memory, rule all forms of learning, actively promote creativity, assist psychosomatic health, and even strengthen the immune system by acting to stabilize unbalanced emotions such as depression and anxiety.

There are countless brain functions and domains of intelligence that a completely rounded human needs to flex. We each have individually preferred learning styles chosen from many different ways to know or sense, but they all have somthing in common with skilled, polished movement. "Movement activates the neural wiring throughout the body, making the whole body the instrument of learning."--Hannaford.

Movement facilitates learning by producing natural chemicals that enhance the growth of new neurons and neural connections in the brain (which is more than a body part) and the body ( which is not just an instrument of learning and awareness). In Aikitaiji the mind is the body or expression of your art and the articulation of your inner evolution.

Our training system seeks to upgrade neural highways connecting remote areas of the brain, generating neuronal growth somewhat like the muscles they control, developing in range, density and strength through exercise. Aimless movement affects the mind and body of an individual but coordinated, graceful, organized patterns such as those trained in martial art are immensely more powerful and wide-ranging.

"Every time we move in an organized, graceful manner, full brain activation and integration occurs, and the door to learning opens naturally..."--Hanaford. Add internal training and cooperative learning to graceful movement and you succeeed in further enhancing the benefits of skillful movement.

Mental functions can be generally isolated and attributed to certain locations in the brain, but most tasks require a state of coordinated mind and body, and martial art serves this integrative function.

Copyright 2004 by Jack Livingston

"All things and beings are the effects of a ubiquitous power out of which they rise, which supports and fills them during the period of their manifestation, and back into which they must ultimately dissolve. This is the power known to science as energy, to the Melanesian as mana, to the Sioux as wakonda, the Hindus as shakti."--Joseph Campbell.

There are as many names for this power as there are cultures. Mencius described "chi" (the Japanese word "ki" is used interchangeably with "chi" in this work) as an omnipresent energy, the source of matter, in support of life, which dissolves into the void and reappears transformed as humanity.

"Our lives are a part of the universal ki enclosed in the flesh of our bodies. Though we say that this is 'I,' viewed with the eyes of the mind, it is actually the ki of the universal. Even though that ki is encased in flesh, it is in conflux with and active as a part of the universal."--Koichi Tohei, Ki in Daily Life.

Chi is the energy of the cosmos, composed of body, manifest and immenent in every atom, binding every cell in our bodies, motivated and organized to shape the physical world. Embedded within and functioning as a causal agent of the transcendent reality is an individual's personal, internal power that it accessible because we are an active part of it.

Ki is relationship. Similar to the way the brain reinforces neural activity when learning takes place, a proper martial artist, through ki exercise, strengthens his connections within the web of nature, and when personal unity is realized (when mind, body, chi, and spirit are integrated) one's intimate relationship with the univers is revealed.

Tohei speaks of ki in relation to others and in harmony with the "universal." Ki binds all things together, so in a sense relationship is ki, and since ki is universal, we can't avoid relating to anything (not even the unpleasant things). Avoidance of relationship confuses and weakens one's ki.

Ki links the domains of self within a self, leading to wisdom that can only exist as a relative of nature. "To excite the chi means not only to stimulate one's own chi but to join one's chi to the chi of Nature so as to reinforce each other."--Cheng Man Ching, 13 Treatises.

You can't excite or stimulate your chi in isolation from the chi of nature, and the chi of nature expresses itself most clearly through humanity.

Whatever separates us from nature isn't external. It's our own chi made stagnant by avoidance of relationship. By exciting (extending outward) personal chi to reinforce nature, the whole human comes together, relating to his world, and as that work is accomplisehd a proper martial artist recognizes that his ki is also active "out there." Chi brings you to yourself, and a proper martial artist known that is also the way to know others.

On the deepest level a martial artist recognizes unity as the highest aim of nature, and so he establishes an energetic relationship between his chi and the chi of nature.

Copyright 2004 by Jack Livingston

Once the martial masters made the village safe, they were able to pursue happiness. When the defense of the culture was assured through fighting (destruction) people were free to create, and since martial art serves the first, most vital, indispensable need (survival) martial art must have been the first of the arts.

Before an individual can evolve he needs to feel safe. Self-defense and the defense of society are primary needs that must be met before the "wants" can be pursued. After the needs are met and security is assured, people are free to create philosophy and art, the foundations of culture. The warriors were the first to feel secure, so the warriors must have been the first to philosophize and create art.

The first objects of art were cave paintings invoking the animal powers to provide food. A knife (a weapon needed for hunting and fighting) carved in the shape of a horse, is one of the first objects valued for purely aestheitc or artistic value. The first dances were fighting simulations. The first rituals concerned hunting and fighting. The first prayers to supernatural beings were for security and food, the procurement of which was the job of the warriors.

Besides serving security needs, the power of a master warrior made him the most logical canditate for "magical" inspiration. Warriors entered altered states of consciousness for their supernatural inspiration in order to mediate between the common world shared by all life and the mystical world. They were the pioneers of spirituality.

Self-defense and defensive technology evolved into the martial arts where poetry, painting, and calligraphy are common skills of martial artists. The routines of serving tea, arranging flowers and gardens, furniture making, and even cleaning the floor wer inserted into the list of arts thanks to the Zen belief that the most mundane acts such as chopping wood and carrying water are seen as spiritual acts.

Copyright 2004 by Jack Livingston

Timing your actions to coordinate appropriately with an attack is more important than mere speed because if timing and blending are right, the opponent's own speed or momentum should be enough to cause him to fall. Timing your movements to match an opponent's movements neutralizes or cancels out the power and duration of his attack.

The suspension of the psychological or mental flow of time is the gateway to transcendence of the spirit. Meditation, a common exercise in martial arts, is the most influential tool used to synchronize the mind (inner) to movement (outer). Slow movement against an implied resistance is a meditative method that sways time in the physical field. Slow perfection of form is a meditative exercise that creates gaps in time and simultaneously trains the body to move within these gaps.

The mind (through an internal function that creates a flowing sense of time) organizes, sorts, frames, coordinates and defines our experiences so that they make sense. Due to this temporal framework, reality is experienced in present time, learned and filed in memory as "past," and anticipated in the "future" for the sake of cause-effect logical relationships. Each person's mind constructs its own relative time sense so that it can adjust the chaos of sensory information to a controllable level, and equip the mind with a logical format for movement and change (cause and effect).

Time gauges an event, providing a context for all emotions, hope or dread, and the various methods of expression and communication. We live and die in the interlude of time. Our safety as well as our bondage depend on, and happen within time.

The temporal mind operates within a comfortable range of consciousness, nestled safely below the threshold of both insanity and transcendence.

Copyright 2004 by Jack Livingston

There are five major traditions or schools in Tai Chi. Each of them have been named after the families who either have taught, or are currently teaching it. In addition to these five Tai Chi styles, many schools teach either a hybrid of a few styles, or else an integration of Tai Chi with another martial art discipline.

The Chen style is considered vigorous martial arts training. The most famous teacher of the Chen style was Chen Changking, who taught in the 1800s. Today, direct descendants of Chen are teaching the Chen technique in all parts of the world. The Wu style was created by Quan Wu. This style is characterized by small subtle movements. A major emphasis is placed on balance, sensitivity to your partner and internal force development.

The Wu Yuxiang style, which was developed by Wu Yuxiang is characterized by slow movement and strict footwork patterns. In this style, the chest and body are held upright while the body is in motion. The Sun style was created by Sun Lu-t'ang, who was considered to be an expert on internal martial arts. Small circular movement patterns, high stances and subtle footwork characterize this style.

The Yang style was developed by Yang Luchan in the 1800s. The style is a blend of soft and hard movements. Today, it is the most frequently practiced style of Tai Chi in the world. Yang Luchan was quite successful--he was commissioned to teach his method to the palace guards of the Chinese imperial family. Later, traditional Yang postures were modified by Cheng Man-Ching to make them shorter and simpler, as well as both easier to teach and learn. Cheng Man-Ching himself learned Tai Chi from Yang Cheng Fu, a grandson of Yang Luchan.

Although it is not considered a traditional Tai Chi form, Aikitaiji integrates forms, ideas, and functions from Yang-style short form Tai Chi, Aikido, Hsing-I, yoga, and warm-ups and floor work inspired by Moshe Feldenkrais, a judo master. When Sensei Jack Livingston started studying Tai Chi and Aikido in the 1970s, he found that the two forms "were more remarkable in their common attributes than in their differences." He was inspired by his teachers: Saul Krotki, Dale Gillilan, Rod Kobayashi, Mark Saito, and Ben Lo. We know that you will enjoy Aikitaiji.

Watch video clips of Aikitaiji class to see tai chi techniques integrated into the aikitaiji curriculum.

The Tai Chi Push Hands is performed by two partners collaborating to improve each other's skills. It involves disrupting your partner's balance without resorting to the use of brute force. As you tune into your partner's rhythm and energy, you develop a keen intuition that enables you to sense their intentions and movements.

While you are practicing this form of harmonious movement, your partner's skin, muscles and spine will communicate important information to you. Use all of your senses to predict your partner's actions. Once you achieve movement harmony with your partner, you can redirect his or her strength and use it to your own advantage.

This redirection of energy is essential to the Push Hands exercise. It is used in lieu of the hitting, kicking or shoving that is often seen in other martial arts. In a sense, this form of "combat" serves a higher purpose. Imagine what could happen if we were able to redirect any verbal hostilities that are presented to us. Perhaps, we would discover an easier way to resolve conflicts and hopefully lead a less stressful life.

With these ideas in mind, it is important to understand that the Pushing Hands exercise is not merely a form of combat. Push Hands also serves to help the practitioner integrate the yin/receptive and yang/assertive principles. Although yin and yang are opposites, they are reliant upon each other in order to achieve wholeness. When you integrate yin and yang, your communication skills will improve, as well as your health and vitality. To learn more about these concepts, contact us at Aikitaiji.com

Watch videos of tai chi push hands integrated into the aikitaiji curriculum.

See museum for pictures of aikitaiji students practicing push-hands in sugarhouse park
Learn tai chi form and applications at Aikitaiji Online

You will want to know how long the instructor has practiced Tai Chi. Ask who his or her teachers were, or what school he or she attended. In order for a tai chi instructor to be suitable for your own personal learning style, his philosophy should be in concert with your own. Don't be afraid to ask questions regarding his philosophies. This should not only include a personal philosophy about Tai Chi, but you will want to know about his philosophy of teaching in general.

If you have some specific form of disability, ask the instructor if he ever worked with a student who had the same sort of issues. You will also need to decide for yourself how much you want to be pushed. Does your potential instructor adhere to the "no pain, no gain" philosophy, or does he or she allow you develop at your own pace?

You can get a good idea of a tai chi teacher's teaching skills by asking him how he would describe tai chi to someone who had never heard of the form. Also, ask him how he keeps his students engaged in the learning process, and how he brings freshness and creativity to the learning experience. Finally, if you want to get a sense of our instructor, Jack Livingston, we ask in deep humility that you read his writings, and bio.

Many Westerners are often surprised to discover that tai chi can be used effectively for self-defense. However, for centuries, Chinese Tai Chi masters have practiced Tai Chi as a form of martial arts. In fact, some instructors believe that the cultivation of internal forces that can be applied in a combat situation is a crucial element of Tai Chi's health improvement process.

Internal force cultivation and the resulting defense applications are the ultimate manifestation of the principles of yin and yang. The yielding force represents the "yin" element in tai chi, while the martial applications are the embodiment of the "yang" principle. If a tai chi student has cultivated internal forces but has no combat practice, he might be capable of sustaining punches without incurring any sort of injury. However, it is highly unlikely that he would be able to defend himself in a real street fight.

Conversely, someone who has spent a good deal of time practicing martial forms without spending any time developing their internal force may find himself wasting his external energy, which his partner can easily deflect and use to his advantage. This would constitute an excellent example of two of the basic principles of martial tai chi. The principle of the soft overcoming the hard refers to the ability to use intuition to detect, divert and redirect the partner's intent to attack.

The principle of stillness overcoming movement is actually in reference to the stillness of the mind that is required in order to sense your partner's intent. Both the spiritual aspects as well as the martial applications are born of the inner intelligence that is vital to tai chi practice.

At Aikitaiji, our integration of tai chi and Aikido forms honor both the spiritual and martial applications of these forms. See Theater for videos demonstrating tai chi applications.

The philosophy of the martial aspects of tai chi can be summed up by this poem found in a Chinese Shaolin temple:

I would rather maim than kill
Hurt than maim
Intimidate than hurt
Avoid than intimidate

For this reason, most tai chi instructors prefer that their students first master the defensive or neutralizing skills prior to learning any of the offensive maneuvers.

In fact, some traditional tai chi teachers require their students to go through two phases of development before learning to use tai chi as a martial arts form. The first phase involves the improvement of health. Tai Chi masters believe that an unhealthy person will be unable to achieve the relaxed meditative state that is needed for efficient martial expression. Therefore, in the primary learning stages of Tai Chi, the student concentrates on relieving the physical effects of chronic stress on their body and mind.

Once a significant amount of stress is reduced, the student will find it easier to focus on the meditative aspects of tai chi. It is this meditative state that enables the student to practice harmonious movements with his or her partner. Meditation puts the mind in an alpha state. Alpha states have been associated with enhanced intuition, and intuition plays a paramount role in martial tai chi.

The meditative state also allows the practitioner to keep their mind focused in the present. Extraneous thoughts are cleared from the mind, and the student can concentrate on the purpose of the specific forms, push hands, and techniques. Once a clear understanding of the form's purpose is achieved, it becomes easier to apply your intent.

Aikitaiji, though, is a unitive art rather than sequential. The philosophy of Aikitaiji is that the meditative, health and martial aspects of tai chi, aikido, and other forms proceed together through our integrated curriculum. Offense cannot be divorced from defense and defense cannot be separated from health, as yin cannot be separated from yang. In Aikitaiji, all aspects are coordinated from the beginning.

In this busy, time-pressed world, many people find that they don't have time to attend tai chi classes. At Aikitaiji.com, we offer the opportunity to study online in an interactive way that allows you to receive individualized corrections, a very unique facet of our program. But first, you are probably asking, "What is tai chi, and why is it good for me?"

Tai Chi Chuan is an internal martial art form that was developed by the Chinese as early as 700 years ago. It is based on a philosophy commonly shared by many Chinese doctors, who believe that illness is prevalent when the flow of the body's internal energies, called "chi" are either blocked or unbalanced. The practice of tai chi can improve balance, coordination, grace and flexibility. It can also relieve the symptoms of migraines, hypertension and asthma.

The Arthritis Foundation also recommends tai chi practice as a suitable exercise form for sufferers of arthritis. The continuous coordination of breath with fluid movement makes tai chi an excellent technique for people who deal with chronic anxiety. A study performed in Atlanta in 1996 involved elderly people practicing tai chi for 15 weeks. They reduced their risk of falls by 47.5 percent! Participants in this same study also lowered their blood pressure.

The integration of health benefits, meditation in motion and martial arts training makes tai chi a valuable form of training.

Aikido training is generally focused on two specific goals: physical perfection of the martial art movements and psychological/spiritual transformation. The psychological/spiritual goal focuses on creating a sense of unity with the universe. This unity eventually allows the practitioner to use their wisdom to contribute to the resolution of conflict. While this may seem contradictory for a martial art, if you were to observe an aikido session, it would perhaps seem more logical.

Aikido training is almost always practiced with a partner. The uke, or "the one who is thrown," and the nage, or "the one who leads" must stay focused on each other. While they are engaged, they are constantly blending and flowing with each other. As the students learn to re-direct their partner's actions, they also learn to control their tendency to overreact to opposing forces.

Remaining centered at all times is crucial to aikido training, and this can be carried out in situations outside the dojo. Life is a battlefield, and the dojo is a place where the battles are played out, but always resolved. Centering is also pertinent to the physical aspects of aikido. All force in aikido movements is generated from the practitioner's center of gravity. This allows the aikidoist to remain stable and balanced at all times. This sense of being grounded and centered is actually essential to all sports. Once someone accomplishes this, they are able to swiftly react to all outside forces.

While aikido training enhances endurance, strength and flexibility, the movements themselves do not depend on strength. This makes it a "user friendly" martial art form that can be practiced by people of all levels of fitness. At Aikitaiji, we blend aikido training with tai chi in a method we are sure you will enjoy.

Welcome to our cyber-dojo at Aikitaiji.com, we are so glad that you found us. If you have come to us from far-away places, we offer online training. However, if you are from Salt Lake City, we offer a martial art training program in the area.

Although martial arts are generally associated with self defense, the training can also be used for sport conditioning. Martial artists have the lowest incidence of ACL injury. Our barefoot training improves proprioception and balance, which can in turn improve sport performance. Aikitaiji martial art training enhances agility and improves reaction time. We teach a mind/body integration technique that helps improve concentration skills while promoting a general feeling of well-being. The fluidity of our movements increases dynamic flexibility. Dynamic flexibility is flexibility in motion. Sports medicine experts believe this to be a more functional form of flexibility training than static stretching. Aikitaiji will also teach you one of the most important skills a sport enthusiast needs to learn. We teach you how to fall, and how to get up from a fall.

Check our Classes page for up-to-date information. Please be sure to wear loose, comfortable clothing, and please read our dojo rules before coming to class. We hope you enjoy your time on our site.