Taiji and Religion
2006-10-R1
(Copyrighted by Don M. Tow)
Most people, whether they are Christians, Jewish,
Moslems, or members of any other religious faith, have no problem with
learning Taiji or allowing their children to learn Taiji. They consider
Taiji to be either a healthy exercise or a martial art or both, and
independent of religion. However, some Christians find it objectionable to
learn or practice Taiji, and do not want their church to be associated in
any way with Taiji. They believe that Taiji is related to qigong and is tied
to religious Taoism or Buddhism, and therefore is inconsistent with their
Christian beliefs.
I think this type of thinking is simplistic and wrong. It
is true that almost every style of Chinese martial arts has qigong as part
of its advanced training to achieve the following martial arts/health
objectives:
Besides the above martial arts/health objectives, many
qigong practitioners also consider qigong to have an underlying
philosophical component. This is especially obvious for Taiji because Taiji
is intimately tied with the yin-yang philosophy in two fundamental ways. One
is the concept of not resisting an opponent’s force head-on, but deflecting
it slightly and then utilizing the momentum of your opponent’s force to get
him off-balance. The second is that depending on your opponent’s movement,
one is constantly changing one’s movement as in the yin-yang transformation.
Therefore, it may be correct to say that Taiji is related to philosophical
Taoism, in which the concept of yin and yang is an integral part.
It is also true that some qigong practitioners go even
further and claim that qigong is related to religious Taoism or Buddhism, in
the sense that there is a spiritual or supernatural component. It is
important to point out that there are great distinctions between
philosophical Taoism and religious Taoism. Even the Encyclopedia Britannica
more than half a century ago already recognized this difference when it
wrote: "The term Taoism has two meanings (1) The philosophical system
attributed to Lao Tzu (b. 604 BC) and Chuang Tzu (b. 330 BC); (2) The
popular religion of the Chinese." Philosophical Taoism is widely respected
as a philosophy by many great Chinese and non-Chinese philosophers, as well
as non-philosophers. However, many people consider religious Taoism as an
accumulation of folklore and superstition. Unfortunately, many people do not
understand this distinction.
Considering the long existence of qigong and its practice
by so many people over so many centuries and considering the social and
religious milieu of the Chinese society during this period, it is not
surprising at all that qigong could mean many things and could mean
different things to different people. Therefore, one should not consider
qigong to be synonymous with various forms of Chinese religions.
Besides, most teachers of Taiji today (as well as other
Chinese martial arts) teach Taiji (and other Chinese martial arts) without
any religious overtones. I know that has been the case with every one of my
10+ Taiji and martial arts teachers.
My conclusion is that as long as Christians believe that
there are health or self-defense benefits to learning Taiji and that one
does not associate Taiji or qigong with religious Taoism or Buddhism, then
by all means go ahead to learn and practice Taiji. It doesn’t matter that
there might be people who think that you are doing something that is related
to religious Taoism or Buddhism. If one is always overly concerned about
what other people think, then one will not be able to do a lot of
interesting and worthwhile things in life.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Comments (or questions) from
readers are welcome.
Please specify whether you want to share your comments with only the author
of this website or with the other readers. If it is the latter, your
comments will be posted in the appropriate "Comments" page.
Please send them via an email to
[email protected].