Tai Chi Mind Second Edition

Life Span Development is an area of psychological research. It looks at an individual’s journey from birth to death and the challenges along the way. I can’t think of a more important topic. Consequently, this book will discuss Life Span Development from multiple perspectives. It will look at it from the perspective of my martial arts teacher, Daniel Yu Wang. Daniel survived the Cultural Revolution, one of the great tragedies of the modern era. It will look at this topic from a philosophical perspective, the theory of yin and yang and the martial art it inspired, Tai Chi Chuan. Finally, it will look at life span from a common sense and psychological perspective. Hopefully, these multiple lenses will give the reader a deeper understanding of what it means to be fully human.

The purpose of this second book with my Tai Chi teacher Daniel Yu Wang is to take the practice of Tai Chi Chuan, its underlying philosophy and training principles and apply them to an area of psychological inquiry. Why psychological? Well I was trained as a psychologist so it is an area I am familiar with. I could have chosen any area. As I said in my earlier book one of the reasons Daniel was so attracted to Tai Chi is it is based on a philosophical system, the theory of yin and yang. I wanted to see if Tai Chi and this system could help me understand things other than fighting. Could it help me understand psychology? Could it help me understand life? Could it take me from the particular to general. There are only so many things one can remember. In other words, could it help me find some truth. Because fighting, along with eating, having sex and maybe praying are among man’s oldest activities, it might be a good place to look. If Tai Chi explains more than just combat, it is like finding a key. A key you can use to unlock other doors or mysteries.