02/09/2026
The Internal Practice
by Martin Inn L.Ac., O.M.D.
Honolulu, Hawaii 2025
When I started practicing T’ai Chi Ch’uan sixty years ago, I understood that it was an internal practice as opposed to external martial arts such as karate or Shaolin boxing. As I studied with different teachers in my beginning years of practice in Taiwan, no one was able to explain to me what the internal practice was. Sure, it was vaguely described in the T’ai Chi Classics, but the Classics were written by different masters who were mostly illiterate and not well educated. So, the T’ai Chi Ch’uan Classics and the concept of what the internal practice meant remained an idea that was not fully understood nor completely formed in my own practice. I began the study of Chinese Medicine 20 years later to try to understand the concept of “ch’i” and how it related to the internal practice of T’ai Chi Ch’uan. However, this did not fully satisfy my question of what the internal practice was. I saw bits and pieces of the internal practice displayed by different advanced practitioners and thought surely they must understand what the internal practice is. But they couldn’t give me a broad overview of what the internal practice is. How could I honestly teach an internal martial art without fully understanding what it is? Then I came to the realization that most people teaching T’ai Chi also don’t know what the internal practice is beyond that it is good for your health and balance. But why is it good for your health and how is it different than other kinds of exercise? Students have often asked me if they could go to the gym to work out, lift weights, or jog. My answer is that T’ai Chi will help whatever exercise you do but those exercises will not help your practice of T’ai Chi Ch’uan.
Sympathetic Verses Parasympathetic
Let’s take a look at the Western medical model and how the neurological system works. In the Autonomic Nervous System, there is the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system is the “fight or flight” response that the body and brain activate when there is perceived danger. The physiological changes that the body undergoes are increased blood pressure, increased heart rate, vasoconstriction, increased breathing, increased adrenaline, and shutting down of the digestion. This creates a condition of increased energy in the body so that you can either fight or run away from danger. When you can neither fight nor run from the perceived danger, and the situation remains for a longer period of time, your body which remains in this heightened state, begins to deteriorate. This is called stress. When any one of these sympathetic responses persists and becomes chronic, it is considered a medical problem.
On the other hand, the parasympathetic nervous system is just the opposite. The parasympathetic nervous system is our healing mechanism. When we go to sleep at night, we heal ourselves from the stresses of our daily existence. Falling into a deep sleep, our sympathetic reactions of the day reverse and our blood pressure drops, our heart rate drops, we have vasodilation, our breathing relaxes, the adrenaline reduces, and our digestion improves. Part of the parasympathetic condition is that there is no movement of the body. There is only “stillness.” There is no activation of the muscles during sleep, only a deep relaxation of the muscles as the body tries to rebuild itself. When we go on vacation, when we go to a spa and get a massage, these are opportunities for the body to relax and be parasympathetic.
A medical condition like heartburn or acid reflux after eating is a good example of a sympathetic response where the “ch’i” rises up the Conception Vessel and bridges the hiatal sphincter muscle. Instead of the digestion of food traveling down the digestive tract it instead reverses itself causing acid reflux. The only medical response is to take the purple pill. Also burping is another example of the “ch’i” traveling in the wrong direction.
The Perfect Exercise
The perfect exercise should encourage the parasympathetic condition of the body while promoting the circulation of “ch’i” and blood. This is T’ai Chi Ch’uan and the internal practice. Most western exercises target the cultivation of the muscles and the strength of the body. It is based on the model of cardiovascular health: by pushing the body to a certain limit, the stress placed on the heart and lungs will cause these organs to remain healthy and the muscles to remain strong. The assumption is that if we look healthy and muscularly strong on the outside, we will also be healthy on the inside. This follows the Graeco-Roman ideal of youthful physical beauty. The older we get, the more we yearn for the youthful physical health, strength, and beauty we had as younger adults.
T’ai Chi Ch’uan is based on the philosophical principles of Taoism which was founded by Lao Tze many hundreds of years ago. One of its guiding principles is that the softest will become the strongest. Think of the softness of water being able to destroy through waves and floods, or the softness of air being able to destroy like a tornado or hurricane. The idea is that if you cultivate strength, you are at the same time cultivating weakness. When you apply this idea to the martial arts, the softer you are, the more you are able to overcome the strength of your opponent. One of the greatest phrases coined by Professor Cheng Man-ch’ing is “invest in loss”. This basically means that if you cultivate the attitude and lifestyle of yielding and softness, you can overcome hardness and strength. If, on the other hand, you are into developing your ego and physical strength, you can never achieve the Taoist ideal of softness and yielding and therefore you can be easily defeated (by yourself).
In T’ai Chi Ch’uan, if you use muscular force in push hands or in your ex*****on of the single movements, then you are not practicing softness or being parasympathetic. So, the question in your practice is “how can you move in executing the single movements without engaging the muscles?” Once you engage the muscles you are activating the sympathetic or “fight or flight” response. To remain parasympathetic, you must at all times relax the muscles while executing the postures. How can you do this? This is what years of practice and refinement of the single movements means. It is not where to place the arms and feet, but how to move through space without engaging the muscles. “Seek stillness in motion” is to move without activating the muscles. The stillness is in the relaxation of the muscles, and the motion is the movement of the body from one posture to the other through space. Of course, the stillness is also in the mind.
T’ai Chi Ch’uan and Chinese Medicine
One of the most important phrases in the T’ai Chi Classics concerning the internal practice is “Sink Ch’i to Tan T’ien”. This has become one of the most puzzling phrases for me to understand. In my study of Chinese Medicine, the flow of the conception vessel (Ren Mai) is from the perineum to the head, that is from the bottom of the torso rising up to the lower jaw. Why then, does the T’ai Chi Classics say just the opposite? In his writings, Cheng Man-ch’ing stated that the difference between the internal practices and external martial arts, is that in the internal martial arts, the “ch’i” sinks down into the Tan T’ien against the flow of the conception vessel while the external martial arts raise the “ch’i” along the Ren Mai. In other words, when you sink the “ch’i” along the conception vessel, you become parasympathetic and when you raise the “ch’i” along the same vessel, you become sympathetic triggering the “fight or flight” response. Sinking the “ch’i” makes your muscles soft and relaxed and raising your “ch‘i” up the front makes your muscles tense and hard.
So how do you raise the “ch’i”? “In moving, the “ch’i” sticks to the back and permeates the spine.” The “ch’i” raises up the back along the Governing Vessel (Du Mai) and bridges the Three Gates along the way to the top of the head and down the midline of the face to the upper lip. The gap at the mouth between the Ren Mai and the Du Mai is bridged by the tongue. This circuit down the front of the Conception Vessel and up the back along the Governing Vessel is called the Lesser Heavenly Circle. The Greater Heavenly Circle includes the arms and legs.
I have always told my students that when you practice T’ai Chi Ch’uan you are giving yourself an acupuncture treatment. This is by sinking the “chi” you become parasympathetic and place yourself into the most advantageous position to be healed.
Historically, when Bodhidharma came from India and introduced Zen Buddhism to China, he became the abbot of the Shaolin Monastery. He developed Shaolin Boxing for his monks because they needed some form of exercise. By doing so, he taught them to raise the “ch’i” up the front of the Conception Vessel and combine it with animal movements to form the external martial art of Shaolin Boxing.
T’ai Chi Ch’uan follows the Tao in nature. It is a martial art founded by Chang San Feng that incorporates the ideas of softness and yielding. Professor Cheng said that you cannot be truly soft and relaxed until you have sunk the “ch’i” to Tan T’ien. This means that not only when you practice T’ai Chi must you be soft and relaxed, but it must also be a way of life through your daily movements. This explains why the serious students of Professor Cheng have all adopted a lifestyle of softness.
The T’ai Chi Ch’uan Movements
The gentle and relaxed movement of T’ai Chi Ch’uan is a good way of stimulating the parasympathetic response of the body. Movement is important because it keeps the “ch’i” from stagnating the body. In Chinese Medicine, “ch’i stagnation” is a pathological condition that leads to disease. “Ch’i stagnation” is due to long periods of inactivity like sitting at the computer, watching TV, or as Bodhidharma discovered, meditation. As the legend goes, Bodhidharma sat facing the wall meditating for nine years and his arms and legs atrophied and eventually fell off. This is why the Daruma or Bodhidharma doll in Japanese culture is an egg-shaped figure with no arms or legs.
The Anatomy of the T’ai Chi Movements
The movements have a horizontal and a vertical component. The horizontal movements are accomplished by rotating the pelvis (pelvic girdle) while standing on the substantial leg so that the insubstantial leg could remain relaxed to take an empty step. “Stand like a balance and rotate actively like a wheel.” “The waist is like the axle.” Then you can “Walk like a cat.”
The vertical component is a little more complicated to execute. In T’ai Chi movements like “Raise Hands,” “White Crane,” “Fist Under Elbow,” or taking a step, how can you raise the arms or take a step without activating your muscles? This is based on sinking. In order to go up, you must first go down. Early on in my training, I learned the principle of borrowing the force from a previous movement. If you want to raise you must first sink the energy, then borrow the rebounding force to raise the arm and leg. Catching this rebounding force with the intent and raising of the “ch’i”is what motivates the vertical action of the T’ai Chi movements.
T’ai Chi Ch’uan and Meditation
One of the key practices in T’ai Chi Ch’uan is “listening”. Listening means to listen and feel with the whole body instead of listening with your ears. Your hands and body become the ears. When a doctor takes your pulse or palpates your body, he is listening through his fingers. The listening is accomplished by projecting the mind into the other person’s body to feel the flow or blockages of energy. When you look or listen to your own body, this is done through the “internal look.” If you can’t externally see the condition of your body, you can try to assess the condition through the “internal look.”
Listening demands that you place your body into a receptive mode. This is what happens when you meditate. After listening you must properly interpret. Listening and interpreting energy are the primary components of Push Hands. You might say that Push Hands and the practice of listening is a kind of dynamic meditation.
How Far Do You Want To Go?
To reach the most esoteric level of T’ai Chi Ch’uan, you must completely practice softness and yielding. Many practitioners do not want to give up strength and development of their muscles. For them it is impractical because of their profession and lifestyle. Many older practitioners just want to have good balance and mobility. If that is what they want, it is fine. However, to pe*****te the “mysterious Tao,” one must completely give up strength and “invest in loss.” One of the most attractive aspects of T’ai Chi Ch’uan, is when you go through the movements, you are physically re-enacting the principles of Chinese Philosophy and Taoism. The principles are not just intellectual ideas; they come alive and you become Chinese Philosophy. T’ai Chi Ch’uan becomes a living practice.
T’ai Chi Ch’uan is a difficult practice to pursue, and its principles are not easy to understand. In the West, we are raised to compete and get ahead by the use of strength and developing our egos. All of our sports, exercise and politics are based on this model. To change a lifetime of this mindset and embrace the opposite is something not all are willing to do.
There are many truths in the minds of practitioners that each one has attained the “holy grail” of T’ai Chi. They are not wrong. They have just reached a level of practice according to their understanding of the principles.
T’ai Chi Ch’uan In Mainland China
The T’ai Chi Ch’uan that came out of Communist Mainland China after 1947 during the Maoist era was a form that was created by a committee of T’ai Chi “masters” from different styles that dictated the sequence of 24 movements and how they should be performed. The great masters of the Wu, Chen, and Yang styles were brutally suppressed, and some were even imprisoned. From what I can see, the 24 movements of the hybrid form are fast, gymnastic and spectacular but not very relaxed nor internal. The T’ai Chi Classics say, “The spectacle of an old person defeating a group of young people, how can it be due to swiftness?” It seems that due to the suppression of Classical Chinese culture in Communist Mainland China during the Maoist era, the essence of T’ai Chi Ch’uan and even Classical Chinese Medicine was lost.
Conclusion
If you are not able to practice T’ai Chi Ch’uan at the highest level according to the T’ai Chi Classics, you will still receive some benefits. My mother use to practice her T’ai Chi every week by going to classes at the community center and with me when I came to visit. I must say that her form was terrible and she stumbled through each posture. However, she lived to 101 years old, and I admired her spirit, willingness, and dedication. It didn’t matter how poorly she did the form; it was just a joy and pleasure to go through the movements with her.
Martin Inn L.Ac. OMD
Honolulu 2025
