There are 3 main benefits of Taiji.

One is the improved condition of yourself: your body, mental state, emotional state, and so on.

The second one is the forces, or the internal elastic strength that applies to life. Without inner strength, you’ll just get crushed by life. Many people also become hard in response to the pressures of life. But you have to have a different kind of strength to progress through life.

And the third is the development of something on a deep level. The Buddhists call it the Buddha mind. I created the term deep mind to escape the associations that are attached to the other terms. Buddha mind, deep mind, heart, soul. It’s the same meaning.

At the minimum you should listen deeply and try to learn on that level by noticing what’s happening. The details that we explain in class are complex in themselves. You might understand and you might not. So you can try to practice those things from a deep level. But at the very least you should listen from that level, because that part of the mind has its own intelligence. By connecting into it you can learn from it.

We’re looking for an elastic condition of the body. With that condition, you’d be able to handle some unexpected events or accidents from outer life.

(Patrick Kelly)