The practice of Tai Chi appears to be physical on first observation,
but its power comes from the mental (internal) aspects. Taoist philosophy teaches
the mental disciplines and one must understand Taoism to gain the full
potential. The Tao Te Ching is an ancient Chinese book, around 2500 years
old. Taoist philosophy is embedded in the poems of this book, allegedly
written by Lao Tse. Scholars still debate who the actual author is, and
you can find many translations of the original. The age of the language
used in the original manuscript makes some words difficult, if not impossible
to translate. The book contains 81 poems on Tao,
which translates to mean
The Way
(The following text was Translated from the Tao TeChing during
the summer of 1991 by Charles Muller
Revised, July 1997. You can read the entire text at his web site.
Click the link below to visit the site.)