The International Taoist Tai Chi Society (國際道家太極拳社) is an umbrella organization for the governance of its member associations around the world, which are dedicated to the teaching of

Taoist Tai Chi Taoist Tai Chi is an exercise form of t'ai chi ch'uan which is taught in more than 25 countries by the non-profit International Taoist Tai Chi Society and associated national Taoist Tai Chi societies. It is a modified form of Yang-style t'ai chi ...

. As of 2007, the organization had 40,000 members, including 15,000 in Canada, and was present in 26 countries. Since 2010 the Society refers to Taoist Tai Chi as ''Taoist Tai Chi internal arts of health''.

Society aims and objectives

The International Taoist Tai Chi Society has four stated aims and objectives: * To make Taoist Tai Chi internal arts of health available to all. * To promote the health-improving qualities of Taoist Tai Chi internal arts. * To promote cultural exchange (specifically: ''...to make the richness of Chinese culture more accessible...''). * To help others.

History

The Taoist Tai Chi Society was founded by Moy Lin-shin (梅連羨 méi lián xiàn). He arrived in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

in 1970 and started teaching Tai Chi and related internal arts. The primary style Moy taught was a T'ai chi ch'uan (太極拳 tàijí quán) form. He also taught a Lok Hup Ba Fa (六合八法拳 liù hé bā fǎ quán) form. Moy modified the

orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...

Yang-style tai chi chuan Yang family-style () T‘ai-Chi Ch‘üan (Taijiquan) in its many variations is the most popular and widely practised style in the world today and the second in terms of seniority among the primary five family styles of T'ai Chi Ch'uan. History ...

form that he knew, in order to maximize the health benefits obtainable from the form. Over the years Moy trained many of his students to become instructors/teachers of this art of health. On a 42-hectare rural property near

Orangeville, Ontario Orangeville (Canada 2016 Census 28,900) is a town in south-central Ontario, Canada, and the seat of Dufferin County. History The first patent of land was issued to Ezekiel Benson, a land surveyor, on August 7, 1820. That was followed by land ...

, the Society has built its residential Health Recovery Centre and Quiet Cultivation Centre, where members from around the world can gather and train together. The Quiet Cultivation Centre includes a large temple of Chinese-inspired design dedicated to Confucian, Buddhist and Taoist teachings, which was opened on 2007-09-08 with the participation of some 2500 members. The construction was funded entirely by donations.

Instruction

Classes are taught by volunteer instructors accredited by the Society. In order to become a

volunteer Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve ...

instructor one has to express the desire to do so, and be able to show the elements of the form to new students. A teacher of Taoist Tai Chi is encouraged to live by what Moy called "Eight Heavenly

Virtue Virtue ( la, virtus) is moral excellence. A virtue is a trait or quality that is deemed to be morally good and thus is valued as a foundation of principle and good moral being. In other words, it is a behavior that shows high moral standard ...

s": *

Filial piety In Confucianism, Chinese Buddhism, and Daoist ethics, filial piety (, ''xiào'') (Latin: pietas) is a virtue of respect for one's parents, elders, and ancestors. The Confucian ''Classic of Filial Piety'', thought to be written around the late W ...

Sibling A sibling is a relative that shares at least one parent with the subject. A male sibling is a brother and a female sibling is a sister. A person with no siblings is an only child. While some circumstances can cause siblings to be raised separat ...

Harmony In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...

Dedication Dedication is the act of consecrating an altar, temple, church, or other sacred building. Feast of Dedication The Feast of Dedication, today Hanukkah, once also called "Feast of the Maccabees," is a Jewish festival observed for eight days fr ...

Trust Trust often refers to: * Trust (social science), confidence in or dependence on a person or quality It may also refer to: Business and law * Trust law, a body of law under which one person holds property for the benefit of another * Trust (bus ...

worthiness *

Propriety Etiquette () is the set of norms of personal behaviour in polite society, usually occurring in the form of an ethical code of the expected and accepted social behaviours that accord with the conventions and norms observed and practised by a ...

Sacrifice Sacrifice is the offering of material possessions or the lives of animals or humans to a deity as an act of propitiation or worship. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Greeks, and possibly exi ...

Honor Honour (British English) or honor (American English; see spelling differences) is the idea of a bond between an individual and a society as a quality of a person that is both of social teaching and of personal ethos, that manifests itself as a ...

* Sense of

Shame Shame is an unpleasant self-conscious emotion often associated with negative self-evaluation; motivation to quit; and feelings of pain, exposure, distrust, powerlessness, and worthlessness. Definition Shame is a discrete, basic emotion, d ...

These principles are rooted in traditional Chinese

Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a Religious Confucianism, religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, ...

ethics. Much of the corporate model is likewise reflected in Confucianism. The society also draws influences from the Buddhist philosophy of non attachment generally, but compassion specifically as part of the aims and objectives of the society. Moy's stated goal for Taoist Tai Chi was to help people regain their health and to provide a method for cultivation of the whole body and mind. Moy encouraged his students to engage with both traditional Eastern perspectives on health and energetic development (for example the three Taoist treasures of ''jing'', ''chi'' and ''shen'') as well as modern Western medical perspectives. As a

Taoist Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the ''Tao'' ...

meditative practice of 'dual cultivation of mind and body', Moy also considered that Taoist Tai Chi arts of health would lead practitioners towards "taming the heart" i.e. developing an attitude of calm and compassion when dealing with stress and the activities of daily life. In the Taoist tradition such a training path is referred to as “cultivating both inner nature and life" (''xing ming shuang xiu''). A healthy body is considered to be one where the internal organs are interacting in a balanced and harmonious manner. Negative emotions, cravings and selfish desires can disturb this harmony.

Celebration

Taoist Tai Chi Awareness Days have been proclaimed by municipal governments across Canada since the 1980s to acknowledge that "the slow and graceful movements of Tai Chi relax and strengthen the body and mind, help to relieve stress, develop flexibility and coordination which is particularly beneficial to seniors and others in combating a variety of health conditions and disabilities". These proclaimed days also serve to acknowledge that "members of the Taoist Tai Chi Society contribute many hours of service to our community, conducting fund-raising campaigns and events that have benefited many charitable organizations and other worthy causes,"

Corporate information

In order to coordinate the initiatives that Moy Lin-shin undertook, together with the increasing number of people that he trained over time, and their activities, a formal organization was necessary. In the early seventies the organization was called the ''Toronto Tai Chi Association''. In 1982 it was renamed and incorporated as the ''Taoist Tai Chi Society of Canada''. After expansion into the United States, and later into Europe, New Zealand and Australia the ''International Taoist Tai Chi Society'' was formally incorporated in 1995. Member associations are incorporated as non-profit organizations in their own countries and many are also registered as charitable organizations. For example, the ''Taoist Tai Chi Society of Canada'' is registered as a charitable organization in Canada. and the ''Taoist Tai Chi Society of the USA'' is a

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...

non-profit, charitable organization in the United States. Since the death of Moy Lin-shin in 1998 the Taoist Tai Chi Society of Canada and the Fung Loy Kok Institute of Taoism (道教蓬萊閣 or Fung Loy Pavilion Taoism) continue to operate as separate charitable organizations within Canada, under the umbrella of the International Taoist Tai Chi Society. As of 2012 the corporate structure has changed with the Fung Loy Kok Institute of Taoism as the central organisation internationally. The international centre at Orangeville is also the property of the Fung Loy Kok Institute of Taoism (道教蓬萊閣) and Taoist Tai Chi and other practices as demonstrated by Moy Lin-Shin come under the Fung Loy Kok umbrella. Fung Loy Kok Taoist Tai Chi (蓬萊閣道家太極拳) is becoming more frequently used as a term within the society to be able to familiarise members with the merger.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.taoist.org/ Tai chi organizations Taoist organizations Non-profit organizations based in Toronto