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INSIDE-OUT LEARNING
Tai Chi Ray's Journal
Tai Chi is not simply what I teach. I help people rediscover themselves through Tai Chi.
Moving beyond the outward form of Tai Chi to explore how we feel, organize, and use the body and mind as one.
What is Tai Chi Ray's Journal?
Tai Chi practice may begin with copying movements, but it does not end there.
Through structure, coordination, awareness, breathing, martial principles, and attention, we gradually learn to feel and understand the body from within—and eventually to move with the body and mind as one.
Tai Chi Ray’s Journal is where I record what I have learned, practiced, and shared through years of teaching Tai Chi—not only how movements are performed, but why they work, what they can teach us about ourselves, and how the principles of Tai Chi can extend beyond practice into everyday life.
FEATURED FROM THE JOURNAL
A Good Place to Begin
New to the Journal? These four articles offer different ways into Tai Chi—from learning to feel the body from within, to balance, relaxation, and the experience of moving through resistance.
Tai Chi begins with watching and copying, but it should not remain dependent on the eyes. Explore how practice gradually develops an internal sense of position and movement.
Slow walking reveals what ordinary walking often hides: how we transfer weight, balance on one leg, and organize the body through each step.
Song is often translated as “relaxation,” but becoming loose or limp is not the goal. Explore what it means to release unnecessary tension while preserving structure and readiness.
An experience in water changed how I understood Tai Chi. “Swimming in the Air” became a way for me to explore resistance, coordination, breathing, and whole-body movement.
Explore Tai Chi
Four paths into the practice, principles, and experience of Tai Chi.
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Learning & Practicing Tai Chi
How do we learn Tai Chi beyond simply memorizing movements?
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Tai Chi Principles & Martial Arts
Why does Tai Chi move and respond the way it does?
GO DEEPER
Tai Chi Ray's Notes
The Notes are where I explore Tai Chi more personally—from what I learned from my grandfather and traditional practice to questions that have stayed with me through years of teaching. If the Journal articles answer individual questions, the Notes show how those ideas connect.
01 — Why I Started Writing Tai Chi Ray’s Notes
Where these Notes began.
02 — Swimming in the Air
Learning from water, resistance, and the body.
03 — First Step: Don’t Chase After Movements
Why more movements do not always mean more progress.
04 — Second Step: Fundamentals, Fundamentals, Fundamentals
What it means to go deeper.
05 — Third Step: Bring Tai Chi into Your Daily Life
Awareness, breathing, and movement beyond the classroom.
MY APPROACH
How I Approach Tai Chi
My approach to Tai Chi begins with traditional practice, but it does not end there.
I am interested in three perspectives that can speak to one another without being confused with one another: traditional Tai Chi principles, lived experience through practice and teaching, and modern ways of understanding the human body.
Tradition gives us a framework. Practice allows us to experience and test it. Modern knowledge can sometimes help us describe aspects of movement, coordination, perception, and the body more precisely.
I do not believe that traditional ideas need to be turned into scientific claims in order to make them valuable. Nor do I believe that preserving tradition means refusing to ask questions.
This Journal is where those conversations meet.
FROM READING TO PRACTICE
Learn Tai Chi with Ray
Reading can introduce an idea, but Tai Chi ultimately has to be experienced through the body.
I teach Tai Chi in New York City through group classes, private lessons, and workshops. My teaching emphasizes the same principles explored throughout this Journal: body awareness, coordination, balance, relaxation, intention, and learning to move as an integrated whole.
Whether you are completely new to Tai Chi or have practiced for years, the goal is not simply to collect more movements. It is to develop a deeper relationship with the movements you already have.
