TAI chi, says Benny Arnel Besa, “is a martial art that teaches balance in every sense of the word—physical, mental, emotional—while wushu is a generic term for Chinese martial arts.”
To learn tai chi, one must first understand the two sides of everything, the two polarities, which are opposites but at the same time complementary: one cannot exist without the other. As if there’s no left if there’s no right. Tai chi, in the real sense, is the yin and yang symbol; actually, movement. “If you’re in the state of Tao, of nothingless, there is no movement mentally or physically. But when you start to move, think, make plans, tai chi begins and divides the yin and the yang, the action and reaction.”
Tai chi movements are slow. It is geared to making you sensitive to your own self to the point that you sense “things happening around you, even the geographical positioning of where you are and where you are with people. So it is total awareness.
“Reliance on awareness is very important in physical combat. A relaxed body can actually be a lot faster than a tense one.
“Your emotional state is such that you don’t need to win. What matters is you are enjoying the moment and not hating the puncher who throws a punch at you.”
So says Benny who adds: “If, being very aware and sensitive, I can predict what you are going to do, then I am a step ahead of you.”
Tai chi also has health benefits and Benny explains that this is because “you are taught first to relax mentally and physically. Being relaxed relieves stress. Or you can learn to deal with stress accordingly. Once the mind is relaxed, it carries over to your body, to your internal organs. You become more in sync with your body.” Since stress is the cause of a lot of ills, being relaxed helps heal them.
For Benny, who has won two golds in national tai chi competitions (in 2003 and 2004), tai-chi should make you very free and spiritual. He teaches the art at Holiday Spa every Wednesday and Friday from 7:45 to 8:45 p.m.
Wushu, on the other hand, he teaches at City Sports gym at 10:30 a.m. to 12 noon on Saturdays.
A certified wushu instructor, Benny says the art is divided into two, modern or sport wushu and traditional wushu. He teaches both. Sport wushu concentrates on standardized, international drills but the concentration is toward competition.
Traditional wushu is geared toward “the essence of martial arts, which is understanding life in general. It still includes medicine and science, like tai chi.”
Wushu is fast moving while tai chi is slow. Benny teaches with the same end in view: “I do not train them to be mere martial artists. What I teach them is to be artists of life, how to survive, and live peacefully. It is not about conflict, war or winning. It’s about peacefully flowing with the waves, the stresses of life. I try to develop that kind of state of mind for those taking tai chi or wushu with me. It can be offense or defense, depending on the circumstances. In business, if no one moves forward, then you lead; if there’s a leader, you go with the flow.”
To balance the tai chi “passive” life that he leads, Benny mixes music (his other passion) for club DJ at Cabanas, and sometimes at Pipeline. He also does free lance hosting of events.
