What's Maybe Behind a Tai Chi Principle?

I have been making use of one of the Tai Chi principles, “Move in a curve”, in my daily activities for a while and it occurred to me the other day why it may be so effective.  Consider a robot, or any kind of mechanized servomechanism that operates in three dimensions—or even just two. An ink-jet printer is a common example. All such mechanisms are a combination of one or more linear movements. Each actuator of the mechanism simply moves a variable distance along a given line (which may be moved or rotated by other actuators), or rotates a given angle. If you combine these linear movements the result will be another linear movement in three dimensional space. This is what robots do well.

The body has a great number of such actuators, each of which is responsible for a linear movement or a rotation. If we are moving a part of the body in a straight line, then we are not doing anything more than what a robot normally does. I think the Creator of the body had something better in mind for the users of the body than this type of robotic movement, and possibly installed an incentive for the body user to go in the desired direction.

 If we move a body part in a curved path then we are putting the mind as senior to the body. The mind must postulate the curvilinear motion and then make it happen by coordinating a whole group of actuators (muscles) in unison. This is beyond robotics. It I,s an accomplishment of the mind or spirit as senior to the body. Of course, this is the right direction to go to make progress in the pro-life direction, and indeed, there seems to be a reward for doing it. The body seems to respond through an improvement in Chi (Qi) energy meridian flow. This type of movement seems to massage or stimulate the set of Chi meridians used in these curvilinear movements, as well as putting the spirit or mind more “in the driver’s seat” in operating the body.

In short, the spirit can improve its ability to operate the body through integrating curvilinear motion of body parts into the motion of everyday living.