VR Tai Chi Yoga
太极瑜伽， 一虚一实
By Helenna Ren
图文: 海伦娜.任
也许大家都知道什么是太极，什么是瑜伽，可是融合在一起它又是什么呢？我带着这个非常有兴趣的疑问，第一次来到厦门，第一次幸会创始人，第一次认识导师，第一次和一起上课的六十位学员们会面，第一次接触太极瑜伽。第一次目睹仙气般的师姐师兄们, 从人到景，从时尚到风格，从课内到课外，所有的第一次，让我即兴奋又渴望那份未知的探索和研究。
Maybe we all know what Tai Chi is, what is yoga, but what is it when its merged? With this very interesting question, I came to Xiamen for the first time. It was my first time to meet the founder, the mentor; the first time I met with the 60 students in class, first teacher training with Tai Chi Yoga. The first time saw these fairy-like senior sister and brothers, from people to scenery, from fashion to style, from class to extracurricular, all the first time, I was both excited and eager for that unknown exploration and research.
我是个刚回国的海归华侨，多年在国外的生活让我深知西方人对中国文化的热爱与欣赏，特别是太极。上大学时，就有个小故事：我的大学教授有一天来找我让我教他更深层的中文含义，当我问他为什么时，他的答案是每年他都会亲自去国内的陈家沟和中国师傅非常认真地学练太极拳。在师资教学培训的课堂里，太极瑜伽创始人周小媛老师就提到了, ‘西方很多喜欢中国文化的人曾说，太极是中国送给世界的珍贵礼物’. 作为一个英国的中国人我很庆幸东方文化一直在我的骨子里和西方哲学文化的熏陶与影响。我尊重传统也热爱现代观。
I am a newly returned overseas Chinese, many years of life abroad, I know Westerners love and appreciation of Chinese culture, especially Tai Chi. When I went in university, there was a little story: my universality professor came to me one day and asked me to teach him the deeper meaning of Chinese, and when I asked him why, his answer is that every year he goes to Chen Jiagou in China to learn Taijiquan very seriously from his Chinese master. In the classroom of teacher training, teacher Xiaoyuan Zhou, the founder of Tai Chi Yoga, she point it out: 'many people in the West who like Chinese culture have said that Tai Chi is a precious gift from China to the world’ (Zhou 2018). As a British Chinese, I am glad that the oriental culture has been in my bone as well as the influence of western philosophy. I respect tradition also passions on contemporary ideas.
如果你用心在意的话，生活中有时发生的事已经在冥冥中引领着你的道，就在飞机上去往这趟未知的路途时，无意间在杂志上看到了平时并不注意的文章或广告等，但是就是吸引了我的眼球，一句：’一灯能照千年暗，一智能解万年愚‘ 这些博览五千年经典国学文化的先辈们，从老子的处世之道到庄子的为人之道；从易经的天地之道到禅宗的生死之道。更让我想知道这个太极瑜伽背后的哲学理论究竟又是什么。
If you care with your heart, sometimes what happens in your life has led you the path. Just as the plane was on its way to this unknown journey, accidentally read articles or advertisements in magazines that were not usually noticed. It just caught my eye, a sentence: 'A lamp can shine a thousand years of darkness, a wise man can solve a thousand years of folly.’ These ancestors of five thousand years of classical Chinese culture, from Laozi's way of life to Zhuangzi's way of being; From the Tao of heaven and earth to the way of life and death in Zen. It makes me wonder what the philosophical theory behind Tai Chi Yoga is.
终于第22届的太极瑜伽5天加强的师资教学培训在紧张的理论与实践中, 加上最后的考核结束了。这一周的从零开始的身心洗礼，其太极瑜伽之奥妙，它的思维及整体观，是用语言都无法表达的。它需要更深的中西哲学思想去分析研究甚至去质疑。而太极瑜伽，不管是从理论或实践上, 它也激发了我很多的艺术灵感。我很喜欢老师的一句话: ‘慢是一门艺术’。所以我告诉自己慢慢酝酿和体会这次的收获，作为一个旁观者同时也是当局者，从人到物，从教到学，从学到练, 从浅到深。
Finally, the 22nd session of Tai Chi Yoga, the five-days of intensive training in theory and practice, plus the final assessment is over. This week's baptism of body and mind all re-start from the very beginning, the mysteries of Tai Chi Yoga, its thinking and holistic view, can not be expressed in language. It needs deeper Chinese and western philosophy to analyse and even question. Yet Tai Chi Yoga, both in theory and practice gives me a lot of my artistic inspirations. I like the teacher's saying: 'slow is an art' (Zhou 2018). So I told myself that I was slowly brewing and experiencing the knowledge. As an outsider and as an insider, from people to things, from teaching to learning, from learning to practicing, from shallow to deep.
带着这份慢的反射思考，就在圣诞前夕，我离开了厦门。国内好像不太庆祝圣诞节，平安夜里，静下心来，来回的几度搬迁，已经很久没有动笔写东西了。圣诞这天，伦敦应该是满街灯火辉煌，家家温馨的圣诞装饰吧。而国内这里如同平常。我的第一个回国后的圣诞节，今年我也没有圣诞树了。在这个寂静的夜晚，再次动起了笔记录下这个我的所有第一次的太极瑜伽感受与感悟以及于一些将来的发展和潜力。
With this slow reflection, I left Xiamen on Christmas Eve. Christmas seems to be not celebrated much in China, on this quite Christmas Eve, I settle my heart in peace, several moves back and forth, it has been a long time since I started writing. On this Christmas Day, London must be full of beautiful lights on the street, families are all home-warm Christmas decorations. Here in China days as usual. This is my first Christmas out here, this year I do not have a Christmas tree. On this silent night, I once again record all my first Tai Chi Yoga experiences and insights, in addition of some future developments and potential.
如果说太极是阴阳二元化中间的‘一’，天人合一；瑜伽是联合一体化的梵我合一；太极瑜伽是一条自我探索的道路，是一个文化的符号，是哲学观点的身法与心法。这些所有可以用东方文字描述的深厚的道和理, 以及老师多年来极其造诣的文字功底与修行， 我能感觉到，太极瑜伽的理论与实践已在小媛老师的的血液里。她，就是一门艺术！她，就是一个美学！她，更可以是一门研究。
If we say that Tai Chi is the 'one' in the middle of the dualisation of Yin and Yang, the unity of nature and man; Yoga is the unity of the Brahmo and ego, in other words the union of body mind and soul; Tai Chi Yoga is a way of self-exploration, a symbol of culture, and the body and mind method of philosophical viewpoint. All these deep Taoism and principles that can be described in the oriental language, plus the teacher's great accomplishments in writing and practice over the years, I can feel that the theory and practice of Tai Chi Yoga are already in teacher Zhou's blood. She is an art! She is an aesthetic! She could even be a subject of research.
从小见大，这里，我想先以一个艺术家的眼光分享一下我所看到太极瑜伽的虚和实...
那么，什么是虚？什么是实？
From small to big, first, I would like to share with an artistic eye on the reality and virtual of Tai Chi Yoga as I see it ... Then, what's virtual? What is reality?
简单说，虚即虚拟,实即现实。英文是Virtual Reality简称VR即虚拟现实.
其实早在20世纪80年代美国创始人拉尼尔就提出了VR的存在。随着21世纪的高科技发展，在西方国家VR目前已成为各个行业发展的飞跃。它包括教育上的科技研究; 商业界里的产品推发; 工程上的建筑模型; 影视界的VR大片的运用. 而在艺术界里，随着虚拟现实时代的来临，也应运而生一种新兴而独立的艺术门类VR艺术. 我的背景就是数字多媒体艺术，它分为很多种不同的新媒体艺术形式，VR就是已从事多年的其中的一项艺术研究形式。所以我看到了太极瑜伽更前沿的很多可能性。
To put it simply, unreal is virtual and nature real is reality. In English is Virtual Realityshort for VR. In fact, as early as the 1980s, American founder Ranil proposed the existence of VR. With the development of high-tech in the 21 st century, VR in western countries has become a leap in the development of various industries. It includes scientific and technological research in education; product promotion in the business world; building models in engineering; the application of VR blockbuster in film and television. In the art world, with the advent of the virtual reality era, a new and independent category of VR art has emerged. My background is digital multimedia art, which is divided into many different forms of contemporary arts, VR is one of the forms of art research that has been engaged for many years. Therefore I saw a lot of possibilities for Tai Chi Yoga to be more cutting-edge.
作为现代科技前沿的综合体现，从技术上讲，虚拟现实是一种可以创建和体验虚拟世界的计算机仿真系统。其特点包括：交互性，三维性，沉侵性。它利用计算机生成一种模拟环境是一种多源信息融合的交互式的3D动态视景和实体行为的系统仿真使用户身心沉侵于其环境中, 加上最后的构想性. 强调虚拟现实技术应具有广阔的可想像空间，拓宽人类认知范围，不仅可再现真实存在的环境,也可以随意构想客观不存在的甚至是不可能发生的环境。
As a comprehensive embodiment of the frontier of modern science and technology, virtual reality is a computer simulation system that can create and experience virtual world. Its features include: Interactivity, three-dimensional, and Immersion. It uses computers to create a simulation environment that is a multi-source information fusion interactive 3D dynamic scene and entity behavior system simulation that allows users to immerse themselves in their environment and finally conceive. Emphasizing that virtual reality technologies should have vast imaginable spaces, by broadening the range of human cognition, we can not only reproduce the real environment, but also visualise the environment which does not exist or even can not happen.
那么，你所看到的以上图片上的哪个是虚，哪个是实呢？还是二者交互？又或是皆有皆无？亦分亦合，合二为一。你又看到了多少个和怎样的自己？
So, Which of the pictures you see above is virtual and which is real? Or the interaction between the two? Or nothing? Or the two are one. How many and what kind of self have you seen?
艺术家通过对VR技术的应用控制作品的形式，从而塑造出更具沉侵感的艺术环境，能把现实生活中的不可能变为可能性。并赋予创造的过程以新的含义，以及终级的再创造。
Artists control the form of their works through the application of VR technology, thus creating a more intrusive artistic environment, which can turn the impossible in real life into possibility. Gives new meaning to the process of creation, as well as the final level of re-creation.
语言也是一门艺术。对复杂数据进行可试化操作与交互的一种新的艺术语言形式。 一个现实的身体和一个虚拟的身体就是静静的站在那里，已经是无形中的对话了, 一个真实与虚拟之间的对话。
Language is also an art. A new artistic language for the trial operation and interaction of complex data. A realistic body and a virtual body are standing there quietly, which is already an invisible dialogue, a dialogue in between real and virtual.
那么除了计算机上技术性的运转发挥可能性外，我们的身体和精神上的虚拟与现实又怎样更深层地去理解？国际学术明星之一斯洛文尼亚作家斯拉沃热.齐泽克(Slavoj Žižek) 在他关于虚拟现实的演讲中就指出过:
Well, besides the possibility of technical operation on the computer, how can our physical and mental virtual reality be understood more deeply? One of the international academic stars, Slovenian writer Slavoj Žižek in his talks on virtual reality:
“当我和你互动的时候，这不是我和你所拥有的形象，我不是在和真实的你打交道，我是在处理你的虚拟形象，而这个图像是真实的。”
(齐泽克纪录片, 2004年).
When I interact with you, this is not the image of me with you, I am not dealing with the real you, I am dealing with your virtual image, this image is real.
(Žižek documentary film, 2004).
齐泽克认为，当我们与某人交谈时，我们实际上是在与一个虚拟的存在说话，而我们已经从我们对这个人的生活的观点中抽象化出来了. 而在每一次谈话中，我们都与虚构的自我互动, 就像虚拟自我一样。
Žižek argues that when we talk to someone, we are actually talking to a virtual being, and we are abstracting from our view of that person's life. In every conversation, we interact with the invented self, as the virtual self.
他似乎在说的是，我们每个人都是物理的，生物的存在，对于我们与之互动的社会创造的，虚拟的生命来说，构成了一个单独的存在范畴。这表明真实往往是虚拟的，而在线虚拟人物的创造性、解放性和实验性只不过是对虚拟自我的有意识的再创造。
What he seems to be saying is that each of us is physical, biological existence, a separate category of existence for the virtual life that we create in the society we interact with. This shows that reality is often virtual, while the creativity, emancipation, and experimentation of online virtual characters are merely conscious re-creation of the virtual self.
做太极瑜伽时，我们与虚构的自我互动，就像虚拟的自我。把人分成虚拟和真实的部分，可能隐藏了真实的自我也是虚拟的。将自我分成虚拟和真实的两极可能会模糊真实本身是虚拟的程度。而若在数字艺术的舞台上通过新媒体的现场直播，这个‘我’将会产生两个‘我’甚至更多的‘我’可能性。从现实生活里，甚至于从心理学和社会学角度上看，我们又何尝不是在不同的环境中，不同的情况下，我们都是不同的自己。人类的自我一直是多重的，但是新的虚拟环境允许人们对这些多重身份进行更深层的接触。
In Tai Chi Yoga, we interact with invented self, as virtual self. Dividing people into virtual and real parts, maybe hide the true self is also virtual. Dividing self into virtual and real poles may blur the extent to which reality itself is virtual. If broadcast live on the stage of digital art through new media, this 'I 'would have two or more possibilities. In real life, and even from the point of view of psychology and sociology, we are different when we are in different circumstances. The human self has always been multiple, but the new virtual environment allows for deeper contact with these multiple identities.
万物也都是二元化的，没有传统，就没有现代; 没有虚就没有实; 没有黑就没有白. 而找到中间的平衡就是我们的道，守一则守道，而最重要的是过程。太极瑜伽的一虚一实，就如同阴阳中间的‘一’，阴中有阳，阳中有阴；虚中有实，实中有虚。虚就是实，实就是虚, 在真实与虚拟的关系中，也许虚拟有时会取代现实，甚至变得比现实更真实。
Everything is dualistic, without tradition, there is no modernity; without virtual there is no reality; there is no white without black. Finding the balance in the middle is our way, keep a path, the most important is the process the journey. Tai Chi Yoga is just like the ‘One’ in the middle of Yin and Yang, there is Yang in the Yin and Yin within Yang; virtual and reality fusions each other. The reality is virtual, the virtual is the reality, in the relationship between them, perhaps sometimes virtual replace reality, even become more real than reality.
在未来的发展中，也许太极瑜伽的可以在虚拟的世界各地教室里上课，老师和学员们可以在那里见面和站桩，躺桩。每位学员可以创建自己的虚拟表现形式与其他虚拟对象交互，并创造出独特的时间和空间的感觉。在未来的新媒体和互联网时代将会有更多的可能性去拓展多媒体形式。列如，第二生命（Second Life)）是一个三维虚拟世界，用户可以在里面进行社交，连接和创建。
In the future development, perhaps Tai Chi Yoga can be taught in virtual classrooms around the world, where teachers and students can meet, doing their Stand pile and Lay pile. Each student can create their own virtual representation to interact with other virtual objects and create a unique sense of time and space. In the future new media and Internet era will have more possibilities to expand multimedia forms. For example, ‘Second Life’ is a three-dimensional virtual world in which users can socialize, connect, and create.
其实世界上的一切也都是有联系性的和贯穿渗透的, 未来的VR与太极瑜伽之间的关系，也是改变人与科技之间的关系. 随着虚拟现实技术的不断发展和完善, 终有一天它将成为与计算机交互方式最大的一种转变, VR技术以其自身强大的教学优势和潜力, 也会逐渐受到教育工作者的重视与青睐, 最终在教育培训领域广泛应用并发挥其重要作用. 虚拟现实技术未来最终将让我们与虚拟世界之间更加自然的交互和再创现实不能实现的梦想.
In fact, everything in the world is connected and permeated, the future of VR and Tai Chi Yoga, is also changing the relationship between people and technology. With the continuous development and improvement of virtual reality technology, one day it will become the biggest change in the way of interaction with computers. VR technology has its own powerful teaching advantages and potential. It will gradually be valued and favored by educators, and will be widely used and play an important role in the field of education and training. The future of virtual reality technology will allow us to interact with the virtual world more naturally and create dreams that can not be realised in reality.
VR与太极瑜伽在我的心中, 不仅仅只是东方的传统文化精神, 西方的哲学观点, 它, 也是一个使命和深入分析的再创造.而在再创造的过程里, 我们不变的是初心，是认清自己，是找到我是谁？我从哪里来？我要去哪里的答案。从而在这个浮躁的现代社会里，就像莲花的精神一样, 保持我们纯净的心灵，出污泥而不染，坚持自己的选择和信仰, 走出一条属于自己的道路.
In my mind, VR and Tai Chi Yoga are not only the traditional cultural spirit of the East, but also the philosophical point of view of the West. It is also a re-creation of mission and in-depth analysis. In the process of re-creation, what we do not change is the original soul , to recognise ourselves, to find answers of who am I? who am i not? where I come from? where I'm going? Thus in this impetuous modern society, Just like the spirit of the lotus, keep our pure spirit, out of the mud and unstained, adhere to your own choices and beliefs, take a path that belongs to you.
那么最后我可以说：让我们融入宇宙，找到生活的平衡，保持和谐，练习太极瑜伽，做到保持健康和净化心灵。
Finally, I can say: let us integrate within the universe, find the balance of life, maintain the harmony, practice Tai Chi Yoga, be pure, be healthy.
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