Home > Catalogue > Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale > 58 | 2022 > Mind, Energy and Lightness: A Comparison Between Indian Buddhism and tàijíquán 太極拳

Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale | Vol. 58 | June 2022

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Research Article

Mind, Energy and Lightness: A Comparison Between Indian Buddhism and tàijíquán 太極拳

Bryan De Notariis    Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia    

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abstract

This paper presents a text-based comparison between some elements of Indian Buddhism that are extant in Pāli, Sanskrit, and Chinese sources with some Tàijíquán 太極拳 principles drawn from the Tàijíquán jīng 太極拳經 ‘Classics of Tàijíquán’ in addition to some similar textual materials from both Tàijíquán 太極拳 and Qìgōng 氣功 traditions. Buddhist accounts in which body and mind’s interactions generate a perception of lightness (Pāli: lahu; Sanskrit: laghu/raghu; Chinese: qīng 輕) will be compared with descriptive and prescriptive Tàijíquán 太極拳 accounts in which the movement of the energy (qì 氣) in the body similarly produces a state of lightness (qīng 輕). The paper will also discuss some theoretical presuppositions to the act of comparison, starting with the reflections expressed by Jonathan Z. Smith.

Published
June 30, 2022
Accepted
June 20, 2022
Submitted
Feb. 28, 2022
Language
IT

Keywords: Jonathan Smith • Iddhi • Lightness • Qìgōng • Tàijíquán • Manomaya-kāya • Qì • Comparison • Buddhism

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/AnnOr/2385-3042/2022/01/015

Copyright: © 2022 Bryan De Notariis. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.