Only very occasionally do I reread what I have written, here or elsewhere, and feel, 'ah, yes, that conveys what I feel about this'. I am no poet or accomplished writer. Yet in teaching a class, in 121s, in studying with my teacher, in my connections with friends and family, there is so much time for deep, spirited conversation, both with words and without (although as most of you who know me will know: it's often with words...) In the moment of connection, I feel fully expressive and receptive. A few years ago I would try to re-member and post here some of the real, hearty insights and delicious banter that lights up our way of working, but it proved ponderous and lacking. Others may be more successful.

So, often this blog is about the day to day things: what time and date is a class?, come along to this workshop, have a look at this great book... Underneath it all is a trust that in our actual living breathing heart connection that persists even when (especially when?) we are apart, and in our physical closeness when we study and learn together in a room, that what is beyond words animates it all - from the mundane to the sublime. There may be a way to catch a bus that manifests Tao. There may well be ways to do T'ai Chi, or to 'be in love' that won't get anywhere close, (in fact I know there are, I've done both). Our method is ear-whispered* and hand-touched. The words, videos and pictures of T'ai Chi are purely reminders, returning us to our own embodied memory of really doing something. This is the primacy of the felt sense for our Way, and why for years it's so bloody hard to remember, or see why the teacher says 'yes, that's it!' when we seem not to have done anything at all. For the first 5 years, spend all your effort on stalking what it is that we are doing, or not doing, when it has 'that's it'. This is at best a frustrating and confounding affair, and if followed through to its end, rightly requires the dismantling of all rigid structures, and all that entails.

* A Buddhist term that I love, regarding true transmission of a teaching.