On a different track, I received recently a Form list of the Long Yang Form that differed from 'our' Long yang Form. Essentially the structure was the same, a number of of moves were named differently but were still similar; but in other ways orders were different, some moves were omitted and new moves appeared to be included. This is fascinating, as while the version of Long Yang that we practice we believe to be more 'text book', there are of course other variations out there, and each is as valid as important as the other. Do you practice a Yang Form that differs from ours? If so, then I would love to have a copy of your Form list - I think it would be a very interesting excersise to have these variations (or is ours the variation?) listed on the taichido website for anyone to peruse over. You can compare our list at www.taichido.com/netguide/lists.htm and you can contact me on mark@taichido.com

I apologise again for the typo in last month's issue (sufi insetad of sifu), and as was succinctly pointed out by more than one emailer, we need to make sure that we get these things correct if we wish to retain credibility.

Best regards, Mark
webmaster taichido.com, taichidoshop.com, editor Taichido Newsletter

The other day my doorbell rang and when I answered it there waitng was a friend that I owed some money too. This was not a problem because I knew that I owed him and as the sum was small all I had to do was to go to my wallet and pay him back with just one of the small denomination note held therein. But then, when I got to where I thought my wallet was ... it was not there. So I looked somewhere else, and then somewhere else ... and so on.

My friend had by then been waiting on the doorstep for some time and so with some embarrassment I explained myself to him and asked him to come back later in the evening, following a tai chi session that I had booked for later. It was now about 4pm and the session was booked for 7:30.
There then ensued several hours of frantic searching and upturning and by 7pm my home was in complete chaos and my mind in turmoil - for the wallet had not been found. I then spent the next half an hour worrying about the next day when the contents of my wallet would be required for other things almost as important as debts, such as food!

All to soon the doorbell rung again and this time it was the student dutiful arriving for his session. As he was oblivious to my predicament I simply greeted him and then we went straight to the dojo to practice some chi kung as warm up. We assumed the posture of "Preparation" (Saddle Stance) and as is often my want I asked the student to try to clear his mind. And then - all at once and with crystal clarity - there, in my minds eyes was my wallet! In that instant I just knew for certain that it would be there just as I pictured it; in the zip compartment of that bag that I didn't use that often; that bag that I had thrown into the bottom of the wardrobe the day before.

This 'real' event reminds me of another story that I was once told by a tai chi student: "A man was pushing a bike whilst he run alongside it. Someone asked, "why don't you get on the bike?" "No time - no time!" the man panted in reply."

That episode of the lost wallet was an object lesson for me and came as a timely reminder that there is no harm in finding time to do tai chi (or chi kung) even when life is hectic or confusing, and in fact it is there to help me through troubled times - and not there as a chore or interference to either my business or my pleasure.

I would like to thank all of those people that took the trouble to email mail us here in response to last months newsletter - notwithstanding the fact that half of them were about a spelling mistake that I had made! So many of you commented upon this that it became necessary to publish an amendment that explained the error and reveal that I do in fact suffer with dyslexia. This is not something that I am ashamed of - its just one of those things and aside from this it is also one of the main reason that I still do tai chi to this day and recommend it so highly as a therapy for all kinds of 'complaints'.

My original plan for this issue was to follow up on the other subject of your recent emails, that being just what it takes in terms of qualification or skills to become a tai chi teacher. I promise now that I will be writing back to all of these inquiries and questions within the next few weeks to pick up on this thread and perhaps make it the subject of next months newsletter. But in the meantime I would like to take this opportunity to dig a little deeper into my dyslexia and what on earth this may have to do with tai chi.

When I was young I was naturally or at least predominantly left handed, but as soon as I put pen to paper my school insisted that I do this right handed. Not knowing any better or really any difference, I complied. Nevertheless, as I grew older I always felt somehow ashamed of my scruffy writing and would scribble many word into some sort of cipher rather than spell or write it legibly. As long as I knew what it said that was all that mattered because I would not be showing it to anyone anyway. Why not? Because my experience was that even when I put great effort and diligence into double and treble checking every word in every sentence, whenever I showed it to others invariably their first reaction was to giggle at my "odd" spelling mistakes.

I have since learnt that my affliction is not uncommon and that other sufferers confirm what I always though - that like in a piece of kinetic art (usually a geometric grid pattern of black and white squares and rectangles) the letters in the middle of words become somehow transposed or swap places. At one point I became so ashamed of my spelling that I even avoided writing cheques and therefore had to plan ahead and make sure that I carried cash at the appropriate time. So I'd go to the cash point machine, yeah? No way! Those four digit pin numbers are even worse! I am very good at mental arithmetic but I get confused when I have to put any calculations on to paper - or enter numbers on a screen - and I would just panic if I had to do this with someone looking over my shoulder.

It is perhaps no coincidence then that I ended up going to Art School, as a lrage proprtion of creative people are dyslexic, and having gained a diploma in Art and Design I considered a career as a theatre set designer but I instead went on to become a professional musician and managed to earn a living at that for about seven years. All of this time I had no idea that I was dyslexic - and neither did anyone else. We were all happy to agree that I was just a bit odd. At best "creative" ... but more often "a misfit".

But that was then - and this is now and I really do believe that this - the 34th consecutive monthly newsletter - is proof enough that something has restored my confidence and notwithstanding the odd error that may not be recognised as incorrect or put right by a spell check, provided me with courage to express myself in the written word ... if necessary.

I took a pragmatic approach to my deeper study of tai chi and tried to follow the classic syllabus of becoming first proficient in the whole of the Yang Long Form in the manner that we must now call "right handed" (i.e. the way everyone teaches and is taught it - commencing with Grasp the Sparrows Tail - Left followed by Right and so on). That took about three years. Then, according to the classic syllabus (of tai chi study without the benefit of a personal teacher) I taught myself (by repetition and practice) to become equally proficient in the manner that we must now call "left handed" or "the other way around" (i.e. commencing with Grasp the Sparrows Tail - Right followed by Left and so on).

I'd learnt earlier through some amateur boxing that the ability to 'switch' my leading foot and defensive jab between 'normal' and what boxers call "southpaw" to be very useful tactic and found that I could manage this quite easily. Some can't and indeed there is even talk today that southpaw's may be banned as cheats! I of course believe that it is perfectly fair and valid ... but I would, wouldn't I?

So, what with one thing and another, I managed to become proficient 'left handed' in the relatively short period of about a year - and that is when I began to teach the art, equipped then with the ability to teach facing student, doing what I did as a mirror image of them and (perhaps the hardest part) giving verbal instructions that were the opposite of what I was doing! I put myself through all of this because I so wanted to teach tai chi because it had done me so much good and I felt that at last I had acquired some skill that I could use for the benefit of others.

It was only then, when as an adult, I began writing about tai chi and showing this to sympathetic friends who had already accepted me as a reasonable intelligent person, that my scruffy hand and 'odd' spelling was diagnosed as dyslexia. I can't say how it is that the practice of tai chi has alleviated or lessened my affliction of dyslexia - and with no formal or organised evidence I cannot even really sayfor sure that the tai chi did anything at all - so I just present all of this anecdotal evidence to you here saying "I did this ... and this happened" and that all of this confirms only one thing - which is: In my experience, the only way to approach tai chi is "without expectation of gain" and to just "do it for the doing" and, perhaps most important of all, "give it time".

The first 'good' that tai chi did me was the good that I didn't know that it was doing, and for all I know it put right other things that I didn't know were wrong! Somehow, by just doing tai chi I learnt to simply yield to the 'problem', accepted that this was the way it was and moved on.

And finally it is my pleasure bring you some more exciting news about a completed project that I very recently put online @wheels.net called:
threetimes///a long playing record

Please do visit and enjoy this page (that has inherited the title of a redundant blog that I have now deleted and replaced with) a compilation of over 30 downloadable mp3 files of various songs and tunes that I have written and recorded (on ordinary domestic standard equipment) over the last 30 years - including various guitar duets recorded live at annual social gatherings here at the dojo.

I cannot claim that any of this is tai chi but it is relevant to the topic of this newsletter because it alsorepresents a personal journey back into my 'creative' past and it (threetimes///a long playing record) is another example of another way that I like to express myself 'without words'.

See you all next month - and thanks for listening!

Gary 15th Oct 04.