When the student of taiji gets serious and settles into a daily practice regime, life takes on a new dimension. Taiji, when done seriously (regularly, selflessly, with life-long commitment), opens up a relationship with the Tao, and the student enters a new world of energy, spirit and destiny. All other relationships draw one into the world with all its things, thoughts, feelings, events, successes, failures. The Tao has nothing to do with this; it is pure mystery, and anything that exists, whilst on one level being an expression of the Tao, is far more an expression of separation from or resistance to the Tao – its very existence means that it is no longer party to the mystery. The problem for the serious student is to somehow live a life constantly juggling the world and the Tao. We cannot live without the world – we must nourish and be nourished – but equally we cannot live a true life without the Tao. There will always be conflict, not least because, in our wisdom, we have built the world largely to deny the Tao.