No matter how much I strive to bring taiji into my ordinary life, there is an absolute other-worldliness to pure taiji which only has continuity with itself. There is always this sense that I live two lives: the mundane one – earning a living and spending it, and the life of energy bound by the form of taiji – struggling heroically with a set of principles and problems to get to the bottom of this mystery of movement and spirit and time which we call life. The two lives come together, somewhat trivially and certainly unsatisfactorily, in attending class (either as teacher or student). Yet this attendance, my teacher was always at pains to point out, is never a substitute for practice.