I first discovered tai-chi in a park near San Francisco’s Chinatown almost 45 years ago. The movements of the students as they practised under the trees seemed to become one with the branches overhead. Reading Lao Tsu’s ‘Tao Te Ting’ and 'The I-Ching: assisted my understanding of the philosophical side of tai-chi, and other martial arts systems.
On returning to Johannesburg from San Fransisco I discovered and trained with a South African born Chinese Master Sifu Eddie Jardine in Johannesburg. Sifu Eddie began teaching Tai Chi in the late 70's which evolved into the International Tai Chi Society, the first school to be registered in South Africa. He was taught by a number of masters in different Tai Chi forms throughout Asia including Tuan Sifu.
I hold two black belts in karate-jutsu and kobu-jutsu and two dans in Kobudo and Karatedo (empty hand and weapons).I have found that the path and way of martial arts has protected and nourished my health and kept illness at bay over many years.
The first twenty odd years I was studying, training and teaching this system of tai chi as passed on from Sifu Eddie at first in Bellevue Hill Public School, Bondi Beach Pavilion and later in Bronte (where I first met Patrick) and also Centennial Park.
At first borrowing from the traditions, I have been able to transcend the culturally-bound rules of these traditions to formulate a personal and group method of training involving the physical, energetic and mental aspects of the disciplines, which engenders a deep soul/mind connection. I have also immersed myself in the meditation techniques and philosophy of Osho (one of this centuries Masters) and whom I fell in love with in the early eighties.
Over the past twenty odd years I have continued to train in the internal and therapeutic arts and instruct taichi classes in Sydney based on the teachings of Professor Cheng Man-Ching, and Master Huang Sheng-Shyan (as passed on to me through the classes, books and personal contact with Patrick Kelly (one of the foremost Taiji instructors in the world and creator and director of nineclouds studio Shanghai).
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