Dear friends,
my apologies for not writing for such a long time…
The cultural clash I have been facing since I moved to Amsterdam kept me from finding fresh, new energy for updating my blog.
I consider myself lucky: once again I met a valuable Master, Amien Ko ( in the photo below).
At the beginning changing to a new teacher can be frustrating but then, little by little, you get used to him/her and start appreciating the change.
Master Ko is very into classic Yang style, even though he is very knowledgeable about competition and standard Tai Chi.
I am currently refining with Master Amien my 32 Taiji Jian (straight sword), Yang style and learning 108 Classic Yang style and 56 Chen style.
I also started teaching to a nice group of Japanese and Indonesian/Chinese ladies: very motivating!

There’s a story about a famous doctor who was named the best doctor of his time by his patients. He humbly refused the title and told the story about his two brothers, who were also doctors. Below is a version of this story:

“I am the doctor that cures the disease when it has already occurred and is doing damage. My second brother is the doctor that cures the disease when it’s just started to occur. My oldest brother is the doctor that prevents disease. My ability to repair physical damage is easily noticeable, and the word of my ability has spread far throughout the country. My second brother’s ability to cure the disease before it does any major damage is less noticeable. He is, therefore, known only around this region. My oldest brother’s ability to help prevent disease before it occurs is hardly noticeable. He is, therefore, hardly know in his province.

Dear friends, even though I am the most famous of my three brothers, I am not the greatest doctor, because I can only repair the damage. My second brother, even though he is less famous than I am, is far greater than I am, because he is able to correct the disease before it does any damage. My oldest brother , the least known, is the greatest of us all, because he is able to prevents problems before they occurred.” (from: “Tai Chi Chuan, 24 and 48 postures with martial applications”, by Master Liang, Shou-Yu,and Wu, Wen-Ching, 1993).

I think the oldest doctor used to prescribe Tai chi and Qigong practice to his patients!!!