About us,  history & background

• Patrick started his Taiji journey with Master Huang in the mid 1970s, after studying with a student of the Master's for 4 years. Two years later, Patrick was admitted to the Master's 'inner school' (the only westerner to achieve this), remaining a close and devoted student until the Master's death in 1992. It was in Master Huang's last year that he tasked Patrick with spreading Taiji further into the western world, (just as the Master had been tasked by his teacher Zheng Manqing with taking Taiji further into Asia).

• Learning from Master Huang connected Patrick to probably the best Taiji lineage of  the time; Grand Master Zheng Manqing (Chen Man Ching) through  Yang Cheng-Fu before him. This is the Taiji  lineage that connects through to Patrick's students, both in Auckland and abroad.

• In his Auckland school, Patrick refined his systematic approach to the investigation and teaching of Taiji. This teaching he further refined on moving his base to Europe in 1993.  Now his senior students number around one hundred, each with 20+ years experience and there are many more with 15+ years experience. Patrick's students  together teach probably thousands of students worldwide. (In the links page you can find many world wide school links).

• For more about Patrick Kelly Taiji: https://patrickkellytaiji.com

• The Taiji School has been around in different forms for some time. We coalesced as a group as Patrick Kelly left New Zealand to fulfill Master Huang's wishes that he spread the master's Taiji further to the western word. We've been the Facebook presence for the St Benedicts Street Tai Chi Centre for 10 years or so. This centre has been the hub of Patrick Kelly's teaching and students in Auckland since the late 1980s, up until December 2022. Older students may remember the Budo College, The Orange Ballroom and the older Upper Queen St premises (1981-1982) as venues for their early practice.

• In the later half of 2022, a decision was made to close the St Benedicts St Centre, and focus new growth further out from the central city into surrounding suburbs. Some of the school relocated to Pt Chevalier, others had already established a school in Whangaparaoa (Hibiscus Tai Chi). Infinite Taiji and The TaiJi School are both part of this expansion out from the old central school into the Ellerslie and Onehunga areas.

• Beginning in 2023, the TaiJi School is offering classes in the Onehunga area. Infinite TaiJi is offering classes in Ellerslie. 

Student of Zheng Manqing (Cheng Man-Ching) & Patrick Kelly's Taiji Teacher. This picture was taken at one of his three visits to Patrick's New Zealand school at St Benedicts St. He was presented with a pounamu mere by a student carver who fashioned it. Fittingly the mere of a chief.

A close and only western 'inner' student of Master Huang. Patrick's other main teachers were Naqshibandi Sufi Gnostic Abdullah Dugan and the Indian Yogi Mouni Maharaj

See Patrick's site https://patrickkellytaiji.com/ for an abundance of  information about the teaching