I have just this hour received word of the death of my ābig brotherā and former teacher, Ben Lo. When this famous student of my first teacher, Zheng Manching, arrived in San Francisco, I went to see him and declared that I would not continue to teach at my San Francisco School, The Inner Research Institute, until I had his full authorization. We met on the basketball court in Dolores Park for many mornings until he granted me his blessing, and for many mornings after. It would be hard to imagine more different personalities than Ben and myself, he so conservative in every way, me, in his eyes, a little bit on the wild side, but I spent literally hundreds of hours doing tuishou with him, and he, confronted with any real dedication to the art of Taijiquan, clearly held nothing back and was finally very open in his affection for me. After two years of meeting every Saturday with Ben, Martin Inn, and Susan Foe, (my partners in the Inner Research Institute), we released a new edition of the Classics of Taijiquan, still, I feel, the best available, and now that he has departed I am forever grateful that our names will be linked by this effort. I am only one of thousands today who are mourning the passing of one of Taijiquanās most passionate students and teachers. Goodbye, Ben. We love you.