11 September (pound mortar)...first to set the scene : Qi in dantian, resting in plenitude, neutral: whole body poised at rest, weight balanced between the two sides, each side's energy yoked to the other's.

Mind dispenses motion which flows to the surface, from thence the body's core will guide movement through an ever-turning spine outwards to its extremities and back.

Here follows a brief sketch of a practiser's inner experience of form practice, specifically at the start of LaoJia.

From the poised neutrality, a charge of intent tightens the cords uniting the upper body - lower chest, waist - to the lower part - abdomen, the hips and thighs - a drawing together, a further concentration of centredness, a coiling if you like. [caterpillar]

The core calls up furthering power from the lower limbs. Legs and arms roped along parallel turning lines interiorly and exteriorly along the sides of the torso draw the hands upwards so Qi will tauten the connections to the fingers. Weight remains in the balance, calibrating left and right. From the outward flowing will come recoil, how to call back the qi from fingertips to return towards centre? The drawing down comes from the sides of the waist [from qi to fingers comes qi to waistside], a parallel yielding, the torso now reinforced by the arms' fullness withdraws with unified intent. Weight is firmly centre, the entire body in symmetry. A striking thought: this point in the enactment of the form is almost the only moment when there is symmetry. The body is wreathes and writhes asymmetrically until the entire circuit is completed at form's end.

At this point of utter symmetry, the body in its entirety is poised for action, which direction will it take?

A tiny rocking of the wheel at centre, 3-dimensional (trimensional), with pressure downwards in left to set off a near-invisible rightwards forwards upwards in the hands to just the precise degree, provoking the right side to gather and wrap its energy leftwards around the central axis, weight shifting minimally to the right. The arms are carried across in the leftwards spiral. The right side is grounded in dantian (right hand chansigong number 2) sending left arm's Qi to its fingers (chansigong number 4).

A looping now on the left side of the body (flank), chest-waist change changes Qi direction from leftwards to rightwards as weight shifts to the left leg. Qi to fingers of right hand, towards dantian on left (chansi nos.4 & 2). Right side freed to move into right diagonal, first 100% commitment of weight to the right leg, enabling left leg to step forwards, the weight maintained in the right. It must remain in the right while Qi direction changes, as right hand spirals inwards to waist (chansi no.1), left to back (chansi no.3). This accomplished, weight shifts from right (back) leg to left (forward) leg, body stays oriented diagonal.

To complete Pound Mortar, left arm must release Qi from back along the arm to fingers (chansi 4), right hand reinforces at dantian (chansi 2), then both wings of the body open and close.

Yesterday's (to first pound mortar) first movie : The challenge of the Pound Mortar sequence is the intensely tight interplay of the two sides of the body. Yoked to one another, each side draws the other into reaction and response, the shifts so minute that on the surface, the details of one side appear to be independent of the other. The "sides" are also operating vertically, in that upper and lower body are also yoked, thus pulling and repelling in vertical alignment, while simultaneously there is a crossways weaving, a to and fro weaving of the shuttle in the loom-frame of the body.

Yesterday's second movie (to first pound mortar)