Important note on how to read this journal

Important Internal Arts Note: A lot of my notes about xingyi, taiji and other interal arts will not make sense if you don’t have an experience with internal energetic work. The idea of placing a basket over a tree behind your partner, for example, will make no sense.

If you are curious about this next stage of work, start with standing post (Zhàn zhuāng | 站桩) work. Once you do some standing and sinking practice or find someone who can show a few things these metaphors/intentions/ways of adjusting awareness will make more sense.

I just wanted to make this note so people weren’t trying to figure out how to make physical gestures based on what I’m describing. Of course, see also “the purpose of this journal”.

The purpose of this journal

All of my friends and senior students of (zìránmén | 自然门) in China kept journals/logs of every session of training. (They were often training twice a day when everyone was in town.) These little notes were a great way to keep an eye on refinements when (Shīfù | 师傅) dished them out, and we often shared what we learned through our notes. Just for fun I’ll throw a few of my daily notes up here, both to keep myself on track and to perhaps provide a resource for others.