Posture

The feast is forwards. How many times have I said that? It is our first rule really, the rule of engagement. But is it? Part of the process of going deeper into the work is that the mind quietens and you begin to reside more in your energy and less in the head (or the body – being an athlete is as disconnected as thinking too much). The mass of your energy is behind you and if you are correctly connected with it then as you come forwards you will do so with the backup of a massive wedge of soft and softening realising potential. The world unfolds and is created as you venture into it. Soft and softening: restoring the spiritual balance. So there is an aspect of your posture that rears back into this energy. It is this connecting, combined with the wisdom of ward-off (our technique for bringing around to the front), that provides the impetus for that creative act, the act of moving into your life.

The genius of Cheng Man-Ching was his posture, which leant back into this energy. Where he got it is a mystery since the Yang family certainly didn’t have it. If you lean back properly (relaxedly) then you encourage this energy to enter into your body, mainly through the sacrum, to exit from the sternum (heart). It is this energy lifting and leaving the heart that draws you forwards. Forwards has nothing to do with aggression (self-expression) or ambition (greed). It is simply a natural expression of your humanity – the need to nourish and be nourished by the magic of connectedness. It is your energy that thrusts forwards and it is your posture that allows and stimulates this.