Sailing

The rawness we search for is a consequence of our forward thrust into what John calls the eye of the work. It’s a bit like tacking into a headwind: if you face it head on then you’ll get blown back but if you keep on turning into and through it, left then right then left then right, you utilize the energy to squeeze you forward; an advancing figure of eight – a zig-zag with the corners smoothed, clockwise then counter, and so forth. So the intelligent way forward is by turning, which is another way of saying single-weightedly because each time you turn you move naturally from one foot to the other. Double-weighted and you’re stuck in the middle, unable to move – anchored to the spot. To move forwards we search for that wind - the pressure against our progress - and turn into it. The turn yields in the sense that we allow the wind to take an aspect of ourselves, the part we are endeavouring to cast off, and blow it back and away as the raw tender part squeezes unnoticed out of our body and around the main thrust of the blast. So each turn has a dual action – it edges forwards and it leaves behind. It is this accommodating balance combined with the turning that makes our forward movements soft and yielding – we give the impression that we are backing down and giving away, and in fact part of us is, but only so that our better half can slip behind the enemy. Our progress is a process of constantly twisting and stepping out of ourselves – each step an effective rebirth.

In your daily life try and cultivate the habit of leading with your energy rather than your mind or your body. As you move forwards let something come out of you and advance, dragging the physical along with it. Feel how this is activated by turning the waist (body) or the mind – either of them turning will subtly open a portal and allow your energy to slip out. The posture in the Form is Step Forward Deflect Downward: it is the only one that springs to mind in which we yield as we advance rather than as we retreat. Not surprisingly it is also the posture in which we feel most strongly that headwind.