How to work

“The symbol of all art is the Prism. The goal is unrealism. The method is destructive. To break up the white light of objective realism into the secret glories which it contains.”
ee cummings

Beautiful quote this – from Pat, my source of erudition – it explains exactly what happens during practice. In practice you pull to pieces what you have been given by your teacher to find its inner workings, its inner truth, and the principles at its core. If you simply practice what you've been shown – endlessly repeating – without this inquisitive tendency to discover what's inside then your postures will become hard edifices – great for rebounding attack but useless for working on softness or good character. The method is destructive – a peeling away of artifice and superfluity so that your postures can flow naturally and without thought or design from the principles through energy and with spirit. You'd like to work in such a way that lightness and delight of spirit are a necessity rather than just an infrequent bonus. If you manage to work this way then you'll begin to discover the real secrets of the postures – their moods – the reason an attacking stimulus makes you break into Single Whip rather than High Pat On Horse for example.