Spirit

Spirit makes the yin separate from the yang, and spirit brings them swirling together again: the energy of proliferation and the energy of unification. So, if I move my hand and keep it soft and relaxed it stays the same – just moves in space. But if I work my hand with a little spirit then suddenly it has a front and a back, a left and a right, a top and a bottom, four fingers and a thumb, three joints within each finger, etc. and each part is invested with an independent spirit, and when these parts work together and work each other then the hand undergoes transformation as it works – it constantly changes shape and size. Not only this – the spirited writhing of my hand and its parts infects the rest of my body which then demands to join the party and similarly twist and turn. The same when I watch a dancer dance or a child play with a gentle joyful spirit – my body sympathetically stirs into similar activity: spirit communicates, which doesn't mean that it tells me things, it means that it makes me join in. As is usually the case, words convey information or establish distinctions and heirarchies – their presence indicates that natural communication has already ceased.