The first instruction in Taiji is mind in dantien. Now the body has a dantien – a physical/energetic centre deep in the belly – but so does your being, it too has a dantien – a spiritual center or shrine about which your day and your life organise themselves – and this is your own daily private practice. Without such a centre life is just a little aimless: swanning from one sensation to the next; no sobriety, no discipline and no real devotion to anything other than self.