I did five golden coins this morning, followed by the form, followed by eight pieces of silk.

Polyphanes wrote yesterday over at the Digital Ambler that he’s frustrated by how slow and meandering one’s progress in these sorts of programs of physical/mental/spiritual development sometimes is. It’s a good rant, and I chimed in to say that it’s awkward that these things go so slowly, but indeed they do.

There’s nothing that involves quite so much work as overnight success, you know. And although I write something every day, I don’t always have an awareness to share of what went right or wrong.

Today during the form, there’s a sequence of moves that goes: single whip, snake creeps down, golden pheasant stands of left leg, golden pheasant stands on right leg, low kick right, low kick left, half-turn, kick with heel, step back to drive the monkey away, box ears with fists, roll back, press, push, single whip (again). Then it moves into other posture, but that’s this sequence.

Today, I did this section of the form, but I wasn’t happy with it. So I did it again: single whip, snake creeps down, golden pheasants, low kicks, half turn, heel kick, and all the rest.

And then suddenly, I whirled into a different part of the form entirely. Fair lady works the shuttles , ride the tiger, windmill kicks, snake creeps down, head strike, retreat to the camp, half turn, ward offs, roll back, single whip… There was some other stuff in there that I’ve been doing for a while, but not in that order, and not in that way.

And then it was over. Back to what comes next. Back to the mindset of “what’s the next posture in this sequence? Ok, and the next? And the next?”

But I was temporarily seized by the spirit of my taiji this morning. And it took the chance to play. I don’t know where this sudden urge to play came from, or what i gained from it. Bit my head was very much aware of not being in charge. it wasn’t my mind directing this patterned deviation from the plan – it was my muscles. Or my spine. Or my body. Or something like that. It’s hard to be sure.

Is this progress? Or something to be feared? Or just one of those things? Will it happen again? Frequently, infrequently? Never?

So you see, Polyphanes, we’re in this boat together. We’re not sure where these impulses come from or where they’re going, but it leads to some interesting experiences along the way.

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