10 BaoYiShangShan 抱一上山

Tiger Climbs the Mountain

Rampant

"Feel your whole body moving and all the parts cooperating with each other, especially the four limbs and claws. The tiger body is heavy, yet swift, sinuous, and agile."

"This illustrates Yin and Yang – lightness and heaviness contained in one being. The heaviness is in the bones – condensed and never yielding. The lightness is in the agility of the movement. The tiger is stable and rooted, while at the same time agile and active."

-- Master Zhongxian Wu

I've noticed I tend to do this movement higher than Master Wu instructs, with the lower hand at chest level, the higher, at forehead height. I've drifted up there through practice, my eye drawn up by the feeling of ascent.

I really ought carefully re-watch the video now that my practice is firmly established.

I bet there are a lot of places where I have drifted.

I try to strike a balance between following the instructions or video closely and feeling into the movement for what it is trying to teach me.

For how it naturally expresses itself through me now.

I'd also like to review the breath instructions carefully.

Lightness and heaviness.

This all maybe as a way of shaking off the numbness that can creep in with familiarity.

Climbing to a height and looking back across the land I've traveled from a fresh, elevated perspective.