24 DaoQiChangCun 道炁常存 – Remain in the Dao Qi

We return to the energetic context we inhabit, to the World, immersed in it as we were at the beginning of the form. But we are changed by our journey. I often have a satiated feeling here, as if my belly has been filled with some warm nourishment. There is a grounding, discharging, circulation of spirit between me in the world here, but it's different from No-Form practice in that I tend to deliberately retain some of this energy. Usually not all of it, but some.

Return to the No-Form stance after you’re done engaging whatever force was chosen. In No-Form, release your attachment and identification with that force; let it go. This discharging action of No-Form acts as a trance-dispersion device. By returning to No-Form after each ritual engagement of energies, internal receptivity is restored; we return to being nothing or, nobody but ourselves. Returning to No-Form minimizes the ego inflation that occurs with any identification and merging with the unconscious contents of the psyche. These two functions of No-Form -- charging and discharging -- can only occur by setting apart time before and after each ritual immersion to stand in No-Form.

-- Antero Alli The Trinary Function of No-Form

It reminds me a bit of the Golden Dragon practice Aidan Wachter describes in Weaving Fate:

Instruct yourself to send energy into your belly, which I call the cauldron. The cauldron exists in many systems of energy work and is known by many names. It is the "house" of your bodily power, and it works to store energy and distribute it. We will now work with a particular ally that is a part of us (or can be if we so choose) that takes the form of a small golden dragon. It appears incredibly relaxed, to the point of being asleep until we wake it. In the dragon's abdomen, it houses a golden egg that it can withdraw easily at will as if it rests i the pouch of a marsupial. This golden egg is an unlimited battery for magical / psychic energies that the dragon cares for and distributes through our energy systems as need. It cannot be overfilled, fully drained, or overloaded.

I want to take what I need, but not hold on to more than that.

This state also reminds me of the 3rd Jhana:

Suppose in a lotus pond there are blue, white or red lotuses that have been born in the water, grow in the water and never rise up above the water, but flourish immersed in the water. From their tips to their roots they would be drenched, steeped, saturated and suffused with water so there would be no part of those lotuses that is not suffused with water. In the same way, one drenches, steeps, saturates and suffuses one’s body with the happiness free from rapture so there is no part of one’s body which is not suffused by this happiness.

Dīgha Nikāya 2.82

There is a quiet contentment and an equanimity here. It feels like being an aquatic plant immersed in warm, sunlit water, all the life teeming around me, energy stored in the root, sleeping, sun shining on a flower opening at the crown of my head.

This movement maintains physical well-being and awakens within us the eternal Dao, which is always present. Actually, although this movement looks like doing nothing, it is an important part of Qigong practice. After all active movements, we need to move into the state of tranquility in order to cultivate our inner knowledge. This is a way to experience the Dao.

-- Master Wu, Chinese Shamanic Tiger QiGong

Mostly, I want to be fully present. Feeling the difference between before and after the form helps me to know in a deep way where am and where I was before practice, which gives me a sort of parallax on my state in relation to the world.

We are in it.