I managed to make it back up to 30 minutes of Wu Ji on Thursday, for the first time in a while: I’d been feeling infirm or sleepy too much recently. Though, unfortunately, I came down with a cold on Sunday so I’m feeling infirm again! I’ve managed to do my regular standing/sitting practice even with the cold, at least, the cold hasn’t been too bad, though I did skip my Tai Chi practice on Sunday.

Not much that I can think of from class on Saturday. And no class tonight (though I probably would have skipped it anyways), since it’s the end of the year.

I finished reading a book called The Mind Illuminated; it’s a guide to a meditation system, and I really liked it. It gives a step-by-step process to follow, a description of what to expect and what the goals are of each stage, and a theoretical framework to understand all of it. If I were going to carve out more time to focus on meditation, I would seriously consider following what the book says.

Having said that, it does raise the question of whether it would conflict with the Lotus Nei Gong approach. I am a little worried, for example, about its recommendation for focusing your attention on the tip of your nose; seems a little weird from a Qi point of view? Also it’s interesting to see how a lot of the physical effects (and Qi, for that matter) from Lotus Nei Gong does show up, but later on in the process; a different route to at least some of the same ends.

Not much to report this week. On Thursday, I had a lunch meeting, so I didn’t do my usual Nei Gong (though I did of course do a little Wu Ji at the end of the day). In the Saturday class, I asked about the transition from Pat the High Horse to Cross the Foot; you can shift your weight to your left, turn your right foot, shift right, and then step, or you can just step directly with your weight on the right foot the whole time. (Which is a lot harder!)

The most exciting thing was that I finally got my knees working in the bit where you flash your hands in the Xinjia Oblique Posture: if I relax and sink my attention down to my Dantian, then I can get energy coming out from there, and some goes out my knees.

This Sunday was the monthly class, but I could only stay for 30 minutes or so because I had to pick people up from the airport. I was hoping to at least put in my normal Sunday practice time after that, but I was too tired to do that, either…

I’m in the middle of reading a quite good meditation book, I’ll have more to report on that when I’m done.

Not much to say; it was raining Sunday so I didn’t practice as much, and not a lot came up on the other days.

I did some of my meditation (both standing and sitting) facing a mirror, and I really am a little tilted: I need to shift left while standing, and also my neck leans slightly to the right as well. Whoops.

Paying attention to where energy is gathering while doing standing meditation: my arms are still best at gathering it, and the bottom of my torso (beneath my Dantian, the Huiyin region) is pretty good, and I can feel it in my legs and the top of my head. But my back feels empty, or at least from the Live Gate up. So that seems like the next milestone to hope for. Not entirely sure what I can do to speed that up, though maybe I should think more about opening up my Live Gate.

Pictures from the November Minecraft session:

In October, I’d built a path up from a cave; I was trying to figure out what to do next. So: some flying around.

The entrance to the cave in question.

I like this side view of the mountain through a forest path.

A weird discontinuity in the water level. And you’ll see a very flat wall next to that, clearly I hit a generation algorithm change.

A sheep wandering in the water next to another one of those walls.

I decided that I’d build a pier on my cave, and another one at the lighthouse; there’s a water path from one to the other, slightly but pleasantly roundabout. The only weird thing in the path is a one block height discontinuity in the water (with a waterfall on half of it, to make it even odder), but that sounds fine.

Here’s the pier sticking out from the cave.

And here’s the one at the lighthouse.

Taking a trip in a boat to try it out.

The view of some more of those weird flat walls.

Here’s a top-down view of those odd walls.

And then I sunk my boat.

So, that discontinuity in the water. It (unsurprisingly) went fine when I took my boat down the discontinuity. But, when I tried to go in the other direction, rather than either preventing me from going up or having the boat climb up one block, the boat went straight into the higher water level and then sunk. And the same thing happened when I went back up along the part of the the discontinuity where the water was sloping down in a micro-waterfall instead of being a one-block step. So that’s too bad; it means that I can’t actually row the boat back from the lighthouse to the cave.

Anyways, a few last pictures:

Should I put in some steps down from the cave?

I decided I liked it better with sand blocks instead of steps.

I decided I preferred to have the pier to be two blocks wide instead of three blocks.

Dan, meanwhile, built a lot of (kind of Dadaist) random little objects, plus one big one: he was exploring how scaffolding works, and it turns out that it’s really easy to build scaffolding high up into the sky, and that you can plant trees on it. So now there’s a huge wall of trees growing near the cathedral.

A flat area with sand bricks and some red/black thing.

There are some pillars nearby with cakes on top.

A side view of those cake pillars, showing the flaming pumpkins from October nearby.

If you want more cake, here’s cake stacked on more cake.

A higher view of that stacked up cake.

Sure, let’s put some boats on top of some blocks, why not.

Some more random stuff.

Yes, those are beds on top of those trees.

A bunch of doors next to each other.

That’s the random stuff, but there’s also this huge structure of scaffolding with trees growing on it.

Approaching the tree scaffolding.

Here’s the base, trees growing thickly there.

Trees are much sparser at the top.

Some more trees have popped up on the right side.

You can see the trees growing in real time, the top right one is larger in this picture than in the previous one.

Here’s the view from the other side, it’s quite close to Roger’s unfinished cathedral.

And here’s the top-down view, with lots of seedlings waiting to grow.

I was feeling on the edge of coming down with a cold last week, so I took a few days off of Wu Ji and didn’t do my regular Thursday practice. But I went back to my normal routine on Saturday.

Saturday’s class was wet but good: we went through the form something like five times, and my abdomen was feeling empty in an unusual but good way. Some things that my teacher said and/or that I noticed: in the blocks in Flash the Back, I should also expand down into my kua; also, in the first block, sink my right shoulder even during the block, that’ll help me relax my right arm during the second block. And when going from the following punch into the Six Sealing Four Closing before Hand Maneuvers, I should concentrate a little more on keeping my left leg stable, using it as a foundation after turning the leg while getting the rest of my body into place.

On Sunday it was too wet outside to practice, so I skipped Tai Chi, but at least I did my normal Lotus Nei Gong stuff. On which note, I’m thinking that it’s maybe time for me to start working on rotating my Dantian during Wu Ji?

In today’s class, my teacher said to concentrate more on folding into your left kua during Oblique Posture; and it does indeed help with my stability and makes my knee feel better. And actually folding into my right kua when shifting right in Embrace the Knee helps, too.

One thing I forgot to mention last time: I reread Damo Mitchell’s first book. Lots of details to work on in the Ji Ben Qi Gong, and lots of stuff to improve on in seated meditation, though it’s harder to get the details of the latter from a book…

I am trying to work on my breathing when meditating, and in fact to bring that breathing into more contexts. Basically, breathing a little more deeply than I am than when I’m not thinking about it, but not holding my breath at either the inhale or the exhale, thinking instead of both of those as turning things around. So there’s a similar sort of pause as to when I hold my breath, but the way it feels is different. And, in general, my body does feel different when I breathe this way: energy in my huiyin, in particular.

On Thursday, when doing Wu Ji, I felt a little bit of tingling in the middle of my back; I’m used to tingling from my huiyin to my live gate, but this is higher than normal? Though I still don’t actually feel real energy from my live gate itself. Then, towards the end of the session, I felt a sharp feeling on the top of my head; I thought it might be my bai hui, though it was further back than I expected? But I know the bai hui isn’t at the very top of my head, it’s further back than that; looking it up, I think it’s plausible that that was my bai hui, though I’m not completely sure, there are a lot of points up there. Still, the bai hui is the one people talk about the most, presumably there’s a reason for that…

And, after that, I’ve been sometimes feeling tingling on the top of my head when doing standing meditation. It’s not super strong, there’s definitely something that I need to nurture there. (Same for the bottom of my feet, honestly.) But still, progress?

Exactly what sort of progress, I’m not sure. It would be nice to think that I’m opening up my governing channel, but I’m not really convinced that that’s the case: maybe I’m starting to open it up through the middle of my back, but there’s a lot of room between there and the top of my head. So my guess is that the bai hui is opening up for other reasons; and certainly there are lots of channels that end up there, it’s an important point for a reason.

Aside from that, the feel of standing meditation in starting to change a bit: I’m slipping away from straightforward physical feelings a bit more, and also away from tingling and the like a little more, into something that feels plausibly related to energy but also a little more substantial? Still trying to understand what that means. Doesn’t necessarily mean that standing meditation is super easy, and I’m not getting the really pleasant feeling that did once a couple of weeks back, but it helps and feels like progress.

Though sometimes it’s easier than others. There’s a little grove of trees right outside the office, and meditating there feels easier; standing meditation at home seems like more of a chore? Though, even at home, I’m still sometimes surprised when things are over; I haven’t been doing long meditation sessions recently, what with the surgery and such, but I have been surprised more than once when it’s over. I should probably get back to working on longer sessions, at least on the weekends…

Anyways, as to Tai Chi: I couldn’t remember whether my thumb is supposed to be inside or outside my fingers when doing the Jian. My teacher says: when doing Lao Jia Jian, put your thumb inside, that’s more internal. Also, when going through the form, I still need to figure out about my head and torso movement in Forward Trick / Backward Trick; I think they’re supposed to turn in the direction of my hands instead of my leg, but I’m not 100% sure. And I need to figure out my footwork when transitioning from Gao Tan Ma to Cross the Foot, I’m taking more steps there than feels right.

I had a medical procedure done on Thursday, so almost no Tai Chi this week. Very minor, even more so than the nose thing from a couple of months back, but I was told to minimize exercise, and I was sore in ways that did make me want to follow those instructions the first few days. Though fortunately, unlike the nose situation, I can breathe totally fine, so at least I stuck with non-standing meditation.

I did some silk reeling today over lunch; happy enough to have done that, but I also felt like once today was probably the right choice, so while I’d been thinking of going to Tai Chi tonight and doing some of the easier bits there, I decided to skip it. And then, in the second half of the afternoon, I started getting a sore throat, so now I think I’m coming down with a cold, and had another reason to skip Tai Chi tonight…

My plan was to start Wu Ji again on Thursday or Friday, and Tai Chi on Saturday. Hopefully I’ll be able to stick with that, we’ll see how bad the cold is and when the last of the soreness goes away.

Last time, I said I thought that the bubbling wells in my feet were finally opening up; now I’m sure of that, they’re tingling lots of the time. Also, something interesting happened on Wednesday: when I was done with Wu Ji, it felt like there was a line going down the inside of my leg. (Or legs? Definitely the right side, not so sure about my left.) Since the bubbling well is at one end of the kidney meridian, I looked up the path of the kidney meridian; and it tracked what I was feeling pretty well. Probably a coincidence, I stand with my legs slightly arched out, so it make sense that there’d be a different feeling on the inside of the arch? Still, it was interesting, maybe there’s something to this meridian stuff after all… Hasn’t happened again, unfortunately.

On Saturday, my teacher went over my form. In the uppercut in Jin Gang Pounds the Pestle, don’t just use my arms, and don’t focus so much on my punch, figure out connection in my torso. (I’m still not 100% sure what my torso should be doing there – when I watch him, it sometimes looks like it’s going down?) After the first Cover the Forearm Punch, I should relax more. In Step Back with Spiraling Forearms, use my body instead of just my arms, and sink my Qi more on the inside. In general, do a Song in more places. My elbows sometimes still go a little bit back in a few places, though he didn’t specify where. Integrate my body more in Forward / Backward Trick, don’t just move my arms and knees.

Also from Saturday, in the general part of the class: in Wild Horse Parts the Mane: in first part, move hands before moving foot. And we had the second form class on Sunday; in the strike after Beast’s Head, the palms of both fists are down. But in a similar-looking move near the end, when you switch directions to strike towards the back, your back fist (where your energy is) has its palm up.

Sunday Wu Ji didn’t go so great; maybe it’s the timing? The previous two weeks I’d done sitting meditation at the start of the morning (while Liesl was walking Widget) and then my Wu Ji Sunday routine before lunch, I feel more energetic when I’m doing it that way.

I didn’t have a repeat of feeling really good while doing Wu Ji as happened the previous weekend, but I had some feelings on the fringes of that, and I feel like the way to get closer to that is, in part, by relaxing, which is good for other reasons! So I’ll keep on experimenting with that.

A note from Saturday: in Jade Girl, in the first strike, I should also kick with my foot; probably actually more of a stomp forward and down? Also, at the start of Jade Girl, you’re deflecting your opponent to the right a bit.

In Oblique Posture, if you lead with your shoulder, you should still follow with your elbow and hand. When I did that on Sunday, I had a surprisingly strong feeling of energy flowing through, at least the first few times; not so much tonight, though. I think what had happened was that I’d had a pretty good sitting meditation session on Sunday morning, a decent Wu Ji session, and a pretty good Five Animal Frolics, so there was more energy for me to feel at the start of Tai Chi?

Speaking of Five Animal Frolics: it went rather well, though some better than others; I still feel week at the Deer in particular. And, when rereading my notes afterwards, I realized some points that I’d missed; I should reread my notes first next time! But at any rate there’s something to work on there.

I think the bubbling wells in my feet are finally starting to open up; I’m getting a fairly persistent tingling sensation there, reminiscent of what I feel in my hands. Not as strong as my hands, and I haven’t seen any other side effects yet, but still, seems like progress.

When doing Embrace the Knee, my hands should end up fairly close to each other horizontally: not quite in a straight vertical line but pretty close.

For the October Minecraft session, I wanted to make a path from the lighthouse to the top of the mountain near it. There was a cave nearby that seemed promising, so I wanted to look there first.

Looking across the bay from the lighthouse to the cave in the side of the mountain.

While wandering around, I noticed a hole in the sand, and it seemed surprisingly deep?

Yeah, there’s a cave down there, here’s the view up the hole.

And there’s a second chimney going down near the bottom of the one under the hole in the sand.

Here’s a bat that I ran into.

Returning to where I was planning to build from, here’s the inside of that cave mouth in the mountain.

Here’s a waterfall that was somewhere around there?

The view from the bottom of that waterfall.

Another place where that cave leads to the bay, where the strange physics means that the water doesn’t flood in.

I think the back of this wall is where I want to put some stairs up. This is on your right side when you enter the cave from the water, so it won’t go deep into the mountain, it’ll go up just inside the edge of the mountain.

So that’s the plan: build some stairs up from there, then see how that looks from the top. And, if I get inspired, do something interesting at the bottom too.

Here’s the view up from the bottom of the stairs.

And the view down from the top; pretty long stairs.

I think this must be the view into the cave from the bottom of the stairs? Looks a little messy…

Halfway up, the stairs pass over this crevasse.

The view of the lighthouse from near the top of the stairs.

I have pathways connecting the other landmarks on top of the mountain, I’ll need to add one (or two?) to the stair entrance. (Which is sort of near the middle of this picture, a little on the left side.)

Maybe I can fit a path here under the trees? It’s straight enough.

Now there’s a path in place.

Here’s how the new path meets the deck that had been on the water side of the top of the mountain.

I’m also going to fork the path so it goes up to the fountain.

Here’s the path along the edge of the mountain top near the building and fountain.

Extending the path further past the fountain.

Now you can see most of the path network. (Though a fair chunk on the water side is covered by trees.)

That’s what I was doing; Dan had apparently decided that he was done with his white underground passages and he built a series of decorations on the surface.

I’m pretty sure this decoration near the entrance to the underground passages is new?

Here’s a white smoking boot thing near the train tracks.

Some pumpkin blocks surrounded by fires.

A closer view.

Their pumpkin nature becomes a little more apparent from the top.

A green sculpture with some bells near it.

While wandering around in a cave near there, I came across this unexpected sight.

Here’s the view through that glass; it’s from a patterned pit that Dan had built several months ago.

Here’s the view of that from the non-cave side.

And Ariel was continuing work on their castle from last time.

Traveling to the castle, I went past the jungle glitch in the ice; was that chunk of ice in the middle of the jungle there from the start of the glitch, or has the ice started to reform??

Approaching the castle.

The visiting committee is still here; Ariel is consulting with its human member, while its llama members are examining the wall.

Patterned windows.

And a patterned door.

Here’s the inside view from the top, you can see the plan for interior walls.

A closer view of the bridge, you can see the water from this side.