September 1988

Where to practise?
The main thing is to be comfortable and have your mind relaxed: just the right temperature, not too cramped in terms of space, not too noisy, otherwise your mind will be distracted. Therefore, outside if it is quiet and warm enough, and private enough; inside if you have enough room, or it is too cold outside. In her own family home in Beijing it was freezing cold early in the morning in winter, as they had only one stove in the corner of the main room, so she used to do her Xing Yi first, mainly to warm up! Xing Yi works from the physical first: if it is hot or cold it makes you not notice that quite quickly. Tai Ji works from the mind first: so the main thing is to find a place where you feel comfortable, relaxed, and will not be disturbed. Nowadays in her house in London Miss Li said she likes to be in touch with nature as long as she is not uncomfortable: she doesn't like to have the central heating on very high unless she is just sitting watching television, otherwise she prefers to put on more clothes.

When to practise?
Early in the morning basically: because the sun's energy is better then. She personally gets up very early, at about 5.00am, and has to discipline herself to stay in bed till later in the winter. This is not necessary, but 11.00 or 12.00 is too late for Tai Ji, not really the morning proper. Best then would be before 9.00am. Get more sleep in the winter, stay in bed longer. Get up earlier in the summer. The whole point of real culture is the search to do things in the natural way ...

How often to practise?
If you have the time and interest to practise twice a day that would be good, but she herself finds one good practice in the morning sees her through the twenty-four hours. Doing experiments on herself, she notices that her central spine begins to suffer if she does not do Tai Ji for two days, but once a day seems to be enough.

While saying this about the time of day and the frequency, Miss Li made a detour into talking about Tai Ji and Qi Gong. She does not really like to talk about the circulation of qi very much because it is better not to talk about such things: those who do, do so to put up a banner of some sort, to make a stand, or to advertise themselves. In China everybody used to know the main points on the circular channel of qi, and always talked about them, but did they really feel them? Maybe, maybe not. She does not deny it, but she recommends it as a sceptical question to bear in mind. Most people are too insensitive to feel their arms, let alone qi circulating around their torso! And again, sitting still doing Qi Gong you may master and practise all the techniques, but is your mind really fully present? That is difficult to achieve. So Tai Ji offers a real way towards Qi Gong practice, by firstly focusing and training the mind, then secondly increasing physical awareness and sensitivity.

It is definitely intended in Miss Li's tradition to work towards the circulation of qi very much as described in Qi Gong's "microcosmic orbit", but slowly and gradually. The practice would be: as you breath in, either feel the qi or think of your muscles in a sequence from Dan Tian, down through the genitals to the perineum; then up through the lower back, waist, between the shoulders, back of the head, top of the head; then down to the nose and breath out. If you do not feel the qi, then just think of the muscles in those places and that will send your attention and mind there, and build up awareness. This is no "secret teaching", it is just practical and commonsense, but it's still better not to talk about it too much or people will get misled in various ways.