The body can be understood as beginning deeper than the obvious joints:
The arm originates from the clavicle and scapula, not merely the shoulder. The leg begins from the sacrum and ilium, not simply the thigh or knee.
From this perspective, movement is not linear but created through multiple structural loops—vertical, horizontal, diagonal, large and small—forming spherical dynamics.
The character 懸 does not only mean “to hang.” In this context it conveys “to connect, to engage, to initiate action.” Likewise, 表裏 (front–back, inner–outer) extends beyond simple opposites: it includes front and back, up and down, visible and invisible, even past and future. It expresses the totality of space and time.
The image of Seikōsui (西江水), “to drink the whole river in a single gulp,” captures this quality. It suggests movement that is smooth and boundless, with seamless transitions between defense and offense—yet it also evokes a vast absorption of space and time, like a black hole.
Seen this way, physical practice becomes more than mechanics of limbs. It becomes a cosmology, where body, space, and time interpenetrate in one continuous flow.
