Boston Notes: October 2018 pt 1

Posted on November 2, 2018 by admin

The Boston Red Sox

are the World Champions

of 2018

October was quite a month! Now back to work!

Review materiel from previous classes and blog posts:

A. Continue to practice the small orbit meditation, using attention, breathing and any of the volumes, circles, spirals, arc and points that speak to you. This is a long term project, so be patient and keep with it

B. Learn the Five Skandhas and track them as they arise.

C. Learn Bonnie’s guide to an “Embodied Spiritual Practice” from the previous post and learn where you are in your own practice.

New Material:

A. Refining experience of the “Center Channel”, aka: sushumna, chakra line, thrusting vessel/Chong Mai, median line in sitting meditation.

B. Exploring the intangible mystery of ‘infinite space’ , as differentiated from the relational space we notice between things.

C. Integration of the spinal segments through sequential flexion and extension explorations to help open center channel.

Practices:

Meditation: increase sitting times, if possible, to 45 minutes or so, and ask: is the primary distraction physical (discomfort in the muscles/joints), emotional (breathing/heart rate will not settle down) or psychological ( mind wanders rather willfully).

What gets in the way of resting in stillness?

If physical, your asana practice needs to address this. What postures will help open/disentangle hips/lower spinal muscles and open the chest/heart region. Use K-1 and standing poses to start to free hip joints, climbing wall to lengthen core from tail to head, rotational/twisting postures to widen body.

If emotional, use breathing into lower dantien, either sitting or lying down, to shift energy and settle inner world. Work with the major points from the chart, especially CV-1, GV-1 at tip of coccyx, CV-6 and GV-4, to create a ‘bowl’ or flower pot to give a grounded base to support your center channel.

If psychological, first follow instructions for emotional distraction, and keep the attention in the lower body. Gradually begin to feel the ‘polarity’ between heaven and earth as a vibrational field, like that created by an archer drawing a bow, where the arrow is dynamically still through the opposite action of pushing the bow and pulling the string.
Now feel the polarity as an expanding and condensing sphere, so the whole body begins to feel spherical. Remain grounded while feeling the pull of the heavens, and feel full through the center, around your ‘equator’.

More Sitting

When you can find a moment or two of stillness in you sitting, notice spaciousness and then be spaciousness, dissolving the witness. Feel the central channel as spaciousness with a vibrancy, especially in the areas of the chakras. Allow your ‘identity’ to rest as open, unbounded spaciousness and not attach itself to any of the forms that are arising, whether structural, energetic or psychological.

Opening the Central Channel

One of the ways to help open the central channel is through learning to sequentially release the vertebrae, from tadasana, into in a standing forward bend, leading with skull going down, tail and hip joints coming up. This requires a continuous double action of lengthening from head down through tail/feet and feet/tail up through head.

In class we used the image from embryology of the converging of the caudal eminence (tail bud) and the neural tube at the 2nd sacral vertebrae which takes place around week 6 after conception. While standing standing, let your attention flow from the tip of the coccyx up through the interior of the sacrum and then, from the the 2nd sacral vertebra down to the tip of the coccyx. Notice how similar this action is to the integration of CV-1 and GV-1 back and forth across the anus at the root of the small orbit. Now travel up from the tail bud to S-2 and continue through the spine to the skull, and back down, through S-2 to the coccyx tip. Travel back and forth until you can sustain both at the same time, like an archer effortlessly drawing a bow.

Now while holding the double action begin to drop the skull away from C-1 (skull up, C-1 down), then continue: C-1 up, C-2 down etc. You will/may find clumps of vertebrae that do not differentiate, especially at the base of the neck and behind the heart. Move as slowly as possible, and go in reverse for a vertebrae or two, if necessary, for clarity.

*** Keep lengthening in two directions through the groin/hips when the pelvis flexes around the femurs to prevent collapsing the anterior lumbar and compressing the discs. This especially important when reversing to come back to tadasana. This will be our base line for the spine

Sequential release of the vertebrae from lying down with feet on wall, leading with tail on the way up. Curl the sitting bones lightly to find the coccyx and continue to lift it up away from the floor. Feel each vertebrae, like links in a chain, lifting one at a time going up, and dropping one at a time on the way down. Feel the abdomen hollow so the lumbar vertebrae are hanging down in gravity to create space. when you get to T-12, keep lengthening the inside so as to not use your outer spinal muscles. The small ones, the multifidi, we wish to engage, along with the transversus abdominis. Watch for compression in the throat. If stuck slide T-2, T-1, and then C-7 towards the tail.

Supported sit ups to help challenging vertebrae.
The next action combines the previous two. This can be done with the legs out straight and pressing the wall, or, as shown, with legs bent. support the upper body with a bolster and blanket to whatever height feels right. then begin to curl up, starting with the skull, moving one vertebrae at a time. The hands support the weight of the head, but keep the elbows wide so the abdominals and not the pecs provide the lift. Let the abdomen stay hollow and feel the groins lengthening in two directions, like to curl from tadasana. Pause anywhere along the spine to zero in on the weak links. Feel the spine widening in the center, the front body squeezing across the transversus and the back body lengthening down to the tail from the action of the multifidi.

Thanks to Niel Asher Healthcare for this image of the multifidus muscles. They are quite fun to find and feel, as they run the the branches of a pine tree, downward and outward, vertebrae to vertebrae, and along with the rotatores, allow us to have a snakey feel to our spine and a lightness to our sitting.

In your sitting practice, after exploring these spinal actions, feel the center channel suspended in space between heaven and earth, each vertebrae supported by and floating in the center channel.

In part 2 we will add some breathing explorations and take these spinal practices into yoga postures that allow even more depth and integration of the core channel.

Taoism and Yoga: The Three Treasures

Posted on May 25, 2018 by admin

Three Treasures: Jing, Qi and Shen

Review

In the previous workshops and posts we’ve been exploring some specific points along the microcosmic orbit and noticing that by bringing our attention to them, and using the breath, we can discover energy lines, planes and volumes, giving us our 3 dimensional sensory/perceptual field of embodiment. In a moment we are going to go more deeply into the volumes, but first we need to add another point to root ourselves more completely. We have been working extensively with CV-1, Hui Yin or the ‘Seat of YIn’, where 4 major yIn vessels meet. (We’ve worked with the Conception and Thrusting vessels. There are two more that link through the legs into the torso.) Our overall imbalance, at all levels, is deficient or repressed yin, which of course represents the feminine, Mother Earth and the inner realms.

In your home practice add GV-1, the first point on the yang Governing Vessel which sits directly in front of the coccyx and directly behind the anus. It is not marked on the diagram above, but CV-1 sits just in front of the anus, making the anal mouth the bridge linking the Conception and Governing Vessels in the lower body. The upper bridge is the upper mouth so we find the gut body a major player in bringing energy balance to the whole.

Imagine the connective tissue surrounding the coccyx converging energetically and radiating from this point, GV-1, through the anus to CV-1, CV-6 and all the way to the tailbone of the sternum, the xiphoid process just below CV -17.

Now, using your attention and perception, feel energy slowly moving in a small circle, starting at GV-4 ‘down the back and up the front’ to CV-12 and back to GV-4. This will help un-block any yang energy trapped in the lower spinal muscles as it merges with the Yin and stabilize the lower dantien. This is a traditional energetic ‘tucking action’ opening the posterior spine. To ‘untuck, moving the energy in a down the front and up the back circle, do not break the circuit at the anus or the spinal muscles will overwork (excess yang). Rather release and lengthen the ilio-psoas opening the anterior spine. You can also do the full micro-cosmic orbit circle passing through GV-20, the crown chakra point.

When we expand the lower dantien in our breathing and meditation practices, especially rooting down into the earth, this integrating action of the GV-1 point is very important in maintaining the organic integrity and tone. As the volume expands, so does the tone so there is no prolapse of the pelvic organs. If you can find and feel this energy link and strengthen it, your sense of ‘tucking’ will be much more subtle and powerful. No contraction of anything, but there may be subtle adjustments of bones and connective tissue as the body readjusts to the new integration of the base of the body. This action will also help us discover the center channel, aka the ‘Thrusting Vessel’, as this is an expression of balance between front and back, yin and yang, right and left.

The Three Treasures

The alchemy of an embodied spiritual practice, whether yoga, qi gong, is a process of cultivating, integrating and refining the basic substances or energies that make up the embodied human form and living a life based on love, creativity and connection. In Taoist practices, the basic substances are known collectively as ‘the three treasures‘ and include Jing, Qi and Shen. Each of these treasures is associated with the subtle energy center in one of the three Dantiens, the bony volumes (pelvis, rib cage and skull) and one or more of the yin organ systems. As we can see from the side, our Microcosmic Orbit linking the Conception and Governing Vessels encloses these three dantiens in a loop.

Dantien translates as ‘elixir field’, implying that there is an alchemical potion stored/hidden in these internal spaces. (A Western perspective would acknowledge each of these spaces has its own ‘nervous system’ as well as hormone secreting glands.) Our embodied spiritual practice awakens, transforms and integrates these three to allow our lives to be radiant expressions of love and creativity, with a large sense of humor to help us deal with the many challenges and limitations of the human condition.

Korean Taoist master Sung Jin Park uses the analogy of a candle to describe the three treasures and Jing, the first is the wax and wick of the candle. The densest of the three, jing is centered in the Lower Dantien and stored in and associated with the Kidney OrganSystem. There is no good English equivalent, but jing can be seen as the essence of vitality, the seed of life, the creative energy immediately involved with eggs, sperm, DNA and reproduction, the primal source of things. As it has an ancestral connection extending back eons it is often unconscious. Jing provides our constitutional strength and gives us our unique expressions of bones muscles, skin etc.

Jing differentiates life from inanimate objects, and comes from two sources. Pre-natal Jing comes directly from the DNA of our parents and is nurtured by the kidney energy of our mother while in utero. It determines our basic constitution, is said to be limited in quantity and to be treasured, not wasted. Post-natal Jing is created through the transformation of oxygen and food by the stomach and spleen systems, and the absorbing of life lessons from the environment. It gives birth to the Qi that moves us through life, like the wax gives birth to the flame. Because of its density, it responds strongly to gravity and helps ground us in the larger Cosmos. We can also make a loose analogy with jing to the 1st and 2nd chakras. In our practice, we can help maintain the vitality of our jing through careful diet, hydration, qi moving exercises like yoga and qigong, herbs and acupuncture. Kidney health is crucial to healthy jing, so keep working with K-1, the bubbling spring on the soles of your feet whenever you remember.

The second treasure, Qi, is the flame of the candle, the energy of movement transformed from the denser substance of the body. Qi is the flow of energy from yin to yang and back again, maintaining and allowing both stability and dynamic activity. Qi includes metabolism at a cellular level and all forms of human movement from dance, vinyasa and qigong to rolling around on the floor or walking. Qi’s home in the Middle Dantien and associated with the Spleen/Pancreas and Liver Organ Systems. Chinese Medicine, for help in diagnosis and treatment, describes many types of Qi, but here we are using the word in a general sense for all of its embodied forms.

Like the Sanskrit word Prana, Qi is a Taoist word that cannot be pinned down by Western conceptual thinking. Qi is the mystery of creation itself, neither exactly energy nor matter, but something in between, in an E=mc2 kind of way. Qi is the essence of all levels of reality from sub atomic particles to galaxies. The Qi as a treasure as noted above is a more limited use of the word, but still reflects back onto its more primordial counterpart. We can find a connection to the 3rd and 4th chakras, the solar plexus, heart and lungs. We all feel energy, whether we consciously recognize this or not. Learn to track the quality of your energy and make adjustments as needed. Like with vitalizing the jing, diet, exercise, sleep and an overall healthy life style all support healthy qi.

The candle flame, the Qi, gives off light, and this luminosity is the third treasure, Shen or Spirit. Associated with the heavens and centered in the Upper Dantien, shen is the spiritual mind. The Yin Tang acupuncture point on the 3rd eye is the point (cavity is a better word than point) associated with the Shen as it connects the the very center of the brain where the pineal gland resides. Buddha is often depicted with his Pineal (Pine cone like) gland enlarged and protruding, indicating his awakened/enlightened Shen. This lovely Buddha lives in Sedona Arizona and we were just visiting him last month. In esoteric Taoism, this inner space of the brain/skull is called the Spiritual Valley with the ‘Mud Pill Palace at the center which includes the pituitary gland as well. This is the spiritual yin center in the yang upper dantien.

Interestingly enough, although Shen resides in the brain, it is associated with the Heart Organ System which, in Taoist philosophy/science governs the brain. In fact, in Chinese Medicine, the brain is not considered an organ but is known as the ‘sea of marrow’, marrow including bone marrow but also all nerve tissue. Shen can be seen as the radiance of the heart showing directly through the eyes. Cultivation of Shen leads to compassion, loving kindness and a spiritual perspective on all aspects of life. Shen is unbounded by space and time and allows the timeless divine presence to manifest on earth in the human form. When cultivated, by converting Jing to QI and Qi to Shen, it impels the human to live an enlightened life.

The Five Shens

Also similar to Prana, Shen is further subdivided into five different expressions, Shen, Zhi, Yi, Po and Hun. Each of these is connected to one of the five yin organ systems, the five elements of Taoism, the five visible planets and five directions of the compass. As in many Chinese models, the Five Shens are related to society, with the heart Shen as emperor and the other four ministers, so there is a hierarchy here.

The ‘smaller’ Shen is centered in the Heart Organ system and rules the others. As its element is fire, it is spiritual passion in an integrated and compassionate way, inspiring one to live a meaningful life. Its direction is South, the planet Mars. Heart Shen is an embodied expression of the spiritual impulse of joy and delight, and guiding the other aspects of Shen to harmony and balance.

Zhi, or will power gives us direction, discipline and perseverance to gets things done. Connected to the Kidney Organ System and the element water, Zhi, when aligned with the Heart Shen, guides our spiritual practice through the many obstacles that pop up along the way. Its direction is North, the planet mercury, the closest planet to the sun. Zhi can also be seen to have a yin and yang aspect. Yang will is more obvious and usually involves conscious choice in the moment. The Yin aspect of Zhi however is much more mysterious and is not usually noticed until well after the fact, usually later in life when we notice that we were being moved in a direction without actually noticing. At a deeper level of practice, Zhi becomes ‘wu wei’, or effortless effort, as the individual ‘will’ becomes one with the Divine Will of wholeness.

Yi is translated as discriminative intelligence. Associated with the Spleen/Pancreas Organ System, Yi helps distinguish between the desirable and the undesirable choices we have presented to us continuously by our experience. Its element is Earth, its direction is toward the center and its planet is Saturn. Along with Shen/passion and Zhi/will, Yi can be refined by paying careful attention to our actions and the unfolding of the world around us. Yi helps calm the mind when the mental states are disturbed by emotional upheavals.

To make life even more intriguing, the next two “Shens’, Hun and Po, come as a yin/yang pair. Po is the aspect of our being that dissolves at death so, lacking the broader vision of the other four shens, is really only concerned with this physical body, this lifetime. Known in English as the corporeal soul, it is the tangible yin counterpart to Hun, the ethereal soul. Po is associated with the lung organ system, the planet Venus, the element metal and the westerly direction.

Hun represents spirit that lives on after death in other realms of existence. It is the yang counterpart to Po, associated with the Liver Organ System. It carries us in dreams and on shamanic journeys

Discover how these ‘Three Treasures” reveal themselves to you. Nurture and integrate them into your life and learn the alchemy of an embodied spiritual practice.

Micro-Cosmic Orbit: Pt 2

Posted on November 29, 2017 by admin

Exploring and Embodying Three Dimensions

In the previous post we explored the micro-cosmic orbit as a means to refine our focal attention (samadhi) through bringing our attention to specific points along the orbit and linking these points into lines, arcs and circles. As we work more deeply this way, we may discover that we can find these points at three levels. The first is out beyond the confines of the skin, in an ‘orbit’ in the energy field around the body. The second is directly on the skin, where an acupuncturist or shiatsu practitioner would apply needles or pressure. The third is in the interior of the body along the planes of fascia interwoven through the organs, blood vessels and nerves. When we can feel all three of these levels simultaneously, we are inhabiting our spherical energy field and can begin to fully realize the possibilities of having three dimensional/spatial sensitivity, perception and consciousness.

The girdle vessel (Dai Mai,) the fourth vessel we use, is a latitude line and is essential in finding our three dimensional perceptual field. This yang vessel pairs with the yin ‘thrusting vessel, the vertical center axis, creating horizontal stability, and allowing us to rotate/twist. Rotation inherently builds the third dimension of depth ( A circle has length and width. To create a sphere you add depth. ) and is the gateway to cosmic awareness as well as a more vibrant embodied presence.

Rotation drives the whole manifest universe. In our solar system, the planets spiral around the sun. In our Milky Way galaxy, the stars, including our sun, spiral around a center (probably a giant black hole! If you can find Sagittarius in the night sky, and you will probably have to wait until next summer, look through and imagine 26,000 light years off in the distance.) The earth rotates on its own axis creating weather patterns as well as a sense of day and night.

The spinning top (one of the oldest toys known to humans, found in archeological sites all over the world) demonstrates the cosmic principle in physics we are embodying. The faster it rotates, the more stable the vertical line. When the top slows down it starts to wobble and when it stops spinning, it falls over. To keep the rotation, you need to keep feeding it with energy. The bicycle uses this same principle, flipped 90 degrees. Another aspect we explore is the radius of the horizontal circle. Rotation pushes from the center outward (yang) in what is called centrifugal force. As this is counterbalanced by the yin centripetal (center seeking) force, we can change the volume of the energy field by playing with this ‘expanding – condensing’, yang – yin relationship.

In this top, the widest circle with the most outward thrust, the purple one, is below the center of the vertical axis. Lowering the center of gravity adds even more stability, which is why we emphasize the lower dantien in our breathing, movement and meditation practice. When we discover how to work with this principle in the energy field, our twisting poses can actually help expand the body. If we work muscularly, you will feel constricting in twisting poses.

Traditionally the ‘dai mai’ girdle vessel surrounds the body at the level of the pelvis in the lower dantien. but we can move our attention to awaken other ‘latitudes’ of the body. To begin in the feet, stand with the right foot forward, the left foot back, as if you are about to move into a standing twist (without the forward bend), but haven’t yet begun. Before you move any further, imagine a spiraling coil of energy beginning below the floor (the Antarctic Circle) and traveling up the center. Notice how this mimics the girdle vessel. Now imagine the coils widening as they rise up from the base ( moving toward the equator), as the yang energy expands outward. The girdle vessel is very yang so this is quite natural. Feel the energetic volume expanding and condensing with the breath, but slowly expanding in overall volume

To awaken the front body-yin energy field, we can take the hoop forward to fully engage the arms and shoulders. Now imagine the hoops extends through the back body, receiving the rising spiral and expanding as the action of twisting. Most students eventually leave half of the body behind and end up contracting rather than expanding, especially along the spine column. Imagine the center of the spinal canal opening outward in an expanding circle/spiral, melting the tissue, feeling spaciousness, transcending the limitations of structure. (My front foot turns out much more than average to release the inner groin. Don’t feel you have to imitate this, but find out for yourself where openness and balance meet.) The hoop is moved to the front to expand the yin/organ/front body qi field and expand the ‘wings’ of the body, but also feel the back body softening and opening. This feeling can be evoked in sitting, lying and inverted twists as well. If you do not have a hula hoop handy, you can also use a thera-ball to find the volume.

Another key component awakened here is the Pericardium 8 point, PC-8 (or P-8) in the center of the palms. Analagous to the K-1 points on the feet, P-8 is a gateway between the inner and outer qi fields. The Pericardium, the fascial connective tissue membrane surrounding the heart, arises embryologically from the same cells and tissues that create the diaphragm and liver. The ‘heart protector’ literally does this, on many levels. As someone with a well-armored heart, I am finding that opening and nurturing the heart protector so that is does its job with over doing it is awakening a level of sweet vulnerability that is both precious and scary.

In acupuncture, the pericardium meridian is part of the JueYin channel and connects all the way through the femoral canal to the legs. For those of you who have been practicing ‘climbing the wall’ for the last few years, you can actually trace the whole fascial continuity of the Jue Yin. (Use imagination to fill in the blanks.) Rise up from K-1 (not the heels, even though they do rise on their own) (DFL for those of you who know Tom Myers’ ‘Anatomy Trains’ system) to P-8, passing through liver, diaphragm and pericardium.

You can also track the qi from P-8 back into the body horizontally, again using the wall. Using the tip of the middle finger of your other hand (PC-9) to feel the connections, trace the qi from the the wall and P-8 into the area around the pec minor muscle and then go inside the body to the pericardiam itself, along with the liver and diaphragm. Use the breath and your imagination. Then go back and try the twistings shown above with these new perceptions.

To continue our building of a three dimensional perceptual qi field, we can return to the thera-ball to provide sensation and visualization. I like the feel of my third chakra having organ support, so I find placing the ball there and using a wall creates a powerful presence on the inside. Embryologically speaking, this is the extemely yin yolk sac which becomes the entire gut body. The conception vessel points on the micro-cosmic orbit are stimulated by the ball, bringing sensation and perception here. The liver comes from the yolk sac, so I can use this position to also find the Jue Yin channel we explored above. Lying over the ball in a forward bend creates a similar feeling, with even more yielding and softening to the yang back body erector muscles. By moving the ball to the sternum, I can activate a new set of points on the conception vessel and engage the inner tissues surrounding the 4th chakra

If I want to build up my back field perception, I use the ball from behind and awaken sensation on the yang Governing Vessel. Here I have dropped it a bit lower to find the sacral-lumbar junction and here I can feel the possibility of both lumbar flexion and extension, from S curve to C curve and back. The very important GV-4 ‘gate of vitality’ is here The inner abdominal space also opens and the front back and center plane begin to become conscious. This becomes trickier as you move upwards towards the liver. You can place the ball anywhere and feel different points coming alive. Feel their inner as well as outer presence. Back support can also help open the front. I havebeen trying to open my throat more for my sax sound and using the ball (or any elastic support) helps soften and melt tight tissue.

Fish body support, opening some Gall Bladder Meridian points is another way to use the ball. I am using the wall, but this can be done on the floor as well, with slightly different effects. All of these ways of playing with the three dimensional field are ways of awakening and establishing a dynamic energetic field, centered in your heart, and radiating out throughout the whole of the cosmos. When you are out in Nature, feel this. When you are out and about in the human sphere, feel how you respond. It is fascinating to see what happens.