The Gate of Fate

The Chinese term for the lower back kidney area is mingmen which means "the gate of fate." The name implies the Chinese notion that prenatal qi, yuanqi, is stored in the kidney system. The kidneys regulate fluids in the body and they also produce jing. Jing is that aspect of qi which comprises the self reproductive quality in nature, it is stored in the kidney system where it is available both for making babies and for making repairs. Jing produces new tissue when we are injured, bone, muscle, scabs, etc. It is our ancestral memory.

The number one purpose for studying martial arts is to not have a rigid fate. I wish more schools explained this up front. This idea is closely linked to the area known as the mingmen. When the lower back is stiff and deficient we literally have a rigid fate.

How is it possible that a person gets stuck on an idea in their twenties and despite heaps of evidence which accumulates during their lifetime which contradicts that idea, they still cling to it. Traditionally these rigid ideas or notions or ideologies have been conceived as hungry ghosts or wandering demons that are invisible to us but slowly eat away at our kidneys whenever we "check out." By "checking out" I mean staying up too late, forgetting to eat, taking drugs, or unleashing political rants. The day after we become food for little hungry demons, our lower back gets stiff and starts to hurt.

I don't think there is a perfect correlation between physical rigidity and a person's inability to freely make choices based entirely on what is real. There is some correlation, but I've met some amazing people with pretty screwed up bodies. Still, sit-ups are dumb. Six-pack abdominal muscles are O.K. against a boxer with gloves on and that's it. Like the "core-strength" fad, sit-ups break the unity of a person's body, they restrict the freedom of the torso and they tighten the breath. Why choose a rigid fate?

The Spinal Ligaments

Martial Development and Formosa Neijia (this too) have recently posted about the tail bone. Here is my previous post on the subject.

Chris at Martial Development makes the point that martial artists often get stuck in the idea that their tail bone should be forward. He suggests that people focus on lifting the head and just relax the tail bone.

Unfortunately martial arts also get stuck in the idea of lifting the head which can lead to stiffness or over straightening. As we used to say in the dance world, "Straight is a look, not a feeling." (Think about that one.)

Speaking anatomically for a moment, there are four ligaments which go from the top of the spine to bottom, directly on the center-line. A ligament is a very strong flexible piece of tissue that connects bone to bone. It is not elastic! If a ligament stretches it is unlikely to stretch back. That's why all the muscles tighten up (or lock down if you prefer) around a ligament that is getting over worked.

Each ligament in the spine can be felt. And each ligament can be felt simultaneously for even tension all the way up and down the spine.

So tucking, or straightening, or lifting up can all be wrong if they slacken or tighten one group of ligaments. The spine works as a whole unit, so it is usually a mistake to try to move just one part. Each vertebral-body (bone) can tilt forward or backwards somewhat like Venetian blinds.

But at a higher level if you are thinking inside the body about the details of anatomy you are making the mistake of "letting the spirit leave the body." The same goes for lifting up the head or sinking the tail bone. The mind or the "shen" goes out in all directions, if it goes up (like a rainbow fountain) without obstruction, the spine will follow--like a hungry tiger to its prey.

The notes for the cross section above are here:

Figure 10. A sagittal view of the human thoracic spinal cord, showing the (1) intervertebral discs, (2) vertebral bodies, (3) dura, (4) epidural space, (5) spinal cord, and (6) subdural space. A thick ligament, the anterior longitudinal ligament forms the anterior border of the spinal column. The posterior longitudinal ligament form the posterior border of the vertebral bodies.

Flexibility

Practicing flexibility is a Daoist Precept. Still, I'm kind of down on yoga. To me, true physical flexibility is the range of motion that you can use to express an emotion, a feeling, or a task. The feeling most people express when they are doing yoga is pain. (I know, it feels soooo good afterwards.)

Let me be the first to admit that if you are already in pain, stretching may be the simplest and most straightforward way to temporarily get rid of it. Fair enough. But until you change the regular activity (or inactivity) which is causing the pain, the pain will keep returning.

Dance is generally a good way to develop flexibility. Unfortunately the standards of ballet and most modern dance are based on teenage bodies, which are far more pliant than adult bodies. Thus injuries are too common. But there are many different types of dance.

I know most martial artists are afraid of dance, but incidentally I was at a serious Kick-boxing gym last night where fighters were jumping rope and doing endurance training. I'm willing to bet that any professional ballet dancer can beat these fighters in an endurance match.

I suspect that most people will not understand what I am saying because they don't have the experience. Let me put it another way. If it hurts, it is wrong. If it disconnects the limbs from the movement of the torso, it is wrong.

If Elvis were alive today he would have put it this way: If your "downward dog" can't chase rabbits (or at least scamper around the kitchen), he ain't no friend of mine.

I know that was some tough talk, but if you still love stretching (think pain), contortion is a great option! San Francisco now has a world class contortion training program, The Circus Center.  Make sure you scroll down to the middle of the Adult classes part of the schedule where it says Advanced Contortion and Mongolian Contortion. This is the real deal!

(Also, yesterday I attended a fabulous show at The Circus Center's Clown Conservatory, for those of you into the high art of clowning!)