I Don't Like to Get Hurt

The other day while I was teaching a wonderful class of 6 and 7 year olds, a student raised her hand and said, "I don't like to get hurt."  Her statement arose because I had just been teaching them a two-person, hook-punch, flow drill which works best if your partner aims directly at your temple.

I asked for the hands of students who like to get hurt, 4 in 20 raised their hands.  Human nature on display.  This perhaps led to some cognitive dissonance between the skills I was helping them to acquire and the general anti-violence dogma being taught at school.  Another student raised his hand and asked, "So what exactly do you use martial arts for?"

I answered them by saying, "You know how cats like to catch mice?"  They nodded.  "And some cats like to play with mice?"  They nodded again.  "Well, I'm the kind of cat that likes to play with mice.  But I'm not really interested in eating them."

All of this caused me to reflect afterward that since the 1970's many schools have tried to raise "cats" who neither catch, nor play with, mice.  Since this goes against human nature, we are finally seeing a recognition of how such attitudes lead to students hating and therefore failing school.  Particularly for boys.  There is a new book called The Trouble with Boys, and even better a website, Why Boys Fail.com.  And I'm a big fan of Marty Nemko's, Men's Issues.

If my popularity as a kung fu teacher is any indicator of how things are going, then things are changing for the better.  When I first started teaching in the schools 15 years ago  I ran into teachers and principals who were downright paranoid.  They feared having me in their school was going to result in bloody riots on the school yard.  These days demand for my classes is coming from all directions, PTA, principles, teachers, and of course the students themselves. (The election of action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger governor of Cal-ee-fornia hasn't hurt my cause either!)

One of the back-bones of Daoism is the notion that our true nature is without limits.  Some cats are more transcendent than others, they are more interested in exploring all the different things which can be done with a mouse than they are in actually eating one.  And some cats are more masters of simplicity.  When they see a mouse, they eat it.  When they see sun, they sleep in it.  They appear to be practicing a non-transcendent form of wuwei (not doing).  And some cats are so afraid of mice and other cats and vacuum cleaners that they are constantly on the prowl, like Shaman of old, for some advantage which will enable them to dominate.

Daoism has teachings for all three types of cats.  Observing external behavior is the basis for our three general categories of commitments humans make:  Transcendence, Wuwei, and Shamanic.  But the process of categorizing brings with it two types of baggage that beg to be acknowledged.  The first is that we simply can not tell from looking, listening or analyzing, which type of commitment another person (or cat) is making.  We can guess, and we can think we know--they can even tell us--but it is impossible to truly get inside someone else's head.  The second is that it is our nature to move between these different types of commitments.  For instance if you practice meditation you will find that you are:

1. Worried that you aren't doing it right (Shamanic)


2. Trying to perfect yourself (Transcendent)


3. Was there a third? (Wuwei)

Martial Arts are Recession Proof

I accept money for teaching.  I make a living from teaching martial arts.  But my practice is unaffected by how much money I make.  My practice takes place outside the realm of money.  Neither being a billionaire nor being a pauper would effect my practice.

Of course, if I were a billionaire I could practice in my own private walled garden instead of my own private (because no one else is there at 6 AM) park which used to be a quarry.  And if I had so little money that I was actually hungry from not eating the night before, it might have some effect, but it still wouldn't change the content or meaning of my practice.

And by the way, there is a Daoist precept against being extremely rich or poor.

Dollhouse

I know I'm supposed to blog about martial arts and Daoism but I can't stop thinking about Joss Whedon's new TV show Dollhouse.  It starts tonight!

Does Deep Breathing Cut off Circulation?

Back in the 1990's I did an all day workshop in Holotropic Breathing with Stan Groff.  It was pretty far out.  He played a lot of loud heavy metal music (like they do at Guantanamo) while we breathed as quickly and deeply as we could...for 4 hours.  We each had a partner whose job it was to monitor us and create was to give us muscle resistance.  The idea is that the muscle resistance with the breathing would unblock one or more of 7 things from out mind/bodies.  The 7 things were:  Re-birth, second-birth, re-experiencing surgery, re-experiencing an accident, re-experiencing an intense pre-verbal childhood experience, mythic experience, and cellular consciousness.

I got to wallow in 5 of the 7.  I had a second-birth instead of the re-birth (I know that because I was not a breach baby), and I never made it to cellular consciousness.  My mythic experience was having my guts eaten by a large bird.  I know what you're thinking, "That's sooo cool, I'm not going to try it."

But I did learn some things about what inhaling large amounts of oxygen does to my body.  Breathing is an anesthetic.  If you have an injury, particularly on the torso, your breathing will change.  It will go to the place of injury and cover up the pain.  Sometimes after an injury has healed, the breathing pattern which functioned as an anesthetic will still remain.  One of the ways to diagnose chronic pain is by closely observing someones breathing patterns.  Chronic pain often becomes numbness.  A person with a chronic pain breathing pattern might not realize they are in pain until they start relaxing.

But weird hippy stuff and medical conditions aside, there is an important lesson here about the circulation of qi into the limbs.  If you run long distance, or run up a large number of stairs (or anything which makes your breathing labored) the qi gates at your hips and shoulders will partially close (as will the perineum on the pelvic floor).   This is because the heart is demanding more oxygen.  This is why after a run, many people feel a lot of tingling in their arms and/or their legs--At the end of the run they experience their hip and shoulder gates reopening.

Likewise, simply breathing deeply will cut off qi circulation to the limbs.  I'm guessing mammals developed this ability in order to increase our chances of survival in the event that we are loosing blood from a limb.  It may even be that just before mammals "play dead" they have to get really scared and take a few really deep breathes.

In Taijiquan, Baguazhang, and Xingyiquan, we want optimal circulation of qi all over the body while we are moving at high speed.  Without that optimal circulation throughout the body we will not develop the quality of being physically quiet and wild at the same time.  All of these styles teach people to breath into the lower dantian and into the mingmen (lower back).  At the beginning it is important that the breath not be constrained to the chest.  Achieving this more relaxed style of breathing is largely a process of finding the "right" or "appropriate" dynamic postures.

However, it is possible to get "good" at breathing and not get good at circulation.  This is because too much qi gets concentrated in the dantian and causes the hip gates to close.  The hip gates are a bit like pressure valves which close automatically when the pressure gets too high.  So the lesson is that breathing must be calm and gentle, perhaps even shallow, for optimal qi circulation to go into the legs.  If qi isn't going into your legs, no matter how much training you do, you will not achieve quiet and wild at the same time, nor will you will achieve empty and full at the same time.  Yes folks, even qi should not be horded.

The Daodejing says:

To be preserved whole, Bend.

Upright, then Twisted.

To be Full, Hollow Out.

What is worn out will be repaired.

Those who have little, have much to be gained; having much you will only be perplexed!

Another Yoga Rant

I know there is huge variation and experimentation going on in the yoga world, and I applaud that.  I've seen great yoga, and I've met many people for whom yoga is a superb form of physical and mental training.  Nothing I'm about to write is intended to dissuade those people from practicing, or anyone else from trying a yoga practice.

That said, yoga is not for me.

Dave over at Formosa Neijia has a recent post about Yoga.  In his review of a DVD he says, "It’s for opening up the front of the body, which is what those of us that sit in front of a computer all day need."  He likes Rodney Yee's DVD's and some other Ashtanga teachers too.

Now I haven't done a ton of yoga, but I have done 10,000 hours of stretching.  Also, because I'm not genetically flexible I've had to work for every millimeter of length I've got.  I even took Rodney Yee's class in Berkeley 17 years ago, when I was 24.  The most frustrating thing about that class is that it was full of hot sweaty babes who were so busy drooling over Rodney that I didn't even have a chance to be embarrassed about the out of control boner I was having--nobody even noticed.

In that sense, yoga classes were never easy for me.  But I did manage to date a few kudilini yogini's.  One woman that I dated off and on for about 4 years in my early twenties studied with all the heavies including Pattabhi Jois.  She was doing his third series last I checked; which, for those of you who haven't seen it, begins in an upright standing position with one foot behind your head!

So I have some experience.  I did at least 3 back bend bridges every day from age 18 to 28.  Because of my qigong spine opening practice, by age 27 I was able to do a back walkovers cold, I could go into a bridge from a standing position with out warming up.   If I was just using "stretching based" flexibility I would have had to warm up first.  Qigong allowed me to open my spine without stretching.

Anyway, at age 29, I injured my spine in a fall and it really hurt to do bridges after that, so I stopped.

Now, Back to Dave's comment.  Yes, it is true that many people sit in front of computers or read all day and need to open up the front of their bodies.  If you think of the rib cage as a basket.  These people's baskets have become slumped.  It's like they leaned a heavy object against their basket for like a year and now it's got a funny shape.  Yoga is unlikely to be able to correct this problem.  Stretching the basket won't help, it will just keep going back to it's funny shape after you are done messing with it.

The rib cage basket needs to be returned to it's primordial state.  It needs to be softened up and reworked.  If it were a basket, perhaps we could soak it in warm water for a while and then dry it in the shape we want.  But for the rib cage to change shape, it needs jing and qi.

In the yoga/stretching paradigm the goal is to try and move your body into (or towards) a shape.  Each time you do it you are supposed to get closer to that shape.  Props, aids or modifications of the shape do not changed this basic paradigm.  The problem is that if you are actually stretching further each day you are cutting off whole body integration and closing key qi gates.  So although you might get more flexible, at least in class, and you might develop tight muscles which will in fact change your posture, the end result will be less flexibility, less whole body integration and less mobility.

Obviously, for serious couch potatoes, yoga is a wonderful thing and I'm really happy when one of them gets up off the couch.  I'm not talking about them.  I'm talking about serious martial artist, and other serious movement artists trying to improve their art.

If you start from whole body integration and qi circulation, your range of movement is going to get smaller at first, not bigger.  As whole body integration gets better and qi circulation improves, the desire to internally stretch will arise naturally.  You, like every healthy cat on the face of the earth, will want to stretch.  You will know how to do it thoroughly and spontaneously without needing a class.

(Because I know someone is thinking this question:  Yes, it is possible to teach yoga this way, I just haven't seen it done yet. )

And since I just found my former girlfriend's Yoga Goddess site, check it out!  I'm sure she is cutting her own unique and powerful path of innovation.

The Great Rice Ball

Diets are annoying because everyone is different.  Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.  Sometimes they sort of work, for a while, and then they don't.

I'm more interested in principles of eating based on a practical understanding of the process by which food becomes blood which is capable of re-animating every part of our bodies.

A healthy person, by definition in Chinese Medicine, will choose foods which keep them healthy.  A healthy person will have an appetite perfectly appropriate for what they need.  A healthy person's appetite will fluctuate depending on weather conditions and how much exercise, rest and sleep they get.

People doing a lot of mental exercise will need rest.  However, most people these days work themselves at jobs which expend mental energy and they don't allow for spontaneous naps.  In this situation a healthy person's appetite will step in and tell them to go get some sugar.  This is especially true as the afternoon wears on (but it can happen at anytime of day or night).

Sugar is what the blood needs to keep transporting qi to the front lines, or oxygen to the cells if you prefer.  The effect of eating sugar is instantaneous, but it also wears off quickly, leading to another craving.  Eating sugar for a boost occasionally is not a problem.  However, doing this for years on end leads to degeneration of the internal organs.  A long list of diseases could follow here, from just being a whiny neurotic spaz, to advanced-stage-limb-amputating diabetes.

Often times people with this late afternoon craving for sugar will try to suppress it.  While I have no doubt that there are people with extraordinary discipline making this work, most people will crack under the pressure.  Cracking leads to binging.

Many people know they don't have the discipline so they turn to appetite suppressants like tobacco, coffee or tea.  Each of these has potential negative side affects, however, depending on where you work, they can be good for your social life, which is one of the strongest statistical indicators for longevity.  Of course, because I'm into Chinese medicine, I have to say that if we are comparing appetite suppressants, green tea has the least negative side effects .  But I've seen plenty of people abusing green tea.

Chocolate and Diet Coke (or other caffeinated sodas) are a sort of self back-stabbing compromise between sugar and suppressing the appetite.  The average "health" bar, with 52 suspicious ingredients you need a PhD in Chemistry to digest, is just as bad.

Rice Balls to the Rescue!

What if, when that late afternoon weariness starts to set in, instead of getting sugar or caffeine, instead you eat a rice ball?  Rice is a complex carbohydrate.  In order for rice to become sugar in your blood steam, your digestive organs have to do some work.  Because they are doing work, they won't get lazy, and when they don't get lazy, they don't degenerate, and when they don't degenerate they don't lead to all those nasty diseases.

The boosting effects of eating a rice ball are not as instantaneous as drinking a Coke but the energizing effects will last much longer.  Also rice balls have seaweed on the outside and usually something stimulating inside like umeboshi (sour plum), a pickle, or a small piece of delicious fish.

Rice balls are really really good snacks.

If you live in Japan, you can get them everywhere at 7-Eleven corner stores.  You probably know that once the nori (seaweed) has been applied to the rice, it will start to get soggy.  After about 6 hours it becomes chewy instead of crisp.  But 7-Eleven solved that problem with the worlds most brilliant and longevity inspiring technology.  They wrap the rice ball in plastic then put the seaweed on, then another piece of plastic.  And they have those anti-moisture-oxygen absorbing packets in there too.  If you pull the three tabs in the correct 1,2, 3 order (see picture), the seaweed wraps around the rice ball as you pull off the wrapper!!!  They are fantastically fresh and tasty!  Why don't all 7-Elevens carry rice balls?  It isn't fair!  Write your Congressman today, tell them how you feel, tell them that Rice Balls are the answer to America's problems.

(In the interest of full disclosure, while writing this post I drank some pu-erh tea, ate a pickle and had a small piece of chocolate.  Now I'm going to take a nap!)

Tibetan Medicine

I just got an  email about a Tibetan Medicine program in Berkeley which is part of the International Academy for Traditional Tibetan Medicine.  I thought my readers would want to know about it.  If you check out their site you'll see that there are classes in cities all over the world.

This is the first course of a four year comprehensive Tibetan medical training offered internationally by the IATTM. The course is based on the Four Tantras, the root text of Tibetan Medicine, covering one Tantra per year, systematically building the foundations and practical applications of Tibetan Medicine. The first years’ course covers the Root Tantra- the first of the Four Tantras. The material is organized into different trees- as depicted in the Medical Thankas; which are a visual way to remember and hold the medical system in the mind.

Topics covered in the first course include:

Introduction: an overview of the vast and profound tradition of Tibetan Medical tradition, its philosophies and basic principles.

Brief History: an introduction to some of the great masters- realized yogis, siddhas, and doctors who revealed this tradition, as well as some fundamental texts and developments from ancient Bonpo shamanic medicine to modern clinical practice.

Fundamental Principles: a study of the healthy body from the perspective of ancient Buddhist medicine. This will cover the five elements, anatomy and physiology including channels, chakras, organs, etc.

While this class provides the foundational training of the IATTM Tibetan medical program, which offers the skills to actually practice Tibetan Medicine, this first class is open to all, and useful to anyone who wants to understand more about their bodies and internal energies.