Balancing the Left and the Right Channels:

James, you are a treasure.

I like the way you simplify things.

On the other hand, I am much more verbose.

Please excuse me.

First and most importantly I must reveal that I am interested in bagua and taiji more for spiritual development.

In Zen meditation the EXHALE is more important than the inhale.
In my practice of self-acupressure, the turning of the “needle” IN towards the center line is more important than the release of power outwards.

The INWARD turning and EXHALATION allow spiritual energy without exertion to illuminate a space of emptiness with the fullness of emptiness.

How is this inner space created?

Lung acupuncture point # 2 (“Yun Men” or “Cloud Gate” or “The Gateway of Gathering Clouds”) is located at the shoulder nest (in the center of the delto-pectoral triangle, below the collar bone).

This point, to me, Lung-2, is very close to the tops of the right and left channel alignments.

For me, working with Lung-2 allows Love to illuminate my inner heart-mind with nourishing rainfall when the clouds gather and with energizing sunshine when they part.

Robert Tangora writes that:
“Locating the actual alignments requires a heightened degree of internal sensitivity.”
These are the alignments that allow your joints to evenly compress and expand while not interfering with the soft tissues spiraling evenly up and down the entire length of the left-right alignments.

If I am so freaked out with spiritual development why bother to analyze the physical mechanics of the arm?

Emptiness is form and form is emptiness and emptiness is emptiness and form is form.

So, too, form must be studied.

Besides,
rotator cuff damage is epidemic,
even for elite athletes and martial artists.

It has been said that Tai Chi is the art of being lazy.

That is,
minimize the use of big muscle groups (pect major/biceps/brachio radialis) and
instead cultivate smaller muscles (pect minor), soft tissue and myofascia.

The right/left alignment channel runs from the coracoid process near the shoulder-nest to
The outer and upper attachments of the rectus abdominus—maybe all the way down to the pubic bone and the interior joint of the hip.

“Anatomy Trains,” Thomas W. Meyers, might identify this as the “Deep Front Arm Line.” I’m no expert at this (although it might sound like I’m trying to ‘snow’ you).
According to Meyers, the DFAL sends fibers out of the 3-4-5 ribs to the pec minor to the CORACOID process, to the biceps, to elbow, to radial forearm muscles, to the outside of the thumb.

The arm lines act across 10 or so levels of joints in the arms to bring things toward us.

Furthermore, the “Arm Lines” display more ‘crossover’ myofascial linkages among longitudinal continuities than do the corresponding lines in the legs.
This is because the arms are more specialized for mobility (rather than support and stability).

The coracoid process is a key spot. (Coraciod translates as “crow’s beak.”)
As I said it is located at the top of the alignment channel in the shoulder-nest—at the lateral end of the collar bone.) It protrudes forward from the scapula and can be felt as a little marble forward of the shoulder bone-top-of-the-humerus.

When the tissue and ligaments around this little baby are stretched and flexible, the shoulder joint can open and close evenly and smoothly.

I thought it might be interesting to cross-reference James’ excellent description of the arm’s closing activity with some of these myofascial concepts:
(I put James’ descriptions in quotes)

“So simplify. The hand twisting in closes the joint and draws energy toward the lower tan tien.”

CORACOID closes and draws myofascia down towards the abdomen

“Twisting the hand in”

Start with “palm facing up”
Hand supinated (ulna and radius bones parallel)
Thumb facing out
Hand probably a bit up above shoulder level
In position to do a Pull-up (strong move with the biceps)
Joints wide open
You might picture yourself as a monkey hanging from a branch with all your joints open and tissue stretched from thumb to abdomen.

Turn right-thumb in
Like pulling out a screw by turning the screw-driver counter-clockwise IN (with right hand)
(This requires less effort than screwing the screw in.)

“to palm facing down” (arm now pronated—ulna and radius crossing in an “X”)
Now in position to do a Chin-up (harder to do than pull-ups)

See Mary Bonds’ video “The Secrets of Your Shoulders”

http://healyourposture.com/2013/01/secrets-of-your-shoulders/

You are now hanging from a limb and
“you are now able to access the side channel.”

Notice also the effect on your chest, serratus anterior, sternum, scapula and opened back.

You also might find that inner space filled with the fullness of emptiness.

Thanks for enduring this,
it helps me understand what’s going on.

Bob

In my last few posts I wasn’t going back to the spine at all. I deliberately avoided taking the storing back to it and purposely guided the store in the arm to the shoulder’s nest and down into to kwa. I’m really describing the big columns that connect the shoulder’s nests to the kwa.

Going back to the spine as part of the storing phase is the subject of Core IV, Bend the Bow and Shoot the Arrow. When I do it, I would try to simultaneously spiral to every joint of the spine equally as well as the lower tantien. If you are going to start going back to the spine you’ll need to understand left/right balancing.

Obviously the arms and legs connect to the spine. The first day I met Bruce he was pulling the arms out away from the spine to connect them. So, you can start this from day one. That has nothing to do with activating the side channels. Sorry, I don’t think I helped answer your question because I’m just not thinking about the side channels this way right now.

Yes! That’s the precision of the movement. More importantly you got the big feeling that you want.

Remember at first it is that think liquid, but you’ll refine that until there is absolutely no resistance. You could say it goes empty if you still are conscious and the mind is leading the spiral. If you’ve ever heard Bruce describe dissolving upward and the mind staying just in front of the dissolving, you’ll have a better idea what I mean. If not, just keep storing and releasing as best you can. The thinkness is usually you feeling or making conscious the stuck channels. Clearing them out is the practice.

just another side on sides:

early yesterday morning we were practicing “Brush Knee Twist”
on the northern shore of Lake Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

facing east
with the shoreline on our right channels–south
one boot in the water the other on the sand
looking 50 yards down the shoreline

as the sun rose
and a light wind blew small waves onto the beach,
regular and periodic,
the waves rolling in from the southeast were illuminated as they met the shoreline diagonally

(the water of Lake Coeur d’Alene is crystal clear;
sparkling stones, like gems, added more mystery to the shoreline)

Aha! a teaching moment:

this is the vision I’m talking about when I say the internal energy of the right side channel spirals in

we turned around to the west, and sure enough,
the spiralling energy now moved outward from our left side channels