16 Part Neigung – #6 Bend and Stretch Question

As you know, I am not one of Bruce’s instructors,
or even more than a mere beginner in bagua.
(Tai chi is my passion.)

In the view of biotensegrity, “bend” and “stretch” are non-scientific terms that often use engineering sciences to analyze biological systems–levers and pulleys–for example, bones and skeletal-muscle had been considered as a closed muscle-skeletal system that causes movement.

The “mesokinetic” system is a biotensegrity term that is much more inclusive (even incorporating the interstitial organ.)
“Meso” refers to the mesoderm of the embryonic tissue from which all tissues (connective and structural) are derived.
Every cell and tissue and bone is built from a basic icosahedron geometry (from DNA to flower heads to pineapples to the nautilus and beyond).

Bruce uses the terms “bend” and “stretch” in their ordinary meanings.
He sometimes uses the analogy of a rubber band stretching.
When stretched man-made rubber bands get thinner.

Tensegrity models frequently do just the opposite;
tissue may get thicker when stretched.

Biotensegrity posits a dynamic architecture that unifies the whole organism.

This is going way beyond my meager knowledge of biological movement because biological structures also have curves and spirals and are multi-dimensional (think Fibonacci sequence and Golden Mean and Penrose tiling and fractals).

But, to me, it looks like bends and stretches are always trying to reduce themselves to a minimum and form a straight line.
It is the balance (yin and yang if you will) between all the different pushes and pulls, tension and compression, bending and stretching, that automatically determines the next position of equilibrium.

This is not “a bend and then a stretch.”

Only when we try to reduce the whole to parts for linguistic analysis could we say that one part “bends” while the other part “stretches.”

My favorite viewpoint is “Total exertion of a single thing”
which means that focus on one part automatically includes the movement of all parts.

Ju-ching, teacher of Buddhist monk Dogen, had a poetic way of describing this holistic situation.

“Plum blossoms open the early spring;” (non-dualistic)

not “Plum blossoms open in early spring.” (dualistic)

It is the stretching and bending of “plum plants” that comprise spring.

I’m enjoying spring struggle.