Water to Mountain

[Anonymous]

I wanted to remember this.

I’ve been working with the CSF in a bunch of different ways over the past months. It started very simple with using the spinal cord to balance any external movement. So, when my arms went out, I created pressure in the CSF of the cord at the height where my arms and legs were connecting to the movement in the opposite direction. If the arms went out the cord balanced the motion in the opposite direction. If the arms came in, I created pressure toward them. This created a really useful balance that seemed to correspond well with the idea of central equilibrium in Tai Chi. It also tied in nicely with all of the Bend the Bow work I had done years ago. That work was paying off. Because it was enabling me to connect the legs and arms to any height on the spine that I chose. This also gave me significantly better access to the CSF which led to finding the brain ventricles and a much deeper understanding of the CSF.

The brain ventricles significantly upgraded my access to the CSF and in turn made the central canal (again, not the central channel) accessible distinctly from the CSF that surrounds it. This led to finding how the organs are really supposed to be involved. Prior to the work I had found the blood and nerve flows to the organs but I couldn’t control them with the level of precision that the CSF affords. Big upgrade.

From there I used the walking postures to more clearly understand the movement of each organ. I detailed some of the observations from that work in other posts. The most significant gains were around the heart and lungs. Getting that movement resolved some congenital hunch and further opened the my access to the CSF.

At that point I could do the same balance that I described in the first paragraph of this post but with far greater power because the whole body would get involved. Rather than balanced at a height, I could balance a whole side. I was activating the entire length of the spine simultaneously. This is one of the benefits of moving by directing the CSF.

I went a lot further though. I could expand from the central canal. I could expand from the surrounding CSF (I consider this a deeper understanding of the side channels). I could access either side separately or in combination. I could absorb into the central canal or into the side channels of the CSF. This can be a basis for the four corners. I also have definitions for all of the eight palms changes that are based on moving the CSF in very specific ways. All of this work culminates in the Water palm change but isn’t the end.

Which brings me to the Mountain palm. Mountain starts moving the CSF in multiple directions simultaneously. In the Water palm, Bruce focused on up and down. But not up/down simultaneously. We were either going up OR going down. In Mountain, you get both flows going and interacting. You want the down causing the up and the up causing the down until there is no difference.

The reason for this post is that I sort of lost all the distinction between the central canal and side CSF as I got better. This is another example of how much of the process gets lost. I could just move on and forget how I got to where I am.

I already can tell that the work with the Mountain palm is setting up the Lake Palm Change. The “spirals of energy” is probably more accurately described as swirling CSF.

Anyway this is all Chi phase material, but I’m pretty sure I’m getting to the end of it and the beginning of shen phase.

[Anonymous]

BTW, when you get to Mountain, you should find both yin and yang. If you do, you’ll also have a good idea what stillness is. Bruce talks about there being many levels of stillness. I don’t know where this one fits into the scheme of things, but the balance I talked about in the first paragraph was one level and some of the other steps were other levels. When you start to experience neither yin nor yang, that’s another level. All of the palm changes can have particular meaning is this context as well.

It is important to remember this isn’t emptiness.

[Anonymous]

Thanks James,

watch the solid yang line rise to the top of the trigram:

☷

☳

☵

☶

again:
☷ Earth

☳ Thunder

☵ Water

☶ Mountain

from the I-Ching (52):
☶ Mountain
☶ Mountain

Gen – Keeping Still

“Keeping Still” (52) follows “Taking Action” (51)
“Keeping Still” expounds the truth of knowing when and where to stop before one’s action goes too far.

When the solid yang line advances to the central position,
it becomes Water ☵

Next when the solid yang line advances up to the top,
it becomes Mountain ☶

All the lines of the gua Gen take images of different parts of the body:

1.Keeping Still at the toes
Mountain over Fire

2. Keeping Still at the calves
Mountain over Wind

3. Keeping Still at the waist
Mountain over Earth

4. Keeping Still at the trunk (heart and lungs)
Fire over Mountain

5. Keeping Still at the jaws
Wind over Mountain

6. The final stage of Keeping Still
Earth over Mountain
Honestly and sincerely keeping still

Your progression seems to be consistent with the I-Ching

But there may a lot more stages before reaching Lake
(53) Jian – Developing Gradually
(54) Gui Mei – Marrying Maiden
(55) Feng – Abundance
(56) Lu – Traveling
(57) Xun – Proceeding Humbly
(58) Dui – Joyful (Lake)

Bob

[Anonymous]

Another side note: in the NY event, “Bagua and the I Ching”, Bruce describes the stability of Mountain. He first says the body part is the lower tan tien, then that it is the upper and the lower tan tiens. A few sentences later he says it is the spine. And finally he says “Mountain gives you a still point where you are okay within all these changes or no changes. Still point deep within the heart, shen.” IMO this statement implies the middle tan tien.

All of these make sense to me. The lower, middle, and upper tan tiens are in the central canal accessed through the central nervous system and CSF – the spine.

The key to Mountain is the stability and the stillness that the director (your mind) finds through a state of polarity (in all or multi directions).

The integration I experienced is part of Lake. I no longer experience a side alone. They are always interacting, connected, and one.

[Anonymous]

All of the directions (up/down, left/right, front/back, and in/out) are just examples of yin and yang pairs. For a long time, we train yin then yang then yin then yang. Mountain’s stability is based on polarity which implies a matched pair of yin and yang. In fact, Mountain includes them all until you no longer differentiate them. Even the transformation that I recently posted about is likely nothing more than feeling the pair – in/out. I can expand the blood vessels, but the venous return is always there. The awareness of both creates a stability and stillness of sorts.

So, in the progression:yang; yin; both yin and yang; neither yin nor yang – my guess is that stillness represents the stage of both yin and yang.

I’m back to thinking the neither yin nor yang is emptiness. It fits Bruce’s comment that emptiness has no describable quality. At best it is spaciousness expanding. The interesting thing is that that spaciousness can expand outward, inward, as well as both inward and outward simultaneously.

[Anonymous]

For anyone who has been reading my recent posts about CSF and the brain ventricles with skepticism, watch EATC month 11 standing qigong session 5. At 3:25-3:35 Bruce specifically mentions the brain ventricles and a little later (around 4:30) he starts talking about how this is supposed to impact both the sides and then the front and back.

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