Bone Breathing

[Qaexl]

(Archive (http://hiddenstorehouse.com/somatic_way/index.php/Bone_breathing))


Background

Much of the background for "winter jade (http://hiddenstorehouse.com/somatic_way/index.php/Winter_jade)" comes from Dr. Robert Becker's book, The Body Electric (http://hiddenstorehouse.com/somatic_way/index.php?title=Body_Electric&action=edit). A more detailed discussion of that general topic can be found here (http://www.occultforums.com/showthread.php?t=25398). In summary, bones adapt to stress. When you stress a bone, it strengthen this. This is how bones can straighten out, or why the skeletons of longbow archers are distorted from "normal" skeletal structures.
The determination of what is stressing the bone is not chemical, but electrical. The bone is peizoelectric, and so when it is bent, the part that is being compressed produces a net charge. Due to the way the electrical currents work, the bones are formed from a semiconductor material. Callogen (organic) are laid together with apatite (inorganic) minerals. Molecularly, they produce "pegholes" where two atoms of Cu (copper) binds with the callogen and apatite. The copper not only keeps the apatite from falling off, it forms the "doping" for a PN diode junction.
In the case of a bone fracture, a disruption of the normal electrical fields triggers the sequence where bone reknits itself:
Bone cannot heal. That sounds like a conundrum but it's literally true. Fractures knit because new bone made from other tissues unites with the fracture ends. Although we sometimes speak of bone growth as part of fracture healing, the old, preexisting bone doesn't have the capacity to grow. As mentioned in Chapter 1, there are two tissues that produce new bone at a fracture site. One is the periosteum, the bone's fibrous covering. It's the cells of the periosteum innermost layer that have the power of osteogenesis, or boen formation. After a fracture, these cells are somehow turned on. They begin to divide and some of the daughter cells turn into osteoblasts, cells that make the collagen fibers of bone. Apatite crystals then condense out of the blood serum onto the fibers.

The other tissue that forms new bone to heal a fracture is the marrow. Its cells dedifferentiate and form a blastema, filling the central part of the fracture. The blastema cells then turn into cartilage cells and later into more osteoblasts. This process is true regeneration, following the same sequence of cell changes as the regrowing salamander limb. (Becker, pp 119-120) The other important implication of this is the curious property of diodes. Diodes have conduct electric current in one direction, but generally not in the other. (This is how the bone creates the differrent charges to determine where the stress point is, otherwise, the the strain and compression would cancel each other out).
When you run a current through it in forward bias, some of its energy gets turned into light and emitted from the surface. ... We found that bone was an LED. Like many such materials, it required an outside source of light before an electric current would make it release its own l ight, and the light it emitted was at an infrared frequency invisible to us, but the effect was consistent and undeniable. (ibid) Note that infrared is at a frequency we sense as warmth.
Finally, the surprise is that callogen, the basic structural material found in every single cell of the body (as cytoskelton) is the part of the bone that is peizoelectric. This means soft tissues with high density of callogen, such as tendons, ligaments, and fascia does some weird things with electrical fields when stretched or twisted. Callogen is the part of bone that makes it look off-white yellowish and rubbery. In contrast, the apatite looks white. And so, this brings up the references in traditions to this phenomena.

[Qaexl]

The body will become naturally weightless,
When the supreme harmony is replete,
The bone fragments become like winter jade.
(Mind Seal Classic (http://hiddenstorehouse.com/somatic_way/index.php/Mind_Seal_Classic))

The Tai Chi Connection

One of the curious exercises in the Chinese culture is Tai Chi. Properly spelled Taijiquan (ji means pole, or polarity, not chi (http://hiddenstorehouse.com/somatic_way/index.php/Chi) as in qi (http://hiddenstorehouse.com/somatic_way/index.php/Qi)). This is a sequence of movement, a kata, which is often practiced at slow, to extremely slow speeds. The speed at which one practices Taijiquan has become the butt of many joke, particularly those who enjoy hanging out at Bullshido. Nevertheless, historically speaking, the slow-speed of Taijiquan (http://hiddenstorehouse.com/somatic_way/index.php/Taijiquan) practice is only one small (though fundemental) part of practice ... for beginners. Furthermore, what most people think of as "Tai Chi", is actually one derived from the Yang family style (of which there are various sets of Chen family style, Sun style, Wu style, and some that might be made up, like Wu Dang style and obscure ones like Chang style), one that had been watered-down for the Manchurian government to emphasize its health aspects. In turn, in 1956, the Communist Chinese government gathered martial artists to create a standardized 24-movement set that could be done in 3-4 minutes at a "strolling pace". It is a watered-down version of a watered-down version.


My point is that what most people see as "Tai Chi" is so far off from the traditional fighting method ... yet as distorted and watered down, you still gain the health benefit. These "health benefits" can be derived without a full understanding of how or why it works, without any visualization, without any special qigong abilities, without ability to perceive energy, without a perfect performance of the set ... done with the standard 24-form set.


The simplist reason for this has to do with the way it is performed. In order to do this at a slow, relaxed pace, many of the foot movement requires you to move a leg to step while your weight is completely on the grounded leg. When the entire body is relaxed, the entire weight of the body passes through that single leg. As we know, the compression and stressing of bones triggers a number of regenerative properties of bone; the spine and the body in general remains upright and together with being relaxed in motion, qi is generated without conscious, mental effort.


The stories I've heard and read about Taiji (though not necessarily the 24-form set) -- someone who has been sick, ill, and dying, takes up regular practice of Taiji. In a year, in two, in some amount of time, they become healthy again. Old men and old women do this in the park, doctors scratch their head wondering how calcium loss in their bones are arrested, even reversed; why that hip seems to have grown back; and why the bones under X-rays appear whiter.
They say that Taiji is "steel wrapped in cotton". It is usually taken as a metaphor that Taiji appears to be "soft" on the outside, but you can kick ass with it. The hidden meaning is one that's literal: you feel the muscles of a long time practioner, and it is supple like an adolescent; their bones are incredibly hard. When a practioner lands a blow on someone, it feels light, effortless and weightless. To the other person, it feels like someone just hit them with a steel pipe.


These methods that generate these effects through the manipulation and training of bones (and tendons, ligments, and fascia) are what I call "bone breathing." It is called by that name in Waysung Liao's Tai Chi Classic. You see a little diagram of someone compressing qi into the bone in a spiral. That technique has never worked well for me (for reasons that I'll later elucidate), and besides, for someone picking up Tai Chi specifically for bone breathing, without a good ability to move energy around, you're better off just doing Tai Chi. The movements do most of the work for you.

[Qaexl]

Damo's Cave

There's lots of stories said about Bodhidarma. The legends, however, have more instructive value than historical fact (so long as you treat legends in that dream-like perception). Damo, as Bodhidarma was called in China, was invited by the Emperor Liang in 527 AD to bring Buddhist practices to the royal court. Some stories say once he got there, the emperor didn't like what Damo said, and he was exiled from court, and chanced upon some sickly monks. Other stories say he found those monks. It is said, he then went to a cave, that later became Shaolin (little forest). Meditating in his cave for nine years, the outline of his image burned into the rock. When he came out, he introduced two practions, Yi Jin Jing 易筋經 (http://hiddenstorehouse.com/somatic_way/index.php/%E6%98%93%E7%AD%8B%E7%B6%93) -- The Tendon Changing Classic -- and Xi Sui Jing 洗髓經 (http://hiddenstorehouse.com/somatic_way/index.php/%E6%B4%97%E9%AB%93%E7%B6%93) -- Bone Marrow and Brain Washing Classic.


Dr. Jwing-Ming Yang describes how these two practices work together in his book, Root of Chinese Qigong and its sequel volume, Qigong: the Secrets of Youth. The Tendon Changing Classic (易筋經) is a series of practice that "raises the fascia". That is to say, it inflates the connective tissues called fascia, with qi. Fascia, tendons, and ligments contains a high density of collagen; so the body fluids and "air" pumps up these tissues combined with the vital energy of qi.
However, raising the level of qi (http://hiddenstorehouse.com/somatic_way/index.php/Qi) like this degenerates these tissues fast. The point of raising all of this energy is not so you can throw "qi balls" at each other, turn DragonBallZ, and shoot lightning out of your arse. In the case of the above, you lead qi (http://hiddenstorehouse.com/somatic_way/index.php/Qi) into the marrow, and thus "wash the bone marrow", or "bone marrow washing". It is said, this changes the marrow, turns into heat and light. When this transformed marrow reaches the brain, you become illuminated. In other words, this is a practice of enlightenment, in the sense of illumination (http://www.occultforums.com/showthread.php?t=25395).


The Tendon Changing Classic writes clearly on the techniques. According to Stuart Alve Olson (http://hiddenstorehouse.com/somatic_way/index.php/Stuart_Alve_Olson), the Bone Marrow Washing Classic, however, describes the effects (maps out the territory). That is to say, the Truth cannot be spoken, the best you can do is to point the way. Leading qi (http://hiddenstorehouse.com/somatic_way/index.php/Qi) into the marrows, is within the same category of practices discussed here (http://www.occultforums.com/showthread.php?t=22079)

.
The methods used in the Tendon Changing Classic, while they invigorate the body (and increase matabolism and degeneration), does not by itself produce enough qi to effect the changes from Bone Marrow Washing. The primary source of qi (http://hiddenstorehouse.com/somatic_way/index.php/Qi) used for marrow washing is the sexual essence, jing (http://hiddenstorehouse.com/somatic_way/index.php/Jing). There are two methods for this: celibacy and sexual disciplines.


Both require the consevation of emission. Celibacy is difficult in its own way, in that one detaches from the reproductive imparative of the human primate. There's lots of different techniques for that. In contrast, in Dr. Yang's book, most of the latter half of the book involves sexual disciplines, as does Mantak Chia's techniques. There are other books, other authors relating to this. However you get there, the idea is to sit on "the seat of bliss", and ride it towards illumination. The important thing is to find one suitable to your lifestyle, and stick with it.


This at last, comes to my own bastardized (say "eclectic" with a smile, not a sneer :-D ) version of bone breathing.


See Also: Bone marrow washing:stories (http://hiddenstorehouse.com/somatic_way/index.php/Bone_marrow_washing:stories)

[m1thr0s]

Good stuff Qaexl...very interesting...

m1thr0s

[One]

An old thread, but interesting. Orthodox Chinese boxing styles, of which I take Xingyiquan, have these methods for "cleaning" bone marrow and tendons. Thank you for the information if you're still around, Qaexl! Qigong has many benefits (beware of westernized/New Age Qigong!).