Muscle, Tendon, Breath & Bone
A few years ago I made some presentations at the local Barnes & Noble, attempting to reach a audience and create an interest in TCC. The title I used for these events was … Muscle, Tendon, Breath & Bone.
What’s with these 4?
Well, for one, it’s a convenient way of categorizing major body subsystems that have to be affected so as to ‘rectify the structures’.
Given that the body is a unity, and functions as a unity, it’s still helpful to view the requirements of change from a subsystem perspective.
The underlying requirements of TCC are those of optimal use of the body, but, underlying these one finds a more fundamental set of requirements, that of ‘happy cells’ ;-}. If the tissues do not have optimal operating environment then they can not operate optimally, now, why would I use a tautology? Isn’t it self evident?
Not really.
- What cellular requirements boil down to is sufficient supply of nutrients and oxygen in the surrounding serum and efficient removal of waste products from the surrounding serum. That in turn translates into good ‘return circulation’ of serum and venal blood, good supply of oxygenated & nutrient laden blood, and good outgoing flow of said blood.
- That in turn translates into a requirement for loose muscles that have a low resistance to serum flow, and low constriction of contained arteries, much large muscle activity to pump the serum and venal blood, low holding pressure in the thoracic cavity so as to allow free diaphragmatic breathing, and low resistance to the expansion of the major arteries as they expand.
- That in turn translates into a requirement for good structural alignment that allows free abdominals, low holding tensions in the skeletal muscles with the exception of the postural muscles. And that directly translates to the requirements of TCC as stated in the classics or Chen Xin’s or YCF’s 10 (13?) points or …
So, Jing (1) asks for Sung (2) that asks for Structure (3) and that will produce both chi (2) and jin (3). And the body is ‘happy’ all the way down to the cellular and molecular structure. Small wonder that doing the form feel so good ;-}
Now, what I leave for you to do is translate these abstractions into explicit requirements for use and change in: Muscle, Tendon, Breath & Bone from your favorite source of TCC instruction.
David L.