Bone Marrow Washing and the Shaolin Yi Jin Jing Process – Part Three

From a scientific point of view, this kind of load on your bones could refine, not only the collagen matrix of your bones (healthy bones are 26% collagen), but also your bones’ overall physical resiliency to shock. This can happen because extended standing, as well as axial (along the bone) and torsional (twisting) load on your bones increases the production of Osteocalcin – which reduces the risk for many age-related health conditions, increases fertility (in men), cognition, longevity, and of course, measurably strengthens your bones.

In Daoist practice, there is an observation that Yang (Mind) transforms into Yin (Body). The opposite is also true. That can be seen on the level of the Dao or Universe. It can also be seen as a reflection of Nature and Life. In the natural world, the lives and shapes of trees and animals (and everything else) are determined by the climate and weather. In a similar way, your conscious state, your mood and emotional fluidity or ‘stuckness’ can determine some important qualities of Your Yi Jin Jing practice.

The transformational process (Yi 易), like most of life, is determined by your availability, sincerity, sense of meaning, coherence, and consistency. Every good day and every bad day, and how you or I respond, determines things like posture, playfulness, and patience – which have everything to do with your level of fitness and the capacity of all of your connective tissues (Jin 筋).

On a more subtle level, your state of Being (Yang) has a shape. Perhaps this can be measured through imaging your Heart Torus someday. If Yang becomes Yin, then it follows that the deepest levels of refinement of your meridians Jing 經 are determined (and limited) by the refinement of your conscious state.

This is why the Yi Jin Jing process includes, and is completed through, the most meditative, nuanced, and internal aspects of Qi Gong.

Yi Jin Jing is a Lifelong Practice

The way I was taught, it takes three years of practice to completely integrate all aspects of the Yi Jin Jing system. Each year, the process begins earlier in the Spring, and each part of the process takes more involvement, and the supporting practices become more important. After completing this process, practitioners usually maintain a shorter practice, until they attain ten years of practice.

After a few years of practice, the amount of effort and intensity becomes less and less physical, and much more about how coherently you experience your Inner Landscape, how deeply and slowly you breathe, and how profoundly you can enter into complete coherent interactive and meditative embodiment.

(This is an excerpt from Volume Thirteen – Shaolin Strength and Longevity Qi Gong)