Sacrifice, Physical Training, and Forging the Alchemical Body
I have always cherished and savored the endless hours of physical training in martial arts and long distance running. In many ways I view this time as alchemical in nature: heat, pain, sweat, blood, tears, joy and sadness all coalescing into physical expression.
Ayurveda and Yoga refer to this as the transformative fire of tapas, a type of alchemical expression of heat manifested and stoked by the dedication and passionate commitment of our pursuits; a type of creative incubation that allows the individual to transform and manifest new expressions of the soul.
This is how I view the pursuit of physical training: an incendiary pathway to personal growth and self-expression.
One of the most common questions I hear from friends and readers alike, however, is, “how do you find the time to train so much?” This is typically followed by the statement “I wish I could do that but I don’t have enough time.”
Yet, such individuals commonly spend large amounts of time on other activities such as watching television, smoking and playing video games. They do have the time, in fact, but they choose to spend it on other pursuits. They view physical activity as a type of sacrifice, which they are unwilling to pursue regardless of the benefits. I all too clearly remember the end stages of my father’s life as circulatory complications resulted in encroaching necrosis in the lower limbs. His physicians would explain that if he would just walk more and explore physical therapy, he would be able to avoid limb amputation. He refused to make this relatively small sacrifice and, over time, lost both of his legs.
The words of Sri Aurobindo, which I read in my youth, have always stuck with me:
This, in short, is the demand made on us, that we should turn our whole life into a conscious sacrifice. Every moment and every movement of our being is to be resolved into a continuous and a devoted self-giving to the Eternal. All our actions, not less the smallest and most ordinary and trifling than the greatest and most uncommon and noble, must be performed as consecrated acts. Our individualized nature must live in the single consciousness of an inner and outer movement dedicated to Something that is beyond us and greater than our ego.
These words always echoed in my mind as I studied martial arts or competed in cross country running events in my youth, germinating deep inside my mind and body forming a deep reservoir of inspirational fire fueling all my activities esoteric and mundane; life become an embodied sacrifice.
My physical training became a powerful metaphor for the expression of life on all levels as well as a sanctuary for spiritual succor. Over time, the alchemical fire of physical training began to reveal deeper and deeper layers of my life, as well as deeper levels of the physical praxis proper. This is discussed by Miyamoto Musashi in his classic text Book of Five Rings:
A master achieves the Way by being devoted to the art, while the art itself reveals its true identity to a warrior only when the ‘spirit of the thing itself’ feels comfortable with the warrior as a vehicle for its own expression. If you wish to learn my Way of strategy you must do sufficient research and study. Doing sufficient research means that you must devote yourself as much as possible to the study of these ideas — to the degree with which you feel that you will have accomplished that which you wanted to accomplish. The level of commitment that you give to it will indicate to it what to reveal of itself to you.
This idea is pregnant with meaning for an individual’s life as well as his or her interaction with the world. Most individuals are in a constant search for meaning; for a “secret” which is obtained that will make all sadness clear like clouds in the sky. Yet this is an illusion and this illusion seeps deep into the mind-space of the masses searching for a unique identity in a world that only appreciates homogeneity.
I look back on all the years of physical training — some within martial arts lineages, some alone on a mountain trail — and realized that my self-expression was incubated in the heat of the physical pursuit. A sword is formed by heat and adversity not comfort and safety; and my lifetime of physical pursuits became the crucible of my constant and never ending maturation. How could I NOT make time for this?
The more we dedicate to anything with focus and commitment, the more “secrets” are revealed; the silent voice of the respective pursuit starts to speak if we listen with the heat of our praxis. For many, the heat incubated within the pursuit of physical activity can be channeled into life at large, allowing one to hear inspiration calling within all activities mundane or “magical.”
Time and the timing of life all cross pollinate in our pursuits of physical experience preventing sloth and complacency from dulling our growth and personal evolution as individuals and as members of the world at large. This idea is puissantly expressed once again in The Book of Five Rings:
Remember timing. Do not forget harmony with the Universe and self. Remember that continuous study is essential for approaching perfection in a chosen art. Although some people may appear to be ‘there’ they must continually deal with change — based on the rise and fall of timing and rhythm. However, through devotion to the Way of your art you can remove yourself from the general mass of people and be able to concentrate more effectively on your chosen Way. It is also essential to remember the need to function in society, good or bad, and that in order for your Way to be successful, you must interact with society. If you wish to control others you must first control yourself.”
My physical pursuits of martial arts and running have made me a better writer and a better friend, not just a better fighter or runner. The “heat” of the physical experience has refined my vision of the entire landscape of the world allowing me to see much deeper and vaster than the shallow view of “the general mass of people.”
I am often humored at groups within the esoteric subculture who claim to embrace a body-centric view of gnostic spirituality yet possess pale, flaccid, lifeless bodies, and suffer from endless maladies such as insomnia and digestive issues on a day to day basis. How can they reach the depths of the soul when they can’t even live comfortable in their body or nervous system?
In the valiant pursuit of physical fitness, the individual can experience the precious ephemeral quality of life as deep within the flesh resides our ultimate destination: death. This is the basis for all martial arts study. The building up of the body is essentially the deconstruction of the ego! Yukio Mishima succinctly expressed this:
The body carries quite sufficient persuasion to destroy the comic aura that surrounds an excessive self-awareness; for though a fine body may be tragic, there is in it no trace of the comic. The thing that ultimately saves the flesh from being ridiculous is the element of death that resides in the healthy, vigorous body; it is this, I realized, that sustains the dignity of the flesh……Nevertheless, wherever one sought after the ultimate sensation, the moment of victory was always an insipid sensation. Ultimately, the opponent — the ‘reality that stares back at one’ — is death.
This is of course echoed in Hagare: The Book of the Samurai:
The Way of the Samurai is found in death…If by setting one’s heart right every morning and evening, one is able to live as though his body were already dead, he gains freedom in the Way. His whole life will be without blame, and he will succeed in his calling.
Every morning and every evening when I train, slipping on a boxing glove, bruising a knuckle, or lacing up a running shoe, I remind myself that this is my ultimate sacrifice. One day I will no longer have the breath to run or the energy to punch; one day I will no longer have the energy to live.
Often at the end of a fight or a long run, I remember waking up and finding my father dead in his hospice bed at home. I remember seeing his body without legs, without breath, without a whisper of life. I remember helping the funeral home wrap his body and carry it to the death hearse. How can I not make time to lose my breath in a fight with a martial arts brother, or feel the beautiful pain in my legs after a mountain run?
My physical training allows me to engage with this dialogue with death on a daily basis, and consequently my passion for life courses and flows strongly through all of life’s activities! Every day becomes precious and the systole and diastole of my heart is never taken for granted. This flows into the words I write, words shared with friends, and the final blessings dispensed upon a hospice bed. How could I not have time for this sacrifice? Deep within the flesh, the heat of the pursuit has revealed the voice of death and the Elan Vital of life!
Within the pursuit of physical refinement lay many sacrifices: sweat, time, blood, tears, ultimately the sacrifice of our lives. However with patience and dedication, the simple act of physical expression can reveal the priceless: the sacrament of life.
Original article and pictures take www.corespirit.com site
Find the GB 39 pressure point area on the side of the left leg just in front of the bone (the fibula) which runs down to the outside of the ankle. You may find one, two, or three separate sensitive points in this area.
Find TW 3 on the left hand just behind the knuckles of the ring and little fingers. Some neck or back pain may be a sign of a serious medical emergency. Read more here...
Treatments often used for neck or back pain can lead to serious long term side effects. Read more here..
Step 3: Scroll Down and press both points for relief
Locate and press the most sensitive spots in each area. Press deep enough to feel an achy sensation. If you need to press harder use your thumb or (if your have long finger nails) try the blunt end of an ink pen.
Press on the
left leg...
Press each point for about a minute while gently MOVING the neck and taking 3 or 4 DEEP, SLOW breaths.
...and then on
the left hand.
Wow!
That feels Better! Did you feel some relief? If your answer is yes you may feel more improvements if you repeat this treatment after a few minutes. If there is still any remaining pain or if the pain returns you may repeat the treatment as often as you wish. If the pain moves to a new area find the proper treatment points for the new location and use the new points to eliminate the pain. If you feel significant improvement use the form at the bottom of this page to let us know. Your feedback will help PrestoPainGo become more and more effective.
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Hey!
Is this supposed to work?
No relief? Try these suggestions:
1. Check to be certain that you started by selecting the image that best matches the location of pain on your body. If you can find an image that is a better match try pressing those points. If your pain moves to a new location after you press the first set of points go back to the previous page, select the image that best matches the new pain location, and try using the new points.
2. Check the general area around the point location by gently pressing to find the most sensitive spot. Pressing on the most sensitive spot in the area will usually give you the best results.
3. Follow the proper techniques for pressing the points. Press hard enough to feel a connection and then breathe in and out slowly three times while pressing for at least 15 to 30 seconds. If you do not get any results you should try pressing hard enough that it is quite intense but, please don’t injure yourself. Breathe into the pain and slowly move the area of the body that you are trying to treat. Take a two minute break and try again.
4. Try points in the same area but, on the opposite hand, foot, leg, or arm.
5. Select another pain location image that is located close to the pain location on your body. Try using these related point selections to see if you get better results
6. Contact an acupuncturist and make an appointment. An individualized diagnosis may be necessary to resolve your condition.
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Awesome! - Beth R.
Impressive! - Luisa Morales
My body has improved drastically. - Audrey M.
Mejoras significativas - David Lappara
The best! - Valerica Buiac
Absolutely worked for me! After lying awake until 2:00 am, I decided to Google search pressure points for neck pain, right temple headache, and jaw pain. Best thing I've ever done for the pain. Thank you for putting this site together! - Melissa Lyons
When I applied the pressure to the area in the hand between the knuckles, I could feel an instant release of the pain in my neck area - the pain was actually sideways into the shoulder area from the neck, and upon applying the pressure in the hand, I felt it release. I couldn't locate the correct spot in the leg, though. I still had just slight pain, but the pain went away upon applying the pressure in the hand. Thanks so much for providing this information for free!
Original article and pictures take www.prestopaingo.com site
We are all designed to continuously and naturally remove toxins from the body. There are two kinds of toxins: water-soluble and fat-soluble. Water-soluble toxins are easily flushed out of the body via the blood and kidneys, but the fat-soluble toxins are a challenge for the body to remove. These fat-soluble toxins such as heavy metals, pesticides, preservatives, food additives, pollutants, plastics and other environmental chemicals must become water-soluble for the body to eliminate them fully. This happens mostly in the liver, but if our digestive and detox pathways are not functioning optimally, these toxins find their way from the liver to the blood, fat cells, and brain, where they can store for years, setting you up for health concerns down the road.
believe that if we keep our digestion, stress levels and detoxification pathways balanced, we can prevent dangerous chemicals and toxins from storing in our bodies.
How It Works
When we digest a meal, the nutritional and toxic fats are shuffled through the stomach into the small intestine where bile secreted from the liver and gallbladder emulsifies them. In the small intestine, there are millions of small villi and lacteals, which are little finger-like “grasses,” or mucus membranes, that sweep the gut and help absorb nutritional fats and send the toxic fats on to the liver for processing. If this detoxification pathway is not properly working, the body can store the toxic fats, rather than remove them.
The Most Important ½ Inch of the Body
The very beginning of the body’s lymphatic system is called the Gut Associated Lymphatic Tissue (GALT), which surrounds the entire intestinal tract. This is what I call, “the most important half inch in your body,” because it is here that lacteals help absorb and process both nutritional and toxic fats. The ¼ inch on the inside of the gut wall must have those villi and lacteals functioning well, and the ¼ inch on the outside of the gut (which is that lymph tissue) must not be congested. (5-9)
The lymphatic system around the gut will take all the absorbed fats back to the liver where the good fats are put to use making cholesterol, cell membranes, hormones, brain cells and skin, to name a few. The toxins are processed by the liver and earmarked for elimination. When the lymphatic system becomes congested, this natural process of using good fats and discarding bad fats can be severely compromised.
Symptoms of a Congested GALT Affecting the Lymphatic System are: (5-9)
Elimination concerns
Holding extra weight around your belly
Bloating
Skin irritations or itching
Swollen hands and feet
Breast swelling and tenderness during the menstrual cycle
Hypersensitivities
Occasional headaches
Joint stiffness
It’s All About Elimination
There are many factors such as diet and stress that can irritate the intestinal villi and compromise the function of the bowels. Excessive stress can cause the intestinal villi to dry out, causing occasional constipation. A history of constipation can dry out these villi (grass-like mucus membranes) and force them to produce a reactive mucus. If this mucus is excessive, the stools could appear normal (1-3 regular bowel movements a day), but you could still be unhealthy and bloated or carrying extra belly weight. If the mucus is even more excessive, the stools can become looser, diarrhea-like and more frequent. If you EVER see mucus in your stool, this should be addressed right away. When this happens, the villi become congested and bogged down in the excess mucus. This means that the delivery of good fats, excretion of toxic fats, the normal immune response, and the health of the intestinal skin as a barrier for toxins breaks down. Normally, toxins that are absorbed into the lymph are neutralized by immune-boosting white blood cells in over 500+ lymph nodes in the lymphatic system. But if mucus is excessive, this may not happen and the toxins are directed back to the liver. To avoid the toxins from defaulting back to the liver, the mucus membranes of the intestinal tract cannot be too dry or too wet – there is a delicate balance that must be achieved. Some of the other causes for irritation that compromise the intestinal villi are stress, worry, food additives, processed food, coffee, soft drinks and hyperacidity – to name just a few.
Where Do These Toxic Fats Go?
Optimal bile flow from the liver is critical to our health. Bile acts similar to a Pac-Man in the liver and intestines, where it gobbles up fats and acts as the great immune system responder in the digestive tract. The bile will gobble up heavy metals, parasites, pesticides, bad bacteria, and numerous other chemicals that can cause problems. If there is plenty of fiber in the diet, the heavily loaded bile will be taken to the toilet. If the diet is deficient in fiber, up to 94% of the bile – along with its toxic baggage – gets reabsorbed back to the liver to be recycled. (10) The liver can become overwhelmed because it is not expecting the return of these toxic fat cells.
Over time, the liver can become congested and the bile can turn thick and sludgy, making it more difficult to break down a hamburger, fatty foods, heavy metals and other fat-soluble toxins. Over time, the bile can become too sluggish and thick to buffer the stomach acids that start to enter the small intestine. The acid acts as another irritant to the villi, and thus more congestive, reactive mucus is produced. As the bile becomes more viscous, it can also block the flow of pancreatic enzymes into the small intestine. The pancreas shares the common bile duct with the gallbladder, and when this flow stops or becomes sluggish, the digestive process can be compromised.
What Happens When The Liver Becomes Overwhelmed?
When the biliary tubes in the liver become congested with thick bile and toxins, the liver pushes the fat-soluble toxins into the blood stream. These toxins can find their way into the fat cells where they can store for many years and cause oxidation (free radical damage) and degeneration. (1-3) Toxins can deposit in fatty tissues all over the body including the brain. It is becoming more common for the toxins to become neurotoxins and deposit in the fatty tissues of the brain. These neurotoxins may cause cognitive problems and a host of health imbalances. (13, 14)
Burn Fat to Burn Toxins
This is why one of the main focuses in Ayurveda is to convince the body to burn fat. Not primarily for weight loss, but because fat metabolism is the body’s detox fuel and it is critical that we flush these fat cells in order to turn over and remove toxins. Once the nervous system can function without stress, the body will naturally burn fat. This is a main topic in my book, The 3-Season Diet (11), where diet and lifestyle are used to burn fat, as well as in my book, Body, Mind and Sport (12), where nasal breathing exercise and other techniques are utilized to encourage fat-burning.
The bottom line: there are many ways to burn fat, and our lifestyle plays an important role. The majority of the fat-burning and detox responsibility lies in the integrity of the digestive system, lymph and bile flow.
Food Allergies and Inability to Absorb Good Fats
Many of us simply do not break down and absorb good fats because the villi and lymph around the gut are congested. This is also just one reason why so many of us are diagnosed with wheat, dairy and soy allergies. These foods are heavy, harder to digest, and are high-mucus-content foods. If there is already excessive mucus in the gut, and the gluten was not properly broken down in the stomach and upper small intestine, the gluten can irritate the intestinal wall and trigger the production of even more reactive mucus. This can severely compromise the ability of the intestinal wall to act as a health barrier for the body. There are times in life to reduce or even eliminate these foods for a certain stretch of time – but a life sentence of no wheat and dairy for many of us is a hard (and unnecessary) pill to swallow.
To Sum it all Up
Your detoxification and assimilation pathways may be compromised if you experience occasional constipation or loose stools, see mucus in your stools, have to avoid certain foods, or have to eat certain foods to maintain regular elimination. If you feel that a heavy or high-fat content meal just sits in your stomach or you get nauseous or experience pain after that meal, then your bile flow may be compromised and you are likely storing toxic fats. These are some simple guidelines that are an important first step in responding to these conditions. Below are some easy and preliminary suggestions that you can read more about on my website at lifespa.com.
If You Are Experiencing These Concerns:
Extra belly fat – Read up on Manjistha, Amalaki and Elim I.
Occasional constipation – Read up on Elim I.
Loose stools – Read up on Elim II.
Mucus in the stools – Read up on Amalaki and Slippery Elm Prebiotic Formula.
Sluggish liver and congested bile – Read up on Liver Repair.
Feeling sick after a heavy meal – Read up on Liver Repair or Beet Cleanse.
Gluten sensitivity – Read up on Warm Digest, Gentle Digest or Cool Digest.
Lymph congestion – Read up on Manjistha and Turmeric Plus.
Deep Detox
In Ayurveda, much of the diagnostics and therapies are designed to support the health of the skin of the intestinal tract, flush the lymph, and de-stagnate the bile and liver. The ghee ingested during the process of oleation in the LifeSpa cleanse programs is designed to flush the bile and reset your fat metabolism. I always evaluate and address the eliminative channels like the lymph, liver and digestion first. The LifeSpa cleanse programs are designed to reset digestion and elimination while removing toxins that may be stored in your fat cells, liver or brain.
Original article and pictures take www.corespirit.com site
