Pounding the Bag
Update on the little one. She is home now for almost five days and she is settling in just fine. Most babies are fussy, this one is pokey...you have to bang pots all day just to get her to get up and eat. Good news, we are getting some sleep and peace. Bad news, we have had a lot of drama around "is she getting enough to eat" and general breastfeeding issues. Today it seems like we have turned the corner and Baby Girl is eating well. Mother in law came today to help out for a week, so I think we are settling in well here on the forest moon.
Iron palm training is actually very simple . You start with a bag of mung beans, pounding it with your hands every day for 20 to 30 minutes, back, front, chop and finger strike. At first, their is pain, but very quickly it becomes a very comfortable massage.
Then you graduate to gravel.
Pea gravel, full bag, hitting it continuously. At first, your hands bruise, knuckles swell and painful point injuries develop on your fingers. At the end of each session, you massage your hands with a fairly fragrant Chinese liniment for another fifteen minutes.
Keep at it for a month, and things start to happen. Your hands change, the skin gets thicker and they feel, well, more alive and powerful. If you pay attention and mentally focus on energy flow (Rod Sirling, where are you?) you become able to get through 20 min, 30 min and longer without any injuries.
Then you move to steel shot.
Not quite there yet.
Where I am is gravel, and I have been there for some time, mostly because I have not kept a good routine. The right hand handles it perfectly, the left still gets bruised. The challenge now is to get to 40 min a day for the next three months. If I can do that, then it is time for the steel.
Why?
This is one place where the rubber meets the road. You can read and talk about chi and qi and ye and thee all day long, moving slowly in postures or stretching out in a yoga class. But when you are smacking gravel with flesh, then either you begin to understand the nature and management of energy and focus, or you get hurt. But also, you can adjust the practice to suit your own level of accomplishment. The key is not so much progress, but practice. As an old sensi once told me, "just come to practice".
Also, you can feel the results. It is a metaphor for all practice. My hands feel different, work different, are different. They are capable and real in a very new way, and that gives me hope that this path I am choosing is of value, and motivation to stay on the path.
This really does go somewhere.
Iron palm training is actually very simple . You start with a bag of mung beans, pounding it with your hands every day for 20 to 30 minutes, back, front, chop and finger strike. At first, their is pain, but very quickly it becomes a very comfortable massage.
Then you graduate to gravel.
Pea gravel, full bag, hitting it continuously. At first, your hands bruise, knuckles swell and painful point injuries develop on your fingers. At the end of each session, you massage your hands with a fairly fragrant Chinese liniment for another fifteen minutes.
Keep at it for a month, and things start to happen. Your hands change, the skin gets thicker and they feel, well, more alive and powerful. If you pay attention and mentally focus on energy flow (Rod Sirling, where are you?) you become able to get through 20 min, 30 min and longer without any injuries.
Then you move to steel shot.
Not quite there yet.
Where I am is gravel, and I have been there for some time, mostly because I have not kept a good routine. The right hand handles it perfectly, the left still gets bruised. The challenge now is to get to 40 min a day for the next three months. If I can do that, then it is time for the steel.
Why?
This is one place where the rubber meets the road. You can read and talk about chi and qi and ye and thee all day long, moving slowly in postures or stretching out in a yoga class. But when you are smacking gravel with flesh, then either you begin to understand the nature and management of energy and focus, or you get hurt. But also, you can adjust the practice to suit your own level of accomplishment. The key is not so much progress, but practice. As an old sensi once told me, "just come to practice".
Also, you can feel the results. It is a metaphor for all practice. My hands feel different, work different, are different. They are capable and real in a very new way, and that gives me hope that this path I am choosing is of value, and motivation to stay on the path.
This really does go somewhere.
posted by Maurice_Basilius at 10:35 PM
1 Comments:
Just came across this blog via coming across your old one via the link from The Lily's blog. I am in the process of working through her entire massive blogroll and it has been a fascinating journey because she is linked to a lot of interesting people.
In any event, you've caught my interest and I'll be checking this blog out for a while. Glad to hear (after the fact) that things are going so well for you right now! :-)
Post a Comment
<< Home