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Hello all,
I’m trying to figure out the deep earth pulsing practice. I have the audio from QF3 and the video from Sexual Vitality DVD, and trying them together. Do I understand correctly that as the weight shifts to one side, that leg initially bends slightly, then straightens, pushing down on the heel, as the hand on that side comes down, and the mind then drops to the center of the earth, sort of as a continuation of the down thrust from the hand and heel? So this flexing and straightening of the leg/hip is the pulsing or pumping? And the attention stays at the center of the earth after beginning the practice, or it drops from the foot again with each repetition?
thanks,
elephantDo I understand correctly that as the weight shifts to one side, that leg initially bends slightly, then straightens, pushing down on the heel, as the hand on that side comes down
That seems right to me. Further, as the weighted leg (Leg A) straightens, the heel/knee/hip of Leg B lifts so that only the ball of Foot B is in contact with the ground. As Leg A straightens there’s definitely pressure on Foot A’s heel. But at the same time, there’s also some pressure on the ball of Foot B (or at least when I do it!)
And here are some of the things that have crossed my mind as I experiment with DEP. Is it the straightening of Leg A the drives the lifting of Heel/Hip B or is it the lifting of Heel/Hip B that drives the straightening of Leg A? I find that if I focus on the straightening of Leg A it feels that this what drives the lifting of Heel/Hip B. But if I focus on the lifting of Heel/Hip B, it feels like this is what’s driving the straightening of Leg A! (And of course, re Leg B, one can focus more on the hip than the heel or vice versa.)
Like you I’d be interested to know if there’s one particular part of the form that constitutes the pulsing or whether the pulsing is the entirety of the form.
Thanks for your comments. The way I’m doing it, foot B (non-weighted) lifts onto the ball of the foot as the weight is shifting to leg A and leg A bends. So the ball of foot B sort of functions to push the weight over to leg A, and foot B is already poised on its ball by the time the straightening of leg A begins. I tried doing it the way you describe, where (as I understand it) leg A straightens simultaneously with the lifting of heel B. The feeling is about the same to me.
. . . is difficult to learn without live instruction. Just do the best you can, making sure to keep focus into the center of the earth of the side of the sinking foot. You will assuredly get some benefit. When you are able to get live instruction, you can get the details worked out through feedback and correction on actual visible body mechanics.
S
More important than any of that is to feel.
If you can feel then you can follow the feeling, if you can feel the Earth and it’s energy you can follow it, feel it enter you and so on. And if not why are you doing it ?
Even if you have live instruction, the benefit of that is to watch someone who is feeling the energy, and inspires you to likewise feel it.
Once you can make direct contact then you can adjust explore align directly based on that.
Thanks for your thoughts. So far I don’t really notice a difference by making small changes in the physical form (as I mention in the previous post). The key really seems to be in the way the attention drops to the center of the earth. Nonetheless, if there are technical details, alignments, etc. that are part of the teaching of the form, I would like to study those also on the chance that they have been put there for good reason by people who have a lot more understanding of this than I do, and that they might help me achieve a deeper experience of the practice.
Thanks for your response.
Having observed myself more closely, I find that – like you – the heel of Foot B is, in fact, raised prior to Leg A straightening!
I also notice that when Leg A straightens, Leg B straightens somewhat i.e. Knee B becomes somewhat less bent.
Whilst the straightening of Leg A and the partial straightening of Leg B happen simultaneously, I’ve noticed – and this is what I was trying to get at in my last post – that it’s possible to feel that Leg A or Leg B is leading the process.
Sometimes I feel that my pushing through Heel A to straighten Leg A is causing the partial straightening of Leg B. But if I put the focus on pumping the hip of Leg B to partially straighten it, it feels like this is causing the straightening of Leg A.
I mention this only because I seem to remember Michael talking about the pumping action in the hips helping to pull up Earth Qi through KI1.
I’ve just gone back to look at a couple of Steven’s posts on this. In one of them he suggests that MOST of the weight is resting on the K1 point. That is significantly different from how I’ve been doing it, so I’m experimenting with that. As far as “focus”, that part seems relatively clear: it should be dropping into the center of the earth on the weighted side – deep, deep, “so deep it put her butt to sleep”.
As far as “focus”, that part seems relatively clear: it should be dropping into the center of the earth on the weighted side
This is indeed the main focus. However, when one is seeking to refine technique, one also has to focus on other issues – such as whether most of the weight is on K1 or the heels! I was simply suggesting in my previous post that another issue of technique might be which leg is leading.
Having revisited the Qigong Fundamentals CDs, Michael does emphasize the pumping of the hip joint. And I’ve found that, with the weight more on K1, it’s easier to lead with (the pumping of the hip joint of) Leg B.
Wow, wait, in my post I was talking about the heel A, that the weight is a little bit in the front so therefore on ball of foot. Interesting enough I don’t know if Steven answer was addressing Heel A or B since I wasn’t clear in the post 🙂 simple experiment on trying both ways will clear things out 🙂
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