Chinese Medicine

Sinew Channels

including
Selected Characters
Charts of Channels as Described
-
Detailed Descriptions
,
of Sinew Releases

Jeffrey C. Yuen
New England School of Acupuncture
Continuing Education Department
 - Channel systems
of Chinese Medicine

The Sinew Channels

Jeffrey C. Yuen

December 22 & 23, 2001

New England Schoo1 of Acupuncture
Continuing Education Department

Edited by Stephen Howard, Lie. Ac.

MAC, DiplAc & CH,(NCCAOM)
 Karen Kettlety
Dime Iuliano. Lie. Ac.
Stephen Howard/ Lie. Ac.

Andjar her helpformatting

Barbara Nil1
 Channel Systems of Chinese Medicine
The Sinew Channels
Jeffrey C. Yuen

Table of Contents

Introduction ........................................................... 1
. . .. .. .. ... . . . . ......
Meridians as Roadmaps .. . .... .... .. ... .. . .... ... 2
The Sequence. *-.. .. . . ..... . ..... .. .. . ...
... .. ... ... ... ... ..... .. . ... 9
... . ..... .. . .. . . . .. . ... ..
Self-Cultivation ... . ... .. .. ... . ... . ... ..... . 12
Sinew Channels
Basic Qualities
... . . .. ... 13
Extemalization of the Primary Channels . ..... ... ..... . ......
. . . .. . . . .. . 14
Conduits of Wei Defensive Qi . . .... . . .. ... ..... .. ... ... . .. .
. .. ..
Broad Channels ...... ... .... . ......... ...... . .... . .. 16
..... ......
Their Pathways
. . ...
Origins ...... ..... ................. .... . . .. .................... 18
. . .. .
Convergences . .. .. . .... .. .... .... .. .... . . . .. . .
.. ... .. . .... ... .. 19
. ..
Sequence ... .. ... ............. ......... ....... .......
. ............ 19
Implications of the Sinew Channels
Motility and Mobility.. .... ... .. . . . .. ...... . .. 25
.... ... . ... . .. . .... ... .
.. . .. . . . . . .... . ... . . . .. 34
Range of Motion ... . . . ... . ... . . .. .. . ... .. ....
Postural Alignment .. .... . . ...... .. ... .... .. ... .. . 35
L. .. .. .. .. . ... .. . . .
. . . ... . . .
Evaluation Based on Tong Pain ....... .... ... .... .. .... . ......
42
. . . .... . . . . . . . .. . 45
Points of the Sinew Channels .. .... . . . ... .. . . . .... ....
Sinew Channels and their Clinical Applications
. . . ... . . ... .... . ..
Basic Protocol ... . . ... . . . . ..
. ..... ..... ..... . . .. . . . 47
. .. . ... ..
Basic Differentiation . ... ...... ........ . . ....... ...... . .. . . .. 53
Clinical Methods
.
Acupuncture ..................... ........ ....
........ ............... 57
Compresses, Plum Blossom, Cupping and Gua Sha . . ... . . . . ... .......... 61
 Sinew Releases
Theory .......... ...............
Demonstration
D t ~ 4................................................................
Dwl4 ...............................................................
December 23. Review / Discussion ........................................
.
Trajectories. ...........................................................
. BL Sinew Channel ...................................................
GB SinewChannel ..................................................
STSinewChannel ...................................................
Sinew Releases
TaiYangBL .........................................................
Shao Yang GB .......................................................
YangMingST .......................................................
Trajectories ............................................................
Yin Sinew Channels .....................~.~..........................
SISinewChannel ....................................................
THSinewChannel. ..................................................
LI Sinew Channel ....................................................
Cases .................................................................
Charts .................... ... ................................... Appendix
 Channel Systems of Chinese Medicine
.
Sinew Channels
Jeffrey C. Yuen
New England School of Acupuncture
4

I would like to welcome all of you to our discussion this weekend, and for
those of you who are joining the series for a discussion on Secondary Vessels, it's
a topic that I find very exciting mainly because I believe it is a topic that is very
often, in this country, not heavily emphasized within the field of Acupuncture.
The premise that I am starting from is the fact that all of these Meridians were
outlined in the first Acupuncture textbook, would already infer their importance
in the study of Acupuncture.
If we were just studying the Primary Meridians with the addition of Ren and
DMadded at the end of these twelve Primary Channels. Then, just to talk about
the Secondary Vessels in a one lecture class, or something of that sort, I believe is
somewhat inadequate. We have to be reminded that Acupuncture is really a
system of medicine that is complete by itself. It is traditionally developed on
individual lines, independent of herbal medicine. But given the amount of
Acupuncture we do learn today, in that context, that is one of the reasons why
we feel that Acupuncture is insufficientby itself, and that you do need to learn
- Herbs as a way to complement the short comings of Acupuncture, or least as
Acupuncture is being taught in China today.

So Secondary Vessels, which is perhaps an improper term, because once you

call them Secondary, it already infers that these Meridians are not as important.
Through my travels across the United States, I definitely have seen that most
colleges or schools of Acupuncture generally teach the Secondary Vessels in a
very limited manner. I mean there are those who come and talk about Secondary
Vessels under the teachings of French energetics or under the teachings primarily
transmitted by the teachings of Van Nghi in his dissemination of Chinese '
Medicine as a Vietnamese in France. But even that itself, when you look at their
clinical applications, they still in some ways make the Secondary Vessels
somewhat limited or somewhat more prioritized in what they are able to do.

What I am going to suggest to you is that if you learn the Secondary Vessels,
and this particular weekend, the Sinew Channels, you can treat everything and

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anything within that Meridian system. They are not particularized for only
certain kinds of issues. In fact, what I am going to do tomorrow is ask one of the
participants to bring in the Practice of Chinese Medicine by Giovanni and we'll
just randomly look through cases, and we will be able to analyze that case within
the perspective of the Sinew Channels and come up with a Sinew Meridian
treatment for any one of those cases in the text book.

You have to understand that Sinew Meridians are not just, as you might
think, relating only to muscular conditions. They are going to relate to many
other conditions as well. The premise is that if you look at Meridians as a whole,
basically what we are studying is that Acupuncture is an energetic language. It's
a language that's both literal and metaphorical. It means when you look at the
Meridians, yes, they do have a literal meaning, but they also represent something
much more subtle, something that's more in some ways subliminal, and in many
cases, its also a reflection of philosophy. As many of you know Chinese Medicine
is applied Chinese philosophy. That means that as philosophical undertakings
change, over the centuries or over the dynasties, the role of the Meridians also
begins to change.

Meridians as Roadmaps
You want to understand that Meridians basically represent the way that we
are living our lives. They are roadmaps; they are pathways that demonstrate how
we are conducting ourselves and how we are conducting the particular issues of
our lives. Meridians course though our bodies and connect us with the different
aspects of our own selves and of course our own relationships with the world. So
one can say that the Excesses may indicate what we are drawn to, those are the
things that we have a greater indulgence over, and the Deficiencies are what we
might be inadequate of, or the things that we typically want to avoid, or the
things that we want to deny in our existence. It does not always have to be due to
an over expenditure of something that leads to a Deficiency of that something
that we are looking at. Sometimes we might simply be always Deficient, I am
quite sure you have had cases where you try Tonifying a person and not matter
what you did within the modalities that you knew, somehow the person could
not get Tonified. Maybe it was a reflection that this is an area of their livesthat
they simply don't really want to go to. Every time you try to induce that, every
time you want to manipulate, or at its extreme, force the person to look into these
issues, they simply refuse to do so. That might be an area that they are always
going to be Deficient in. What is important is that we realize that this is an area
that we are Deficient in and that we ask questions as to why we find that it is

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hard for us to nourish our own capacity, to nourish our own resources,
commonly called Qi and Blood.

Though the Meridians may appear universal, that means we can study them
in an Acupuncture textbook, and in some intellectual way say that these
Meridians are located in this particular part of the body and these are where
these points are exactly located. That of course would not really be true, because
while we might have a general shape of being a human being.Meridians and
their pathways are individualistic.

Chinese Mediane treats the individual. It does not treat across the board.
While we might be studying Meridians as something that appears to be a global
phenomenon, something that everyone seems to possess, keep in mind that their
pathways are individualistic. And in some textbooks of Acupuncture, it has been
suggested that some Meridians are only created as needed. For example, the L w
Channels, the whole idea of Blood vessels, the whole idea that we create them as
needed, as we need to create more nourishment, or maybe as we need to hold
onto something more valid in our lives. So these broken Blood vessels begin to
demonstrate the path that we have broken ourselves away from. Some of these
Meridians will have greater intensity, greater appearance, greater palpational
sensitivity, greater signals that tell you to pay attention to them, others will be
slower to reveal themselves, to make themselves known. There's part of you, as
an individual, that you prefer to be hidden, to be placed inside a closet, or that
you prefer to be swept under a rug. There's part of us that we are not readily
going to expose to people, and that includes the clinician who is working with
you. While trust and rapport becomes one of the major cultivations of a clinician
and client, keep in mind that there are some issues that we would not visit unless
the client really invites us to do so. So that is the idea of Acupuncture in my
opinion, that what we are studying is a way of learning about a person. We are
given the grace to be able to participate in their path, to be able to walk along
with them and not necessarily judge their pathway as to where they need to go
and what they need to do, but sometimesjust giving them the guidance to see
what are the consequences of their pathway. So that they are able to make some
choices about what they need to do with their lives.
.
So the first basic concept that we need to explore about the Meridians, is that
Meridians are roadmaps, they represent pathways, Channels, whatever words
you want to use. They represent a movement of Qi and Blood, if you prefer to
use that term, or you can use other terms like Wei Qt, Defensive Qi,Nourishing
Qz, and of course, every movement is a reflection of one's source, that you are
fulfillingyour destiny in life. So Meridians as roadmaps of External, Internal and
Constitutional terrains. These roadmaps represent the physiology, that is the
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natural flow of things, and the pathology, the suggestion that what is flowing
naturally is somewhat improper, or what is flowing naturally is somewhat
inappropriate. That is a moral judgment. The whole idea of Upright Qi, Jing Qi
against the Perverse or Evil Qt, Xie Qz, already suggests there is a cerTain degree
of judgment, morality. This is where you should be moving. And unfortunately
you maybe victimized, if you prefer to blame it on something else, call it a
Climatic Factor, or maybe you want to blame it on your emotions, but the idea is
that there is something that is Perverse and is in some ways challenging your
a t ' s judgment and that becomes known as pathology.
~ ~ r i ~ h t n e s s y ~ahmoral
Remember pathology is really just physiology that is not moving in its proper
flow, and that proper flow is sometimes dictated by moral judgment rather than
by the idea of acceptance. If things flow the way they flow and we accept them,
we don't find them problematic. It's only when we don't accept it that we find it
very problematic. That's because we make our own judgments for our own lives.

Then there is the part of it that is evolutionary, that is transformational. That

is Meridians also have the language, as a philosophy, to teach us about ways that
we can transcend the path that we are on, not because we going to decide not to
go up that path, but because we realize that this path is our path and we accept
it and we move with it. That is when we become present with the person.
Remember healing can only occur in the presence of healing. It is not a future
event. If you put it into the future then it takes away healing right now, at this
moment, from your client. That's the evolutionary aspect of Meridians.

Meridians all convey movement. One can say that all illness really
represents, is a dysfunction in the movement of Qi. It's just about something
that's not moving the way we would like it to move or we feel it should move.
Simply we look at it as something being stuck. Stagnation, that's the key word
that's very often used. And then how chronic is that Stagnation. Do I call it a
Stasis, do I call it an Accumulation, do I call it a Concentration, a
Conglomeration; all levels by which we are measuring the intensity of that
stuckness. Maybe its so intense that it consumes every part of your Qi,every part
of your life. So that every moment of the day you are preoccupied by your illness
and you are no longer preoccupied by some of the things that at one time were
more meaningful in your life. That becomes, in terms of language, something
that perhaps has developed into a tumor, something that perhaps has developed
into a substantiation of that stuckness. And to substantiate anything we
obviously need something that is a substance like Fluid or Blood. And that's
were we get something that is like a tumor.

So true health, like Qi is not a place, if s not something that is static. Its
always moving, because Qi is always seeking health. Health, here, I am defining
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?> New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C Yuen 2003
as movement. To be able to move freely is health. It's a liberating process.
Unfortunately for many of us, we think ofhealth as moving back to where we
once were. So for many of us health is about the restoration of something that
you thought was normal, because that was what you were so accustomed to in
your everyday life. And obviously illness is a statement to say that what you are
doing is not normal, that you have to be able to make changes in your everyday
life, because the cause of Hundreds of Diseases in Chinese Medicine is Wind.
Wind is the mover of change. That means illness is really the inability to change,
to move. hat's one aspect of the Meridians, they represent a component that is
External, Internal, and Constitutional. In terms of the Meridian model, we know
that which represents the External is the Sinew Channels, or what some people
refer to as the Musculoskeletal Channels. The Sinew Channels are the most
External layer of the body. Likewise, while they might be in resonance with the
External anatomy, they might be in resonance with External factors. It is just
saying that this is my reference point, that I am looking at it from the outside in,
rather than from the inside out. There is a school called the School of Attacking
and Purging, one of the Four Great Schools during the Yuan Dynasty. That
school, while it might be seen as a forerunner of the School of Naturopathy,
because they did a lot of detoxifying and purging, that school's premise was that
if you maintain the strength of the Exterior, then you are not going to become ill.
Because if you keep the External Qi strong, you are not going to be subjected to
the Climatic Factors, you are not going to be subjected to Environmental Factors,
Ecological factors; factors that represent the Exterior. And if you were subjected
to Internal factors, such as Emotional, Dietary or Lifestyle factors, you had the
integrity of the Exterior to move it out They believe that health begins on the
outside.

Now some of us might disagree with that, and obviously that is true. There
are many paradigms through which we can look at health. But that was their
premise. And you are going to see that is going to be our premise this weekend.
That if you only knew the Sinew Channels you should be able to do very well
clinically without knowing any other Meridians, because what we are really
saying is that if you maintain the integrity of the External you have the ability to
deal with the External conditions and you have the strength on the Exterior to
allow the resolution of something that is Internal to come out. That is the premise
that we are looking at.

Now there are also the Meridians, that we are going to look at, that if you are
going to maintain the integrity of the Interior, then that's where the strength lies.
Now that Interior means the digestive system, that Interior means the Interior
that deals with Internal pathology. The strength of the mind, the emotions and
how they affect tile Interior aspect. Those Interior Meridians are called Luo
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Channels. These two, the Luo Channels and the Sinew Channels are often
collectively placed under the category of the Collaterals. But the Luo Channels
really represent the Internal terrain of the body. That means they are looking
deeper then just the level of the Skin, the level of the Sinews. You are looking at
the Blood vessels, you are looking at the Flesh. You are looking at the anatomy
that represents more the Interior, the gut and how it relates to Internal
pathological factors which in Chinese Medicine are the Emotions, Lifestyle
choices, how you have chosen to live your life, and also with Diet. These are
things that we make choices about. Blood is the Interior relative to Qi. Blood is
more Yin relative to Qi which is more Yaw.Blood contains the Shen so Blood
contains consciousness. It means that the things that we feel are things that we
are conscious of, or, what according to the Chinese are things that we make
conscious choices about. There is an intelligence about, there is nothing that
happens instinctually.

Instinctual factors would be things like the weather. When it is hot, you
sweat. When it is cold you shiver. You don't think about that. You don't say ,oh
it's hot let me perspire. That's an instinctual energetic. That's on the Exterior. But
when it's on the Interior you think about your emotions you think about how
you are going to react. You might not necessarily think about it through a
process of you being conscious of your thought. But very often you've been
programmed already that given your previous experience, you've responded this
way; a similar experience you will respond the same way. So it might seem that
you are responding autonomically, or passively, but according to the Chinese
there is a cerTain degree of cognition that is involved.

That is the Internal terrain. We know that the reason Acupuncture has
focused on the Primary Channels is because the Primary Channels deal with
both the Exterior and the Interior. So it becomes the best reference if we need to
come to a level of understanding that includes both the outside and the inside.
That's the reason why they have become the Primary Channels, the ones that we
should be studying, because it gives us ways of dealing with both the External
and Internal factors. But if we were to ask, "Are they very specific to External?",
the answer would be obviously, "No". You would have to look at the Sinew
Channels.
.

Of course there is the Constitutional level, the level of genetics. The level by
which we can influence ones destiny in some ways. Those are referred to as the
Eight Extraordinary Vessels. The Eight Extraordinary Vessels are on the level of
Constitutional energetics. They conduct Essence, they conduct Yuan Qi. So it's no
longer about Qi and Blood, they become Qf and Blood from the transformation of
Jing, Essence.
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@ New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Ynen 2003
 Interesting enough, we know that the Eight Extraordinary Vessels, according
to Chinese Medicine, were beyond the reach of the Primary Meridians. You can
tap into them. They were considered Reservoirs or Ditches, as some of you who
have been in the Nan Jing series have learned. These are Meridians that we can
not really have access to. You couldn't get into the genetic program, the code,
until the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty, interesting enough, was that whole
period of time when the Organs that became most popularized, as many of you
know, weretthe Kidneys. The Kidneys became the most important Organ to think
about during the Ming Dynasty. It's during that time that they developed the
Opening Points for the Eight Extraordinary Vessels. Now we can in some ways
have access to the level of the Jing, to the level of the Constitution that previously
we really did not have much of an access to. That's the level of the Constitution
and that represents the Eight Extraordinary Vessels.

Then there is another Meridian, that communicates with the level of

Constitution, with the level of Essence, from a level that is very, very External.
Those Meridians are called the Divergent, Separate or Distinct Meridians.
Distinct Meridians are Meridians that conduct Qi from the Exterior, not from the
Interior, but from the Exterior into the Constitution, and how it connects to the
Constitution from the Exterior is via the Joints. The Joints would be part of the
External anatomy relative to the Zang Fu which would be the Internal anatomy,
and yet we know the Joints, the Bones is a direct correlation not only to the
Curious Organs, but to the level offing, because we know Jing unfolds through
the unfolding of the Marrow, the Bone. We know the relationship between DNA
and Marrow. So the Divergent Channels are also important if we are looking at
issues by which the Exterior is conducting it energetics to the core aspect of our
inner being. Almost like there is this difference between gradual enlightenment,
where we constantly examine our experiences of life; that means we are looking
at the Interior. Or someone who gets sudden enlightenment, which is very
instinctual, all of a sudden it happens. That would be a very Divergent Meridian
event, as compared to a Source, Luo event. Looking at the Luo, at all your Blood
issues, at all your Shen issues, and then eventually the revelation, connecting
back to the Source. So all these ideas that we have in Acupuncture, again, is a
representation of die energetics of Chinese philosophy.
.

So this is giving you a survey of the Meridians and then we will look at the
Sinew Channels, in particular. For those of you who signed up for the entire
series, that is what you are going to be invited to participate in, getting to revere
these Meridians that are very of ten neglected in the practice of Chinese
Acupuncture. Sinew Channels are very important to practitioners of Tui Na,

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massage therapists, but within the context of Acupuncture they may not be as
important.

So that's one aspect of the Meridians, that they represent External and
Internal and Constitutional topography of the body. It's a statement about your
lives. Some of us might be very interested in how we look physically, externally.
We might be very interested in our appearance. That means your Sinew
Channels are much more active than those of you who might not be so interested
in how you look and how you dress yourself, how you groom yourself, your
much more interested in your emotions, in philosophy, in thinking. So then your
Luo Channels might be a lot more active. There is less inclination about External
maintenance and more inclination toward maintaining the mind. And of course,
there are some of us who might be more interested in searching for our roots,
whatever that might mean. That could be spiritual roots, that could be something
you feel would get you back to the source of your being. Many of us encounter
moments of that when we feel a sense of emptiness, when we try to find
validity, a purpose in our lives, beyond the purpose of relationships with people.
A general inner sense of meaning; that means that your Eight Extraordinary
Vessels are very active at that time.

How long do we stay with that becomes a question for you and the clinician,
the clinician that is working with you. How long should I stay with you in
making you look at the meaning and importance of your life? How long should I
stay with you in looking at your emotions? How long do you want to get
psychotherapy, 20 years, 10years? At what point do you decide its time to move
on? Some of us never deride. So those are the kinds of questions you need to be
asking as part of your cultivation as a clinician. Why is it some clients come to
you and they seem endlessly attached to you? Or why is it you seem endlessly
attached to your clients in some ways? What is it about your client or that
particular client? Do they seem like a mommy figure, or daddy figure to you? Do
they represent the childhood you never had? Maybe those are some of the things
that you should be looking at rather than simply looking at their so called chief
complaints. That's when you realize that each person that you encounter is in
some ways mirroring the dynamics of your own evolution, of understanding
health, of understanding illness, and more importantly, of understanding -i
yourself as a clinician.

That's the concept of roadmaps. It's like being on the highway. Some of you
like to be in the left lane, some of you like to be in the right lane. Some of you like
to be fast, some of you like to be slow. And no one likes to get stuck in traffic.
Because no one likes it when things are no longer moving. You want things to
always be moving.
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0 New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C Yuen 2003
The Sequence
That's the first aspect. The second aspect is the sequence. The sequence often
serves as a continuum of the dynamics of life. What I mean by that is that it is not
arbitrary that they decide to take any Meridian system and put the sequence in
the order that they do. It is not arbitrary that they decided with the Primary
Meridians, let's begin the sequence with the LU Meridian. Why not HT, why not
Kt. We can definitely argue those points. We can definitely say that Kidney is the
foundation of life, let it begin at the Kidneys. On the contrary we can argue from
the other point of view saying no, it should begin at LU since life begins with the
first breath. Well, I can argue and say well no, the LU Meridian does not begin at
the Lungs. In fact, none of the Meridians, the Primary Meridians that is, begin at
the Organ that they are associated with, with the exception of the HT and PC.
May be it's the HT Meridian that really starts from the inside and then starts
coming out. Why can't I have the Meridians starting with the HT Channel. As
some of you know this has been debated in the Nan Jhg tradition. That's one of
their issues of complexity.

The sequence of any of the Meridians represents an understanding or a

reflection of the philosophy. One example of that is when you look at the
Primary Channels, which all of us are so familiar with, because that is what we
are tested on most of the time. The LU Meridian begins the sequence and it ends
with the Liver. That represents again External and Internal. They are the
Meridians that represent Post-natal existence. As such,because they represent
Post-natal existence, we know that these Meridians are going to deal with what
are the requirements of Post-natal life. If we look at the Sinew Channels they
represent the Exterior. So then we have to look at what are the requirements of
External interaction. When you look at the LM Channels, interesting the Luo
Channels sequencing arc the same as the Primary Meridians, they begin at the
Lungs and the end the sequence, the discussion, with the Liver. Now, while I am
describing it as a sequence, we do know however, lets say for example, the Luo
Channels, they are not really connected with each other in the same way as the
Primary Channels. Where the LU Meridian ends is not where the U begins for
the Luo Channels. They are very separate. We can say they are connected by the
Transverse Luo, to use the European term that they have where Lungs are
connected to Large Intestine. But if you look at the so called Longitudinal
trajectory, again the Europeans' differentiation of these two trajectories, where
the LU Longitudinal Luo ends is not where the LI Longitudinal Luo begins. The
sequencing is very different, because the Luo Channels, as being suggested here,
are being created as needed.That means it depends on the issues that we are
trying to hold onto. Those are the issues that create broken Blood vessels to
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?> New Eq$ad School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C Yuen 2003
accommodate the Blood, to accommodate those experiences that you choose to
hold on to. But if you look at the sequence, they also give you some basic
understanding about the dynamics of life. This is a topic that I have talked about
in previous lectures. The whole idea that life begins with the first breath, that life
begins with respiration, followed by the child suckling the mother's breast, in
some cases to bottle formula. The child gets the second prerequisite of human
existence, which is food. And granted, we are able to digest that food. And then
the child is given the time to adequately absorb that food and to develop, not so
much his body size, as we know, very different in terms of animal milk and
human milk, but really to develop the size of his brain, and that is developed
during the state of sleep.

Those are the three basic requirements that we know to make us Self-
surviving: Respiration, Digestion and Sleep. Any one of those things not being
accommodated, we will have deprivation of life: starvation of air, food, or sleep.
While that is meaningful for me to be alive with those things intact, it does not
necessarily mean that is what life is about, because most of you want more from
life then simply eating, breathing, and sleeping. Some of you might argue that
point, some of you might feel that in a moment of your life that's all you want to
do. And most likely you will argue that point because you have been
traumatized. You have been upset. You find that life is something that is not
exciting to live in to, because you have experienced life that has been in some
ways depressing. That's why you may have decided to pursue a spiritual path. In
fact in China, a lot of people became monks and nuns and so forth, because they
wanted to run away from life. The term that we use in Chinese is Chu Jia,they
left the family behind to seek this monastic life. But a lot of times if s because
they were really emotionally Stagnant.

We know beyond those factors of eating, sleeping and breathing, that life has
the privilege of interaction, that we are going to find meaning in our lives. It is
about going out and discovering who you are through the people who surround
you, through your own interactions, your own Self-indulgences, that interactive
component that seems to offer you some type of quest that lies in front of your
life. That's the representation of the HT, that you are on a journey. The journey
only becomes complete when you no longer have any questions to ask. But when
you are constantly asking questions and questions, it means you are feeling a
sense of incompletenessin who you are. Or maybe a sense of incompleteness
about the world. That incompleteness is a searching for meaning. And of course
you then bombard your life with what you think is the important meaning. You
get rid of the things that you think are somewhat trivial. You have put the world
in a certain place that you believe defines the world in your perspective. That's
the differentiation mode.
10
New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C Yuen 2003
 I like to define this such that human existence is basically Self-surviving, Self-
interacting and Self-differentiating. That's the first thing, Self-surviving, that I
feel alive. Second is I am able to live my lifewhich is Self-interacting. Third is
that I find that my life has importance, Self-differentiation. That's precisely what
the Primary Meridian sequence represents: Lungs, Large Intestine, Stomach,
Spleen, Respiration and Digestion, Heart, sleep, meaning sovereignty. What
kind of meanjng are you looking for? Meaning about who I am: Kidneys.
Pericardium, Gallbladder, Triple Heater, liver. What do they represent? Things
that I don't want in my life: the Heart Protector, the Pericardium, to protect my
sanity, and the liver to maintain that everything is flowing smoothly. Smooth
flow of Ql is a relative concept. It is us that makes things not smooth. It is us that
will stop. You can blame it on the world, that's just the Pericardium reciting back
to you, "It's ok, it's not you, it's them". That's just your Heart Protector saying
it's not you, you're the sane one. They are the ones that are insane. They are the
ones that are the problem makers. So then you have to say, gee, can I make
myself become smooth again, can I detoxify myself from the toxins that have
been Self-imposed upon myself. Or maybe if I blame others, that have been
imposed upon me by others. That's the sequence of the Primary Channels.

Likewise, when we look at the Sinew Channels, they are going to have their
own sequence. Their priorities are going to be a little different when we are
looking at the outside world. Less inclined toward the inner world of one's
existence.

So the sequence is often specific to the energetic focus, to the prerequisites of

what it means to be alive Prenatally, and Post-natally. That's why when you
look at the Eight ExtraordinaryVessels they have their own sequencing, very
different than the Primary Channels that we have studied. As such, because they
represent the progression of life and how life moves, life that has gone astray,
physiology that has gone astray, is called pathology, then they also represent a
progression of pathology as well. That is very important because, as I have
argued, within the context of the Primary Channels, if you look at the Primary
Channels as a continuum where one Channel ends another begins, then one can
notably argue the point that it doesn't matter which Meridian you select totreat
from, because they are all connected together anyway. So what's the big deal if
you select one Point over another. It doesn't make any difference if they are one
big loop.

But there are some of us who believe, to the contrary, that they are really not
one big loop, that they represent a movement, as a continuum, but a movement
that represents a progression of pathology that's going deeper and deeper. Then
11
@ New Eagbd School ofAcupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
the selection of Points represents the level which the pathology has moved into
rather then simply the concept of a continuous loop. So that's the idea of the
sequencing.

Self-Cultivation
Lastly, when you look at the Meridians, is the importance of Self-cultivation,
via the phenomenology, to use a philosophical term, of the Meridians. That
means that it is important that we understand the Meridians as they live through
us, not through a textbook, not through necessarily a client's body, through your
own body. That means we get acquainted with these Meridians through an inner
experience, either by meditation, by Qi Gong, by Dao Yin. It means, if you are
already a clinician, you have to get beyond just the technical textbook aspect of
the Meridians. You have to experience it yourself. Feel what the Lung Meridian
actually feels like. Feel what any of the Meridians feel like by a sense of inner
work. That inner work can come from meditation. And some of you might have
already practiced Microcosmic Orbit. So you might have experienced what the
Ren and Du Channels feel like to you. Some of you may have done some Sinew
Changing exercises if you are studying the Shao U n martial arts. So you might
have felt how some of the Sinew Meridians feel. Some of you might have begun
to look at your body and look at the broken Blood vessels that you have on your
body and begin to look at what those broken Blood vessels might represent in
terms of your emotions, in terms of your mental faculties. Then you begin to get
acquainted with your own body, and to understand your own issues as well. So
that's very important that we get acquainted, that we feel these Meridians, that
there if s hands on. It's not just palpating Points. It's more about touching
yourself than about touching others, because if you touch yourself and you know
what it feels like to be touched, within your own grace, then its so much easier to
understand what it means when someone else encounters your touch.

So there's a greater focus on Self-exploration, especially bodily control, from

a first person perspective, that this is my Meridian and this is how my Meridian
is flowing rather then being dictated by a third person perspective, that is by a
clinician telling you how your Meridian ought to be behaving. So its almost like,
to me, you are doing a form of internalized biofeedback. You are feeling your
own Meridians. And once you begin to feel that, you begin to understand how
much you can control your Meridians. You are in some ways doing something
that is very powerful.

The simplest way, if you have been involved in Qi Gong or in Tai Ji Chuan is
to really feel the exercises, not necessarily as you are doing it, because as you are
doing it you might not want to be really intellectual. You really just want to get
12
New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
 @.
are also interconnected. So one can argue that we don't need to know the Sinew
Channels, because the Sinew Channels simply repreent the externalization of
the Primary Meridians. That externalization obviously is a substantiation of Qz.
The Sinew Channels are the broadest and the biggest Channels in the human
body. They deal with the substance, with the Flesh, that basically creates the
connective tissue that becomes a substantiationof your life force, of your QL
They are the solidificationof an otherwise gaseous state. That's the Sinew
Channels. mey are the most solid presentation of who you are. Your Flesh, your
muscles. We have in the human body, the solid state, the liquid state and the
gaseous state in some ways. You go to a physiaan and they will look at those
two states. The liquid state and the solid state. They don't have any measures of
the g a s e m state. They can measure the gas levels through your blood, but that's
not really a gaseous state. That's already gaseous state moving into a liquid state.

I would suggest to you that modem medid technology will probably move
to that level where they can detect, by the kinds of gaseous state that you are
presenting yourself with, that they are able then to predict diseases. l3ecause
when the gaseous state becomes solidified, into a disease in the Blood level, or in
the level of connective tissue or in the Organs, or in this case with the Sinew
Channels, in the musculature of the M y .

Thafs one aspect of the Sinew Channels, these are things that you can
visualize, dl of this wrapping, this outer shell that encases you, makes up the
Sinew Channels. If you put aU the Sinew Channels together, you construct the
human forrn. But they are being used as the vehicle, the substance to convey
your intentionalily, your Qz. They are the solidification, the substantiation of Qi.
They are being used as a medium through which you can conduct your life.

Conduits of Wei Defensive Qi

Because they are the most external level of the human existence, they .,
represent the conduits of Wei Defensive In Chapter 43 of su Wen it says, "Wei
Defensive Qi is formed from food and drinks. It cannot travel in the Blood
Vessels but rather circulates between the Skin and the Sims. It flows through
, it "homesf' into the
the chest.'' This is an important component of Wei Qithat
chest. So when it is moving outwards through the Skin and the Sinews to the
External aspect of the body, we call those the Yang Sinms, as it is going more to
the outside. The Yin S i m s represent the movement of Wei Qi as it tries to home

14
@ New bgland School of Acupunchm and Jef-fwC. Yuen 2OCB
back to the level of the chest. In particular, h r n an energetic point of viewf that
would be CV 17. Wei Qi homes into the area of Pericardium to protect the area of
the Heart, in particular, when you are going into a dream state. So there is
something that protects you while you are sleeping, and that is also Wei Qi.

Wei 0 is the domain of the Exterior, both the physiology and the pathology.
In terms of Chinese Medicine, the Exterior is represmted by Climatic Factors,
ecobgical factors, environmental factors are all part of that same definition, what
in Classical literature is referred to as the Six Excesses. &cause they are Ymg,
we tend to be Excess on the Exterior. The Six Excessesf which are the Six
Climatic Factors.

Included in that can be accidents, where we have done some injury to the
musculature of the bodyf a strain or a sprain, a Bi Obstruction syndrome.
Remember that a Bi Obstruction syndrome can only occur when the body is
subjected to Climatic Factors and there is an underlying Wei Qi Deficiency. So
Wei Qi is under the auspice of the Sinew Meridians.

Wei Qz is also the main Qi that is studied by a specialty of Chinese Medicine

known as Wai Ke, Eternal Mediane which includes dermatology, eyes ears nose
and throat conditions, neurology (a term not used in Chinese Medicine, but it
would be seen as part of Wei Qi), rheumatology, and more popularly the study of
Wai Ke by people who study Martial Arts, and many of them practice what is
d e d Sports Medicine, Die Da. Many Martial Arts teachers are very skilled in
this- If you have a sprain or a strain, they are able to repair that very quickly,
because of their understanding of Wd @ and Sprts Medicine-

Wei @ is also related to the Turbid aspect of the Stomach, the Fluids of the
StomachI the ]in part rather than the Ye part. Remember the Stomach
manufactures the Thin Huids and the Thick FluidsI the ]in Ye. Among the Thin
Fluids, there is the Pure aspect as well as the Turbid aspect. It says that the Pure
aspect of the Thin Fluids goes to the Sensory Organsf while the Turbid aspect
goes to the Skin and the Sinezus becoming W& Qi. So there is an intimate
relationship between Stomach Fluids and Wei Qi. Many people would say. that
the Stomach Fluids make and support the connective tissue of the body, thi
collagen of the body.

There is also the relationship of Wei Qi to Yang Qi. It is rooted in Yang Qi.
W6 Qz by nature is Ymg, the qualities that we associate with Wei Qi, It is
warming, it's protecting, it cirdates through the Skin to control the Opening
and the Closing of the pares, which are qualities that are often associated with
Lung Qi. But rooted in that is Yang Qi, because of its warining capabilityfand its
Defensive capability. So the relationship to Ymg Qz, especially in Meridian
language, the relationship to Z h Mai, the Governor Vessel,the %a of Ymg,
which we'll talk more about in later discussions.

Then there is the relationship of Wei Qi to two particular Organs, the Lung
and the Liver, if we are looking at it b m a h g Fu perspective, because first
there is the anatomical comection. The Lungs Control the Skin and the Liver
Controls the3inews, and W~ Qz circulates thou* the Skin and S i m s .
Interesting enough, we do know that the Wk mfensive Qi,from the Antique
Points point of view, is represented through theJing Well Points, which
repreent Metal and Wood, thisidea of the Lungs and fiver

When we're looking at Wei Qz from the Zmg Fu point of view, we could be
looking at the Lungs and the Liver. If we're looking at it from an External
anatomy point of view, we'd be looking at the Skin a d the S i m . If we're
looking at it from a Qi point of view, we'd be looking at it being rooted inYmg
Qz. which in terms of the Meridians wodd be the Governor Vessel.

Broad Channels
Other qualities of Sinew Channels is that they are very broad channels. They
are generally not Point sped~c, but rather they are regional specific and are
defined by the Ah Shi Points, the sensitive or tender Points. They deal with pain,
and you go with the patient to their level of discomfort: I have a headache, my
shoulder hurts, my wrist hurts. It doesn't have to be around the Joints, it could
be any muscular discomfort. The idea is that you are palpating and finding that
discomfort, and thisis very important because you as the cliniaan have to give
the patient the statement that you are willing to honor their pain, their
discomfort. You have to be willing to touch their suffering.

There's a big difference between Needling LJ 4 for a headache, compared to

Needling the site of the headache and LJ 4. 1can probably guarantee you that if
you did a clinical research paper between the Clinical effectiveness of treating
headaches with LJ 4 , acute headaches, that you'll find greater effectivenesswhen
you treat the Ah Shi plus LJ 4 as compared to just treating LI 4 by itself, beckuse
by treating the A?z Shi, what you're also saying is that you're also w i h g to go to
where the patient says the pairt is, as opposed to simply saying here's an outlet
(U41, Release the pain through here. Everyone can tell you, when you have a
problem, what you can do with youmelf, in terms of an outlet. A lot of times we
do that because we are not willing to note where the pain actually is. How many
of us are willing to sit with the patient and be present with that pain? That's
what you're doing when you honor an Ah Shi Point. You're saying to the patient,
16
@ New bglaud !khcd of Acupmctm and 3effk-yC Yuen ZW.3
"I realize it's sensitive there. hVs palpate, Needle, and I'll be there with you."
Thafs a big difference,in comparison to saying, "Here's an outlet, Release it."

Working with the Sinew Meridians fundamentally means that, regardless of

where the Point is located, you're really saying that you are going to be there
with that area, that is hurting, that is asking us to pay attention to it. That's what
Ah Ski Points mean. There's a whole philosophical statement that you're making
when you k d l e an Ah Shi Point.

The Sinew Channels, in terms of western mediane, includes the tendons,

muscles, ligaments, and the connective tissues, and it has an influence over the
Gao, which in Chinese means the connective tissues, something that wraps
around and protects, a particular organ It could be the connective tissue of an
organ that protects an organ. It codd be, in a more global or gross sense, what
protects the entire body: the Skin and the Sinms. With the term Gao and Huang:
Gao would be the Yin aspect, and Huang would be the Yang aspect' the
permeability, the movement of things going in and out of the connective tissues,
the permeability factor. k t ' s say if someone had a Leaking Gut Syndrome, we
could look at that potentially as a Huang problem. That's why when you Needle
KI 16, which is called Hwng Shu' it has such a powerful effect on Leaking Gut
Syndrome, in addition to it being a l d Point. It is the Shu Point that controls
the permeability factor. Or Guo Hwng Shu, BL 43, again that protective aspect,
Gao, and interesting enough, it is just along the Shu Point for the Pericardium, the
Heart Protector. That's a Point that arguably, during the Tang Dynasty, could
have given ST 36 a run for its money, in terms of how ST 36 is used today. BL 43
was one of Sun Si Mko's favorite Points for treating all diseases.

While the Yang Sinews tend to be more the external anatomy of the body, the
Yin Sinews tend to be more involved with the smooth muscles, the smooth
muscles of the Heart, the smooth muscles of the gut. So the Yin Sinms are going
to be heavily involved in peristalsis, c a r d i ~ v a s d arhythm,
r tachycardia, when
the Heart becomes "imbalanced", arrhythmia, palpitations, fibrillations.

We know that the Sinew Channels were the main emphasis of Chinese
Massage Therapy. In the old days it was referred to as An Mo, and more r&ntlY
it became known as Tui Na. Massage, in China, again was seen as a complete
mediane unto itself. They did not see that they had to learn Acupuncture or
Herbs because the modality ofMassage was in some way insufficient. It took 10
years to study Chinese Massage, in the traditional sense. It was a very elaborate
understanding of human enqetics with their major Meridian system being the
Sinew Channels. They graduated later on into being Point specific. First you

17
@ New E e g k ~Shoo1
I of Acupuncture and Jeffxey C-Yuen 2003
study the broad anatomy, then you learn to do Acupressure, or Shiatsu, then you
learn to do Point Therapy, after learning the terrain of die whole body.

Their Pathways
Origins

The pathways of the Sinew Meridians, unlike the Primary Meridians, all
originate from the Jing Well Points. The ling Well Points represent the most
externalization among the Antique Points. They are the most distal of all the
Antique Points. They travel proximally up the digits, and their trajectory, in
terms of the topography, is very similar to the Primary Meridians in terms of
where they are flowing to, just that they may not begin at the Sensory Organs as
we see with the Yang Primary Meridians (of the leg), they begin at the digits, but
they go back to where these Primary Meridians are also circulating to. That's
why they are thought to be the externalization of the Primary Meridians.

But we do know that the Sinew Channels have more sub-branches than the
Primary Channels. There's a lot more little subdivisions of what its role is going
to be, and we'll see that when we study each of the Channels in particular and
look at some of their clinical uses.

We know that they communicate with each other by transversing across each
other. If s not like where the LU Meridian ends is where it communicates with
the U Meridian, or maybe we'll want to by pass that use the Luo, then the LU can
communicate with the U before it has ended its trajectory, as a Collateral, so that
would be seen as a Luo. But we know that the Sinew Channels, like the Luo,
transverse, they go across from each other. So if s very easy for the BL Sinew
Channel, which begins with the fifth toe, to transverse across and communicate
with Gall Bladder Sinew Channel, and then to transverse across and maybe
communicate with the ST Sinew Channel, so they can go across each other.
That's why you'll see that one of the differential diagnostics that we need to
know,is that while someone might have pain on the GB Sinew Meridian, we
have to determine that, while that might be the Ah Shi Point, maybe if s coining
from the BL, maybe it has traveled across the GB, so that while I'm treating the
Ah Shi on the GB, I may not be treating the Root of where it came from, which is
from the BL Sinew Meridian, and you'll see ways that we will be able to
determine that.

There is also a relationship between the Jing Well Points and the concept
Roots and Concentrations, or what some books translate as Roots and
Terminations. In Chapter 5 of the Ling Shu, they talk about Meridians beginning

18
0 New England School of Ampuncture and Jeffrey C Yuen 2003
at the Jinff Well Points, and then traveling, as we see with theSinew Channels,
Yang Channels in partid a r , into the head, into the face. You'll see some
:^t^__i --_..
interesting correlations ma1 m i oe mrerrea
. . - - 1 - . i - -
~ irom lnow the Sinew Channels can
have areas where the achings from 1
Chapter 5 of the Ling ally adds more
information about the >mew m e i s KO mar OIBCUSHIUIL

Convergence

There is also the discussion or nw, meamng convergt*nm,union, or meeting.

Where do these Sinew Mtiridians meet, where do Hiicy converge? The Yang
Sinew Channelsfby their nature, converge at the head and the face. So from the
4 limbs, that they travel from, 10 A
. L
me-L _ - _.-l--t-
È --
neau, wmcn any of you who practice Yoga,
would tell you that the head is the Fifth Limb, the Missing Umb, thafs why the
practice of headstands and handstands are so important inYoga, to activate that
particular limb as well. They converge at the meeting of all Yang, which one
could say i s the head, so Sinew Channels and how they would affect ENT
conditions, conditions afflicting the head, or even to some degree, conditions that
might afflict the brain.

The Yin Sinew Channels converge at the chest and the abdomen. The head,
chest, and abdomen are the concentration areas that are talked about in Chapter
5 of the L i q 5hu, in terms of where Terminations also converge. You're looking
at the central axes of the body, the head, the chest,and the abdomen,

Sequence
The sequence differs as it represents the Lunar/Monthly aspects, because a
sequence also represents the Solar/Daily aspects. The Sinew Channels represent
WCT Qi as it is going out to meet the world on a day to day basis, and as it
internalizes, as we dose ourselves offfrom the world, on a day to day basis,
during sleep.

But Wei Qi also conducts the movement of energy going into the smooth
muscles of the gut, finding its way into the uterus. So it also has a relationship to
menstruation, to the monthly, Lunar aspect as well. So in that sequence,,the idea
of the Sinew Channels, beginningwith Leg Shoo Yang and ending with Arm Shao
Yh.The context of that is that it goes from Shao Ymg to Tai Yang to YangMing,
(ascending levels) then Ymg Mi= begins the decline back into Tai Ymg and Shao

19
@ New EDglaBd S<Aod of AcupunctureandJeffrey C Ynen 2003
Yang. Those would be the first 6 months of the Chinese Lunar Calendar. So
Januarywould be Leg Shao Yarzg, GI3 then Yang reaches its peak in February,
which is Leg Tai Yang, BL, then it goes into Leg Ymg Ming, ST, which would be
March. Now the Stomach is going to give birth to its counterpart, LI which is
April, Arm Yang Ming, then into Arm Tai Vang, SI, then June would end with
Arm Shoo Yang which would be TH. It goes into that cycle, like the sine curve. It
goes up (in the Yang phase) then it declines from the Yang, and now it goes to the
Yin level, finally coming back up to complete the sine curve. What happens then
for July is that you have the Yin Channels: (Leg) Shoo Yin, then it becomes (Leg)
Tai Yin, then it becomes (Leg) Jue Yin, then (Ann)Jue Yin declines (reverses
direction of the curve), into (Arm) Tai Yin, which ends with (Arm) Sfwo Yin.
(Chapter 13, Su Wen)

Leg Arm
Yang yW3
Ming Ming
Tai Tai
Yang Ymg Yang
Shao Shoo
Yang Yaw

Shoo Shoo
Yin Yin
Toi yin Tai
Yin Yin
Jue Jue
Yin Yin
L e g Ann

January KI July
BL February SP August
ST March LV September
LI April PC October
SI May LU November
TW June HT December

This sequence reflects the way that W d Qi always goes back to the chest, the
Heart. Some people have switched the timing of the HT and the PC, so there is
some discrepancy historically, but this is the general consensus.

20
0 New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C Yuen 2003
 This is known as the Lunar Sequence, and ifs very important when you're
looking at the concept of the development of W d Qiwhen it deals with the
seasonal aspect

The External layer is where Wei Qi circulates to, and the Meridians that
representthataretheSinewChannels. TheInternallayerrepresentsYe
Nourishing Qi, and the specificMeridiansthat represent the Ying Nourishing
layer axe the Luo Passage Channels. The combination of the two, of Wei Qf and
Yhg (y, is representedby theZheng, or the True,the Upright, or what some
people havetranalatedasthePlimary Channels,andinsomebooks, tt>eRegular
Meridians of Acupuncture.- are the Meridians that you've studied. The
Primaxy-
. have -Points, and fliey also have Jing Well Paints, which
m h m b h t ~ & & ~ m d W W ~ w W ~
and YingQi- Asaresultonecanqthatwedon'tneedtoleamtheSinew
Channels, w e don'tneed tirieamthe Lw Passage Channels, because we already
have those particularP<rots-represent those particularChannels in the
saying Extraordinary Organs, we've gotten used to saying the Curious Organs,
and instead of saying Curious Vessels, we've gotten used to saying
Extraordinary Vessels, but they are the same character, and we should know the
relationship between the Extraordinary Vessels and the Curious Organs. And
finally, the level that connects the External and the Constitutional are the
Divergent Channels, Bie N. Miki Shima's interpretation of the Divergent
Channels is going to be a little different from what the Chinese would interpret it
as. His approach is also quite different from what you'll see emanating from the
Chinese practice with the Divergent Channels. So Divergent Channels which
people translate as "distinct" or "separate" comes from this character Bie, which
means something that is in addition to, or outside of. In fact, in the chapter that
introduces the Divergent Channels, which is in the Ling Shu, they talk about the
Divergent Channels as being the first Meridians that Acupuncturists should
study, which is the basis for the argument that they may be the most important
Meridians, which has led some people to say that the Divergent Meridians has to
be separate entities from the Primary Meridians. So there is a school of Chinese
Acupuncturists who believe that is the case, and those who want to believe that
the Primary Channels are really the most important ones, would then say that
the Divergent Channels become an extension of the Primary Channels, which
then also makes them a Collateral. So that's this Meridian system, and the only
thing that is missing are the Cutaneous Regions. The Cutaneous Regions are
basically also the Divergent Channels when the dynamics of it is such thatyuan
Qi goes out to the Exterior, to the Wei level. The Divergents communicate
between Wei and Yuan, and what we have to look at is, is it going out to the Wei
level, or is it coming in to the Yuan level. If if s coming out to the Wei level, those
are called the 12 Cutaneous Regions. Sometimes when they pair them, which
typically they do, say Ann Tai Yang with Leg Tai Yang, they are called the Six
Divisions, so this is basically a Divergent Channel discussion. I don't want to get
too much into these other topics, because that is not the focus of our discussion
today.

Let's then move back into the Sinew Channels, and continue that discussion
on the sequencing. What we have now is the sequence represented by the Solar
or Daily aspect. In the Daily aspect, Wei Q begins
i with the opening of the-eyes.
That means the Sinew Channels are activated on a day to day basis,
when you wake up in the morning. Granted, you can take naps, which can
disorientate the Wei Qi. But generally speaking, when you wake up in the
morning, following the same energy as the sun, at least if you are living
according to the harmonious recommendations of the Su Wen, where you
basically sleep in accordance with the presence of sunlight, it says that the Wei Qi
begins to be activated with the opening of the eyes, BL 1. That sunlight could be
artificial light today, as well. That goes from Tai Yang, and moves to Shao Yang,
22
@ New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
or Y q Ming, in some cases it moves from Tai Yang, to Yang Ming, to Shao
Yang. Then from there it moves into the arm channels, either Arm Tai Yang, Shao
Yang, Yang Ming, or from Tai Yang, Yang Ming, to Shao Yang. There is a debate
as to after Tai Yang does it go into Yang Ming, or does it go to Shoo Yang? If you
have studied the S h q Han Lun, you know there is a debate even within the
Shang Han Lun School. Which is the second stage? Does it become a Yang Ming
stage, or does it become a Shao Yang stage? likewise, that debate gets transferred
into the discussion of the Sinew Channels. In any case, after reaching Shao Yang
or Yang Ming of the arms, then it goes into the meeting of Tai Yin. When you
have the meeting of Tai Yin, you have the meeting of Leg Tai Yin with Ann Tai
Yin, then the meeting of Leg Shoo Yin with Ann Shao Yin, then the meeting of
Leg and Arm Shao Yin or Jue Yin.

Upon awakening, the first thing that is activated are the Legs (Yang
channels), then the Arms (Yaw channels), by the time you're ready to retreat, or
go to sleep, or to relax, both Arms and Legs are meeting together. What I mean
by that is when you wake up the Bladder Channel is active, followed by
Gallbladder and Stomach (and in some cases these last two may be switched
around). Then comes the Ann channels, Small Intestine followed by Triple
Heater, followed by Large Intestine, and this constitutes the 12 hours of the day,
after awakening. Thafs why I said that if you takes naps during the day, you
might be disorientating Wei Qi.

Then when you are ready to go inward, into the accumulations that are more
chest and abdomen, the arms are folding in, the legs are coming in, you are no
longer in the upright posture, you're moving into a retractive posture, per se.
That doesn't mean that when you're sitting that you're already moving into that
state, but you can be inducing that state because when you sit you can become a
little bit more relaxed. At this time the Arm and Leg Tai Yin are meeting, so that
Spleen is meeting up with Lungs, so Shao Yin or Jue Yin depending on how you
want to orientate that timeclock,so let's say if if s Shao Yin we have Kidney and
Heart, and finally Jue Yin you have liver meeting with Pericardium. If you're
using either Shoo Yin or Jue Yin, again Wei Qi always ends in the chest with
somehing relating to either the Heart or the Pericardium, just as we saw with . the
Lunar .This constitutes the 12 hours of night. When they say, "after 12
revolutions," or 25 revolutions because they are bilateral, so 12Meridians when
you consider the first 6 Yang channels bilaterally, so they circulate, then they start
to go inward, Wei Qi starts to go inward at night, and they circulate internally
through the Yin Sinew Channels at night time. Then when you wake during the
day, the Wei Qi comes back out. Another way of saying that is Ying Qi circulates
outward during the night, and Ying Qi circulates inward during the day while

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Wei Qi is outward. That's a Wei and Ying Qi discussion that you might
remember from the Ling Shu.

That's the sequence that you'll see, which is important when you're looking
at sleeping disorders. We'll come back to that when we do clinical applications.

So the Solar Aspect, the Daily Aspect circulates from Tai Yang to end at either
Shao Yin or Jue Yin. It reflects the Han Dynasty belief of the progression of Shang
Han, injury due to Cold, and Zhong Feng, injury due to Wind, that develops into
the Shang Han Lun tradition. This same idea of how an Exogenous condition can
find its way internally into the body was obviously in the minds of the clinicians
who were developing the Meridian system, or at least recording the Meridian
systems during the Han Dynasty and following the same sequencing that
appears in the Su Wen, and Zhang Zhong-fing and the Shang Han Lun School took
from that tradition and made it the stages by which disease progresses. It says,
"Wind enters the body at Tai Yaw, diffusing into the Flesh and it struggles with
Wei Qi, (so we have further support of this concept within the Classics) resulting
in swelling in the Sinews (what one would think of as pain, inflammation, it can
also develop into boils and abcesses, dermatological conditions under the
auspices of the Sinew Channels, and you see the inference of how if s going to
deal with Bi Obstruction, muscular pain, or so-called muscular-skeletal
conditions, rheumatology as well as dermatology) this indicates Stagnation of
Wei Qi (how Wei Qi circulates through the Channels). The Solar Aspect
represents the circadian flow of 25 revolutions, of Yang as well as Yin, creating
50 revolutions within a day. If you divide that within the western timedock,
which means that if s going to be a little over 20 minutes that you're going to
have a Meridian circulated to, this will then define the amount of time that a
Needle will need to be inserted in a Tendino-muscular treatment in order for it to
be effective, taking into consideration that prior to Needling the Point, you might
be preparing the area through Massage, palpation ...so if you are massaging or
palpating the area for the last 10 minutes, that means that your Acupuncture
treatment might only be, say, 15minutes. On average the treatment is going to
be about 25 minutes, if you're looking at one particular Sinew Meridian. If
you're looking at two, you might have to have a longer treatment in ordertor the
treatment to be effective.

The treatment of Sinew Channels in the old days was using a Hot Needle.
That means the Needle was burned over a flame, then inserted. The nature of
the Hot Needle stimulates Wei Qi, (WeiQiby nature is Hot) using Heat as a way
to Expel and Exogenous Pathogenic Factor, which in those days was either Wind
or Cold. While we do talk about the Six Excesses, we need to be reminded that
during the time of the Su Wen, that the major Climatic Factor, even in the Su Wen
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was Wind, Cold, and in some cases Dampness due to rain. They did not focus on
Heat, or Dryness. Those are things that one can add on as part of Five Element
entertainment back then, but they were not really part of the idea that this is
pathology.

The sequence also indicates the convergence at the chest, Wei Qi protection
during one's sleep. If Wei Qi is not protecting you, you get nightmares. Or, Wei
Qi does not home into the chest and stays in the head, or stays in the four limbs,
then you obviously have insomnia, the inability of Wei Qz to retreat back into the
region of the chest, the region of the abdomen, like the "rest to digest" kind of
concept, that is associated with Wei energy.

Implications of the Sinew Channels

Motility & Mobility

We get a general flow of how if s moving through the body. We get the
general idea that on a daily basis, definitely Tai Yang is the most important one
that's activated because of Tai Yang's relationship to the eyes. If s almost like,
from the eyes, we already know, are directly connected to the nostrils, to the
nose, Yang Ming. So Tai Yang to Yang Ming. From there, it goes to Shao Yang, to
the ears, Sensory Organs, and according to the Classics, Gallbladder Controls the
Bones. So once it goes into the ears, once it affects the ears, from Shao Yang,
thafs how it winds up in the chest, in the flanks, and that's why the Classical
symptom of Gallbadder was always flank conditions, Bone. From Gallbladder,
thafs how it reaches the Bones, because of its connection, based on a Meridian
concept that Gallbladder Controls the Bones, but also the Bones relationship to
the ears, and the ears relationship to Essence. Once it gets here (motions to
anterior ribcage), that's how it moves into Tai Yin. See, that's how they thought
out why: Tai Yang, Yang Ming, Shao Yang, and Tai Yin affecting the Lungs and
the Spleen.

Their implications: the first implication is that the Sinew Channels deal with
the unconscious control of bodily movements, autonomic, which in western
terms you might say that they are reflexes. They occur instinctually. They-are
not voluntary, unless you become yogis. You become a yogi, and these things
become under your control. Your can control your sweating, your body
temperature, your heartbeat, things we would consider our autonomic activities.
You can control your sphincter activity. That's Wei Qi, controlling the sphincter
movements of the body.

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 This unconscious control of bodily movements, which is the quality of Wei
Qi, because Wei Qt is instinctual, is intrinsic. It does not need intelligence. It just
responds accordingly, because if s very natural. It is Rooted in Du Mai, Governor
Vessel. Governor Vessel is what gives birth to Wei Qz. It is Yang Qi that gives
birth to Wei Qi. It is the development of the curvature of the spine, and again
you see why the relationship so much to Tai Yang. In specific Sinews, in
particular the SCM muscle, the diaphragm, the psoas, the abdominal rectus, and
the paravertebral. In that context, if you look at the whole role of the
musculature, it is to support the skeletal system, to maintian tonus, to maintain
the integrity of the skeletal system.

The three basic skeletal regions of the body are: the cranial region, the
thoracic region, and the pelvic region. The curvature of the spine is what creates
the flexibility of how these three boney cavities communicate with each other,
the cranial, the thoracic, and the pelvic cavities communicate with each other.
The major Sinews are what maintain the balance between the frontal part, the
thoracic cavitiy, and the cranial. That's the SCM region. So the SCM is really a
bridge between the cranial structure, and the thoraac structure. We also see how
the thoracic cavity is maintained in its communication with the pelvic cavity. and
that's the abdominal rectus structure. These again, mind you, are Sinew
Meridians, Sinew areas. They aren't really Acupuncture Points. When you
locate them, you can call them Ah Shi Points. But they are Ah Shi Points which
might happen to be Acupuncture Points, and they are, from our point of view,
very tendino-muscular. They are still within the context of the Sinews. The
paravertebrals which support the spine, and how the spine is erect, as it supports
the connection between the pelvis and in particular with the region of the
occiput, the cranial pelvic connection through the connection of the paravertebral
muscles. Then, we know the tailbone, or the inquinal region, how it connects
with the thoracic cavity and the the spine, is through the psoas muscles, or even
the ilio-psoas muscles. These are the major Sinews that we have. The thoracic
cavity as it connects to the tailbone would be the diaphragm. We know the
diaphragm anchors into the lumbar spine. That's going to have an effect on the
coccyx. And how the psoas is going to have that connection between the pelvic
region, as it moves back to the area of thoracic cavity
moving into, that the hands are beginning to experience from. That's why the
Leg Channels begin the sequence of Channels, followed by the Ann Channels.
After you extrapolate, and you bring that information in,when I am no longer
upright, and I go into a sitting position, that's when the Yin Channels, with the
legs and the hands beginning to meet, you are also gathering information. That's
why after the Yang Channels have been circulated, then the Leg and Arm
Channels meet together. They are not separate entities any longer. That is a very
important component that we have to first realize.

You when you look at this idea of motility and mobility, it is very often
associated with the upright posture, and what is the upright posture? The
upright posture is the dynamic statement that tells me that I want to go out into
the world, and experience the world. That's External. That's Wei Qi. I'm not
sitting here thinking about my experiences. I'm going out and trying to
experience the world by extrapolating, by moving, by touching, by encountering,
by handling the world. That is the separation of the Self from the whole. The
whole in many cases would be the maternal matrix, the mother. But it is also the
separation of the Self from the whole body. It is the individualization of the Self
from the whole body, where one could say that we're subjected to the currents of
gravity. Interestingly, the mechanism of the inner ear, because the inner ear is
also where Divergent Meridians (HT, KI, LU, SP, and ST) converge into, so the
Divergents' relation to Wei Qt, and how the inner ear balances the way you're
going to move as a statement of Self. You'll see that when we look at Divergent
Channels in the future. But, when we are subjected to the currents of gravity
means that we are becoming earthbound. We're no longer etheric. We're no
longer celestial beings. We're now earthbound beings. "Earthbound being"
means I have to put my feet on the earth and actually experience what the earth
feels like. That's the very dynamic concept that we are now separating ourselves
from the whole.

What I'd like to do, to show you, is the validation what I'm describing. How
you do that, how you experience that, how you see that (JCYgets on top of the
table, on his hands and knees), goes back to when you were a child, basically all
of you was still whole. You were in this fetal position where you had yourhands
and your legs inclined (drawn in) so that basically you were in a very circular
position. You were not in a straight line, not 1. You were still emptiness,
(indicatesa circle). You were still whole. You were in this prenatal position
after you were born. In fact, pre-natally you were all squashed together, (with
the head tucked in) like one big circle, with the arms and the legs together in
some ways. What happens after you're born, you're still trying to maintain that
wholeness. You're still trying to embrace something that's whole. En most cases
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it's the maternal figure. You're embracing Mommy. Your head is still very
heavy. Your head rests on Mommy. You're suckling on Mommy's breast. That
is what most of you experience when you are very young. Interesting enough, a
couple months after you are born, there's an interesting reflex. Again a reflex,
because you don't think about it. It happens naturally in most of you, unless you
have cerebral palsy, or some dues to indicate that you have some type of mental
retardation, where you're not going to be able to handle the world, or at least the
External worid, in a more healthy way as compared to other people. And
interesting enough, a lot of people who have these conditions, like Down's
syndrome, where do they have a lot of Yin accumulated? Usually they have a
lesion on the lumbar spine, or they have a lesion right at DM14. In other words,
they have a lot of Yin preventing the Yang from becoming activated. So they
won't be as interested in External stimulation. But for most of you, a couple
months after you're born, there's this interesting reflex that occurs. You're in this
circle, and something is dying to break away from being whole. You no longer
want to be all things. You want to be one thing. You want to be you. You want
to be individualized. What happens is this interesting phenomenon. You're like
this (tuckedin a circle) and all of sudden, one day, Du 14 starts to fire, and your
head is doing this (repeatedly trying to rise up) this impulse, pushing the head.
What happens, philosophically, is that I see what's in front of me. My God,
there's something in front of me that I can see. I don't know how to judge space.
I don't know how far away Mommy really is. I can see her, but I've never really
experienced distance. I've been carried from place to place.

Interesting enough, several months after that, another reflex occurs, for some
people it may be a little longer than several months, but another interesting
reflex occurs directly behind the navel at Du 4. First, you're lifting the head, then
all of a sudden, it starts firing at Du 4 (and the entire upper body is trying to rise
up) and notice what is happening. If s is pushing and pushing, and as my head
is pushing, I am automatically going to develop the upright posture. If s built in.
No one teaches you to stand up. They might make sure you're not as clumsy in
the beginning,because they want to make sure that you are secure. All of
sudden, in that clumsy way, you learn to balance yourself. You learn to subject
yourself into the upright posture. You learn to separate from the whole. You're
breaking away from the circle. You're becoming one, because you're becoming
individualized.

Thafs what the Sinew Channels represent. I f s instinctual. If s unconscious.

These reflexes are firing, and what happens is that as it fires, and I develop the
upright posture, I'm subjecting these three boney cavities, which at one time was
very retracted in, I'm subjecting these boney cavities to be maintained by the
major Sinews of the body: the abdominal rectus, the paravertebrals, so Yang
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Ming, Tai Yang, the SCM, you could think of it as Yang Ming again, the psoas,
which has a lot to do with Sluo Yam, the diaphragm, I'msubjecting all of these
muscles to support the boney structure of the body. Furthermore, they are the
mechanism that is moving the musculature of the body unconsciously. What I
mean by that is, if you have to go somewhere, let's say I have to go over to that
chair. Do I tell my body, "you have to walk this way and that way, and that's
going to get you to that chair"? You don't intellectualize how you're going to get
to that chair-It' s programmed in. You want to go to the chair, you move to the
chair. The body automatically, unconsciously, is able to move, when you're not
really conscious of the way you're moving to the chair. That's why if s very
instinctual. Tai Ji and Qi Gong is doing something that is trying to challenge you
to start being conscious of the way you move. As you walk to the chair, and you
become conscious of the way you are moving, you're doing a form of Qi Gong.
That's why, over time, you're able to have control over autonomic functions.
That'swhy Qi Gong masters are yogis. They are able to control Wei Qi. They are
able to relax certain parts of their body, where other people find that they can't
do it. They are doing a form of biofeedback through experiencing their body.
They don't have to think of a thought in order to relax their body, all they have
to do is think of the experience of the body itself. Now they can directly relax
the body. Qi Gung is a form of biofeedback. What I mean by that, is that they
are making something conscious, which for many people, is very unconscious.

That's crucial, because if you're going to work with Sinew Channels, one of
the things that you're going to find, is that you're trying to bring volition back to
your client, for something they feel they have no control over. You cannot
change that which you are not aware of. You can only change that which you are
aware of. At least you're given,the choice. What you're going to be seeing then,
especially when we look at the clinical applications of this, will be what I call the
Sinew Releases: things that you can do to the body that can make the person
become consciously aware of the areas that might be contributing to the pain, so
that they can tell you where the Release Points are, rather than you having to
palpate in order to find out where those Release Points are going to be. You
empower them, by their involvement in the exercises and these Releases, some of
which I will show you probably tomorrow. .
That means that any time, like now while your sitting in your chairs, if
you're thinking about where you need to be later today, related muscles are
firing unconsciously in your body. Every time I need to do something, (it
activates the related muscles) this happens, and there is this upright posture.
These muscles (indicating the back of the leg) tense up unconsciously. They are
not going to be relaxed. They prepare to do something. Yang, Tai Yang means
this Heightened Yang, the Greater Yang by which we can do, or move into
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where it is that we need to go. Even ifyou're not doing it right now, you just
think about it, those muscles are going to be tense. The more you think about it,
the more tense it gets, then if s just a matter of time before you get occipital
headaches, Tai Yang headaches. If you get overwhelmed thinking about all the
things you have to do, or at the end of the day, you're reflecting on all the things
you did that day, and you don't realize why you have this nagging headache at
the back of the head, if s a reminder. You're doing too much. Then the question
is, can I slow down? If you can't slow down, then you can see why you
constantly have headaches. You can see as many Acupuncturists or Massage
Therapists as you want, but until you slow down, those headaches won't go
away. The Acupuncturist, by Needling the area, by honoring the area, all they
are doing is Releasing it for you, but they haven't necessarily changed the quality
of your life, in the sense that they made you realize how you contributed to those
headaches. This is your body. This is your form. You have control over that
body. Part of working with the Sinew Channels is making us aware of the
amount of control that we do have over that part of our body.

Yang is to do. So anything that you need to do, because you have a body, the
Sinew Channels, which are comprised of that physical body, will be activated. In
fact, the way you sit now, if you try to get out of your chair, consciously, not just
naturally, or autonomically, you will notice that you can't do it without Du 4 and
Du 14 giving you that firing reflex. I won't be able to get up. They are not
cooperating. You notice with someone who is paralyzed, what is the major TCM
treatment? Du 14 and DM 4. They are not cooperating, and some of you might
try to cheat, and bounce up, but that still requires those same reflexes. You need
those two Points to get you to move. Governor Vessel gives birth to Tai Yang,
Bladder, and we can see the relationship, Kidney and Bladder, and that allows
you to do all the things you want to do in life. That's the basic component. As I
stand up, thafs Tai Yang. As I'm walking, thafs Tai Yang.

Granted, when I walk, I don't just walk, because what I'm moving into is
something that is a living event that is constantly changing. As I begin to walk
toward something that is a living phenomenon, I have to be able to adjust my
walk, to make decisions, choices of how I'm going to move, and if s unconscious,
if I'm walking towards something, and if s moving, I don't have to think, oh if s
moving, let me change course. It would be too slow. You autonomically follow
it, and moving from side to side, is a reflection of Gallbladder. After your legs
get you up, you have the ability to move from side to side. You have choices,
and that's a reflection of Shoo Yang. If I'm walking toward something, and it
moves, I'm going to have to rotate myself, and that's Shao Yang that
accommodates the rotational aspect of the body.
 Then once you reach your destination, you stop, you don't want to run into
it. There is a mechanism that stops the movement, and that's Yang Ming. Yang
Ming stops, and it braces. It is the brakes that you put on to stop the movement.
Now that the legs have gotten me there, I can do anything I want to at my
destination with my hands. If I try to extend beyond my reach, I may fall. Now
we can see why the Leg Channels have to be activated first, then the Arm
Channels can be activated.

I can reach for something, and if it is changing, moving, I can make choices
to move with it, to rotate with it. Then I actually grab it, where it stops. It is
within your reach. It' s now part of you, Yang Ming. Tai Yang, Shao Yang, Yang
Ming, this is very important because this is the evaluation of movements. Does
my arm hurt when I extend it out and hold something heavy? Oh yea, it hurts a
lot when I extend it out and hold onto something. That's a Yang Ming Sinew
Meridian problem. No, it doesn't hurt when I do that, but it hurts when I extend
the arm out and rotate it left and right, a rotational problem, a Shao Yang
problem. No, it hurts as soon as I extend my hand out, a Tai Yaw problem. Or,
it only hurts when I stand still, Yang Ming. No it hurts when I rotate, Shao Yang.
It hurts when I'm walking, Tai Yang.

No, it hurts when start to go Yin and I bend my knees (crouching)Tai Yin for
the legs. No, it doesn't really hurt when I reach out and hold something, but
when I bend my elbow, and I feel like I need to support the elbow with my other
hand, (Arm) Tai Yin, retreating, coming in. No, it doesn't hurt when I extend my
arm and rotate it, but if I bend the elbow and rotate it, then it hurts, SJwo Yin,
rotation with retraction of the elbows or the knees. Jue Yin is paralysis, you can't
move at all. There is no movement whatsoever. That's Jue Yin where the Wei Qi
is trapped in the chest, Pericardium, Liver, you can say is trapped, so what you
have is no movement on the four limbs, paralysis, Jue Yin.

It is very important because I may tell you that I have low back pain, and
you say OK, that's the Bladder Channel, let's Needle this area, and you might
even use some distal Points to Release it, like BL 40. But I can further tell you
that it only hurts when I'm turning my hips, that's when I feel it. That would tell
you that this Tai Ymg condition, the Ah Shi Points, Bladder, only hurts when I'm
turning, which means that it really came from Gallbladder. That means that to
treat it effectively, you really have to treat the Gallbladder Channel. A
Gallbladder condition has Transversed to the Bladder. While the Ah Shi is
Bladder, where it is coming from is Gallbladder. How do I know that? By
testing and evaluating the movement that seems to elicit the pain. Someone
could have sciatica, and say, "Well it only hurts while I'm sitting". "How about
when you sit and rotate?" "No, it only hurts when I'm sitting." Tai Yin, so it
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may still involve these Bladder Ah Shi Points,but it is coining from Tai Yin,
Spleen Sinew Channel. These are the areas that it has been referred to. What
you have in western terms is "referred pain". It has been referred there from
somewhere else. It gives you dues to understand where if s coming from, when
you understand the nature of movement. Again, these are not movements that
I'm aware of. I don't know where it comes from, because it happens
instinctually. When you're walking, you're not thinking about how you are
walking, unless you're doing Qi Gong or Tai Ji. Then your teacher might force
you to thinkabout how you are walking, then you're doing something to take
conscious control. BANG! When I did that, you all did this (recoiled). That's
reflexive. You didn't say, because he made a loud noise, I have to go like this. If
you did that, you'd be a yogi. What happens with the reflex when you are
contracting is that it activates the meridians that bring something to a halt, it
stops, because when you are startled like that, you will basically stop everything.
What happens unconsciously is, your facial muscles squeeze, your abdominal
rectus does the same thing, your chest muscles squeeze, all along Yang Ming.
That's why I said Yang Ming is where everything stops. When you've been
startled and everything stops, that's Yang Ming. You can see why, when people
who have a lot of tension along the abdominal rectus, it might be reflectiveof
something in the past has traumatized them and caused them to stop.

Whenever you are in fear, fear cringes to the center, it comes to the center.
But first and foremost you have to ask, is it fear that comes from the Exterior, or
is it fear that comes of the Self. It makes a big difference. If I'm afraid of myself,
then thafs a Divergent Meridian issue, because it deals with Wei Qz, muscular
tension, as it responds to Yuan Qz (the Self). But if if s fear of the world, which is
External, maybe I'm afraid after having an accident, then it is more Tendino-
muscular. The treatment strategy changes depending on how you're dealing
with that kind of treatment around the abdominal rectus. So I'm giving you
some theoretical insights if you are doing work around the naval, how it is going
to be very different in terms of what kind of trauma are you dealing with.
Outside of the fact that this might be the first scar, if it is the first scar, obviously
this area is one that is traumatized. But, sometimes you Release, and it still stays
very traumatized. It might be that there is some underlying trauma because of
which the person is afraid of their own Self, rather than afraid of the world.
There is a little difference in that context.
I made that correlation about the inner ear, the Divergent Channels of HT,
KI, LU, SP and ST converge above the left ear, which represents the Yang aspect
of the body and its affecton the mind. If Deficient, it will result in a comatose
state, which they say treat with Jing Well Points. This is in support of some of
these Wei Qi concepts, and that's presented in Chapter 63 of the Su Wen.

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 The activation of the major reflexes are intimately related to Du 4 and Du 14.
One could look at this as the streaming of the serpentine, kundalini type energy.

The Yin Sinews deal more with the organization of the charge. I mean Yang
is how I'm responding, and the Yin is when you begin to reflect, when you begin
to sit, when you begin to lie down, which are also postural alignments to
organizing or reflecting on what you've done that day, or that life. Long term
organizationcreates the posture. Short term expression creates the gesture, or
gesturing. Posture is the long term organization of i t The Chinese did not
believe there was any such thing as a "perfect" postural alignment, so they were
not like Rolfers. They believed each individual had to be unique, to understand
why their particular posture is the way it is, as a reflection of their own lives. In
other words, you have to have that posture, or it wouldn't be you. If you think
there is such a thing as a universal posture, it would only be universal in the
sense that it allow for more movement, greater mobility, not necessarily that it
would be more reflective of you. Maybe who you are is somebody who is not
thrilled with having greater mobility into the world. As a result, your posture
will betray you once again, and you might need another 10 sessions of Rolfing,
then it might betray you again, and again, and again. What is more important is
not that you need it, but why do you keep reverting back to this posture? Once
you understand that, maybe you begin to realize that's who you are, then that's
the perfect posture. The perfect posture should be who you are. Not necessarily
greater freedom of movement, but greater choice of the freedom. So I have a
choice, do I want to have that or not. Most of us would think that all of us would
want to have greater choices of freedom, but if you look at your life you might
realize that you've been putting yourself in situations that are really contrary to
that thought.

Range of Motion

I've talked about that. Yang is done without flexion of the elbows, or flexion
of the knees, without bringing the elbows or the knees in. The arms or the legs
are basically extended. Tai Yang is the extension of the upper or the 1ower.limbs.
Shao Yang is the rotation, when extended, of the upper or lower limbs. Yang
Ming is grasping or lifting when there is resistance. I'm holding this cup. Oh it
hurts a lot when I hold the cup, Yang Ming. If I'm holding space (nothing
grasped) thafs not considered Yang Ming. That simply would be considered Tai
Yang.

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 Yin is done with flexion of the elbows or the knees. Tai Yin is upon flexion
when I move something in, when I bring my knees in, that's considered Tai Yin.
People with habituated Tai Yin problems, are the people whose knees are always
bent. When they walk, the knees are always bent Everything is retracted in.
You can see how the major Sinews are being displaced already. You can see how
the abdominal rectus is changing, the SCM is changing,the paravertebrals,
they're all going to change. When you work on those things in particular, you'll
see some effects, but what is more important is the question, why is this person
retracting, why is this person organizing the charge so that they no longer have
the charge itself? Remember, you change function, and you change structure.
You might say, oh my knees have been like that for years. I don't think I can
change that. You might feel like the bones have almost welded themselves
together, they feel so stiff, and they're not seeing any changes. But if they give
themselves time to change the musculature, the bones will change.

Then there is Shao Yin, where there is flexion with rotation, when I'm
bending in and I'm rotating. And Jue Yin is paralysis. So if someone comes in
and they are paralyzed, you treat Jue Yin. You treat the Pericardium and Liver
Sinew Channels.

Crucial to the treatment of this, and you'll see this when I demonstrate with
some of the participants, is how much we can bring awareness back to
themselves in dealing with the Sinew Channels. Remember that the easiest part
of the body to become aware of is the physical body

Question: inaudible

JCY:Sometimes the patient will say it doesn't really hurt to extend their arm,
but it hurts when they bend their arm to come their hair, for example, which
would be Tai Yin, because I'm bending in now, or maybe it hurts when they are
bending their arm to take their shirt off, that would be Tai Yin.

Postural Alignment

The first way of exploring your postural alignment, if you have not already
done so, is to look at the wear and tear on your shoes. That's your posture.'
That's the way you're moving. Are you a Tai Yang person? A Shao Yang person?
Or a Yang Ming person? Whereis the wear and tear on your shoes? Is it along
the lateral aspect like someone who is Tai Yang? Imagine, if you are in a rush, on
the go, and you want to have more Yang. How does someone speed up? You
speed up by pushing a lot of your weight to the outside of the foot. You don't
speed up by shifting the weight inwardly, bringing the knees together and down,
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?> New EngIimd School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
you slow down. When you knock your knees together, you slow down. But
when invert your legs (and feet) out, you speed up. You look like Charlie
Chaplin. It speeds you up, and gets you going fast. If you notice the wear and
tear on the lateral side of your shoes, even though you're not walking like
Charlie Chaplin, you know that you are a person who is pretty much always on
the go, because if I'm constantly pushing down to the ground on the corner of
the shoes, if s going to wear mostly in that area. Or some of you might speed up
by walking like this, pushing everything onto the heel as a way to speed up. If I
try to walk on my toes, tip toe, I can't speed up. If you see that most of the wear
and tear is along the heel of your shoes, you're speeding up. The difference
however is between this person for whom the wear and tear is on the side, and
the other for whom the wear is at the heel, and when it is at the heel, that person
is moving, but with a certain amount of hesitation. They are both moving with
excitement, but when the wear is at the heel, they are not really landing down on
their toes yet. There is a certain degree of Yin, compared to that which is Yang.

Then there are those of us who might say, "What's so exciting about life? I'll
just take my time. I don't need to walk that much." Then we notice that most of
the weight is along the instep. If s on the inside of our shoes. Remember that
shoes represent Yaw, because those are the instruments with which you walk,
you move, you run,you pace yourself. You can see someone with wear and tear
along the medial aspect of the shoes, might find in their lives that it is difficult to
walk, that they have pains when they walk. Remember, while it might be
physical pain, it might also be a reflection of a body who finds that life is not that
interesting to walk into. The body will follow the mind instinctually. It does not
think about how it needs to follow the mind, the body follows autonomically.

So the first thing you need to do is look at the wear and tear on the shoes.
Maybe the wear and tear is along the front part (pointing to the medial aspect),
so when you're walking,you're almost walking on you're toes, like you're
walking tip toe. That means most of the weight is going to go to the sternum (?
front)of the foot, thafs Yang Ming, because when you try to stop your forward
movement, what happens. All your weight goes to the front You don't stop
taking the weight off the front, you'll fall down. The weight goes to the front
when you brake, everything comes to the front. That would be a Yang Ming
person.

Or maybe you notice that this other person is kind of odd. I see that the
lateral aspect is worn on let's say the right foot, and the medial aspect is worn on
the left foot. The person is tilting to the right. All the weight is drawn to one
side. This person is tilted, slanted. You can rationalize, and say if s because the
person carries a briefcase on the right But rationalization only gives you an
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@ New England School of Acopimcture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
excuse for something that you now have the capability to change. You might
say, "Well, I'm compensating, that's why if s like that". Fine, now can you
decompensate? The point is to make the person aware.

Even with perfect posture, there is still going to be wear and tear, because
the way you move is reflective of the situations you put yourself in. You put
yourself in more habituated situations, you are going to have wear and tear on
those particular areas of your shoes. Thaf s posture. The easiest way is when
someone lies-on your treatment table. How do they put their feet? Are they
parallel, or pointing outwardly, or maybe one foot is upright, and the other foot
points outwardly, so that one hip is turned out So you see that there is a slightly
tilted posture. I'm slightly tilted here (pointing to his left shoulder). That's my
posture, because I hold a lot of stuff in this part of my hip (anterior left). If s
something I'maware of, so that when I'm stressed, I know that this is the
physical part of my body that is going to take on that pressure. If I allow that to
take place, I could get saatica, which I don't have, but that is part of the
awareness that comes with looking at your own body. That means that because
I'm slightly tilted to one side, those issues are Shao Yang issues. It gives you
dues, and it is about being honest with your own body. I f s not a judgment.
Clinicians may judge you, "You shouldn't be like this. You should be like this.
You should be like my feet. You shouldn't like that."

Question: When the heels are worn down, is that still Tai Yang?
JCY: That's Tai Yang with hesitation. My heel is worn that way, too. These
shoes you can't tell much, because they don't look too beat up. I'm supposed to
look somewhat professional when I come to teach at these seminars. But when
you look at my favorite shoes, the back is pretty beat up. Walking with
hesitation. So, I can teach pretty fast. That's the Tai Yang part. But if you ask me
to reflect on it, there's a certain degree of reflection underneath it, too, that's the
Yang Ming part.

So,the gesture and the posture seek to express the validity of our lives.
Sometimes that validity is not necessarily something that we are aware of, and
we tend toward habituated patterns. We are not like children who are given the
gamut of stimuli. Our innocence is being pulled from here to there, wandering,
just following our curiosity. As children we have a luxury of stimuli. As we get
older, those stimuli tend to decline. We get surrounded by people we want to be
with. We put ourselves in situations that are familiar. Everyday we see the same
kinds of people. We interact with similar people. It begins to solidify our lives,
and solidifies our posture. Unless something major happens, we've been
traumatized, then there is a reshuffling of these major Sinews. The abdominal
rectus has to reshuffle because there has been a major trauma to the body,
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à New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
physical or emotional. As those major Sinews begin to reshuffle their alignment,
your posture may begin to change. Once they do begin to change, they affect
something that is also very autonomic, your breathing and your heartbeat. Wei
Qt homes into the chest relating to our breathing and our heartbeat. You can see,
when things come to a halt. When things stop. When your Qi is being
depressed, as happens when things come to a halt, you already know the posture
and what that feels like. A person who is very fatigued, is going to come in with
a very fatigued posture (demonstrating with a sunken chest). They don't come
in like this (bolt upright) "Oh yea, I feel tired". They don't demonstrate that very
Tai Yang posture to you. They are slouching, and may want to sit down, a very
depressed posture. Or you can look at a person who was like this yesterday
(very Tai Yang) but they just broke up with their loved one today, and all of a
sudden, their posture changed, and loved one happens to be the "love of their
life" and they can't let go for the rest of their life, so that posture never goes back
to that Tai Yang posture. Over time, that person's whole body is going to look
like a person who's been through the depressed situation of a loss, and they may
not be conscious of it. "Well, I broke up with this person 30 years ago," yet the
body still betrays you. Intellectually you may think that you've resolved that,
but the body still shows that it is false.

To me, the Sinew Channels show you exactly what's going on in that
person's immediate life. That immediacy could be a reflection of a chronicity,
however. Especially when you work on it, and it comes back, and they're saying
that they are not seeing any improvement in let's say their shoulder. They still
feel they pain. They don't feel the Release. They still feel the heaviness. You
think, oh Damp Bi. Maybe if s the heaviness of the world that they can't hold up
any longer. Their atlas has failed them. That's dues to us that there is something
that is constantly encouraging this posture, unconsciously, by reflex. If s not
often something that we know by volition, unless we pay attention. What you're
doing as a clinician is you're paying attention to your posture so you can help
someone else pay attention to their posture, so that we are able to make choices
to change those postures.

Postures can reflect long term compensation of that which has been denied
to us. I don't have this, so I'll pretend I have i t I'll compensate as if I have'it.
Someone who's afraid may have a posture that says leave me alone, or I'm going
to hit you. That's compensation. So here, this macho posture is a false pretense
for something they are trying to compensate for, which is fear.

As it happens, it often leads to the meshing and Binding of Tai Yang, which is
one of the most fundamental Channels. If s the beginning of Wei Qi. It is the one
that is being exercised and activated by Du Mai, so it is one of the major ones that
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New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
we have to Release. If it is meshing and Binding up with the Tai Yang Sinew
Channels along the erector muscles of the spine,if s going to have an effect on
the Shu Transporting Points. It is essentially going to affect the way we seek to
express, transport, move, as well as interfering with the convergence of Yang at
GV 14,which is a major center for cerebral spinal nerve fibers and cerebral spinal
fluid. That means that we might notice that our concentration has diminished.
We might notice that we are not as adept in thinking and feeling because we
have all this-energy bound up in the region of GV 14, and we seem to have a loss
of memory. Interesting enough, we know where these things start to get all
bound up, where we have at a later age what someone at a very early age with
mental retardation has, as we get older we develop that hump right at Du 14 that
we see in children with mental retardation. We may see it as someone gets older,
and we wonder why they have Alzheimer's and they can't seem to remember
and recall things, why Wind seems to stay on the extremities and can't seem to
come in because if s blocked at GV 14, so the hands seem to have tremors and
shaking. Yang can return to the chest, so they get a stroke. Or maybe, one day it
comes back violently to the chest, and they get a heart attack. Remember, if the
muscles are free, and the heart is a muscle from the western point of view, we
should be able to offset that

The back, where GV 14 is, in Chinese medical thinking, if that area is

constantly being interfered with, if that area is constantly being fired at, where
there is a convergence of that, it can lead to premature awakening or arousal of
the survival mechanism of the lower brain. In the study of Curious Organs in
Chinese Medicine, they basically divide the Brain into three regions. You have a
lower brain, a mid brain and an upper brain. And then the brain is divided into
left and right hemispheres. So you have the six divisions of the Brain: upper,
middle, lower, left and right. Remember earlier I talked about the prerequisites
of Post-natal existence. So that for the Chinese, the lower brain, the brain stem,
the area that's bordered by Du 14, and Du 15and 16 which is the point that
enters the Sea of Marrow, is referred to the lower brain. That lower brain
controls survival. It controls your eating, breathing and things that we typically
think of as primitive and yet necessary for survival instincts. It also controls
sleep.
Then, you have the midbrain. The midbrain deals with interaction. Itdeals
with your centers of emotion. It deals with thinking, cognition, and it allows you
to interact and maintain memory of those interactive aspects. So that's the
midbrain. The midbrain is bordered by the area from GB 8, GV 16and GV 20.
All the areas from this region, to the ears and up into Du 20 will be seen as the
midbrain, the interactive aspect.
The frontal lobe, the frontal brain is the part which is differentiation, which
means disassociation, to be able to differentiate, which we think of as a sign of
higher intelligence. If s also an area where we can create, creativity, which

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@ New Eodaod School of Acupunctureand Jeffrey C Yuen 2003
would be part of the differentiating mode, which sits above the Sensory Organs,
especially the eyes.
What happens is that if you have this constant accumulation at Du 14, it
means that person constantly has issues of survivakbreathing eating and
sleeping. So they are constantly lethargic, sleepy, or they are constantly wide
awake, they can't sleep. They have insomnia. They get obese, overweight, or
they can't eat much at all, or they might have asthma, breathing difficulties. This
is a very important area that we need to Release, this is a major padding of the
body. That's why Gua Sha is very important to this area, to make sure that things
don't accumulate. A lot of time what happens is as we get older we know that
this area starts to accumulate because the head starts to get pulled forward. To
routinely dear this area is very crucial, by Gua Sha or by Cupping the area.
Remember the muscles in the back develop largely after the muscles in the
front have become well-formed. Infants lying prone cannot lift their head, arms
or legs completely. Muscles basically develop in the front. In other words, we
have to be able to stop motion before we can initiate movement. If you could just
move and not learn to turn off the switch, that's not good, so you have to first be
able to develop these muscles in order to turn things off. One can argue these
muscles are developing to contract against the navel. But these muscles develop
so we can stop motion after we learn to become upright. Or else, what you have
in a child, if these muscles are very flaccid, what you have is a child that will
have seizures and epilepsy. They can't stop motion. They can't stop movement.
The Sinew Channels, by Tonifying Yang Ming, you get the seizures under
control. The Sinew Channels will have wide implications for many things, very
important in infant development. You will see we will expand it to everything in
Chinese Medicine.
Question: Is GV 14 a good Point to Bleed for this accumulation?
JCY:You can, but accumulation of what, though?
Question: What you were just talking about.

ICY: G w Sha and Cupping are more than enough- I don't think if you are
comparing, should I Bleed that, relative to Gua SJw and Cupping, I would say just
Gua Shu, because you also want to see, do I have accumulations, because when
you Gua Sha you will know that. When you have Sha you will know that. Some
people will not have that. Maybe their accumulation is not here, it is down here
in this area, in the gluteus area. Or maybe if s all along the SCM area. Those are
all areas where we can accumulate those habituated inconsistencies in our lives.
This will also give you dues as to the context potentially of how you might
be looking at Ever Wind signs and symptoms. Liver Wind signs and symptoms
might be because these areas along the gut,from a muscular point of view, are
not controlling Yang, so that Y q becomes out of control. You know already if
Yang Ming is weak, that leads very commonly to, Internal Heat, which can lead
to Wind.
 Other common regions of holding due to more Blood and less Qi, are Jue Yin
and Yang Ming. That comes from the Classics. Outside of Tai Y q , the other
area that tends to have more Blood, which means more holding capability and
less Qi is Jue Yin and Yang Ming.
Are there any questions on the postural alignment concept? I invite you all
to look at your own postures. Take a quick walk to the bathroom, disrobe
yourself and take a look.
4

Question: When you talk about the limbic system, that's going to be associated
more with the lower brain?
JCY: Uh huh. Remember the Brain is a part of the Curious Organs in Chinese
Medicine. What they have done is, the region from DM20 to GB 8 to Du 16 or 17
is referred to as the midbrain. The area (below this down to the hairline, or as far
as GV 14, and anteriorly toward the ear) is referred to as the lower brain. And
with Yin Tang as the frontal border, and Du 20 above, this is referred to as the
upper brain. They take that trinity concept and they divide it into these three
regions of the brain. The lower brain involves the issues relating to Lung, Large
Intestine, Spleen and Stomach, and some traces of the Heart, sleeping, survival.
The midbrain involves the issues of interaction, Heart, Small Intestine, that
intelligence to Separate the Pure from the Impure, further Separate the Pure from
the Impure, Bladder and Kidneys, midbrain.
liver, Gall Bladder, Pericardium, Triple Heater relate to the upper brain. If
you are doing Scalp Acupuncture which is based more on western ideas of
sensory motor tracts, but ifyou were doing these Points in the old days, where
you have the Bladder Meridian and the Gall Bladder Meridian running through
these areas, also the Stomach Meridian, it was not uncommon that those Points
got paired off by Point combinations with Points that relate directly to that
particular region of the brain. What is important to understand, however, is that
if you use Points on, let's say, the right side of the midbrain, you would then pair
it off with Points on the left side, that might be part of the Heart, Small Intestine,
Bladder and Kidney Meridian. In other words, in Chinese brain theory, the
lower brain has a left and right hemisphere. The midbrain has a right and left
hemisphere. The upper brain has a right and left hemisphere. Probably,
eventually even western medicine will discover that the left hemisphere of the
lower brain will control only the left side, rather than the opposite side that we
generally think in western medicine, that the left hemisphere controls the right,
and the right hemisphere controls the left. If s only in the midbrain that the
Chinese believe that is the case, because only when you interact do you polarize.
When you interact, you polarize. That's when you are making a judgement on
what's going on. The midbrain, the left hemisphere controls the right side, the
right hemisphere controls the left side. The lower and the upper brain, the left
side controls the left, the right controls the right. They do not have a
differentiation, because they are already so differentiated, either above, or with
the autonomic below.
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@ New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
 Let's say if I am doing Scalp Acupuncture and I am Needling Points within
this region, this area, the midbrain, and I am saying this midbrain from a
Meridian perspective, is in line with the Heart, the Small Intestine, the Bladder
and the Kidneys. You might even be using Bladder Points here. Whatever you
use, lefs say on the left side of this midbrain region, you would now pair off
with Points that are on the right side, that are distal Points. Lefs say if you were
using frontal Points, let's say you are doing GB 14 on the right, then you would
pair it off wifh a GB Point that's on the right side on the foot. That would be how
you are following this idea of the hemisphere. This is a Curious Organ concept
that eventually got lost, or rather became not as popular along the way. With
those thick Needles they were probably causing some injuries to someone's
brain.

Evaluation Based on Tow, Pain

Let's look at this last topic before we break for lunch, and that is on the
evaluation of the Tendino-muscular Channels based on pain, Tong. We can look
at the Su Wen to give us dues as to the development of the Sinew Meridian
concept. It says that when Cold enters the outer aspect of the Channels, it will
constrict to result in a spreading action to the Collaterals. The spreading action
of it is the Wei Qi. Cold constricts so Wei Qi cannot move and it spreads into the
Collaterals. This will result in pain. So pain is seen as this conflict between, in
this case Cold and Wei Qz. Applying heat or arousing the Yang Qz will relax the
Collaterals to relieve pain. Yet habitual exposure to Cold will cause it to linger
and become chronic. This idea of a habitual exposure to Cold can also mean that
this is not necessarily Climatic Cold, but a habitual exposure to Cold that
prevents movement. It will result in something that becomes chronic. That's in
Chapter 39 of the Su Wen.
Qiand Blood enjoy Warmth and dislike Cold, which stagnates both,while
Warmth will facilitate their flow. The whole idea here is that the basis of life is
Warming. I f s not about the application of Heat as something that is bad. But
Heat as something that is considered good. So anything that deals with the
exposure to the outer aspect of the Channels which one can say, all the Sinew
Channels or the Luo Channels for that matter, that when the body is exposed to
that, how you want to treat that is with the application of heat. And that's why
Classically, the treatment of ling Well Points within Sinew Meridians is with the
Hot Needle.

Within the context of Bi Syndrome, Bi Obstruction Syndrome is due to a lack,

or difficulty of movement. The adjectives that we use would be frozen, if he was
stuck, if he was held, if he was trapped, if he was blocked, if he was paralyzed, if
he was spasmodic. Something that's jamming the Qi. If s jammed. But what
causes lack or difficulty of movement, Cold. Cold is the predominant factor,

42
0 New England School of AcupuBctnre and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
even though when you study the idea of Bi Syndrome we think of it as Wind,
Damp and Cold, but Cold is generally the predominant factor. When Bi
Obstruction lingers in the Bones and Flesh, it stays for a long time. When Bi
Obstruction lingers in the Skin and Sinews, it is easily resolved. When it lingers
in the Bones and in the Flesh, that's when we are looking at Divergent Meridians.
That means Divergent Meridians deal with chronic muscular conditions. When
if s in the Skin and the Sinews it is easily resolved which generally refers to acute
Tendino-muscular conditions. There is also this idea of the utilization of the
balance between Wei Qi and Yign Qi. That balance, the idea is that instead of
lookmg at it ^s just as a Wei Qi, we can look at it as a Wei and Ying Qz
connotation. If there is a Wei Qi Excess, since they are always trying to balance
each other out, that might mean that there is a Ying Qi Deficiency. So Wei Qz
Excess, which by nature is Yang, will produce wetness, heat, spasms and
swelling, as well as inflammation. The pain is easily elicited upon palpation. It
could be a nerve pain, and it tends to be localized.
If the person has a Wei Qi Deficiency then one can say there is a Ying Qi
Excess. Wei by nature is Yang, Ying by nature is Yin. If there's not enough Wei Qz
there that means there is not enough Warmth there, so the area might be pale.
There might be some type of cyanosis, some type of discoloration. It might feel
cold, it might feel numb. The area might feel flacad. There might be a degree of
atony or atrophy. And the pain is elicited upon deep palpation, and it tends to
be more diffuse and dull. If s not on the surface, which is why you really have to
go deep to find where this Wei Qi is interacting, or deep is where the Excess is,
where the Ying Qi is. It tends to be more diffuse and dull.
Bi Obstruction can also reflect the long term Taxation from the Internal
Organs. Already we know that if you have pain upon Standing, that could be a
Kidney Taxation. Pain upon Sitting, usually because you have been sitting too
long, will damage the Spleen. Lying down we know damages the Lungs and
Walking excessively damages the Liver. That's just the Taxation syndromes.
That means someone who Walks a lot will have Taxation Syndrome. That means
when they Walk they hurt a lot. That's seen as damage to the Liver, from a
chronic perspective. From an acute perspective we would say that's a Bladder,
Tai Yang Sinew Meridian problem, because walking is Tai Yang.
Sitting would be Tai Yin. If I said, "Oh yeah when I sit that hurts a lot ",that
would be a Tai Yin condition, which includes the Spleen as well as the Lungs.
People who generally do a lot of zazen, zen meditation, they generally have a lot
of digestive problems because Sitting too much hurts the Spleen.
Any of you who do too much Standing Qi Gong, you hurt your Kidneys even
though precisely Standing Qi Gong is intended to stimulate the Kidneys. If you
Lie down too much you know it hurts the Lungs. Likewise, if you do too many
floor kinds of exercises, you can be potentially hurting your Lungs. And that can
lead into pain upon going into a certain posture, so that's an Internal condition.
The reason why I am adding that here, when you look at these Taxations, that's
when you really look at the comparison between Wei Qi and Ying Qi- That's the
Taxation syndromes, the Lao syndromes.
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@ New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
Question: The nature of posture, to the extent it can be reflected in limited
movement, we were talking about posture as being something that you can
address through the Sinew Channels and the question I want to ask, comparing
the Divergent Channels and the Sinew Channels, the latest comparison that you
made was that the Sinew Channels are generally associated with acute problems
and the Divergent are more chronic. But then issues with posture are going to
tend to be chronic developing over a period of time, so that's the question.
JCY:The whole idea is that if you are looking at the postures themselves, which
means that there is some skeletal change that has occurred, so what you might be
doing then is working with the Divergent Channels, if you want to work directly
on the structure. If you are working on the Sinew Channels, you are working
directly on the function. It means you are looking at the muscular holdings that
are keeping that structure solidified in that place so that over time by
reprogramming the Sinews you are getting the structure to change. If s almost
like the main focus for one is more functional, the other is more structural. The
Divergents are more structural. Students always tell me how amazed they are
when they do Divergent Channels with someone whose feet (leg?)appear to be
shorter than the other, now it becomes parallel (even?)with each other. That's a
structural change that we see there. With the Sinew Channels we're not going to
create those kinds of changes, it's going to create it functionally. So Sinew
Channels require a lot more work. Because what you are trying to do in a case of
structural condition is you are trying to functionally cause the structure to
change. Thafs why it requires a little bit more work. People are probably
frustrated with the Sinew Channels and that's how come the Divergent Channels
perhaps were developed as a way of understanding how they could work
directly with structural problems.
Question: When someone experiences pain when changing positions, like
standing up and sitting down, is that a combination of Kidney and Spleen?
Changing of the position is usually a reflection of the Spleen, it would be a
Tai Yin condition. That means when you are going (folding)in or when you are
starting to come out, when you are coming out it is more moving to Tai Yang
already. Especially when the body is going in the folding position that is always
seen as a Tai Yin condition. You can almost look at Spleen as responsible for the
changes that occur in the four limbs. Almost like the Spleen is responsible for the
changes of the four seasons, the four seasons as reflected by the four limbs. It
will be seen as a Tai Yin condition. So if someone says, " Yeah, whenever I go
from one position to another that's when I have the most problems", that's
usually a Tai Yin condition. What that would mean is that the clinician would
palpate the Tai Yin Sinew Meridian, find the Ah Shi Points and Release those Ah
Shi Points with the Jing Well Points. That would be the most simple of the
treatments. You're going to see later on that we are going to suggest that
Releasing the Sinews through Acupuncture without releasing the Root of it
which is DM Mai will not be as effective. A lot of times what I am going to
recommend as a protocol is that you do what I call Sinew Releases before you do

@ New England School of AcapuKture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003

the ~cupuncture.'By doing that it also gets the person to be more involved in the
treatment. It also helps the person to identify where the Ah Shi Point is. Once
they know where it is they can treat it themselves.
Question: When there is a Wd/Ying imbalance, and there is redness, which
means Heat, can you use a cold pad to treat that or not?
JCY: Hot treatments. Sinew Channels always use hot.

Question; Even when it is red and hot with spasms, you still use hot to treat?
4

JCY: You might use hot somewhere else to move it. The Chinese are not into
Cold therapy. You know that they believe that if you have a swelling and put
Cold on it, of course it is going to cause the swelling to go down because Cold is
constrictive. So it is going to drive the Pathogenic Factor deeper into the body.
So later on the person can develop arthritis in that area or they develop
rheumatism in that area. And that could have been not because of the injury, but
because of the application of Cold. The idea is that you always use Heat, and if
you want to use Cold, you alternate between Hot and Cold, but there is always a
greater amount of time where Heat is applied, and less of Cold, so that you are
kind of like stimulating it, and causing it to go in, and stimulating it, and causing
it to come out back and forth until it is Released.
Question: How about acute sprain of the ankle? Most people treat with Cold.
JCY:Most conventional treatment is with Cold. Chinese treatment would not be
with cold. Chinese treatment would be they would Massage the area with
liniment, usually the liniment is something very Warming, very Moving, Moves
Qi and Blood. What they call a Die Da formula, and after Massaging the area
they might put a soft compress over the area to keep the area still warm. Soft
compress is potentially bad because it could add Dampness to it, so that's not
always applied for sprains and strains. You will see more about that when we
look at actual treatments.

The Points of the Sinew Channels

We don't have a lot of material left before with look at the trajectories of the
Sinew Channels. Then tomorrow when we meet we will be exploring how you
can apply the Sinew Channels in treatment. What I would also like to do is
demonstrate to you that the theories you learn regarding the Sinew Channels
really can be applicable to any disease condition. Obviously it may not be the
best highway, or the best Meridian to deal with some conditions, but
nevertheless, they will be able to address all conditions, per se.
Let's then look at the Points that are generally reflective of the Sinew
Channels. What we're looking at first and foremost are the Ah Shi Points, the
Tender Points. The Tender Points are essentially important in treatment, not

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only because they are producing discomfort, but because by Needling the Points,
by palpating the Points, what it really refers to us the opportunity to honor the
suffering, to honor the discomfort that our client is undergoing. It is crucial that
we validate that this is something that you are willing to take on with them in
their process.
There is the Jing Well Point, which is essentially where the Sinew Channels
basically begin their trajectory. They all travel upward, homing into their
respective areas: for the Yung Channels, into the head, for the Yin Channels, into
the area of the chest and the abdomen. The Jing Well Points also relate to a
concept known as Root and Node, or Root and Terminations, where they
represent, in some traditions, the idea of the trajectories as the trajectories
represent pathology. That means they become fragmented, as a statement of
pathology, rather than the Continuous Loop theory, where it represents a
statement of physiology.
Then you have the Hui Points, the Reunion, the Confluent Points. The Leg
Yang Sinew Channels are basically said to converge at the region of the cheek
bones. That could be seen as ST 3. In some traditions they like to look at it as SI
18, but basically it is the cheekbone. In other words, you are stimulated to move,
by the stimulation of the Sensory Organs. You see something, you hear
something, you smell something, and you begin to stand up and investigate
whatever it is that is attracting your interest. The cheekbones lie at the center:
above it are the eyes, to the side of it, are the ears, more medial to it is the nose,
and below it is the mouth. So it lies nght at the center of the Sensory Organs.
The Sensory Organs are what you are being stimulated by, and the physical body
goes to investigate. It is more of a region, and not necessarily point specific. It is
also said in the Ling Shu, that the cheekbones are the Root of all the Bones. The
cheekbones become a very prominent statement about the integrity of Essence. If
you've ever studied Chinese morphology, they say that if you have very
pronounced cheekbones, generally you have very healthy Kidneys. Someone
who has cheek bones that look caved in, or cheek bones that are not very
pronounced, generally is a sign in terms of morphology that you have weak
Kidneys.
The Ann Yang Sinews is to begin the process whereby you handle, there is a
certain amount of cerebral ..., thinking now as you come to the place by the Yang
Sinews, now as you begin to handle the situation with the Yang Arm Sinews,
that's reflected by Points that are on the head. Those Points are related to GB 13,
ST 8, as another reflection of where that Confluence is. There is no standard.
Some books may use GB 13as the Point. Some older books may use the Point ST
8. It is the unfolding that you are looking at. If we look from Governor Vessel
and how it unfolds into Tai Yang, Shao Yang, and Yang Ming. If you look at the
top of the head, it goes from Governor Vessel as it goes onto the forehead, like
GV 23. Next to that is Bladder, Tai Yang, and next to that is Shoo Yang, and next
to that is going to be Yang Ming. So when they developed the idea of placing the
Meridians' trajectory, the unfolding of the Governor Vessel is Tai Yang, Shao
Yang, Yang Ming. So the fact that we started with the unfolding at the eye,
Bladder, and how the eyes begin to activate Wei Qiand , our Sensory Organs
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begin to be activated by its counterpart in Tai Yang, 51 18. Then it goes into Shao
Yang and Yang Ming as we begin to look at what it is that we are excited by, and
that would be reflected by Sfwo Yang GB 13, or Yang Ming as I reflect more into
the depths of what I'm handling, at ST 8.
The Leg Yin Sinew Channels are said to converge into the Lower Burner, and
the general consensus is the Point CV 3, Zhong Ji, the Mu Point for Tai Yang, the
Mu Point for Bladder. CV 3 also represents the Meeting of the 3 Yin of the Legs,
but it also represents Zhong ]i, which is the sine curve of the Yfn Yang symbol. It
is the central pole, the center of the Yin Yang symbol. It signifies where we begin
to polarize, where we begin to divide left and right. Bladder is the dividing line
between the Interior and the Exterior, within the context of Sinew Meridian
language. That's why they are selecting CV 3,I mean CV 2, which is where the
Liver meets up with CV, rather than selecting CV 4.
The Arm Yin Sinews converge at GB 22, which has a very powerful
relationship to the Divergent Channels. It is a major Confluent Point for the
Divergent Channels. This also gives us a due as to how Sinew Meridians, if
we're using the Meridians as a continuum, might begin to affect the Divergent
Meridians, since both of them conduct Wei, Defensive, Superficial Qi.
So the Confluences are primarily on the head, chest, and the lower abdomen,
areas of termination, areas where energy concentrates. And those are the basic
Points that we have when working with Sinew Meridians: they have their Jing
Well Points, their Ah Shi Points, and where the Meridians converge together. All
the Leg Channels Transverse each other and meet together, for the Yang
Channels, the area of the cheek bones, for the Arm Yang Channels, in the
forehead, and for the Yin Channels in the areas of the chest and the lower
abdomen.

Sinew Channels & their Clinical Applications

The basic protocol is that you first treat the Ah Shi, followed by the Jing Well,
or you're coming with the context of Wei Qz and Ying Qi, which some of you may
have seen within the Vietnamese tradition, in which they tend to think of the
Sinew Meridians as an extension of the Primary Channels. To adjust the balance
between Wei Qi and Ying Qi, they often add to it the Primary Meridian treatment.
Since the Primary Channel deals with the communication between Exterior and
Interior, as reflected by the Jing Well Point, Exterior. Where the Exterior
communicates with the Interior is represented by the Shu Stream Point, as part of
Antique Point Theory.
Those who have been studying the Sinew Channels, awning from a Five
Element perspective, would say that you should use the Tonification or Sedation
Point of the Primary Meridian to deal with a Deficiency or Excess in the Sinew
Channels. That Excess or Deficency is in the Sinew Channels, and relates to an
Excess or Deficiency of Wei Qi. How do we know that Wei Qi is Excess? That

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would be reflected in earlier signs: inflammation, spasms, Heat, Yang activity.
Where there is a Deficiency (of Wei Qi), you would see the pallor, the numbness,
the coldness, the discoloration. They give us dues as to how we might be able to
look at the context of Wei Qz as being either Excess or Deficient. Depending on
which Sinew Meridian it is located on, they are going to address that with the
Tonification or Sedation Point of its Mother and Child.
The Needling technique that we are interested in addresses the issues of
Wind Xing Wandering, Turbid Duo (Zhw7) or Damp, what some books translate
as Fixed, and Cold Tong Painful. The general belief is that when we have a
muscular condition, it is due to an exposure of Wei Qi to Wind, Damp, or Cold.
All three factors are prominent, but of these three factors, we're looking at the
major prominent factor, in order to define: is it Wind, is it Cold, is it Damp?
From the Chinese point of view, all three are really there, you're just saying this
one is more predominant than that one.
You would use the Needling technique to address the particular kind of
issue. If you're treating Wind, Needle with withdrawal of the Needle, at the Ah
Shi Points. If you have a Wind Bi, you Needle the Ah Shi area, where the Needle
is inserted then withdrawn. Since Wind radiates, you follow it from the site that
it has radiated to, and you return it back to its origin. That means if I have pain in
the shoulder and it shoots down to the elbow, that's Wind Bi, that means that
you'd go to the elbow first, and after Needling and withdrawing the Needle,
then you would go back to Needle the shoulder. That's not absolute. Some
people would actually do it the opposite way. But the idea with Wind Bi,
radiating pain, is that you have to follow, to trace, where the Wind is moving,
either from or to. But that is the general format for treating Wind Bi, and the
insertion of the Needle is quickly withdrawn after insertion. That's just for the
nature of it at the Ah Shi Point That doesn't mean that when you Needle the Jing
Well Point that you would necessarily do the same thing.
For Damp Bi, if s Needle Moxa, that is there is Moxa that is applied on
top of the Needle. That could be a loose cone, added on top of the Needle, that
would then dry up the Dampness.
For Cold Bi, it would be Moxibustion where you are blowing at the cone. If
an area has Painful Bi, you would apply Moxa to that area, and as it is burning,
you are blowing on it. When it bums down dose to the skin, you would just
blow it off. When you are treating Cold Bi, Blowing Moxa is Dispersing, in
contrast to simply burning the Moxa, not blowing on it, which is considered
Tonification. So you are using this Dispersing technique to get rid of the Excess
Pathogenic Factor.
With Bi Syndrome, muscular conditions, the first thing you have to do is
evaluate the nature of the condition. One of the first applications of Sinew
Channels is that they deal with Sinew Bi 9f ,Bi Obstruction Syndrome. We
know there is the nature that we have to evaluate, which could be Wind, Damp,
or Cold. Sometimes we don't have that quality. We don't have the nature of the

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pain. We don't have whether something is influenced by Climatic Factors. In
many cases in TCM when that happens, the pain may be referred to as Qi Stasis,
or in some cases as Qi and Blood Stasis, because you have no climatic
characteristics that you can blame it on. But if you do have that information, it
will determine how you are going to be practicing, in terms of the Needling
Technique. This Needling Technique is then applied on the Ah Shi area, which
could be a Point, or it could be a region.
You alsohave to evaluate the location. The Ah Shi gives you the location,
discerned in terms of which Sinew Meridian is involved. Then what you have to
do is determine, is the Sinew Meridian that is involved the actual Meridian that
is the Root of the pathology. Maybe that Ah Shi area was Transversed into by
another Sinew Meridian. How I know that is by evaluating when pain or the
discomfort, or the heaviness is induced, by testing for the movement that seems
to aggravate the condition. The movement is always the determining factor.
Does the pain, which might be Cold Bi, seem to be aggravated at, let's say, LI 15,
as the Ah Shi, by extension, "No", by rotation, "Yes". So while it is at LI 15, and
the Nature of it is Cold Bi, which means I'm going to be doing Blowing Moxa at
U 15, I'mgoing to treat, however, Triple Heater, because the pain is elicited
upon rotation of the arm, upon extension (when the arm is not bent). That
means it came from Triple Heater, or San Wo, and the Jing Well Point that you
have to Release, would be Triple Heater 1.
If you just did the Ah Shi, the LI 15area, and the Nature of it is that it is very
localized, very fixed, very painful, so you say there is Cold Bi at this region of LI
15 causing shoulder pain, so you Needle LI 15and U 1because it is the Jing Well
Point. The person might feel some relief because you are Releasing something,
but it is coming from Triple Heater, so until you Release Triple Heater, this
pathology that is moving to Large Intestine, will not be resolved. That is why
Triple Heater 1is very important.
Then you might be looking at this and say, '"Now I'm interested in this
relationship between Wei Qi and Ying Qi." From the description of Cold Bi,
that's often seen as a Wei Qi Deficiency with a Ying Qi Excess, because Cold
reduces the nature of Yaw. Wei Qz is very Yung. If it is hot, inflamed, spasmodic,
you would say that is Wei Qi. OK, so you would say, "This is a Deficiency that
Itm picking up in the Ah Shi area of Large Intestine". That might be what you
would be looking at, if you did not do the movement evaluation. If you did do
the movement evaluation, then it would really be Triple Heater. And you're
interested in making the balance between Wei Qi and Ying Qi which is induced
by something, by a Point, which makes the connection between Wei External,
and Ying, Internal. Among the Antique Points, the only Points that can connect,
or serve as a bridge, between External and Internal are Luo Points and Shu
Stream Points. But here we are not looking at something that is Yang that has
moved into its Yin counterpart It is not how Large Intestine is affecting the
Lungs. That would be the Luo Point Rather, you're looking at how it how the
Wei Qi is affecting the Ying Qi, and for that you would be looking at the Shu
Stream Point.

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 Given that you see this as a Deficiency, that means you have to look for the
Tonification Point, Tonification of Large Intestine, or Tonification of Triple
Heater if you did the proper evaluation. So in that context the Tonification Point
would be the Earth Point, if you are looking at Large Intestine. Earth is the
Mother of Metal, with Large Intestine representing Metal. Which means that the
Point that you would include in your treatment would include U 11, which
would be Tonified if you suspect that it was purely a problem with Large
Intestine, which means this pain is Cold, fixed, painful and gets worse when the
weather is cold. And it is really painful when I hold something that is heavy,
when my argt is extended. That's Yang Ming. Then you could say that is truly a
Large Intestine pain. But if it is rotational, which means if s Triple Heater, it
would mean that you have to go and treat Triple Heater instead, which means
you have to go to the Tonification Point, which is TW 3 in this case.
Question: I don't understand the Shu Stream part of this, because LI 11is not the
Shu Stream Point.

JCX There are 2 theories. One is that Sinew Channels are independent. The
second is that Sinew Channels are the externalization of the Primary Meridians.
If something is an externalization of a Primary Meridian, and it is attacked by a
Pathogenic Factor, which in this case is a Climatic Factor, it has the potential of
entering into the Primary Meridians. Those who come from that tradition of
belief would say that you have to protect the Primary Meridians. So if you look
at the Primary Meridians, where something External can go into the Interior,
then it is reflected by the Shu Stream Points. So the Shu Stream Point you're
selecting doesn't belong to the Sinew Meridian. The Sinew Meridians don't have
Shu Stream Points. They belong to the Primary Meridians. So you are
protecting the Primary Meridian, whether if s an Excess or a Deficiency on the
outside.
Question: But in the example, you're talking about the Shu Stream Point of the
Large Intestine?
JCY: In other words, if this is a Large Intestine Meridian condition, I should say,
a Primary Meridian, something that is afflicting the Large Intestine Sinew
Meridian, since this is an externalization of the Primary Meridian, means that the
Pathogenic Factor can move into the Primary Meridian of the Large Intestine.
Their trajectories are very similar, just that the Sinew Channel is broader in
scope. If it is affecting the Large Intestine Sinew Channel, it can move into the
Large Intestine Primary Meridian. So you're treating the Primary Meridian to
prevent the pathology of the Sinew Meridian from entering deeper into the
Primary Channel.
Question: I still don't understand why, in the example that you gave, if we
determined that it came from San Jiao,why LI 11, the He Sea Point.
JCX If you are saying that it is purely a Large Intestine Meridian problem, and
where most people in my opinion fail in doing appropriate Sinew Meridian
treatments is that they don't do the evaluation of movement. They basically go
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to the Climatic nature of the condition, and if the condition does not suggest to
them any Climatic Factor, then they'll say Qz and maybe Blood Stagnation
resulting in Bi Obstruction. By looking at the context of the Ah Shi area, they
might say this is a Deficient area because it seems so flaccid. It seems so pale.
There might even be Qi Deficiency, within TCM. If you determine that there is a
Deficiency in the area, then you have to make sure that the Internal level, this
Y i q Qi that sits underneath Wei Qi,is built up. The Ying Qi can only be tapped
into by Primary or Luo Channels. You can't tap into it through the Tendino-
muscular m e l s because Ying Qi does not flow in them. The question then
becomes, if (the pathology in the ) Large Intestine Meridian is moving Internally,
is it moving to its Yin pair, which would be the Lungs, which is not what is
believed about the Sinew Channels, rather it is going to move deeper into the
associated Primary Meridian of the Large Intestine. Thafs why they are not
using LMOPoints. They're using Shu Stream Points. And because the Large
Intestine is seen to be Deficient, you have to T o e the Mother of Large Intestine,
which is Earth. Thafs why I'm saying U 11.

Now if you determine that it is indeed Triple Heater, which is Fire, and Fire
is Deficient, then you have to go to the Mother, which is the Wood Point, so you
would be treating TH 3 for this Deficiency that is coming into Large Intestine
from Triple Heater. So now you understand why we have to use the Shu Stream
Point, and this is where they combine Primary Channels with Sinew Meridians,
which you don't have to do, because you can see the Sinew Channels as a
separate entity unto themselves.
Question: In the example that you gave, do you Needle the Shu Stream Point...
JCY: OK, I think I know where the confusion is. In one treatment I was applying
the 5 Element Theory, and in the other one, you simply use the Shu Stream Point.
I f you did Large Intestine, it would be LI 3, and you have TH 3. That would be
the Shu Stream Point. If you're doing 5 Element thinking, when you see a
Deficiency, then you go to the Mother. Thafs where we had LI 11and TH 3,
which just so happens to be the Tonification Point.
Question: And when using the 5 Element Theory, the Deficiency is in the Sinew
Channel...
JCY: Right, but they're treating it with the Primary Channel to protect it.
Question: And if the Sinew Channel was Excess, then you would Disperse the
Primary Channel..........
JCY: Right, so that you balance the Wei and Ying Qi

This is the statement that I mentioned earlier in which some people utilize
the concept of Wei and Ying Qi balance If one is Excess, the other is Deficient. If
one is Deficient, then the other is Excess. So they are trying to balance that with
either the Antique Points, or the 5 Element Points. Within the time of the Han
Dynasty, there was this constant debate between the people who used the
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Antique Points, based on the Waterway system, and people who used Points
based on the 5 Element Tradition. They are very different theories. The Antique
Point system would say that something can only go Internally via the Shu Stream
Points. So depending on whether there is an Excess or a Deficiency, you go to
the Shu Stream Point, and you are going to Tomfy and (or) Disperse. On the
other hand, when you have an Excess or a Deficiency based on the 5 Element
Theory, they would obviously go to the Mother and (or) Child Point, at least in
the Han Dynasty. Some of you have gone beyond that, for instance in the Ming
Dynasty, and know that they would do something totally different from that.
So that's the first aspect of the treatment of Sinew Meridians. My
recommendation, however, is that, right now, the Primary Channel, because it is
not our topic, is not that important. So we are not going to be concerned about
Shu Stream Points in treatment. All we're going to be concerned about is that we
Needle the Ah Shi, and if we know the Nature and use the kind of Needling
techique that we need to do, we also have to evaluate the movement to know
what (which Channel) produces the pain, then add to it the Jing Well Point that
relates to that (Channel), then you will be able to adequately treat a muscular
condition. Some of the concerns are that if you Needle the Shu Stream Point, you
might be drawing the Pathological Factor deeper into the Interior. Some people
would argue against that, saying that they are Dispersing it, or Tonifying it
because they know the Nature of the condition, in terms of it being Excess or
Deficient.
Question: What kind of Needle technique do you use on the Jing Well, the same
as on the Ah Shi, or.......
JCY: The Jing Well Point is generally done with the Hot Needle technique.
Obviously that would be a very sensitive technique, so in the absence of that, you
are vigorously rubbing the Jing Well Point, after which you will Needle the Point,
and the Needle is left in for the duration of whatever is left in the treatment.
What I mean by "the duration of whatever is left in the treatment" is, let's say
you are palpating this area of U 15for a while. You were massaging it. You
thought it was Cold, so you decided to use Moxa on this area, and you spent,
let's say a good 15minutes on this area, that means that when you Needle the
Jing Well Point, it would be retained for about 10 minutes. Remember that the
average treatment is about 25 minutes. If you say that you don't have that kind
of time to massage the area, then you might put a heating pad or a compress over
the area so it stays warm, put the Needle (in the fing Well Point), then you can
come back in 25 minutes and remove the heatin pad and the Needle. That
would be how you would address someone wit E an acute muscular condition.
The second part here, Chapter 19 of the Su Wen says, "Wind leads the Six
Pathogenic Factors. When Wind Cold invades the Channels and the Collaterals,
they cause numbness, paralysis, stiffness, or pain", a reference to the Nature of
Cold, with the idea of Shang Han, injury due to Cold, or Zheng Feng, injury due to
Wind. "To treat, one can use hot compresses, moxibustion, and acupuncture."
If s telling you that the modalities that you would use to address conditions that
have invaded the Channels and Collaterals, that involves Wind and Cold,
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Climatic Factors, what you're going to be doing is hot compresses, moxibustion,
and acupuncture. These compresses are Soft compresses. They are not Hard.
They are not trying to pull something Deep, out of the body. That would be the
example of a plaster. Any of you familiar with the writings of Andy EUis would
be familiar with the concept of Soft plasters and Hard plasters. When you go to a
shop and buy those plasters, they are considered Hard plasters. Some will be
considered Soft plasters, which you will recognize when you take them off, the
area will be very sweaty. That is the affect of Soft plasters, and most likely it is
sweaty because it has peppermint oil in it. Menthol, that is going to dilate the
pores and pull the stuff that is acute out, and it comes out in the form of Wei Qi,
Turbid Fluid, or you would call it Sweat. It is a simplistic idea about the
modalities you would use, be it a compress, moxibustion, or acupuncture. If you
go to a Die Da master, a lot of them don't do Acupuncture. They'll be using
compresses, plasters, and liniments to treat you.
You can also Release the Jing Well Point of the Arms, GB 21, which is called
the Shoulder Well, Jian Jing and of the Legs with GI3 30, Hum Tiao. GI3 21
Releases all of the Jing Well Points on the fingers. GB 30 Releases all of the Jing
Well Points on the toes. That's only important when someone finds that their
fmgers are too sensitive to be Needled. Remember when some of you in the Nan
Jing class, regarding what was referred to as one of the Trivial Issues, given that
there is so little flesh around the JingWell Points, and they are so sensitive to
Needle, asked, "What should we do?" Remember they debated that whole issue
about Jing Well Points? This is one commentary in response to that. The most
common answer in the Nan Jing is that you would use the Ying Spring Point,
because the Ying Spring point is the Child, and you always use the Jing Well
Point to Disperse. So they said, "Use the Ying Spring Point then, if s less
sensitive." But the other theory is that if you Release the trapezius area, and the
gluteus area, it will also Release the Jing Well Points. They are commonly
Released, not necessarily by Needling the area, but by doing Cupping and Gua
Sha on the area. You can see how this theory went out of vogue by the time we
get to Song Dynasty, because to have someone reveal their buttocks, and telling
them that you're going to Cup the area, or Gua Sha the area, was not going to be
very appealing to very many people. It was no longer as popular as a treatment
by the time you get to that there.

Basic Differentiations
The second common application of the Sinew Meridians is the use of them
for treating Exogenous conditions, not manifesting as muscular conditions; but
as Wind Cold, Wind Heat, or Wind Damp conditions, Sbng Han and Zheng Feng
conditions.
Question: When you're treating Bi, is there no use for the Confluent Points?
JCY: You use the Confluent Points when you see that the Pathogenic Factor has
Transversed. That means in my example, the pain is in LI 15, and it is elicited
upon rotation, so you know it came from the Triple Heater. So the fact that you

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have 2 Meridians involved, then you need to use the Confluences. In that case
you would be using something like GI3 13or ST 8 to treat that. Some people
would recommend that you use the Confluent Points prophylactically, because
when you're treating it, it might go across, and go somewhere else. Some people
would recommend, just do the Confluent Point as part of the treatment, per se.
That's a clinical decision. Not that I would not recommend using the Confluent
Points that way, because I sometimes do, but they are not something that I would
use in every treatment. Definitely though, when you suspect that it could move
from one Channel to another, which would be very common with Wind. Then
the Confluent Points become more important.
In the S h q Han Lun tradition, a Wind Cold condition would be very similar
to Tai Yang. A Yang Ming condition, while it is more similar to Internal Heat,
here it is more related to Wind Heat. A Wind Damp or Summer Heat condition
would be seen as a Shao Yang condition. If it is mild, you just use the Leg
Channels of the Yang, and if it is severe, you use both the Leg and Ann Yang
Channels. Severe generally means it has moved into the area of the throat, or
into the area of the chest. Cold likes to constrict the chest. Heat dilates into the
throat. In Wind Heat conditions we see sore throats. In Wind Cold conditions
when they become severe, we generally have some type of coughing, that
constriction in the chest that begins with chest tightness, and in some cases,
maybe even some wheezing. That would be Wind Cold.
With conditions involving Wind Damp or Summer Heat, it generally affects
the Urinary Bladder, where we have difficulty in urination. This is in line with
Classical thinking, in which Dampness is seen to travel from the legs up. As it
goes up and reaches the region of the head, it is only able to reach the head
because as it was traveling up, you were not able to urinate it out. So that would
present as difficulty with urination with signs and symptoms of a lingering fever.
Sometimes there is also difficulty in Sweating.
If it is chronic, you use the Yin Channels related to its Elemental pair. What
that means is, let's say you have a Wind Heat condition, and it is something that
is Chronic, but whenever you have a Hare up of it, it is usually mild. So you have
chronic tonsillitis. You always have strept throat. You always have some kind of
burning in your throat, itching in your throat But it never really develops into
something serious where you have an extremely high fever. Then you might say
that this is a mild outbreak of Yang Ming, Wind Heat, so let me use the Leg Sinew
Channels. Let me use Stomach. I'll palpate the Stomach Sinew Meridian, and
look for the Ah Shi Points. I'll Needle the Jing Well Point for the Stomach
Meridian, and because it is chronic, I'll also address the Yin Yang pair of the
Stomach, which is Spleen Sinew Meridian. So you also palpate the Spleen Sinew
Meridian, and find the Ah Shi Point and treat that accordingly. Here that would
be Wind Heat, which would require a lot more Needles, because Heat spreads,
and you would also treat the Jing Well Point for the Spleen. That would be for a
chronic Wind Heat condition.
Sinew Meridians, because they deal with Wei Qi, deal with External
conditions. External conditions can be seen as muscular, upper respiratory,
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@ New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C.Yuen 2003
dermatological, and ENT conditions. These are the most common scenarios
relating to the Sinew Channels on the physical level. On the emotional level, the
Sinew Channels deal with ones Mood, the term Can &, which means ones
feelings.

How you're going to treat a respiratory condition, in terms of TCM, you

have Wind Heat, Wind Cold, and unless you're studying dermatology, they
don't use the term Wind Dryness for Exogenous conditions, and Wind Damp,
which they sometimes refer to as Summer Heat. Classically we would have a
progression from Tai Yang, Wind Cold, Shao Yang, Wind Damp, or Summer
Heat, to Yang Ming, a Wind Heat condition. The Sinew Meridians begin with
the Leg Channels. Then they move into the Arm Channels. When a condition
begins and if s still mild, it is Leg. As it moves into the Arms, if s becoming more
severe. Then as it moves from the Yang of the Legs to the Yang of the Arms, it
begins to move into the Legs and the Arms where they come together for the Yin
level, so that when it becomes Internalized, when it becomes chronic, we
obviously have to treat the Legs and the Arms, but also it has moved into its Yin
pair. Thafs why, with my example of Wind Heat, I said it is mild whenever I get
the acute flare up, Stomach, and because it is chronic, I also have to treat the
Spleen.
The basic treatment then for Sinew Channels is: Ah Shi, plus Ah Shi for both
sides (diagramindicates for Yang and Yin), plus Jing Well. This would have
been your treatment, and if you look it up in any textbook, Jing Well Points will
always treat Heat conditions, so you're not doing anything that is contrary, just
that you're not doing the TCM idea of Resolve or Expel Wind and Clear Heat.
You're using the Tendino-muscular Meridian to address that. Because the
Nature of it is Heat, Heat generally requires more Needling, finding more Ah Shi
areas and Needling those areas, because Heat spreads and we have to follow it to
find out where it is spreading to. That can be looking for those areas in the body
that are infiammed.
Question: Then you would use the Shu Stream Point?
JCY: The Shu Stream Point would be used only if you're looking at the Primary
Channels as the Internalization of the Sinew Channels. Thafs just one theory of
it. Right now, we're looking at treating it without Primary Channel involvement.
Remember that the Needling of it is Superficial,because you're only on the
Surface level. You're not going to be doing Deep level Needling for conditions
like this. The important part of all of this is palpation of the Ah Shi. As you are
moving through the Sinew Channels, as you are applying your Tui Na, or you
are just applying your understanding of the Meridians and you are moving
through the Sinew Channels, you're finding the Ah Shi areas, and you're treating
it, too. What you're saying is, "I'm paying attention to it." Once you pay
attention to it, the body will begin to feel your attention, and it is going to
attempt to try to resolve itself.

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0 New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C Yuen 2003
 If I were to read a case off to you right now, and the case turns out to be a
Wind Cold condition, we're not going to be looking Points like LU 7 and ST 36,
and that kind of treatment. We're going to be looking at, if it is Wind Cold, if s
Tai Yang, and how severe is it? Is there any chest involvement, and if there is,
then Bladder and Small Intestine. How are we going to treat it? We palpate the
Bladder Channel. We palpate the Small Intestine Channel. We Needle the Ah
Shi Points, actually we treat with Moxibustion, and we are going to blow on
these Moxa Cones. Then we're going to Needle the Jing Well Points, because it is
something that is something that is severe, so we're going to use the Arm and the
Leg Channels, SI 1and BL 67. That's how you would treat a Wind Cold
condition. NOW if you get a chronic Wind Cold condition, and every time it is
very severe, then you have to treat Bladder / Kidney, Small Intestine / Heart
Question: Is there a case to be made that, because this could be seen as upper
respiratory, we were talking about the chronic tonsillitis, that it is really most
appropriate to treat it using the Sinew Channels, or it is simply a choice that you
make whether you use the Sinew Channels to treat something chronic, or
whether you use the Primary Channels?
JCY: Remember that the concern is that, if you are using the Primary Meridians
for an External condition, while the Primary Meridians deal with both External
and Internal, you could be drawing the Pathogenic Factor into the Deeper level,
which will make it asymptomatic, so it may seem like it has gotten better, but in
reality what we have done is we have made it Latent. That's where some
clinicians believe that if it is in the External terrain, you should just stay in the
External terrain, even if it is chronic, then you would address it more
appropriately by just treating the External. Some people do not believe that, and
those are the ones who are anxious, and don't want to just use one Meridian, and
would rather use several Meridians. Just like, some of us here, if you ask them to
just Needle 2 Points, they would ask, "Is that enough, really?" I'd really like to
use 8 Points. Can you give me more Points? Especially if you just came out of
Acupuncture school. You want to have more Points to Needle. You don't just
want to Needle 1Point.
The whole idea of the Sinew Channels is, here it is. If s revealing. Just treat
it. If s based on its appearance. If s not any thing that's hidden underneath it.
We don't have t look for something that is hidden underneath it. If you dear the
Surface anatomy, you will allow anything that is Internal to come back out, if
there is anything that is Internal to be reckoned with.
Question: I'm not sure I understand how you determine the severity of the
problem when it is acute. How do you determine whether it is severe or it is
mild?
JCY: Severe generally means that there are certain locations that become
involved. Wind Cold, for example, if it is severe will enter the chest. There are
some chest signs and symptoms. Wind Heat will generally affect the throat, not
just a sore throat, but it may be very itchy and raw. There is a lot of irritation in
the throat. If it is mild, it will usually stay from the chin, up. There might be

0 New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C.Yuen 2003

chills and fever in both cases, but if it is mild, usually it will stay up here. Let's
say if someone had allergies, and their eyes are red and they are sneezing, you
would say, "That's a mild case of Wind Heat". "Iknow that with Wind Heat, I
should be using the Stomach Meridian, but I know that this allergy always seems
to come, let's say in April. A lot of times they do come in April, April is March,
and March is Yang Ming", then you can see the Stomach relationship to that. A
lot of times you can see some of these the correlations, and they are very
interesting. In that case you can see there's a validation of that process.
Question: While we're getting used to all the mental stuff that has to go on in
order to fi@e out how to do this, is it alright just to do GI3 21 and GB 30?
JCY: If you just did GB 21 and GB 30, that would just be opening the Jing Well
Points without giving the person the honor of where their discomfort and pain is.
It would OK if you just did GB 21 and GB 30 with the Ah Shi Points. The whole
idea of the Ah Shi Points is very important to the Sinew Meridians because what
they are saying is that you are putting attention into where their discomfort is.
You have to always do that. The whole idea of the Jing Well Point is, here is an
outlet that you can Release that from. That's what you are really saying.
Question: Instead of Hot Needle on the Jing Well Point, how about direct Moxa.

JCY: Yes you can do Moxa on those Points. Even that can be very sensitive.
That's why I was recommending that you can vigorously massage the area, and
just Needle afterwards. That's another way of doing that.
Question: Could you Bleed the ling Well Point.

JCY. No, you don't really Bleed the Jing Well Point for this purpose. It might
happen that you Needle it, and blood comes out of it, but that is not your intent
to Bleed them.
Question: When you were saying that April is March, you were saying that
because of the Chinese calendar?
JCY: Yes.

Clinical Methods
Let's look at the clinical methods, before we look at the trajectories
themselves, and give some dearer details as to what the trajectories represent.

Use of Acupuncture
Generally with the Jing Well Points, if you have gone through the process of
working out the Ah Shi, that usually takes quite a while, so that by the time you
get to the Jing Well Point, you don't really need to spend a lot of time with the
Jing Well Point. That's why generally it is Quick insertion and withdrawal, and

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@ New EnglandSchoolof Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
Classically, if you did the Hot Needle, it would always be Quick insertion and
withdrawal. It is not that you are intended to continue to cauterize and bum the
flesh down to the bone. But, that's the general idea: Quick insertion and
withdrawal where the area is already being stimulated. It could be where you
Moxa the area first, indirectly, and then Needle it, which would duplicate the
same idea. Or touching the area, and the only reason I'm describing touching the
area, is because in terms of the Nan Jing understanding of the Jing Well Points.
They are not really anatomically precise. They lie in the area of the nail bed.
They are not really a Point, per se. If you are looking at someone's hands, and
let's say this is how the nail looks, what you are doing is looking all around the
perimeter of the nail and finding an area that is swollen, that is elevated, or an
area that is discolored. There is a little bit more blood going there. That's where
most of the energy is found. Remember ifs a Well, Jing ,and as a Well, this
is where energy sprouts from. So you have to look for the Well along the nail
bed, nail, the Liver, and the skin around it, the Lungs, Lungs Liver, looking for
an area that is already elevated or swollen. Once you see that, that's your fing
Well Point. If s not 0.1 Cun from the corner of the nail. If s not that. Or some
people would say if you're using that method, you're better off taking the
meeting of the tangents alongside the nail bed as the Jing Well Point. That's
more accurate in terms of Jing Well Points. But the Nan Jing School tells us that
these Points are living events. A Jing Well Point is where Qi comes out, Chu
& . So we should be looking for where the Qi comes out. Or if we don't see
any Qi coming out, we pump it, like we pump a well. As we pump it, energy is
going to come to that area, and once it goes into that area, then we can Needle it,
at that Point. Keep in mind that when you are using it, you really want to use it
the way they described it, Classically, not based on current anatomical locations,
just to make it, in a very linear fashion, neat for you to follow the trajectory,
that's all. It makes it easier for me to have LU 11on the outside comer of the nail
bed, as a Jing Well Point, so it can go directly to LU 10, instead of having in at the
inside comer of the nail bed, and having it zig zag across. It makes it from an
artistic viewpoint, easier to relate to. But the Jing Well Point could be anywhere
along here (indicating the areas along the base and sides of the nail bed). Each
one of them really have their own uniqueness. There's the whole idea the
Pericardium was really the third finger, and not the fourth finger, so to speak.
Remember that previous to this there was no Heart Meridian. It was only the
Small Intestine Meridian that we were interested in, in the last finger. So those
were the dynamics, OK?

There are other Points that can be added to your treatment. If someone has
severe, acute pain, then you can add to it the Xi deft Point. In the Su Wec the X i
Cleft is said to be areas where the muscles bundle up together. That's where the
Wei Qi as it circulates through the Sinews, the muscles, begins to accumulate
together. Pain is an accumulation of Wei Qi. By Needling the Xi Cleft Point, you
are giving the message to the body, to the areas where Wei Qi bundles up
together, to Disperse. Thafs why Xi Cleft Points are always Dispersed. They are
never Tonified, with the exception of severe Leakage of Qi. That's another
component by which Xi Cleft Points are sometimes used, when you have severe

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@ New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
hemorrhaging, severe vomiting, severe sweating. Leakage of Qi, in which case Xi
Cleft Points, related to the organ that you think has the Leakage, is then Tonified.
The Xi Cleft Points are Needled with the addition of the Hua T w Jii~ Ji Points.
Why HIM Tuo Jia Ji Points? If s because of their relationship to Du Mai, and Du
Mai's relationship to Wei Qi. You would Needle it in the axis that relates to the
Shu Point that relates back to the Meridian that is affected. So if you're looking at
a pain in the Large Intestine Meridian again, and if s severe, and if s really acute,
and you want to add the Xi Cleft Point to the treatment, then you would want to
Needle the Him T w Jia Ji Point which would be located adjacent to the vertebral
body in line with BL 25, the Large Intestine Shu Point.
Question: With regard to the Xi Cleft Point, you had mentioned at one time that
it makes sense to do Xi Cleft Points along with PC 4. Would you use any Xi deft
along with PC 4, using it at a Master Point for Xi Cleft Points?
JCY:No, using PC 4 is almost like using GB 21 or GB 30, when you're not sure
which Jing Well Point to use, which Xi Cleft to use, so you Just want to have
command over all of the Xi Cleft, then you would use something like PC 4.
Luo Passage Points are used if the person, in relationship to pain, also has
Blood Stasis. Remember the The Great Luo of the Spleen, SP 21, does treat pain
all over the body. Luo Points, obviously are Bled, or you can Plum Blossom Luo
Points.
What I'm giving you are things that have been added into the Sinew
Meridian protocols by clinicians who are generally not content with just
Needling Ah Shi Points and Jing Well Points, and maybe Confluent Points, and
they want to add other Points. So with the Antique Points, if there is an
inflammatory condition, Ying Spring Points will help with that. If it is a Damp
condition, Shu Stream Points will help with that. This is coming from a
perspective where these Points,relate to Climatic Factors, but Jing River Points
can be used for chronic conditions, and if person has these muscular conditions
along with Bowel symptoms, which simply means not only is it affecting the
Yang Sinew Channels, if s also affecting the Yin Sinew Channels, since the Yin
Sinew Channels control the smooth muscles of the gut. So not only do you suffer
from rheumatism, you also sufferfrom Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Constant Wei
Qi going into the Intestines, perhaps causing diarrhea and constipation. Then
you would use the He Sea Point related to the Sinew Meridian, and in this case it
would be the Yin as well as the Yang aspect. When it goes in, if s Yin, if s going
.
to the Yin Sinews, so the Yin and its counterpart
There is GB 34 as the Influential Point for the Jin Sinews. That would be
more of a Nan Jing approach.
There are also the Points on the neck and the pelvis that mediate to the four
limbs. Any condition that's in the four limbs can also be treated directly with
Points on the neck, which would deal with Yaw conditions, or Yang Sinews, or
Points on the legs which would deal with the Yin Sinew Channels.
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0 New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C Yuen 2003
(breakinrecording ... TheseRuntscdindudetheWindowdfileSkyPoints
controlling the movement of Ymg going to ihe head, and the Doorwaysto the
Earth Points, controlling the movement of Y h the legs.)
You can always use Points around the eyes to activate WCT Qi.

And there axe the Points on the Meridian systems. Of the different Meridian
systems that deal with Wei Qi among the Bight Channelswouldbe
*, Y q Yin -, ymg wti ma. d d w i f i wti
issues, coniirig from a CbnstitutionalLevel. The Diveigents willbe
conditions Hut are Exogenous, Oat move into &Level ofthe Essence, which
generally means epidemics. Epidemics arc thingsthat go directly to the
Constitutional Level. So you can have a chronic infection, or you can have an
acute infection^ and those infectionsthat you have are potentially life
threatening, JingLeveL Chronic infections generalty affect the DNA Acute
infections generally affect the RNA. Childhood infectious diseases are RNA
issues. Chronic infections, like hepatitis, like herpes, HIV,thoseaffect &DNA.
They would be DiveigentMeridian issues. Things that you have contracted,that
you were not necessarily born with. So someone who gels HIV is treated
differenflythan someone who is born withmm wi ~ 1 . w
hdfon't
-.
HiwiJ~d~,i'.-^',.
1,. 1
-1
-m a

t* - "r

There are some empirical Points, Points that over time we have found to be
very effective in Rel certainareas of thebody. ST 38 is very
7
shoulder pain, GB 39 for p pain,U 9 fornumbness or paralysis of arms, BL
55 for numbness or the legs. Theseare empirical Pointsthat have
T-
been found to be and they come from the Sinew Meridian
perspective.
There are also Pointsthat are selected by their name, like Ravine, Xi,or Gu,
Valley Points. These are generally more effective for Hot Bi Obstruction. Hot Bi
Obstruction is where Wind,Cold, and
transformed into Hot Bi, whichcan
most oimmonpresentationof that would
developing into Multiple Sclerosis, MS. These Pointsbecome veiy helpful for
someone who has MS. That is usually due to Hot, or Damp Heat developing into
Bi Obstruction. (Examplesof these poinis: U 4, He Gu, ST 43, XMn) Gu,KI 3, Tç
Xi, ST 41, lie Xi, GB 43, Ju Xi¥
Chapter 58 of the Su Wensap, 'Â¥ThXt*Ravines and Gu Valleys are
depressions where theJiReshmeetstogather Qrandserveascanalsfortheir
am---
@ NewEq^ud&ftactof~çtal~t~edJefflxyCLYwn200
I ' +-vm --
1 1
flow. If the Pathogenic Factor lingers in the Ravines or Valleys, it will scorch",
you see it will get hot, "it will bum the Channels and the Collaterals resulting in
atrophy of the Sinews", Wei Atrophy Syndrome. Notice it only develops into Wei
Atrophy because it represents where the Qi has gathered at the Flesh. The
Sinews remember, only control the Skin and the Sinews. That means if s going
Deeper. As it gets driven Deeper into the body, it goes into the level of the Flesh
and the Vessels. The Vessels would be a Luo Meridian issue, but if it goes into
the Flesh it becomes Hot R,which can develop into Wei Atrophy Syndrome, Bi
Syndrome developing into Wei Syndrome.

Use offompresses
Compresses are generally used for acute conditions, and plasters, which are
commonly used for chronic conditions. We'll talk about the details of using
compresses and plasters tomorrow.

Use of Plum Blossom, Cupping, and Gua Sha

Then there is the use of Plum Blossom for more External conditions, and
Cupping for more Internal conditions. Gua Sha would be used for more stubborn
conditions. Before you Gua Sha the local area, you might have to Gua Sha the
holding area, or the "pads". The padded areas would be the neck, including the
clavicle, the gluteus and the sacrum, and the man-made, padding which is your
belly, when you get overweight. That's a padding, too.
Break

Sinew Releases
There are 108Sinew Releases, so there are a lot of them. What you are doing
is that you're bringing a particular motion into the state by which it is going to be
immobilized, so that from that state of immobilization it returns back to a state of
liberation. That may sound somewhat complicated, well some of you may still
think it is complicated when I demonstrate it, but the idea here is that if you take
something to a state of total tension, it has no other option but to relax. Take
something to be state of being totally immobile, it has no other option but to be
mobile. Yin becomes Yang. Yang becomes Yin. That's the basic theory.
Let's say I have an arthritic finger, like this (2 most distal joints of index
finger slightly bent). Ideally, we would want the finger to be like this (able to
straighten out). But instead, what I would do is have the patient bring thefinger
until it looks like this (much more pronounced bend) so that now there is a loss
of movement in that entire finger. What you are doing is, while the finger is
being kept in this particular manner (bent position), you have the patient
maintain the pressure toward themselves (bent position), and sometimes they
have difficultydoing that, so you let gravity help them. As they put pressure in
there, they are slowly going back and forth like this with the finger. This is a
very subtle demonstration of i t And finally it gets back to a point (straightening
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0 New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
out) where it Releases. That's how you work with a very little joint, to a very big
joint, and vice versa. The theory is relatively simple.
That means if I can't bring my arms this way (straight out, lateral, and up)
that means that over time I may find that my range of motion become like this,
like this, then like this (more and more restricted) until all I can do is move it
very little. That is precisely where you want them to go, so they go in this way
(holding the arm down medially against their side) so that during the session,
you're going to have them go in to the state of being immobile, damping my arm
against my body like this. What happens as they are doing this, and generally,
again, you would use gravity to help you. So that over time, there is a small
movement upward (against clinician's resistance) and back, back and forth, and
each time their resistance is this way (down toward their body). What happens
is that you are tricking the brain. The brain has a hard time with it. Part of you
wants to go this way (medially toward the side of the body) and part of you
wants to go that way (upward away from the body). So in the initial stage of it,
the brain doesn't know what to do, because it is being told to go in both
directions. So what happens, after a while, the brain tenses up, or when DM20
tenses up, it Releases everything, and then what happens is that all of a sudden,
by doing this over time this whole arm becomes a very free arm. Big to small,
are we clear about that principle? You'll see me demonstrate it right now, if I can
have my volunteer come up.

Volunteer I have pain that follows the Bladder Sinew Meridian, although
sometimes I'm confused as to whether it is the Gallbladder, and there is a
headache that is here (? not visible) and goes around to the eye. There is also
pain that spreads out behind the left shoulder blade, and more recently there is a
pain behind the knee that goes up towards the back.
JCY: So definitely we are looking at things that potentially could mean Bladder
Sinew, and she says Gallbladder, and we can actually evaluate that by asking,
does any movement exacerbate the pain? So if she is rotating her legs outward,
does that make the pain worse? Now she is doing this, which is Shao Yin
rotation. Now we would have her go like that (? not visible) to see if that makes
it hurt, as she turns her head (laterally). Does that make the area more painful as
she rotates her (arm from the) shoulders? What I'll be doing is actually a pre-
requisite to all of that. You can't Release the Sinews unless you Release Du 14
and DM4. So that is what we're going to demonstrate first. .
She'll lie on the table, on her back. I'll ask her to take off her shoes, and I
could also look at her shoes if I wanted to investigate everything. When you do
this with a client, you want the knee to be in line with the ankle (one knee raised
with the ankle drawn up to the level of the knee on the other leg, which is
extended out straight), and the legs are basically shoulder width apart. What
you'll see is that there are tworanges of motion: as the raised knee goes out
(laterally), and as the raised knee goes in (medially, across the extended leg).
Her left leg has good range of motion going out, and pretty good range of
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@ New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003
motion, medially. There is some holding, as she moves medially, (just a few
inches). Remember this is unconscious holding. There is something
unconsciously holding the muscles preventing her leg from moving with the
freedom that we see with children.
Now, let's check the other (right) leg. (JCY raises the right knee so that the
right ankle is level with the knee of the left leg, which is now extended out
straight He holds her right ankle in place, and allows the right knee to move
laterally and medially.) She has a relatively good range of motion (moving
laterally, then he directs the knee medially, but without any pressure, just to see
how far it will fall.) She's relatively limited on her right side, right now. She
doesn't have as much freedom. Over time, you can expect that the range of
motion will progressively become more and more restricted. She may reach a
point when this (knee at vertical angle) is as far as she can go, unlike the free
movement we saw in her left leg. Relatively, she is actually pretty good with
respect to her lower back. The restriction is not that much. Most likely what she
has is structural, relating to the Divergent Channels, rather than the Sinew
Channels, because if it is muscular contraction, as I think you'll see if we get
another volunteer, this is about as far as they can go laterally (about 45 degrees).
I'm holding her ankle to prevent that. If I Release the ankle, she will Release. So
you can see the ankle's relationship to that holding pattern, or the Qiao Vessel
relationship to the Du Mai. Some people, when you test them, will be just like
this (very little lateral mobility), and you may wonder what's holding that. If s
unconscious contractions in the muscles. If s Wei Qi. She's not conscious of it,
and if you ask them to Release it, they'll wonder what you're talking about. They
can't just Release that so that the knee falls easily to the side.
In this case, we're more concerned about the motion medially. We should be
able to get this knee to come all the way around (indicating that the right knee
should be able to drop over the left leg) without compensation at the
Gallbladder, the hips, and without compensation along the ribcage. Those are
the areas that would compensate. If I were to force this (medial movement), and
in physical therapy you might use traction to do that, once you force it, there is
always compensation somewhere else. That's one of the problems.
The reason this is important is because when you Release these two areas,
(with the two knees) what you are releasing is Du 4, Ming Men. What I'm going
to do now is to ask her to "go into the future" which is towards me (JCY sitting
on the table, with her raised right knee against his torso, under his arm, with his
hand on her knee) so we can "turn her back to the past". The future is always the
area of least mobility. We're starting from here as a neutral point ( with the knee
about vertical) to go medially, past where she was as a child, until the knee flops
all the way down to her left leg. Hie leg (right) should also have the ability to go
all the way down, laterally. It should have the ability to open out, Yang, and it
should have the ability to open in, Yin. We're looking at it from a Tai Yin point of
view, because the knee is bent But it is from Tai Yin that we are able to reach
Shao Yin. In fact, those of you who do Hara diagnosis know that the Hara will
behave very differently depending on whether the knees are bent or straight
Your findings can change dramatically depending on whether you extend the
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@ New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C Yuen 2003
legs out or bring the knees in. By bending the knees, what you are doing is
opening up D MMai. Those of you who study Tai Ji, when they ask you to bend
you knees, what are they trying to do? They are trying to get DMMai to open, in
terms of Du 4. When your knees are locked, you create a tremendous amount of
contraction at DM4, preventing the opening of the Du Channel. So what we want
to do is to make sure she has the ability to open up both ways (medially and
laterally) from the Tai Yin posture. The right side is Tai Yin. The other side with
the leg straight, is Tai Yang.
(From the position described above) I'm going to have her push against my
chest as hard as she can. (As she pushes, she lifts her hips) but, without lifting
her hips, because already that is compensation. We don't want the
compensation. We want to see how much strength she has to control her muscles
as she pushes up against my body. You should all know that if I were to let go of
my dead weight (where she is pushing against his torso) she is going to fall this
way (laterally). At no time is she really going to go that way (medially), even
though we are going to get the brain to attempt to go that way. That's going to
be the hard part in the beginning. I'm going to put one hand here (on top of her
hip) to remind her not to raise her hips, so that we don't have a Shao Yang
compensation. I'll ask her to push against my chest, and for the ladies in the
room, you may not want someone pressing against your chest, in which case you
can put your hands together next to your chest and have them push against your
hands. All you are doing is applying "dead weight", your own body weight on
the person. So you are not in any way generating a conscious effort to cause
traction on the person's body. Some of you might be familiar with this. It is very
similar to Sotai. Sotai does it a little bit more gently. What we are doing requires
the muscles to contract in a way that she is going to feel where the most
contraction occurs, and that's the Ah Shi Point. That's the holding Point. That's
the Point that is going to Release the whole leg. She will know, because she's
contracting so intensely that she's going to be familiar with her own body in that
way. Most people don't like this because it makes them work. A lot of people
would rather go to a clinician and have them do something to them (as the
patient) as opposed to the patient doing something to themselves. But this is self
empowerment.
So she pushes against my chest, as hard as she can. She still wants to
compensate by having the leg and knee rise up off the table. Now what I'd like
her to do is go medially toward the left leg, but maintain the pressure against me
(laterally). If I let go like this, she didn't maintain much pressure. If I let go, the
leg should always come towards me. It is not just locked. The brain has t a
synchronize, "Ihave to go one way, but wait he's telling me to go the other
way". That's Du 20 being stimulated. That's your corpus callosum trying to
regulate between the left and right hemispheres, going one way and the other,
and not knowing what to do. We're confusing Du 20, so it relies on the resources
of DM 4 and Du 14. So I try this again, and she pushes against my chest as hard
as she can. Don't try to lift me up. Try to push me back. Now, while you keep
the pressure against my chest, come toward the left leg 3 inches, keeping the
pressure against my chest. The whole time I should feel her moving laterally,
and when I feel that, I should simply let my weight become dead onto it. I'm not
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pushing against her. I'm not forcing her. But when she moves medially, I'm
releasing with i t Take a deep breath. Maintain the pressure against me.
Maintain the pressure against me and come toward your left leg 3 inches, as you
push me back 1inch. Keep the pressure against me, and come toward your left
leg 3 inches, as you push back toward me 1inch. Come toward me 3 inches,
toward my body. Don't go the other way. Come toward the left leg 3 inches,
still maintaining pressure against me. She is always keeping pressure against me.
Push me back 1inch. Think of yourself doing Push Hands (TOT Ji sparring). You
are just following the flow. Come toward the left leg 3 inches, and push me back
1inch. Come toward the left leg 3 inches. Push me back 1inch. Continue with
the breathing. As you breathe in, come toward the left leg 3 inches, and push me
back 1inch. Come toward the left leg 3 inches.
In western therapy there are similar techniques, but a little different in terms
of the idea. Our idea is you bring someone to the future, so they can return back
to the past. Future means the state of tension. Past means the state of liberation.
When we were young, we were more liberated. As we become older, we become
more habituated. We become more rigid and tight, at least some of us.
Now, she already knows the sequence, and she is doing it all on her own. If I
were to let go, her leg would flop laterally. So she is always pushing against me.
The brain has gotten the hang of what is going on, and it's just trying to
accommodate that. Come towards the left leg 3 inches. Push me back 1inch,
and let it Release. Let it go all the way down. Let it drop. OK Lift me up, and
let it Release.
Now you can see that the leg moves much more freely. Before it could only
go about a third of this distance down toward the left leg. Where did you feel
most of the tension? "BL 36." So that would be her holding Point. Now she has
told me where the Ah Shi Point is. If I Needle that Point, it will Release the whole
lower back for her.
Again, we made sure there was no compensation. Do you want to describe
what you were feeling? "There was a point here (indicating a slight medial angle
from the vertical) when my leg started trembling and it got more painful in that
area. Then when it released, it just wanted to go further (medially)." That's
generally the case. There is a point when the body wants to go into spasm. You
desperately want to hold onto the tension that you've become so used to. To
Release it can be very traumatic in some cases. That's why with some people,
they will just maintain the limitation. You can say, "Give me 8 inches the other
way", and they will still go back and forth just the same. That means that .
person, that day, is not ready to Release the tensions that they have. You have to
come back and work with them. Those are the people who tend to have
muscular-skeletal conditions that will linger for quite some time before you are
able to treat them. When this Releases, what we are really releasing is Du 4,
mind you. The oblique muscles are being exercised. The para-vertebral muscles
are being exercised. When she puts her breath into it, all her

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pelvic muscles, in terms of the psoas muscles, are being exercised in this
particular movement. If she was really good, you would even see her exercising
her neck muscles to get the motion going on. That's how intense you can get that
motion to take place.
Now she tells us where the Ah Shi point is. I don't have to palpate. I know I
should go to BL 36. I know it is a Tai Yang condition. I know that I need to treat
BL 67, and then depending on how she describes the nature of the pain, which
seems to suggest it moves a little, we might then treat it as a Wind Bi
Obstruction. That would then tell us what Needling technique we need to use.

The brain has to be there. If I did traction, she could be reading a magazine.
She does not have to be engaging with me. She knows I'm doing something with
her legs. But she doesn't have to be there. The fact that she makes tension on the
legs, she has to stay with the tension. That means the mind has to be in her body.
Any time her mind escapes you'll know that because she is giving up. All of a
sudden you feel there is a Release in pressure in the legs. That's why we are
saying we are making something that is unconscious, become conscious. That's
volition. You can become conscious of it. She should know that every time she
feels tension in her lower back or legs, that the Release is going to come from BL
36. That's her holding area.

In this process, I am holding, cradling. The whole idea of the cradle, I'm
saying it's OK. I'm embracing her legs as if her legs were a little child. I'm
saying if s OK. She is doing all the work. Did you feel I was pushing against
you?
Volunteer. No, I felt that as I moved, you then became an obstacle, that I could
not move back to where I was.
As she moves, I am cutting that space from her. She shouldn't be feeling that
I am trying to push her. Then that would be traction. I'm not doing any traction
at all. And I'mnot trying to do any movement. I'm just kind of, like Tai Ji, just
as dead weight hanging on her. When she goes somewhere I go with her. If she
doesn't want to go I just stay with her. There might be a point she doesn't want
to go anywhere and I am doing this for a whole thirty minutes or an hour and
nothing is happening then you know that they are not ready to Release. You
come back on another day. During that time you are going to ask them where
they felt the most tension. They will always identify for you the Trigger Point,
the Point that's the major holding. You don't have to palpate necessarily to find
it, the Release Point for Tui Yang. So as part of our Sinew Meridian treatment:
Ah Shi, BL 36, and BL 67 would be the Jing Well. Then you evaluate the nature of
it.
The beginning is always the neutral position which is this (with the knee up,
ankle at the level of the opposite knee when the leg is straight out, and the knee
is vertical).
 If the mind is engaged, she should be able to stay this way (with
improvement) forever. If s not like, oh, I released it, but if s going to come back.
It shouldn't come back because the mind has participated in it. If s only when
the body does it without the mind engaging in it that it comes back.

While this might look like an evaluation, this is more of a Release. This is
releasing Du 4, and then we're going to Release Du 14. So we are going to
Release below and above, for all the clients who get this treatment. Let's say if
I'm going to play, for the next three months, Sinew Meridian practitioner,
everyone that comes in will get that evaluation, get that Release, and then from
there I'm going to work on the Sinew Channels that relate to their condition. So
everyone will get that. It doesn't matter if they are 70 or 80 years old, they're
doing it all themselves, if you worry that this is someone that is very old and you
can't do it. It means that you are worried that you might be putting too much
force on the person. They are the ones that are going to exert the force. Some
people will not have a lot of force. Some will have a tremendous amount of
force. You work with the amount of force they are willing to exert.
That idea of going back toward me "1inch" was a reminder that she should
maintain pressure against me. If she was just going that way (medially toward
the left leg, then she would just relax because she would just let gravity bring her
down. But what happens by having me remind her about keeping some
pressure against me, is that she has to maintain a certain amount of resistance to
keep her legs up. By doing that little rocking, what I am doing is, on a really
subtle level, I am really rocking her like a child. I'm really rocking her and
rocking her. But she's not going to fall asleep on me because she has to maintain
a lot of force. So thafs what you're really doing. If s almost like, as you are
doing this, it becomes very comforting, but it also becomes comforting because
you are embracing. And that is a very powerful statement that you can embrace
their body. A lot of times people will get to a point that, all of a sudden, the
mind just Releases that, and when it Releases, the whole leg just Releases the
tension. If you did massage you wouldn't be able to get the same results in that
same period of time. It would take you quite a while to get that kind of result.
The same thing goes for Du 14. She's going to rest her right hand on the
ocaput, on the back of her head. I'mgoing to have you rest the other hand, on
the side with the arm pain (left), palm down on her forehead. What kind of
movement aggravates the pain?
Patient response: When I turn, when I rotate this way (rotating the arm up and
back).

OK, I'm going to put your hand a little higher (above the forehead). Kind of
like when you go this way. I'm just getting a sense of i t She's saying that when
she takes her hand and she flips her hand over like this, kind of like if you want
to find the Point SI 6. That's when it begins to cause discomfort for her. So that

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means if it continues, she can no longer turn the other way. Follow? Are we dear
with that?
She has a hard time turning this way (arm extended out to the side with the
palm turned up). This is where she complains about the discomfort. So over
time, she will have a hard time turning to that point, then to this point (indicting
that the rotation becomes progressively more limited, unable to turn as far each
time). Are we dear? I'm turning like this (same as above). Eventually I can't
even turn like that at all. That would be the future. If you ask the person to
rotate and tKq say I can't, I can't even rotate that at all. Right now she says that
when she is rotating here, it hurts. So if we bring this back to the future, this
means it is not longer able to do any rotation at all. The past is always what you
were able to do. You were able to do this (full rotation, back and forth). So the
future is the fact that you are not able to do that at all. Are we dear?
In other words if she is turning her arms down like this (palm on the top of
her head, pressing down on the elbow towards her bade) she has a hard time. So
what happens is, if she has a hard time at this level, maybe eventually when her
elbow is not even down to that level, she'll still have a hard time, as it becomes
progressively more restricted. Follow? It gets to the point that she is not able to
go all the way down to here at all. Right now you can see she is suspended up
here. As I move her more this way (moving the elbow upwards towards her
head), it gets to the point she finds uncomfortable. So I can say I know we are
bringing it to the future (moving the elbow down towards her waist) where she
can't move it at all. That would be here, in line with this (horizontalaxis). So if
we want to work with that, again I always like to cradle the person. I haven't
even done GV 14 Release, but just so you understand the applications of these.
I'm going to have her go to the future, and then she's going to bring herself back
to the past.

Can you see? No. We'll do it an easier way. How's this (holding her palm
up, and elbow in a vertical position, that can move up toward her head, and
down toward her feet)? Everyone can see now? And this is comfortable for you,
right? That means if I were to go like this (moving her elbow toward her head),
she's going to find it uncomfortable. Are you starting to get uncomfortable?
Patient response: Not as much as the other one (the position with the elbow to
the side.
The whole idea is, it is harder for her to reach to the back. Thafs basically it.
So that with her arms out like this (extended straight out), if she were to go like
this (hand above her head) this is OK Small Intestine is OK Now, you bend her
arms and you have her go like this (with her elbow out to her side), and toward
her (moving the elbow up and her hand toward her), if s not OK. Or is it OK
now?
Patient response: It hurts.

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 It hurts. So if s Tai Yin, elbow bent, Tai Yin, Spleen, Lung. The holding area
is most likely SP 20, from a diagnostic point of view, but she will tell me where
the holding area is going to be. Actually, I shouldn't have said that because I
suggested to her where it might be. The idea here is that she is going to push this
way (towardsher feet), to the future, so that we can return her back that way
(towards her head), to the past.
I'm always creating dead weight (JCY sitting on the table next to her, with
his hip next to her elbow). She's going to push against my body. I'm going to
make sure that she's not going to raise any part of her joints (indicating her
shoulder) tcGcompensate. That way she can also hurt herself.
Imagine you have a horizontal axis, you can generally start with that. So that
means she's going to go to here (towards her feet) which is the future, which is
easy for her. It could be tense up here (moving her elbow up towards her head)
and then she is slowly going to be going like this (rocking up and down). And I
always want to have dead weight. I want to dose off any movement that she has
the capability to move into. My body is here now (sitting on the table, next to
her, with her elbow horizontal, lateral, against his hip). I force her to stay at that
level. She can't come back down here anymore. And then what happens is as I
keep on doing this (rocking)and she is using force against my hip, so anytime I
move down the table, she is going to go this way (elbow towards her feet), so
that over time, she's going to Release herself. And she's going to know which
muscle is very tense, which muscle is holding that pressure that's wants to go
into spasm. Thafs the Trigger Point.
This principle could be applied anywhere. She might say that she has a hard
time bringing her arms out this way (extending straight out, laterally). So then
this would be the future (arm extended straight out in front of her), because her
past enabled her to go from here, all the way down (beyond straight out to her
side, JCYpointing toward the floor). So you would have her go all the way this
way (forward) into the future, keeping ( her arm extending forward pressing
across her body). Position yourself to create a holding so that you can feel every
part of her body move (through her arm), so if she is using any part
inappropriately, you will feel something is lifting up, then you have to stop
because that is when you can have injury. So what you are doing is you are
slowly doing this and doing this (rocking back and forth with small motions
along the arc described above), and she's going that way (across her chest)
until finally she's going to feel a Release, and when that Release comes, if you get
her off the table, she's going to be able to bring her arms all the way back again.
Those are all sinew Releases from very major areas to very little areas. Lefs
say if someone has locked knees. You come in and a person lies and their knees
are like this, they can't move their knees. So the future would be what? Here,
here, here (kneesincreasingly bent). So what you would do is have them push
this way (raising their knees), and slowly they are releasing, releasing, releasing,
releasing until finally the whole knee Releases (and the leg is extended). Are we
dear about that, how the principle works? Cause if you don't understand that
then you can't really understand Sinew Releases and that's crucial to the Sinew
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Meridian treatment. By doing that I am spending about ten, fifteen minutes
already. So by the time I Needle the point, like BL 36, and Needle BL 67, it will
only be 15minutes for the remainder of the session because I have worked a
whole ten minutes on that whole area already.
Question: (inaudible)
JCY: No, because the mind is going to Release it. The mind is the holding
pattern. My mind is constantly feeling it and feeling it and the mind readies a
point and realizes that I have to Release it. So if the mind can do it once it can do
it again. A lot of times we don't think we can control our bodies. The mind says,
I can't Release that, that's separate. Then it ends up permanent. Our obstacle is
the mind. That's why she has to focus with the mind in this.
Question: Do you always Release DM4 and Du 14?
JCY: We always do DM4 and Du 14. Right now because she has some problems
there I want to Release it for her before I demonstrate DM 14. DM14 is very
simple.
There are three axes (patient positioned with her left hand, palm down on
her forehead): one, straight (rocking her head back and forth with reference to a
central axis), two, this is where if s painful, right? (Rocking her head back and
forth with reference to an axis tilting to her right) a little, so I'm not going to do
much on this side right now, OK, three, where if s coming toward you (toward
where he is standing, rocking back and forth with reference to an axis with her
head tilting to her left). One, two, three. Three axes.
You know, if you ever went to someone and they took your head, and they
did that (whipped the neck)? You'll break their neck if you don't know how to
do it But on the table you can't break their neck because the table becomes the
(limiting factor) you can only go this far (turning his head to his far right) with
your head. The table becomes the resistance. If you are in the chair, I can turn
you head and I can go past your shoulders and thafs when they break their
neck. That's why you could do this and not worry about getting your neck
broken if someone who doesn't know how to do it. Even when people learn how
to crack people's neck, what they do is, they turn you so that their body is the
lever that prevents the head from going past their body. That's how they are able
to Release the hold at Du 14. People who have buffalo humps, you want to
Release those areas. Some people might think this would be too violent or too
potentially scary, even for your client. They'd say what are you doing with my
head like that. But she (the voluteer) will tell you that this doesn't feel like
anything at all.
Question: Would you show the axis again?
JCY: The first one is straight I'm going straight. She's not having problems
with this. Shefshaving trouble when I'm pulling her elbows and I'm going up
with it. I'm turning her head in a sideways rotation so it is moving toward her
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ears. Then there's one where I'm pulling it away. What I'm really doing is just
getting that whole area to relax right now and just feeling for any snags along the
way. As you are doing it sometimes you feel a little bumpiness here, so then you
might want to work that out a little (rocking it back and forth in small arcs) and
Release that a little. But eventually what you are doing is this (the rocking), and
when you feel that her head is ready, relatively loose, rolling in the palms, that's
when you go like that, just a little push (away, across a slightly wider arc). You
are not going to break her neck because her head is not going past the table. And
that now Releases the whole trapezius region along that side, GB 21. But it
Releases als6Du 14. And you do both sides by the way. I am just doing one
side.

Let's say if she came in with a musculoskeletal condition, then I would ask
her where exactly does it hurt and then we would Release that. It might happen
that hers is low back pain so while I was doing this we might be releasing it
already too. So you always Release Du 4 followed by Du 14, even if you are not
treating a muscular condition, if she came in with a Wind Heat or Wind Cold
condition, a respiratory condition, a dermatological condition, an ENT condition,
by releasing those two areas you are allowing Yang Qi to support Wei Qi. So the
Wei Qi can get rid of an Exogenous Pathogenic Factor that is creating a
dermatological, respiratory, muscular, ENT condition on the body. The idea is
that if Yang Qi is compromised, then Wei Qi does not have the integrity to deal
with that Where that compromise comes from is that the curvature of the spine
that holds the head, the thoracic cavity, and the pelvic cavity in place. Thafs
what we're really releasing, the curvature of the spine, so that it prevents any
stagnation from impinging upon the four limbs, which is where the Jing Well
Points are located.

Question: (inaudible)

JCY:The patient can be sitting. Lefs say they can't lie, you can have them rotate
their legs and see how their legs mobility is. You can still create counter
resistance. If s a little harder because you don't have the assistance of gravity.
Here gravity helps you with this. If s always easier to do this Release (done
above, with elbow vertical, arc between head and toe) because gravity helps me,
gravity is pulling her arms down. So that means if a person says, oh when I go
like this (holding his arm straight out to his side) it hurts a lot. That means the
future will be like this (unable to lift the arm out straight to that level). So all I
have to do is have her lie on the table as if that (limited motion) was the future.
She can't go back like this (lifting the arm, backwards) so she is going to goup
this way (lifting the elbow with arm bent), and even though I am bending her I
could still have her hands out like that (straight) and cradle her hand. So she is
going to the future and then back slowly, slowly to the past until this Releases
and then sure enough, you'll see she'll be able to swing the arms back again.
Patient That would work with frozen shoulder?

JCY: Yes.

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Question: (inaudible)

JCY: The motion that you would be doing with this (releasing DM14), when you
are doing this, what you are doing is you are basically releasing GB 22. When
you are taking the head and turning it straight (central axis) like this, you are
pulling along the flanks. Then when you start to draw it up this way (tilting her
head to her right), you are pulling along the wing muscles, the latissimus dorsi,
you are really releasing Small Intestine. And as you are doing all this you are
releasing thewhole traps. And then as you pull (tilting her head to her left),
that's when you are really working on pulling the traps. And what you are
doing is you want to make sure there is nothing that is impeding the movement
in all three axes before you take the head and, one quick motion, push it to here
(central axis). One quick motion push it to here (axis tilted to right). And one
quick motion, pull it to here (axis tilted to left).
Question: (inaudible)

Patient response: There is already more movement in my neck.. ..

JCY: How? She's not resisting me. It looks like I'm moving but her head is
moving. So she has to be conscious of her head rolling. She doesn't want to just
think of me going like this (rocking) and I am doing all the work. So if she is
relaxed, she is following along with the motion. We don't want to get to the point
when she is just following along with the motion. When I feel she is just
following along, if I just do this (takes his hand off her head, rocking her only
from her elbow, and her head still moves slightly), she is going to move a bit,
that's when you can Release it. But if she's resisting, you'll feel it because if the
neck muscles are very tense, this is how if s going to look (small, tight arcs). I'm
doing it now. I am basically making her not have much movement. If she would
be doing it, then I would notice when I'mpushing her that if s not going to go. If
I'm doing traction I am going to force her to go that way because I'm using a lot
of force, now. I 'm not doing that. I'm just rocking her. I'm just getting a sense of
how far she can go. Yeah, she can go further (broader arc). But some people
they can only go like this (more narrow arc).
Question: What about a situation like a frozen shoulder, where the range of
motion is so limited that you can't get much movement at all.
JCY:Well then you start with the Yin and move it back to the Yang. You have
her with the elbows bent which is Yin, and you try to Release from all angles,
and you might even want to do rotational movement, so she might be with her
arms like this (arm by her side, palm facing her, elbow bent), where part of her
problem was this rotational movement. So you can say, OK, I'm going to do
rotational movement, try to get her arms to rotate, and she's going to go, into the
future which is here where she can't rotate her arms at all. So she is going to
keep the pressure against my hands going the other way. So she is doing all the
work, and I'm going to just kind of give counter pressure. And I don't mean by
squeezing or anything. I'm just holding. I'm going to ask her to come toward
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her chest, rotate toward her chest, the other way, but keeping the pressure
against my hands. See my hand is just dead weight to remind her that she has to
constantly stay pushing against my hand. So now she is coming toward the side.
Push me back a half an inch. Small areas you might want to use like one inch,
one half inch. Now come toward your chest three inches, rotating, and push me
back one inch. Come toward your chest three inches. You see what you are
doing slowly is programming and programming and programming. And even
that little movement she should notice that there is a big difference when I now
turn her arms. There is some Release of the muscles, because the muscles were
constantly tensing up before. Now for her to relax, with her mind controlling it,
she could now think, what did I do before, and all of a sudden the muscles
would relax, biofeedback. You can only do biofeedback when you are in your
body. She's been programming it into her body. We do this with a lot of
sessions with her like this, all she has to do is think about that motion, that
muscle will now relax, that's biofeedback. If s very different from the Western
concept of biofeedback, but nevertheless if s very similar also in what their goals
are intended to do. Think about something and all of a sudden the body
responds to it. And that comes from being in the body. If s very simple. The
ideas of Sinew Meridians are very simple. You take the Sinews and you change
it. How do you change it? By bringing it into a total state of tension. When if s
very tense, that's when you can feel things the most. And once you can get it to
feel the most, that's also when it can relax the most too.
If someone comes in and they describe that they have tendonitis in their
elbows, all you have to do is do the evaluation. If I say, oh I have trouble going
this way. When I extend my hand out this way (extending arm with the palm
up) it hurts. So what does that mean? It means that you are going to bring the
hand this way, (bending the arm) and have them put a lot of pressure like this
(holding that position). You might even have them hold something, squeeze
something, put a lot of pressure like this, and then slowly come back (extending
the arm, palm up). After a while, every time I let go it comes in. So I'm just dead
weight. If s always better to have someone else's dead weight on you because
then you really feel that. After a while, I'm moving a little faster just to show
you, it Releases. And then they are going to realize, oh yes, the Ah Shi is right
there. Treat that, Needle that Point. See which trajectory it is located on, and
now you have your Jing Well Point That becomes the Sinew Release.

The hard part might be which direction should you bring them. That might
be what some of you are still not yet familiar with. The direction that you bring
them is always to the direction that will have the least mobility. The direction
that they are returning back to, is the direction that has the greatest mobility,
relative to the movement they are complaining about. I can say, oh it hurts going
this way (when the elbow is bending, flexing the biceps). When I go like this it
hurts. When I go like this (extendingit out straight) if s OK. Like this (flexing),
oh yeah it hurts. Tai Yin. So then, you say well if I'm having pain going this way
over time, when I just go a little like that if s going to hurt me a lot. So that
means this will be the future (limited flexion), and slowly, I'm pushing down
here (limiting the extension of the forearm). You can have them lie on the table,
push down on the table, against the table with your hand underneath, and
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slowly, slowly they are rocking back up. If s just that with your hands you might
not be able to create the dead weight. Their arms might be stronger than your
arms. So as they come higher and higher, you might bring your knees under that
so there is that dead weight. And as they climb, you just move along with that
angle because they are going higher and higher until you get them back to that
state by which you now see the Release.
Question: You don't do that in an acute case do you?
JCY: Acute and chronic. I've seen some amazing changes with people who have
had trouble walking for years, just doing this very basic Release that we just
talked about here. They just come back and report to you how different their
whole walking has been. If there's a lot of inflammation where you have a hard
time doing that, then with that you want to do is Release GV 4, GV 14, Needle
the Ah Shi, get a sense of where the pain is in terms of movement assessment,
and then Needle the Jing Well related to the movement assessment. If if s very
sensitive to the touch, if they say, oh I can't do that, obviously you can't force it.
Question: inaudible
JCY: I guess if she experienced it, she can describe what exactly it feels like.
Patient response: At the most point of tension, I felt a Release and then the range
of motion increased.
Did you feel like it was spasming? She's saying that there was more pain
and tension at a certain position that her arms were in, or her legs. And then it
released. Generally when it Releases the body wants to go into spasm. At that
point if someone feels that it wants to go into spasm they might hold back and
say, stop, thafs hurting. That means they are just not ready for it. Because the
movement is being done by themselves. You are not doing the movement. So
that's the very big difference with that. I want to reiterate that you are not in any
way, when you are doing these kinds of movements, you are not in any way
trying to turn her arms. She is doing it all on her own. That way she is
constantly becoming engaged in the process. All you are doing, which is my
opinion is the role of a clinician anyway, is guiding her along the way.
Providing her with the assurance that you are here, that you are supporting her,
and you are giving her the resources that she needs in terms of support, and that
she is able to move at her own pace to change the situation as she is moving into
it.

Let's say if someone has been molested, to open up the whole pelvic region,
if s going to be very traumatic. So for those individuals, you are going to find
that they are going to kind of like be like this (demonstrateswith her knee raised,
trying to move it laterally). There's going to be no movement. And if you try to
even enhance the greater movement by saying, I want you to go, instead of three
inches, ten inches, and move back one. They would just go like this, and come
back to the same position. So they won't give you this much ten inches. They'll
just come back and stay that way. So that's when you know there's deep trauma.
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 If if s chronic, what do you do. Chronic means that you have the leg
channels affecting its Yin Yang pair. And if if s chronic most likely the arm
channels are also involved. So that means let's say if if s tension in the pelvic
region, we might then Release the upper region. By releasing the upper region it
invites the lower region to Release. And that's how you ranwork with that.
Question: (inaudible)
JCY: No, this is releasing GV 4 and GV 14. You only will do it if there is a
stubborn condition, you have been trying this and you can't see any changes,
then you might do Cupping, Gua Shu, you might do Plum Blossom over these
areas to just really try to bring some of the deep issues to the surface. At that
point, you can try going back to these Releases and in my experience everyone
Releases after that. There is usually no holding.
Question: (inaudible)

JCY: Oh yes, there could be a lot of emotional Release, sure, there could be a lot
of emotional Releases.
Another volunteer?
Patient: Lower back, pain down the back and then the neck that doesn't move. It
hurts to lie down. Much better (the back) with both knees bent.
Better with this knee (lowering,extending the left leg) or the other knee?
Patient: Better with the other knee.
OK, so let's raise this (the left knee, extending the right leg out straight, and
moving the left knee, laterally and medially to check for limited range of
motion). OK? (Moving the left knee medially to lean over the right leg.) That
hurts? And already she is compensating, you can see her hip (left) is coming up.
She's compensating. If her hips stay down, this is how far she can go (knee can
move about10 degrees off vertical, medially). She was lifting her hips to allow it
to go further, to impress us. :) That's fine. And then we have this (movementof
knee laterally, about 70Âoff vertical). She has about this amount of distance (20')
that she could use to reach the table. So already we know there is unconscious
contraction going both ways.
Now let's check the other side (right) and see what the other side looks like.
Again, the (right) ankle is in line with the (left)knee (moving right knee laterally
70Âoff vertical). And see, there's about this much distance (20'). Now let's see
here (moving the right knee medially, and letting it fall over the left leg, and it
only goes about 15O off vertical). She has that much distance and already there is
some lifting of the (right) hip. If we bring the hip back down a little, she has
about that much (lo0). So we can definitely see a lot of trouble coming in

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(medially), and some trouble going out (laterally), more in Yang Ming, less in Tai
Yang. Shao Yang is reflective in both because the oblique musdes are being
utilized in both rotations, in both assessments.

I'm going to work on this side first (her left). We have two motions. We
have this motion (laterally), without the compensation, that we want to Release.
And we have this motion (medially), without much compensation, that we want
to Release down here. So I am going to go this way (medially) and then I'm
going to go the other way (laterally). If s going to be a lot of work for Mary
today. I don't know if she's happy that she volunteered. My concern for her.. .

Question: (inaudible, something about which leg, or which direction, first?)

JCY: I'm arbitrarily just picking one.

My concern for her is because she has had this pain and she says it goes into
here (her posterior neck), that when she's doing this we might instigate a
headache.

Patient: I've already got one.

JCY: But I don't want to intensify that.

How we will know that is by the faaal musdes that compensate for the
tension that she is going to create- You can sometimes see the person is really
using a lot of effort. If they use a lot of effort they are going to be very achy and
sore after the treatment. You want to realize that, and afterwards help Release
that by doing Gua Sha on the area, most likely the neck muscles that get tensed
up. The SCM muscle is the major one that tenses up.

I'm going to Release this movement (knee, medially). That means this
movement, which is now at this point (lo0),I'm going to bring her to the future
which is here (close to vertical). She is going to push against my chest, or
against your arms, as hard as she can. As she is doing so, 1am feeling for where
she is using the effort from, and I want to make sure that she is not using it from
her hips. If I see her hips lift, I will then place my hands over the area (of the hip)
to remind her to relax that area, while she still tenses up on another part of her
body (her leg, against his weight) to maintain the tension.

Push against me as hard as you can. You can do better than that. In other
words, if I let go now, she is going to go here (laterally, towards JCY). I want you
to realize that she is doing all the force and I am dead weight, literally. That's
more like it. Now come towards this leg (right). Don't Release the pressure
against me. Come towards this leg (right) three inches. She has to first
accommodate. Right now she is really going there (medially). She is not really
putting much weight against me (laterally). I am going to remind her to push
her weight against my body. Push me back one inch. OK now she is being
reminded, go here. Come towards this leg (right) three inches, maintaining the
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@ New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C.Yuen 2003
pressure against me, as you come towards this leg three inches. If I were to let
go, she's just going to wobble back (laterally). All I am doing is following her.
When she gives, I follow. Push me back one inch. Come towards this leg three
inches. Push me back one. Come towards this leg three inches. Push me back
one.

I'm going to turn your foot slightly out (left),like this (angled laterally). Is
that OK. Come towards this leg three inches. The reason why I am turning her
ankles out a little, is because she is compensating a little from her abdominal
rwtus, so by-tun-ung her leg out it makes her focus more on the low back. Push
me back one. Take a deep breath. Come towards this leg three inches. Push me
back one. Now remember, this counts as part of your therapy. If some of you
say, gee, if you do that you're not going to have enough time to do acupuncture.
She is going to tell you where to find the Points. Come down toward this leg
three inches. Push me back one. Come down toward this leg three inches. Don't
give up. You've already gone past your level (initial limitation). You can feel
that already. How you feel that is there is a certain give. The body just kind of
gives up. This is surrendering, basically. Come toward me one inch, take a deep
breath, come toward this leg three inches. Don't give up, don't let it go down.
Push me back one. The only way I know she's giving up is I'm just following her
force. If I'm controlling it, then I won't know how she is responding that much.
Come toward this leg thee inches. Push me back one. And keep the pressure.
Come toward this leg three inches. Now again if you don't like the chest on the
person, obviously you can always use your hands. Push me back one. Come
toward this leg three inches. Relax the pelvis. Push me back one. Let it relax, let
it drop, let it go, let it go, let it go! Lift me up, then let it drop. Let it drop.

Patient: Amazing. The pain is gone on the back. If s awesome, the whole pain is
gone on the back. (MeanwhileJCY is flopping the knee medially and laterally.)

Where did you feel it the most?

Patient: It felt like there was a stake in GB 30.

JCY:OK, so along the Gall Bladder channel.

Now she wants to keep it there (new medial range), she doesn't want to
come the other way (lateral). Now, let's see what happens on this side (moving
laterally). Let this side go (knee drops laterally to about 70Âoff vertical). See, she
has two different patterns. One released that way (medially) but the others
(laterally)is still holding. And that holding most likely is going to come from the
inguinal region, if she Releases the back. So this inguinal is probably holding on
to the Gall Bladder, so that's potentially where it is transversing to.

Now, let's bring it out this way (laterally) OK Yes.

Question: (inaudible, something about how JCY is using his body as dead
weight)

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@ New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C Yuen 2003
JCY:Just a reminder, like, remember this force? Keep that force in your mind
now, and next time you feel that force you'll know ... If you do this a lot with a
client, as soon as they feel this (Release?)there's this idea of bouncing you back.
That's the idea that you won't let this ever happen again. You are kind of
tricking the mind by moving the body.

OK, so with this one (limited laterally), the future is going to go this way
(medially). So she's going to be pushing against my arms now (bracing up
against the medial aspect of the knee). Push against this arm. Yeah, that's it.
Different force here. Maintaining the pressure against my arm so that if I were to
let go you would this way (medially), like you were doing already. Feel this, you
are much looser. Now, come towards my chest three inches (laterally)as you
maintain the pressure on my arm (medially). Again, actually I want to make
sure this (right hip lifting) doesn't compensate. Put one hand here (on top of the
right hip), you'll feel it. Come towards me three inches. Push me (his arm) back
one. And again I'm not pulling her. I'm just putting dead weight, it's just my
shoulder weight. As she is coming toward me three inches, all I am doing is
following her. And push me back one. I am going to assume she realizes my
hand is here (on her left hip) so she is going to keep that position (moving his
hand away). Now both arms there (on the left knee) can be dead weight. Come
towards me three inches. Push me back one. With my arms here (his left hand
on her right knee, and his elbow up against the medial aspect of her left knee) I
can let my elbow become the dead resistance, to keep her in place. Come toward
me three inches.

Patient: If s beginning to spasm.

Push me back one. Don't give up, you're starting to give up already. Come
toward me three inches. Push me back one. Come toward me three inches,
don't give up. Keep that pressure on. Push me back one. And so she does not
compensate, actually, her hips are not coming off (up). If s her lower back trying
to compensate. Come toward me three inches. Push me back one. Bend the
knee a little (raises right knee) so it will help you, so you don't have to
compensate so much in the low back. Come toward me three inches. Don't
worry. You're almost there. You're almost releasing it. Push me back one. Now
she is creating the tension to cause the spasm. OK, I'm not going to torture you
any more, let it Release.
Patient:Amazing.
.
Now this is what liberation is all about (JCY flopping her knee medially and
laterally, with comparatively free movement). This is freedom. Notice that she
wanted to go back to her original place (70°)That's a habit. That's habituation.
(While he is talking,he is gently bouncing the left knee in the lateral position)
Lift me up (while resisting her left knee), not with this leg (right). Release. Do
you feel the difference (moving freely in both directions)? Where did you feel
the most Ah Shi.
Patient:The back of the leg. The whole back of the leg.
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@ New England School ofAcupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen '2003
 So you get someone else to do the other side for you now. We'll work on
your neck. Are there any questions on what we did. Does everyone understand
the theory now? What we did on one side, notice the big difference
(demonstrating the limitation in medial and lateral movement with her right
knee). Now this is starting to program to the other side (from her left side to her
right). That very often happens, because the brain is going left and right. So
what happens is as it gets the signal, it begins to get intelligent about it. Here we
could do a little work (movement of right knee medially over left leg). We could
get this to be here (lowering knee over left leg) without so much raising here
(right hip). Then once you get that, the body will now program it back in. Again
the mind is doing this, not the body. The body is doing it in a tense state, but the
mind is always controlling it.

Patient:But if s released all that pain in the lower back. Amazing.

Question: (inaudible)

JCY: If if s chronic, you might have to do it a few times. If someone has, lefs
say, been traumatized in that area, they might not want to Release GV 4. But
remember if GV 4 is held, that means the person comes in, and they'll feel very
fatigued. It takes a lot of Qi to hold on to pain. That causes the deficit. If
someone is Deficient, we would say that it is because the Qt is Stagnant from a
Sinew Meridian point of view. My recommendation would be, if this was a
required course, then what you would have to do is for the next two months is
just do Sinew Meridian treatments in the clinic. Come back and report the
results. That's what I do in the PhD program in California. They have to do that.
During two months all they can do is Sinew Meridian treatments. And they have
to then write about the treatments and describe what was going on. So everyone
that comes in would get those Releases. And then they will come back and the
next time they will get the Release and they will get treated by Sinew Meridian
treatments. I am going to demonstrate tomorrow, any case you come up with, I
can give you a Sinew Meridian equivalent for that case, of what's going on from
a Sinew Meridian point of view. All we're saying is Wei Qi. What is happening
with Wei Qi given that kind of condition. If if s digestive, Wei Qi as it is going
Internally. If if s cardiovascular, Wei Qi as it goes into the chest.
Mu~culoskeletal,we already know that. Dermatological, we already know that.
Respiratory we already know that as well. So maybe you are looking at
urogenital, or, you can't get the Wei Qz to go all the way down to the lower
burner. So all of those things are related to Wei Qi.

The upper Release again, put one hand (right palm cups the bade of her
neck) at the bade of your head (and, her left hand is palm down on forehead).
You can go like this, it hurts? She feels stiff going like that (pressing down on her
left elbow). When you have that, what we might want to do is Release this, so
we can have her go like this into the future (with her elbow raised) again like
this, where this is kind of like the axis. If she is having a hard time relaxing her
arms down this way, this would be future, future, future (raising her elbow). I
don't have to go all the way here (upward)because her hand is on her head.
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@ New England School of Acupun@ureand Jeffrey C . Yuen 2003
What you would do is have her go to the future, and slowly come back to the
past. So let's try that so that you really understand the principle. The principle is
really very simple. In fact, in the old days that's how they treated sprains and
strains, by these kinds of Releases. So go toward this side (upward, medially)
because that's the future.
Question: (inaudible)

JCY: She's always resisting into the future and I'm just dead weight. So actually
my weight would have been there (on her right side) to help her, but for the
purposes of the camera, I'm staying on this side (her left). Because she wants
(tends) to go there (upward, medially), I want to be able to follow that way
(downward, laterally). Right now what I am doing is giving her dead weight
from underneath (stabilizing the arm) but she's going that way anyway (upward,
medially). Come towards me three inches (laterally). Keep the pressure is going
this way (medially). And come toward me three inches going this way
(laterally). Push back the other way (medially) one inch. Now she is tensing up
quite a lot. Come toward me three inches, to the point that she is using her chin
muscles. Push me back one. And a lot of times you can see that. If they are
using the chin, and you can mention that, then they will relax that. That means
when they are tense, what are they going to have, TMJ. That's what you are
seeing. You are seeing that the facial gesturing is reflecting the holding pattern.
She just gave up. Now you're doing it. Toward me three inches, and push me
back one. The other way. That's good. This way. And sometimes you don't
have to go all the way down. If you did a little of that motion already. Now
relax. There's already a Release that's going to take place. You did all the way
and then she has a tremendous amount of Release. I don't know if you can see it,
her arms before were land of like this (elbow raised, when palm is on her
forehead). Now her arms are a little bit more relaxed. You should feel it. So in
terms of GV, what we are doing is this (rocking the head back and forth in line
with the length of her body), straight line. While I'm rotating her, and I'm really
feeling the amount of slack she has. I'm going like this (small are to rocking
motion) and I'm feeling, gee, what's going on here. I can't really feel much
movement. Some people will be like that. The whole traps are very tight.
Patient: My neck all loosened up after releasing the pelvis. Totally.

JCY: I thought you said you wanted me to Release your neck.

Patient I did, but it already felt better interestingly enough.

JCY: Do you still have the headache?
Patient:A little bit
JCY: Where is the headache?

Patient: Right over my left eye.

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1New England School of Acupuncture and Jeffrey C. Yuen 2003