Tendon Nei Kung (neigong)

>>>Any advice from practitioners or those
>>>who have studied it in the past on learning it
>>>and starting/developing a practice?

You can not learn IS2 from a book. If you try, I guarantee you that you will be doing it incorrectly. If you want to learn IS2, you really need to have visual instruction that is not static (i.e. not pictures). This is ideally with an instructor, but in lieu of that, at minimum I suggest acquiring the IS2 DVD of M. Chia’s from his Tao Garden website.

IS2 has very strange body mechanics to it. There is sort of an odd body-rhythm to it, and you can not get this from a picture. In fact, it is quite challenging to learn. Even if you see someone doing it correctly, it is difficult to replicate. It takes a long period of time of practice, often doing it incorrectly and continuing to study the correct movement, until your body figures it out. The analogy is almost like watching a juggler and then trying to do it yourself. You can not replicate what you see until you’ve put in a long period of devoted practice.

I have practiced this on-and-off myself for a number of years, and all I can say is that over time, improvements can be made especially if you can actually see how the correct body motion works via either M.Chia DVD or better yet, live instruction.

I can say that very short practices are much better than long marathon sessions. Ideally, something only 5-10 minutes even. Then try to do it regularly. Doing it for a longer period typically has diminishing returns or even negative returns. Moreover, doing it for a long period of time can create injury. It is easy to overdo it with the practice and injure yourself, creating tendonitis.

>>>I don’t plan on doing the mung bean hitting.

This is helpful to do both to remove heat from the tendons upon the doing the practice, as well as something to put next to your computer to use against your wrists periodically to ward-off carpal tunnel (completely separate from any formal IS2 practice). I recommend that you maybe be open to it. If you do not wish to actually buy a mung bean hitter, you can make one quite easily. Just buy dry mung beans (go to a local health food store, if you can’t find it in a grocery), and fill an old sock with them, and tie off the end. In fact, it is recommended that you change the mung beans periodically.

>>>I understand that tendon neigong is considered Iron Shirt 2,
>>>and bone marrow neigong is Iron Shirt 3. I also know
>>>that there is a definite overlap between qigong and neigong.
>>>So why are the tendon and bone marrow neigong
>>>and not qigong (chi kung)? Why is iron shirt
>>>not neigong (nei kung)?

In Healing Tao, there is overlap, so it is difficult to be rigorous.
The “nèi” in nèigōng means inner/internal
Gōng, of course, means skill.

Thus nèigōng literally translates as “internal skill”.
Thus, in the Healing Tao, nèigōng is often a colloquial way to refer to the alchemical processes of transformation.

IS2 is called Tendon Nèigōng, because the idea is that through doing the exercises over time, that you will transform the nature of your tendons.

Although IS2 is a unique tendon system, it is also related to a different tendon set called the Yì Jīn Jīng, which is the “tendon-changing classic” (literally “change tendon classic”).

So the idea is that you are growing and changing your tendons.

In a similar fashion, IS3, Bone Marrow Neigong, comes from the Xǐ Suǐ Jīng, which is the “marrow-washing classic” (literally “wash marrow classic”). So again, the idea is that you are transforming your marrow into something new (e.g. more vibrant, less fat-filled, healthier, etc.).

>>>There is speculation that the “tendon changing classic”
>>>and “bone marrow classic” were written by Bodhidharma himself,
>>>who is credited for transmitting Buddhism to China
>>>and also foudning the Shaolin martial arts…
>>>not sure how much is true though…

Yes, this is the story. As is true with many other topics, M. Chia borrowed from many different lineages to create the Healing Tao system. This is true in general as well. Both Buddhism and Taoism borrowed from each other the things that they found uniquely suited to their spiritual system.

Qi,
Steven

Hello Frechtling,

Iron Shirt 2 is one of my main practices right now. I was lucky to be able to take a lesson this past summer and have been practicing pretty much daily since. I completely agree with Steven that there is no possible way to learn from the book. You do have a better chance with the DVD though I believe.

You just have to be very careful not to overdo your practice and IMO to constantly have in your mind that you are NOT stretching the tendons. I think that the analogy of tendons to rubber bands is good but it also makes it easy to fall into thinking that you are stretching your tendons… this is where you can injure yourself. When you first hear that you are changing and growing the tendons it sounds too weird. but after practicing for a while it is easier to understand. I have actually injured my tendons three times since starting the practice and the sobering thing is that all three times were NOT when I was doing Iron Shirt 2 exercises :)!

The first two happened while doing Tao Yin practices (which I have only learned from the book and DVD). The purpose of Tao Yin is not to stretch but being in these positions I sometimes forget, so when I was in the Love Cobra pose I stretched my tongue…pulling the tendon.

This is also where the Mung Beans come in. Luckily I realized that I had slightly injured myself so I did a thorough tapping of my neck which really helped in healing it in just a couple of days. The third time I injured myself I didn’t realize it in time to do a really thorough hitting with the beans, so spent well over a week crawling around having pulled the ligaments around my sacrum 🙁 miserable. It says to me how important it was to have taken proper lessons on Iron Shirt 2, which I can practice safely, but having to watch myself on other exercises that I learn on my own.

IS2 doesn’t sound like much fun from the above 🙂 but it is one of my favorite practices to do. Once you get the movement it really feels great. I do a set before Iron Shirt 1. When I reach the limit of being able to stand, I do another set… one of the problems I have with my structure is the tendons wrapping and pulling on my bones. The IS2 practices have started to soften them to the point where I can now feel all of the points of my feet on the floor, and begin to allow them to take my weight. I couldn’t do IS1 without IS2, they are so integrated for me.

Hope this helps,
Adel