Indra’s Net and Shiatsu

I recently had two complimentary experiences that together helped to open my mind. The first was a Shiatsu workshop that focused on the Eight Extraordinary Vessels. The second was attending a performance of a multi-media piece by Meridith Monk based upon Indra’s Net. The overlapping realization of each helped me find a way to make sense enough to move forward and see the possibilities offered by letting go. How can one be everything and everything be one?

In a weekend workshop for shiatsu students, the Eight Extraordinary Vessels and their implications for shiatsu practice were to be explored. I did some Google research and found this definition- “The eight vessels are called “Qi Jing Ba Mai. Qi” means “odd, strange, or mysterious.” “Jing” means “meridian or channels.” “Ba” means “eight” and “Mai” means “vessels.” Qi Jing Ba Mai is then translated as “Odd Meridians and Eight Vessels” or “extraordinary meridian (EM)” In spite of this “mysterious” definition, the basic description of the Eight Extraordinary Vessels is simple enough, there are eight channels or vessels (extra to the ordinary organ channels) that are crossed at various points by the other twelve organ channels. Beyond that simple description the workshop introduced a more complicated reality and the following is my interpretation – at the beginning of the workshop we were told that the Extraordinary Vessels are not really used directly in Shiatsu Treatments, but we would spend 2 ½ days learning about them in great detail: 

• which are yin, which yang

• how they can be used to remove excess energy or to increase deficient energy 

• they can be opened by specific organ points unique to each Vessel 

• they are activated by touching one of the crossing points of the organ channels

• they are reservoirs of energy

• they are regulators of energy balancing energy whether it is excessive or deficient

• some of the cross points and connections to the organ channels are not readily apparent   because they occur either on extensions or subsurface

• as they say, etc., etc., etc.,

 Heads spun, eyes rolled, some students took copious notes while other students wondered what their fellow students could be writing, some asked questions in hope for a glimmer of light that might give something to hang on to. As the class progressed we were asked to practice shiatsu, using the information we had been learning. The results were interesting and varied and there was a lot of discussion, but one central theme kept recurring  – that the twenty vessels/channels were not separate and independent, but they were all intertwined and continuous so that one point on an organ channel could be touched and the effect would be on all of the channels in the body. We were given one of those seeming contradictory Zen like statements – “There is only one channel, all channels are one channel and each channel is all channels”.

We would have to find a way in working to feel this profound new sense, just as we are working to feel the ordinary channels and ways to work with them to let the body and mind heal itself so that we can let go. I can now move forward with the sense that I am one and I am all, and having a glimmer of what that can mean in practice. As students we are told Shiatsu is a journey and as I interact with experienced practitioners, I am often intimidated by their vast knowledge. I am also comforted by their reassurances that practice is the Way and Shiatsu is like a guide that will not let you fail.

The day after the workshop my wife and I attended a performance by Meredith Monk and her group of musicians at the Park Avenue Armory. The piece was based upon a sort of creation myth in Buddhism known as Indra’s Net. Francis H. Cook describes Indra's net thus:

“Far away in the heavenly abode of the great god Indra, there is a wonderful net which has been hung by some cunning artificer in such a manner that it stretches out infinitely in all directions. In accordance with the extravagant tastes of deities, the artificer has hung a single glittering jewel in each "eye" of the net, and since the net itself is infinite in dimension, the jewels are infinite in number. There hang the jewels, glittering "like" stars in the first magnitude, a wonderful sight to behold. If we now arbitrarily select one of these jewels for inspection and look closely at it, we will discover that in its polished surface there are reflected all the other jewels in the net, infinite in number. Not only that, but each of the jewels reflected in this one jewel is also reflecting all the other jewels, so that there is an infinite reflecting process occurring.”

My wife had not had time to research the background of what we were about to see, so I told her “it is based on a Buddhist Myth of a net that is infinite in size and has a shiny jewel at each intersection of the net strands. If you look closely at one the jewels, you see reflections of all of the other jewels. So one jewel is all jewels and all jewels are one.” As soon as I said it I thought I cannot believe I said that – one of those Zen statements out of my mouth and I feel like it made sense.

That one is everything and that everything is one and there are countless ways to see this and letting go is the key to accepting this reality no matter. My purpose is both singular and infinite and shiatsu practice aids me in healing myself, the receiver and the infinite universe.