Class Handouts

Specific Tsubo Classifications

The Eight Extraordinary Meridians

Gall Bladder Meridian

Liver Meridian

Maka-Ho Exercise for Liver and Gall Bladder Meridians

Wood Element

Shoshin Shiatsu – A Beginner’s Mind

“Do you have the patience to wait ‘til your mud settles and the water is clear?

Can you remain unmoving ‘til the right action arises by itself?”

- Lao-Tzu

Shoshin Shiatsu (Beginner’s Mind) owes its origin to the very roots of traditional acupressure, Zen, and Thai style bodywork. Based on the awarenesses of the classic energy flows of the body, the emotional attributes of the spirit, and the pernicious influences of our external environment, this healing art provides pause and opportunity to calm the mind and heal the body.

The constant atunement at the proprioceptive level required in receiving, processing, and transmitting information between client and practitioner ultimately transforms this act of bodywork into the stillness of meditation, creating a spontaneous soul medicine of pure human touch.

As a manual therapy, Shoshin Shiatsu provides the framework to hold the client in “Soho,” the light of non-judgemental observation:

4 Observations

Bo Looking

Mon Listening

Bun Asking

Setsu Touching

Along with the four observations, our vehicle for offering healing and heartfelt compassionate touch are the three recognized pillars of Shiatsu, as put forth by Sensi Masunaga (http://www.itmonline.org/arts/shiatsu.htm):

   1)   Perpendicular Pressure – A contact that like the universal awareness of Reiki, draws on all available energy – full transfer of our weight, leaning in with support from our center (hara), rather than pushing from arm strength and mind-based ego.

   2)   Holding Pressure – once in contact, we are guided by our breath in regards to the duration of touch – holding space for transformation and the opportunity for the removal of physical and energetic stagnation.

   3)   Concentration – A statement of commitment . . . our sustained focus and attention to the client’s needs in that moment. Being fully invested in that one, held area, technique or point (tsubo) – encouraging the flow of “life liquidity” in the channels (meridians).

Shoshin Shiatsu is both a hands-on manual art and an opportunity to address our clients’ specific needs and imbalances. In focusing on both the stillness and the conscious presence needed to connect with the spirit/chi of the individual (through practices such as meditation, breath awareness, movement through maka-ho exercises, body mechanics, and the process of active listening), we learn the art of Shoshin Shiatsu. In exploring the basic theory and techniques of Shiatsu as exemplified by the techniques of paired floor stretches, tsubo combinations, and soft tissue manipulation, we learn its practical applications.

My Relationship With Chi

            The moment I heard that voice, the eternal hum, resonating and reverberating throughout my physical and energetic bodies, in that instant, I knew it was love.

            Chi – primal and eternal, motivator of action, purveyor of dreams, elusive by nature, saturating by design.

            My energetic soul mate and I have walked hand in hand, informed by the sage council of Shoshin Shiatsu, sharing with us its preventative properties, its base wisdom of stretching the fascia, opening and lubricating the joints, balancing the effects of gravity and emotion.

            The work continues to open slowly to me, informing my connection to the breath. The breath, my most intimate of all teachers . . . constant companion in this life journey, showing me with all immediacy the importance of being in the moment. Giver and sustainer of life, an anchor to my wandering mind, keeper of my hara fire, eternal example of taking in all inspiration and letting go . . . giving all with every exhale.

            In the context of Shiatsu, the breath as viewed in another and self, two-edged vajra, dissolving illusion, moving one into witness.

            The breath of practitioner, again sustains and centers, enhances connection through palpation, floats the weight of the hand down on a cloud of intention, sinking through skin, penetrating muscle, entering bone energy, clearing a path to the house of the true self.

           

            To have the faith in self to pull back, wait till the mud settles and the water clears, so one can recognize the underlying cause of it all – the kyo (yin) behind the outward jitsu imbalance (yang). The woman behind the crime, to paraphrase from the Neijing.

            A continuous process of letting go of result, expectation, adulation . . .  learning to honor and respect the pause . . . the stillness at the beginning and end of all movement . . . till we are delivered to the door of beginner’s mind.

60-Hour Asian Bodywork Program

• Hands-on training in Thai/Shiatsu floor work
• Learn how to work the body in supine, prone, sidelying, and seated
• Location and appreciation of meridian energy lines and tsubo points and their application
• Clinical application of stretches and point work for common imbalances
• Introduction to Asian Bodywork on the table
• Online and video sources for all techniques introduced

Videos of past classes on www.youtube.com, search for randycummins123

If interested, feel free to reach me through my website.

Classroom/Workshop Videos

I've posted some recent videos from my classroom and workshop experiences both here in Chicago, in Austin, and in Peoria...... Please give them a view and let me know what you think.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=randycummins123&aq=f