ANCIENT STRETCHING OF INDIAN MONASTERIES
In
some Indian monasteries (Ashram), where long practices of
prayers, concentration and meditation forced the monks to stay
motionless for hours, remaining seated - in fact physical
activity was almost absent to give more space to a
contemplative-ascetic level - Cikitsa (kind of stretching
practiced by 2 people) started to be practiced, and it allowed
the body to find its elasticity and the vertebral column to
reach the ideal structure to carry on with the practices. Also
to people who meditate, it happens to feel tension at their
neck, shoulders and at the high part of the back, or even a
little pain between shoulder blades due to a wrong posture, as
the employee who remains seated for hours and hours at his
office’s desk, especially today that we use computers.
That’s why I
propose to you these illustrations of some manoeuvres of the
ancient Indian system. The method only has an imperfection: it
is not a “do-it-yourself”. Besides, the person who performs this
kind of stretching must be very competent and have a large
experience, because when somebody touches the backbone and other
delicate body’s organs cannot make any mistake.
Cikitsa’s most important manoeuvres are on the backbone and they are made with ancient wisdom. These manoeuvres tend to loosen, cure or give elasticity to the spine, to its 33 vertebras, to the bone cartilages and to ligaments it is made of.
Spine, as you certainly know, has 4 natural curvatures: the cervical, dorsal, lumbar and sacral curvature, created by Mother Nature to make it stronger and more elastic in the same time. Anyway, an excessive accentuation of these curvatures, an abnormal lateral curvature or another anomaly, originate the pathologic conditions that we know as lordosis, kyphosis, scoliosis and cervical disease, that one can try to correct with an appropriate intervention.
The health of the spine was certainly very important into monasteries, because of the centers situated on it, that we know also in the Yoga discipline with the name of Cakra. Cakra are seven, but only five of them are on the backbone, and precisely they are: the first one at the base of spine, second one at the root of genital organs, third one in lumbar area at about belly button, fourth one behind heart, the fifth one at the throat area. These centers (they are more or less the plexus of occidental culture) are important because, on a physical level, they control the health of different areas of the body and, especially for the spiritual oriental science, they are the fulcrum of experiences of conscience.
by Amadio Bianchi