One helpful metaphor to use in explaining my approach to marijuana exercises is picturing things in terms of neutral and positive space. There is space outside my body and there is the space inside my body. One can see the outside in terms of neutral space, and the inside as positive space. Positive space can expand outwards into neutral space if supported; that is growth.
Using the two species of cannabis, sativa and indica, as network-expanders "above" and "below", so speak (above being outside the body, and below being inside the body), we arrive at the theory behind basic technique. Sativa is mind-oriented, and yang, while indica is body-oriented, and yin. Yang is hot; yin is cold. Thus we can say yang is expansion while yin is contraction or stillness. Using sativa, one attempts to push the boundaries of the space inside your body outwards. This is done by imagining the space outside you as a void, then performing movements at various speeds and at different levels of muscle tension, progressively increasing in either level of tension, speed, or both. Remember according to this logic; every movement you make within the void is a movement you have made, and thus were capable of making. You are still capable of making that movement, and you are capable of making more complex movements because you made those past movements. You are building a spatial network in a tree-like fashion; slowly mastering basic movements, then building variations upon and/or utilizing those basic structures to create more complex movements. As you're making movements, imagine the after-images of yourself remaining rather than fading, building up through repetition into more vivid representations the more that specific movement is repeated.
The Daoist script Shiwen refers to various exercises for the body; one line reads, "Within, there is nothing dense or rotten. Thus the body is without pains or injuries." This is within a passage about breathing exercises. However, utilizing the phrasing here, "Within, there is nothing dense or rotten," we introduce the concept of negative space into our model. The yin-yang model is 0 and 1; now we have 0, 1 and -1. It is important to pay attention to the words dense and rotten; these are classifiers for negative space within the body. One can only identify these characteristics by feel; density is measured by touch, as is the sensation of rot. To perform basic techniques, one must be able to identify denseness and rot within the body, and learn how to clear these ailments.
Density can be identified as hardness in parts of the body that impede normal movement. Rot can be inferred by thinking about what the word, rot, means, as well as trying to imagine the descriptive qualifiers connected to rot: decomposition, decay, putrefaction, disintegration. Words can evoke sensations, and that is one of the few ways of identifying rot. "Acidic" parts of the body, dark parts of the body, are rot, and can be mentally associated with water and the depths if that assists in perception. Dark parts of the body are literally that; places where there is nerve damage, muscle tears, obfuscation of bloodlines, imperfections in the bone, which all lead to a dysfunctional local network. These places do not respond to nerve signals as readily, have uneven bloodflow distribution, cannot exert sufficient force upon the skeleton to create movement, or disturb the flesh in the area, impairing the previously mentioned functions.
Utilizing a grayscale in combination with binary black and white helps make a more accurate picture of the self, and is another way of understanding the negative, positive and neutral space system. Dark areas are obviously shades from gray to black, with white areas being normal functioning. Imagining this, one can immediately separate the body into these two divisions. One will attempt to rectify the former, while utilizing the latter as the base to extend into and correct the former. The latter is the tree, the branch, the root. Expand from the bright root into the dark; this is the progression of healthy functioning into the damaged or diseased area.
How this is done is by feel and sensation, which being magnified under cannabis can be sufficient enough to provide direction. Being heavily stoned, from using indica, will give you enhanced body awareness. Try moving around in a dark room, or with minimal lighting. Close your eyes and move your body in a single location. Learn to move faster, slower, to avoid objects. Doing this with minimal visual input allows you to be more aware of your body's natural electric field.
You may not see it literally, but you will be able to visualize it better in the dark by imagining it as a network of lighted pathways within your body of varying intensity. You will find that certain physical movements are only possible with noticeable shifts, or changes, within this network. You will also possibly feel a strengthening of intensity of that network with practice over time. The brightness of the network can measure the percentages towards full, conscious neuro-muscular control of the affected area. Dimness of the network represents damage to the nerves, muscles, and tissue of the area; in sensational terms, pain, stiffness, numbness, and suffering.
Repairing this damage can be thought out in this manner; first take your ideal, human body, with full range of possible movements projecting outwards as afterimages from you. Even a person at the peak of their life will not match this naturally, but over the course of a life everyone suffers damage to their body; this can be seen as cutting out arcs in the range of movement available to the ideal self. Perhaps we can say the normal self is the achievable, healthy average for most people. This is a good place to aim for. Therefore, while there may be significant damage to the ideal self, the normal self can remain largely untouched. It is when there are problems encroaching on the normal self that one practices these techniques, to clear up physical pains, or parts of the body which have been traditionally weak. They will all be points where the network, which you will be able to conceptualize into visual form in time, are weak.
Damage can occur from burns, bruises, broken bones, disease, and so on. As there are different causes, so are different areas affected. Nerves, skin, tissue, muscle, bone; never is one area solely affected, but one or several elements will usually be more progressed in damage than others, depending on the cause. In elemental terms, these are graying to black areas in the network, and must be repaired by extending the healthy network into damaged areas, primarily by branching. Branching is using the visual analogy of the word itself to represent a creation of complexity from a single root. One slowly extends oneself into the void by moving the affected part in novel ways. One can imagine the gap within the range of one's own movement caused by the damaged area as a gap in the after-image field emanating around you. Try moving in that gap; if you've visualized correctly, you will find pain, stiffness, inflexibility, slowness of movement. As you make movements across that gap, you leave faint after-images in the void; as you repeat these movements and make new movements, you fill in the void. Then you can progress to a new area, while continuing to work with the old wound. Eventually, you will fill in the entire dark area, and you should find yourself more flexible and with less pains. This is a basic form of this technique; a more complicated form understands the nature of negative space, and the concept of reversal; essentially the mathematical equivalent of -1 x -1.
