Cynthia Broshi offers an article in The Main Central Jin Shin Jyutsu Newsletter issue from Summer 2010, Number 69 about the mudras in Text I. This, and all issues of The Main Central, are available at http://www.jsjinc.net.

The 8 Finger Poses: Gates to an Infinite Art

While preparing to present courses through the Instructor Certification Program, I questioned: is this the right work for me? Am I the right person for this work? The more I studied, the less I was certain. I began to feel a bit miserable with the looming responsibility and my list of requirements.

Inspired by a self-help class with Matthias in which we experienced the 8 finger poses, I decided to lay my doubts down at the roots. Friends offered their house in Big Sur overlooking the Pacific. With a bow to Jiro Murai I set out for 7 days with the Inju through which the reawakening of the Art of Jin Shin Jyutsu began.

On the morning designated for travel, my car broke down. seven days were reduced to six. I’d heard that Master Murai fasted during his week in the mountain cabin, but fasting doesn’t suit me. Throughout the Self-Help Books Mary emphasizes:

No straining is necessary…Remember there are no “should’s” or “have to’s”…There are no rules or regulations.

I slept, cooked, ate, washed dishes, walked, rested and practiced the poses as my senses led. Mary says of the finger poses in Text I: May be applied at any time for as long as desired, no time limits…neither too much, nor too little. Without texts, books, pencil, entertainment or conversation, Breath became my activity.

These finger poses (known in Inju in Japanese, Mudras [sealed or closed] in Sanskrit) reconnect BREATH with breath, SOURCE with manifestation. By helping us eliminate fatigue (energy whose circulatory rhythm has become impeded so that it is no longer reflecting the transformation of the Universal Blueprint) they reveal life source held in the body.

My days began with the usual Main Central and 11 with 25 and 15. The Inju followed: sitting, lying down and walking. As sensation or emotion arose or shifted I sometimes listened to the Pulse, simply for education. With each day, as tension/stress released, the hours of their comfortable use lengthened.

Through their relationships the Mudras excavate, untangle and dissolve tensions. Singly and as a group they work with relationship of Exhale and Inhale, building and breaking down. Some poses emphasize one or the other aspect of Breath, and utilizing each pose with the left and the right hand amplifies and blends these actions of Generation and Regeneration. When a discomfort arose I’d listen to its unfolding. Some developed, bloomed and passed, others increased until they began to restrict the Breath. At this point I’d move to the next pose, or from the Left to the Right or the Right to the Left of the same pose.

To be continued…