Diamond Body Practice

[Nuralshamal]

Dear Dao Bums,

I wanted to share this simple set of exercises:
https://www.diamondbodypractice.com/videos

It's from the Diamond Approach & Diamond Logos. An integration and further development of Buddhism, Sufism, Daoism, Hinduism and Psychology.

I wasn't much impressed when I just briefly looked over the exercises, but I was curious so I decided to try it with my wife.

I felt a kind of connection with the "field of the school" coming down and creating a space of "holding" as well as transmission throughout the exercises. I was quite intrigued, as it focuses on the center beneath the feet, the belly center, heart center, head center and the center above the head as well as the central channel linking them all together.

It also encourages you to inquire into your experience, explore your body and soul mindfully.

Now it's been just over a week, but my wife is feeling energy vibration in all centers as well as her hands doing the "aum" mantra movement, and I am quite impressed with the whole thing to be honest.

So just wanted to put it out there and share it, hoping to benefit all living beings

[Mark Foote]

On 4/26/2025 at 12:56 AM, Nuralshamal said:

Dear Dao Bums,

I wanted to share this simple set of exercises:
https://www.diamondbodypractice.com/videos

It's from the Diamond Approach & Diamond Logos. An integration and further development of Buddhism, Sufism, Daoism, Hinduism and Psychology.

I wasn't much impressed when I just briefly looked over the exercises, but I was curious so I decided to try it with my wife.

I felt a kind of connection with the "field of the school" coming down and creating a space of "holding" as well as transmission throughout the exercises. I was quite intrigued, as it focuses on the center beneath the feet, the belly center, heart center, head center and the center above the head as well as the central channel linking them all together.

It also encourages you to inquire into your experience, explore your body and soul mindfully.

Now it's been just over a week, but my wife is feeling energy vibration in all centers as well as her hands doing the "aum" mantra movement, and I am quite impressed with the whole thing to be honest.

So just wanted to put it out there and share it, hoping to benefit all living beings
 

Took some digging to get down to the basics of "Aston Movement", which is where Linda Krier got her start (and she's the originator of the "Diamond Body Practice").  Turns out "Aston Movement" is a program of movement that was developed in conjunction with Ida Rolf:

https://www.abmp.com/updates/blog-posts/sitting-her-doorstep-how-movement-pioneer-judith-aston-partnered-dr-ida-rolf

 

Rolf was famous for using painful force to cause the fascial attachments of the body to rearrange--you can correct me if I'm misstating that.

I'm thinking you might find something of mine informative, with regard to the fascial support of the spine.  Here's an excerpt, and the link to the post:
 

Gautama recommended a cross-legged seated posture for “arousing” mindfulness. I believe, based on my own experience, that the cross-legged posture exacerbates the shearing stress on vertebrae of the lower spine in the movement of breath. In my experience, consciousness can take place in a specific location in response to that stress, and the location of consciousness can lead the balance of the body to engage activity in order to relieve that stress.
 

A frailty in the structure of the lower spine emerged in the 1940’s, when research demonstrated that the discs of the spine cannot, on their own, withstand the pressure of lifting significant weight.
 

In the 1950’s, D. L. Bartelink concluded that pressure in the “fluid ball” of the abdominal cavity takes load off the structure of the spine when weight is lifted (“The Role of Abdominal Pressure in Relieving the Pressure on the Lumbar Intervertebral Discs”; J Bone Joint Surg Br. 1957 Nov; 39-B[4]:718-25). The pressure in the “fluid ball” is induced by activity in the abdominal muscles.
 

Bartelink theorized that animals (as well as humans) make use of pressure in the abdominal cavity to protect the spine, and he noted that breathing can continue even when the abdomen is tensed:
 

Animals undoubtedly make an extensive use of the protection of their spines by the tensed somatic cavity, and probably also use it as a support upon which muscles of posture find a hold…
 

Breathing can go on even when the abdomen is used as a support and cannot be relaxed.
 

(ibid)

 

In the 1980’s, Gracovetsky, Farfan and Lamay suggested that in weight lifting, the abdominals work against the extensor muscles of the spine to allow the displacement of the fascial sheet behind the sacrum and spine:
 

If this interpretation is correct, it would partly explain why the abdominal muscles work hard during weight-lifting. They apparently work against the extensor muscles. Furthermore their lever arm gives them considerable effect. In fact, we propose that the effect of the abdominal muscles is two-fold:  to balance the moment created by the abdominal pressure (hence, the abdominal muscles do not work against the weight lifter) and to generate abdominal pressure up to 1 psi, which would help the extensors to push away the fascia.
 

It is essential that the supraspinous ligament and the lumbodorsal fascia be brought into action to permit weight lifting without disk or vertebral failure. … It must be kept in mind that in some circumstances ligament tension may reach 1800 lb., whereas no muscle can pull as hard.
 

(Gracovetsky, S., Farfan HF, Lamay C, 1997. A mathematical model of the lumbar spine using an optimal system to control muscles and ligaments. Orthopedic Clinics of North America 8: 135-153)
 

Dr. Rene Cailliet summarized these findings:
 

In the Lamy-Farfan model the abdominal pressure is considered to be exerted posteriorly against the lumbodorsal fascia, causing the fascia to become taut…. thus relieving the tension upon the erector spinae muscles.

 

(“Low Back Pain Syndrome”, ed. 3, F. A. Davis Co., pp 140-141)
 

Farfan, Lamay and Cailliet referred to the “lumbodorsal fascia”. That fascia is now more commonly referred to as the “thoracolumbar fascia”.
 

The Lamay-Farfan model presupposed a flattening of the lumbar curve, like that of a person bent over to lift weight from the floor, but acknowledged that the control of the ligament system afforded by activity between the abdominals and extensors could not be directly accounted for in the model. My assumption is that in the cross-legged posture, activity engendered by the location of consciousness can bring about at least a partial engagement of fascial support behind the spine.
 

There may be another factor at work in the engagement of fascial support. Behind the sacrum, the fascia can be stretched rearward by the mass of the extensor muscles as they contract. As Farfan noted:
 

There is another peculiarity of the erector muscles of the spine. Below the level of the fifth lumbar vertebra, the muscle contracts in a compartment enclosed by bone anteriorly, laterally, and medially. Posteriorly, the compartment is closed by the lumbodorsal fascia. When contracted, the diameter of the muscle mass tends to increase. This change in shape of the muscle may exert a wedging effect between the sacrum and the lumbodorsal fascia, thereby increasing the tension in the fascia. This may be one of the few instances where a muscle can exert force by pushing.
 

(“Mechanical Disorders of the Low Back”, H. F. Farfan; 1973 Lea & Febiger; p 183)
 

Farfan mentions a “wedging effect” on the “lumbodorsal fascia” caused by the mass of the extensor muscles as they contract. The extensor muscles run in two sets behind the spine, one on either side of the vertebral column, and the wedging effect of the extensors on the thoracolumbar fascial sheet can therefore alternate from side to side.
 

That alternation may be the source of a comment made by Ch’an teacher Yuanwu:

 

… Hsiang Lin said, “Sitting for a long time becomes toilsome.”  If you understand this way, you are “turning to the left, turning to the right, following up behind.”

 

(“The Blue Cliff Record”, Yuanwu, Case 17; tr. Cleary & Cleary, ed. Shambala, p 114)

 

I believe “turning to the left, turning to the right” is a description of the feeling imparted by the wedging of the extensors, first on one side, then on the other. “Following up behind”, meanwhile, is a description of the feeling sustained by the wedging, behind the sacrum.

 

The fascial sheet behind the neck and the base of the skull, the nuchal fascia, is in part a continuation of the thoracolumbar fascia. Through the nuchal fascia, the alignment of the skull and the placement of the jaw can enter into the tension on the thoracolumbar fascial sheet.

(The Diamond Trap, the Thicket of Thorns)
 

 

A lot of kinesiology there. The post on my blog is about how all that plays into "consciousness can take place in a specific location in response to that stress, and the location of consciousness can lead the balance of the body to engage activity in order to relieve that stress".

Anyway, thanks for the interesting link, hope you and your wife continue to benefit from your new practice!

 

Edited May 20 by Mark Foote