Dr. Greg Yuen has been a psychiatrist in private practice in Honolulu, Hawaii from 1978.  He has been a licensed massage therapist from 1972.  He has taught Yang Style Taichi from 1978.  He was a certified instructor in macrobiotics from 1984 to 1985.  He has been a Tibetan buddhist from 1995.  He has been teaching do-in self-massage since 1985.

Full Transcript

So it's really my pleasure to be here, joining with you. I initially wanted to come to go to the Paoong in Santa Ana. Anybody go to the Paoong? No? Okay. Anyway, I have a few more days in Santa Barbara, so I thought I'd reach out to give you some Zen centers to volunteer at doing something. So, Ninsen Pamela replied and said, hey, what are your skills? So I gave her my skill and she said, well, why don't you do a Dharma talk? So here I was thinking maybe I was going to do some office work or something. But yeah, I'd really much rather do a Dharma talk. So that's how it all turned out.

I'm really pleased to be here to speak to you. I've been wanting to promote Do-in, self-massage, I call it mindful self-massage. There's a couple of reasons why I'm so excited about it. Not to say also that it's a very simple technique and you don't have to pay a lot of money to learn it, so that's good. But the overriding reasons have to do with, number one, health, and number two, spiritual development.

Let me address the benefits of health first. You may have heard of the term qi, which is the Chinese term for the vital energy that runs in your body. The acupuncturists are basically manipulating their needles so that they can balance the qi and remove any blockages in the qi. In traditional Chinese medicine, they say that most diseases are a result of a blockage or imbalance in that qi flow. In Tai Chi classics, they say where the mind goes, the qi goes. In traditional Chinese medicine, they say where the qi goes, the blood goes.

So when we're doing Do-in, we bring our attention to these spots in our body. When we bring our attention there, the qi will gather and the blood will gather. So we're going to have good qi circulation, good blood circulation, nutrients are getting to those cells, oxygen to the cells, removing toxins, and carbon dioxide. Your body is going to be feeling really good if you do this to your whole body. And what I think is very simple is you giving attention to your body. What happens when we give attention to something like say your plants or your pets or your work? What happens? Yes, it's great. So why aren't we doing this more with our body? We've been with this thing for at least a few decades, most of us. So why not give it this razor sharp tension that we can do through Do-in? That's what it really amounts to.

I am dedicating my life to feel the qi, cultivate qi, from the top of my head to the tips of my toes, from the surface of my skin deep into my bones. Light it up all the way. Create this aliveness within this qi flow. Feels pretty good, guys. So that's what I wanted to turn you on to.

Let's look at the spiritual aspects of Do-in. Actually if you've been to my website doyin.us, you may notice that I pretty much mention only the health aspects of Do-in. And that's because I never really got to see the spiritual benefits until I came across these two books recently. One of them is called The Path of Aliveness. It's written by Christian Dilow. He happens to be a Zen teacher in the Soto tradition, as you guys are. He was a monastic for 20 years, and now he's the guiding teacher at the Boulder Zen Center. But he also teaches qigong, a form of qigong, which is about qi cultivation.

In his book he talks about this buzz of aliveness. And I haven't discussed it with him, I intend to, because we've been in communication. But this buzz of aliveness is the same thing that I call qi, feeling that qi in your whole body. He also goes further and talks about this felt sense in the body, a sort of bodyfulness, if you will, that has a certain kind of knowing to it. And I kind of think of it like a gut feeling, you know, a gut feeling that you have. And what he's saying is that when you have this bodyfulness or this felt sense, you can know things that are maybe not real conceptual, and maybe not what you would normally put together rationally. But it's knowing on the level of right action, like with the eightfold path, right action, at that level. So this is what he describes in his book.

Another book that I came across is by a gentleman, Reginald Ray. He's from the Choyen Chonpa Rinpoche, the Tibetan Buddhist, along the Kagyu-Ningma lines. And he's giving six basic somatic meditations that get you in touch with your, quotes, with the big S, soma. It's kind of like a subtle, energetic body that we have. And he makes a claim, it's pretty strong, that the Dzogchen tradition is the type of Tibetan Buddhism, that true enlightenment can only be found in the body and nowhere else. That's a little bit extreme for me, actually. I kind of like a little more balanced approach. But anyway, he's making this claim with this kind of thing. And so it kind of brings to bear this emphasis on the body.

So in summary, you could say the spiritual aspects have to do with when you're feeling your body, you really brought it to the now. If you're not feeling, where else can you feel it? It's in the now, right? And also you're bringing your attention away from your discursive thinking, the ruminating mind, you know, you kind of calm down, you're there, you're there, you're just there. You're being in a non-conceptual space. You're not thinking of your usual self. And Zen I'm sure is trying to get you all to get away from that self, that sort of ego construct that we have. And isn't that really you when you feel that? Isn't that really you? That's really you on a different scale, perhaps.

In general, it's also this again, this whole thing of the knowing aspect is involved there in this somatic relationship that you're having in this meditation. So you could say that the Greek word holos kind of sums it up in the derivatives of hell, holiness, and the whole W-H-O-L-E, the body and the mind. So that's kind of how the spiritual benefits are. And in your case, I don't know your tradition really well, but this kinhin is kind of your part of the somatic meditation, if you will, when you're doing your walking, right? You've got to be aware of that. Even the Zazen focus on the breath is kind of bringing you more to that body kind of sensation as well.

I am aware that, for example, there's a sect in Hawaii, in the Rinzai sect, at this place called Chozenji, and they put a lot of emphasis into the body. They do a lot of martial arts and archery and all these body type of things, Tai Chi, so there's different approaches to the whole thing of the path to enlightenment. The trending things now are somatic meditation, embodiment, there's a website, embodimentunlimited.com, where there's all these different ways of you getting into your body. So something for you to consider as you're doing this do-in. Any questions right now? If not, let's do some do-in.

So tonight, there are two things I would like to get out of this do-in presentation. One is I would like you to feel the qi, everything, right? Feel the qi, because it seems like this intangible thing, right? The other thing is I would like you to find some gold. Find some gold. What do I mean by finding gold? There's spots in your body that you may not have visited in a long time, and they may be a little achy, may be a little tender, but that's gold. Why is that gold? Because those are the spots that you really need to pay more attention to. And if you do, and you work on them, then they won't be so achy or tender. So that's what I hope you get out of me.

Okay, let's rub our hands together. Get it really warm. And then bring your hands apart. And you should feel some kind of an afterglow. If there's anybody that doesn't feel an afterglow, I can certainly assist you. And I can't do that, but if it's necessary, I can help out. Anybody have any trouble? Just work harder. So that is actually the qi pulse. The thing is that you have to rub your hands together to feel that. When you do do-in, or tai chi, or yoga, these are all different types of somatic meditation, if you will. You can train yourself so that eventually all you need to do is hold your hand out and put your attention on your palm, and you will feel that same little buzz, or warmth, or tingling, whatever it is you're feeling, without having to rub your hands together. It takes training, like anything else. You have to train yourself to get to that level. But it's available to you if you work at it.

So let's start out with the arm. We're going to do do-in on one arm, not the other arm, because we want to compare the benefits of do-in and out arm against the arm that doesn't have the do-in. Let's start with our thumb or fingers. Just press the sides and tops and bottoms of your fingers. And remember, you've got to put your mind there. Think of it like you're exploring. This is something that you haven't done, really, ever, maybe. So you might discover something. If there's a little achiness in the joints, that could be the beginnings of arthritis, perhaps. You might as well know about it now, rather than wait until it gets more severe. And you can put your nails in the tips of your fingers. That's usually pretty sensitive. I don't know, I don't wake them up.

Then we're going to do the six points, or call it the source points, in the arm. These source points are thought of as the origin of a stream of energy. They call it the meridians in Chinese medicine, these streams of energy. So they're where they begin. We're going to start with the large intestine points. Some of you might be familiar with this one. These are for headaches, toothaches, and that kind of thing. It's called the Hoku point. Large intestine four. It should be a little tender, guys. So if anybody doesn't feel it, you know I can help. Anybody who needs some help with that? Okay.

Then we go from the fourth finger up where the wrist bends here. This is called the triple warmer point. It's not really exciting for me, to be honest. There's nothing going on much there. But it's important. Then we get to the side of the hand here, and it's kind of right on the edge here. Small intestine four. That should be a little tender for most people. What did you call it? The small one? Small intestine. Okay. I thought you said the nipple. Yeah, these are all the points in acupuncture. Acupuncture points. They're acupuncture.

Okay, then you turn your hand around, and there's three points along the wrist line here. This first point belongs to the lungs. One in the middle is the pericardium point. And this one on the end here is the heart. Okay. Okay, then let's try to kind of break the groove between the hands. The hand grooves in the hands. The back, and then also in the palm, just kind of press along that groove. And there's a point right in the middle of the hand called the lobe groove point. So, where the energy comes out when you're doing healing with your hand. That's really tender. Well, again, you found some gold, basically. So, you may go back to it, revisit it, and then work on it a little bit, and then hopefully it won't be as tender as your palm.

Okay. Then, let's make a little small. Small. Okay, let's do the arm here. And think of maybe three lines on this arm here, and this press along those lines. Okay, then turn it over, and then you go to the other three lines on the side. Okay. Then you bend your arm at this, and kind of move the curve here. Just below it right here is a key point called the large intestine can. And then usually it's pretty tender for everybody in general. So, it's a tonifying point to call it. So, then wake yourself up a little bit, hit that point.

Now, I'm going to ask you to do what I call freestyling. What is freestyling all about? Freestyling comes from the principle of the whole. Meaning that when you have, say, an acupuncture doll with all the lines of meridians and the points on it, it's kind of like a map of the body. And like any map, it's not going to give you the full spectrum of what's in the territory. So, even though I have all due respect to Chinese medicine, I guess what I'm trying to say is that we can go beyond it a little bit, and say that there's a lot going on beyond those points that we just pressed, like in between these two bones. Remember you've got two bones in your arm here? Did you really remember that? You've got two bones in there. Remember the chicken wing, right? Two bones. Where are those two bones? Can you feel them? Right there. Okay, so that's freestyling. You have to get in between all those points.

Okay, then let's move on to the elbow. We're going to hit the tendons below and above the medial and the lateral on the outside here. These are a little tender, I think. They're like little cords. And then maybe right in the middle here, in the two little folds there. Okay. And then in the upper arm, we're going to do three lines of points here. So, just kind of press. And then you can do the three lines on the other part, and then I can just kind of grab those. Oh, did you find some bones?

Okay, then we're going to freestyle the upper arm. See, where is that bone in there? Could be the funny bone in there too. It's terrible. Okay, then we're going to work on the shoulder. We're going to start with kind of here, there's a diagonal here. Right in there is a lung one point. It's kind of tender for most people. What point? Here. Just here. That's a collarbone. That's a collarbone. Just here. That's a collarbone. Well, it's not really the collarbone. It kind of runs like this. Yeah, you kind of got it. Okay. Yeah, it's pulled out.

Okay, then there's a heart one point. And just like stab right into your armpit. Right in there. That I used to wake you up a little bit. In there. And then there's a point back here. Sometimes it's hard to get through. It's a small intestine, nine point. It's right back here. You should feel a little bit of tenderness there. Because you don't get back there. Anybody need some help with finding out? You got it? No. You can help me. Okay, sure. Where is it here or in here? Right there. Right there. Got it? I'm not sure. Okay. There we go. Okay. Anybody else need help? Okay, got it? Okay, so let's just kind of do a little free styling on the shoulder. Around here.

Okay. So now we get to compare. If you hold your arms out. Notice the difference in the sensations. Okay. Lucy Goosy. Yeah, yeah. So it's really nice because Lucy Goosy is a good term because it means you're more relaxed. And when you're more relaxed, the qi is going to flow more. Okay. That's why when you're doing your meditation, you get more relaxed and the qi starts to be flowing as well. A lot more. Okay. Fair games.

Okay, let's move on. Let's work on our head a little bit. So start with your thumbs and sort of on your upper ridge or core of your nose. Be careful because you've got contact lenses going on. Just on the upper ridge with your thumbs. Okay. Then the lower ridge with your forefingers. There. Then, however your temples. Okay, then your cheekbones. Then the angle of your jaw. You often have a lot of tension in there. Because we like to bite. Okay. Then along your jawbone. You know, one finger on the top and one under your jawbone. You don't get under the jawbone the whole time. Okay. Okay. Then the whole jawbone. Okay. Then I like to do this kind of like a V with my fingers on either side of the ear. Kind of around there. Okay. Then the side of the nose. Go up the sides all the way between your eyes. This is a bladder one point right there. If you have trouble staying alert doing paperwork, this is a good point to press. Take a little bit. And that's the upper and lower part of the lips there. Okay. Oh, I forgot to do the scalp here. Your scalp. Nice. Okay. And then let's do the back of the head here. Your thumbs. And this

I think we're kind of sedentary office type of people. The work we do is usually a good stimulation to get our brain going. Okay. Anybody need help with that one? It should feel a little bit of... I didn't feel any tenderness. Oh, okay. Really. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Here. You need some too? Okay. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah? Okay. All right.

So now there's recently been developing what they call ear acupuncture. I think it's only been in the last 50 years or something. But the idea is that the ear has points in it that will relate to the whole body. So I find it valuable to, I use my nail, scrape, scrape her ear. You know? And then all the channels, the troughs and ridges and stuff, you just kind of scrape it. That gives you stimulation to your whole body. Okay? And pull on your ear a little bit. And maybe rub the back of your ears as well. Okay?

So with all of that head work right now, you could feel a little bit in sort of an altered state of some sort. Usually when I'm doing this in the daytime with my Tai Chi class, the light, the colors become brighter somehow is what happens to me. I don't know if you guys feel any different, but I'm sure that that depends on you. Yeah? My arm hurts. Okay. But that's good. Is the energy coming through? Yeah, you're getting your goal. You're getting your goal. Okay.

All right. Let's do the neck. I like doing it in the case of kind of turning the head to the side. And then kind of start back here and bring it forward. Bring it forward. Down there. Okay. Then you can press along this line here. Bring it forward there. Okay. Turn the other side. Bring it forward. And then along the line there. Okay. Nice.

Okay, then we can do the super sterile knots, which right here. Okay. Then on the edge of the collarbone, the top edge and then the bottom edge. Okay. Then the bottom edge. Okay. Then let's rub our sternum. A lot of times if you're emotionally upset, you can just rub your sternum and you'll calm down. Okay. Then you can break your ribs. Okay. Then you can bring it forward. Okay. Then we're doing the ribs. Then you can do the fingers under your rib cage here. All the way down to the side. And then just a point here called the R25 that is kind of a nice point.

Is it where your thumbs are? Yeah, my thumbs. Oh, R25? Yeah, that R25. Is it right on the top of the pelvis? No, it's between the pelvis and the rib cage. Kind of your waist, right? Kind of, yeah. Kind of your waist. Right. Yeah, if you press this on somebody, you kind of wake them up a little bit. I think mine's 26. You've got to get your numbers straight now. Get your numbers straight. Okay.

And then maybe, let's see, let's just kind of, yeah, I'm going to put the back on something. So yeah, this kind of stimulates your adrenals or kidneys. Again, kind of wakes you up with the thing with the dragging and the dink. How are we doing on time? Where did it go? We got another five weeks, and the last ten we could do Q&A. How's that? Unless... Whatever you want. Yeah. So you want about another five minutes? Yeah. Okay.

So let's do the belly. And then we can just kind of get this midline, press in there. Let's do it maybe three times here. Okay. The energy you like to say you have your navel, and there's an inner circle and an outer circle. The inner circle corresponds roughly with your small intestines, the outer circle with the large intestines. So let's press eight points in a clockwise direction. So this is the inner circle. You can cover it like this. Eight points in a round circle. Try to go as deep as you can because we don't do this a whole lot. And it's nice to get to know your belly a little bit. Okay, let's try the outer circle now. There you go. Okay.

So we could do... Let's see. Well, I actually forgot to bring my back knock, which is an S-shaped massage tool. In the usual douin, they don't use the back knock. And the reason for that that I established was a lot of the douin practitioners would pair up with the shasu practitioners. So the shasu practitioners would work on their backs and douin practitioners could work on every other thing. But I like the back knocker to use to massage the back because what it does is it gives me the idea of the whole again. But if you can do your whole body, every part of your body, you can't forget the back. The back is very important because your nerves come up from the back to innervate your whole body, most of your trunk. And it's really, really valuable. Any of you that have had shasu massage on your back, it's wonderful. It's wonderful. So that's what I use to include in my douin. Most traditional douin does not include using the back knocker, but I do. So that's one thing.

Now let's see, maybe we'll just get you to stand up and work on some of the pelvis here. And we can work on the pubic bone. It runs right over here. We can press above it, run up above it, and below it. And then let's run our knuckles in the front of our thigh here. And then bend the back a little bit. And then we have our femur, and just press around the femur here. And then we've got our iliac crest, which runs like this. So just try to see if you can go above and below the edge, just feel that edge where the iliac crest might be. And then you can press on your tailbone, it's a triangular bone like that. Just press on your tailbone. Okay. All right.

So I think it pumps us quite a lot. We haven't gotten to the leg, we just thought we'd have time for the legs. But another time, or you can certainly go to the website, there's a whole handout on the full massage sequence.

For more information about Dr. Yuen, please visit his website at gregyuenmd.com.

ABOUT DO-IN:

Do-in is a self-massage technique to promote qi cultivation and mindfulness of the body.  The Japanese words “do” and “in” both mean “to lead and guide”.  In this case, it refers to guiding or leading the qi ( pronounced chee), the vital energy in the body.

The Japanese took do-in from the Chinese who called it “daoyin”.  The first manuscripts of daoyin appeared around 200 B.C.  While daoyin usually referred to movement exercises, the Japanese do-in is a subset of massage techniques within the broader scope of daoyin exercises.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has been practiced since at least 1400 B.C. It serves mainland China, Japan and other countries subject to Chinese culture.  For centuries and millions of people, TCM has been a powerful force to promote health and well-being.

Central to the practice of TCM is the concept of qi.  TCM asserts that all disease is a result of an imbalance or blockage of qi flow.  When the acupuncturist stimulates needles at acupuncture points, he is trying to balance qi flow.  Similarly, do-in seeks to balance and relieve any blockage of qi flow.

The Taichi Classics say “where the mind, goes the qi goes”.  TCM says “where the qi goes, the blood goes”.  When you practice do-in, it is not simply massaging a body part.  Crucial to the flow qi is the mindfulness at the area being massaged.  As a result of mindful do-in massage, qi and blood flow supports optimal health.  Do-in is a simple technique for personal health maintenance.

For more information about do-in, please visit do-in.us (website is under construction).