After nine months of training in the UCB Program, I thought its about time I share an update on my progress. The exercises and practices, particularly those focused on building awareness through the “foot couple,” have been challenging but there has been some changes in perception.
The push/pull warm-ups took some time to get the hang of, but I still find it pretty cool that the movement is done from the inside, something I couldn’t understand the concept of before.
After a couple of months of training, this exercise started to come together a bit more naturally. There’s still lots to work on, but one of the more obvious feelings is the front and back ribs helping with pushing and pulling the elbow.
The “bitter pill” exercise has changed from the physical movements to more some more subtle sensation. The most noticeable difference comes with the “man” variation from heaven, man, earth. I sometimes feel a tightness or pulling sensation that seems to come from what I can only describe as a layer inside that is connected all over. There’s also a sense of slowness or resistance, almost like I’m in air or water. It’s hard to put into words, but the difference is subtle yet distinct from before—much more solid and grounded than I make it sound.
The foot couple has gone from a general feeling of expansion and presence to somethings more obvious. Now, I can sense 2-4 distinct feelings or actions happening there. One of these is the sense of standing up from the inside, that extends through to the neck and shoulders.
It feels connected to the legs, hips and pelvis too. This also gives the feeling of the balance in my neck and shoulders, and it changes when I even think about moving the cavities, whether lower or upper—especially my foot or master cavity.
Where my previous injury is in my right foot, I noticed a knot in a ripple-like sensation that I assume must be the sensations of bone and everything between the skin moving. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what’s happening, but it’s an interesting sensation to observe. My other foot doesn’t have this, as there was no injury there.
When activating the foot couple, apart from the standing from the inside feeling, the sensations of movement from the bone and muscles, the pushing and pull. I feel 1-2things apart from the movements of push and pull from the foot couple, though I’m not sure how best to describe it. Expanding isnt the right word. But there layers seem to expand, revealing the feeling between these layers caused by push and pull in the muscles and bone. With this feeling happening in the foot couple while standing, it’s harder to maintain the footcouple—both mentally and physically.
But in one of the lessons, you mentioned treating the foot couple like an observing exercise, ignoring other thoughts and sensations, similar to some mental exercises. That really resonated with me and allows me to keep the foot couple activated. The feeling of the foot couple, plus the effort to maintain it, gives me an object to focus on. When the foot couple is gone and collapse happens, it’s obvious, and there’s nothing to maintain, plus the lose of the sensation.
The cavities have been a great help because after a couple of sessions, the sensation of the cavities became more apparent. They really gave my mind a places to anchor, and every day it increased the feeling, which gave me great hope that it’s working. First, there was the feeling of the master cavity pulling on the other cavities, and then later the sensation of them moving forward while bending and going down.
I’ve also noticed during normal stretching exercises in day-to-day life that when I focus on a specific limb—say my bicep, forearm, wrist, or hands—while simultaneously engaging the foot couple, I feel a kind of pull or push in the targeted area, deeper than my muscle but connected to it. It feels similar to the foot couple and slightly airy or floaty sensation from it, a bit like the between the layer from the foot couple .
The last month’s practice, not dealing with constant cramps and some time off work has helped with some more awareness with the exercises i might have missed key details.
Like lesson 6 on breathing. And the breathing, watching the video again and going over the movement everyday has helped me with the exact time my diaphragm moves and to the in or out breath and how the feeling of the body doing the rest.
Outside of digestive issues and the UCB proragm. Ive noticed when activtating the footcouple and putting my mind on the feelings around the 1-4 sensations, my mind goes into a more still state. Even though some of the feelings a, my mind feels very much inside my body in a quiet place, away from the monkey mind, like the body has its own mind.
This feeling happens regardless of what I’m doing—whether I’m washing dishes or before bed. On a side note, Its been useful to activate the footcouple and sit in that kind of state before my usual Shingon practice, and has given consistent results instead of taking 20minutes of preparation with inconsistent results for the practice.
Thank you for the program and teaching