Strength that Comes not from Muscularity, but Tendon Power and Virtue.

An article from Rodale Press which was copied to a Yahoo Group I subscribe to, is available for you to read via the following link:
http://www.rodale.com/doing-good-deeds?cm_mmc=DailyNewsNL-_-2010_05_12-_... - Please read it and then follow my response about its conclusion.

The article draws a conclusion that is based on our society's over-reliance upon muscular strength. It proves to me that there is a real value in educating the public upon a little known Ancient understand that tendons need to be trained to better help us hold up an object than through muscularity. Another point I will look at is that the author is a bit put aside to think that selfish thoughts won out number-wise over generous thoughts in effecting a win! I will further my debate with a seemingly unrelated series of points that humans can benefit by training to be more virtuous. This may well release the habitual muscle grip and that would allow our tendons to hold up any object with little strain. This is what Tai Chi and its parent, Qigong can teach to us. (The latter is also spelled out into English as "Chi Kung," It has another named aspect as well which is "Neigong", also spelled kung or gong! In this article I am using the term Tai Chi which is more known commonly, to simplify.)

The muscles are naturally bullies in the body that want to dominate us. We humans need to learn to relax and let our tendons behave more similarly as does other
mammal species. Then we will be less likely to be bullied by our inborn raw behaviors. Tendons are supposed to get us moving through the nature of our instincts. How can we recognize this as important if there is little awareness of how tightly we are held together by layers of muscle?

Our society most commonly resorts to teaching our children to succeed based on an image of muscularly pushing past others and greedily grabbing the golden ring. (Well, that is what seems to have come to pass during many eons.) The fight and flight response kicks in but also ego kicks in. What if we used a developing awareness to not turn to muscular, stress-producing responses? Do animals have the huge range of dis-eases humans have that are created by stress? Do they need a good health-care bill as we do in the USA? Perhaps we humans have gone off course and need to do what Ancient people did: They observed animal behaviors to see how they survive in the way they do and what we can learn from them

Mammals are only going for their version of the golden ring, not in order to hurt another animal, but simply to get the food they need to survive. (Yes, that might include killing another animal.) Humans however, justify greed often by believing other's toes must be stepped on to win more prestige by having more possessions than peers around them so their egos can win. Mammals are not muscular, they are sleek and use tendon power. Humans have come to believe the muscle bound should be heralded as winners in physical confrontations. As humans, we may have been led astray in praising ourselves as a more evolved species in some regards. Animals have no justice system except for the law of the jungle!

Do other mammals besides humans have ego? Some people think of ego as a type of muscle. I've not seen a study to prove animals have ego. In our specifically human way, we push and shove to feel more important.

Sometimes even when we are giving to others, our egos become involved. Why do charities catalog their top contributors' gifts for anyone to see? The more egotistic individuals strive to 'out-give' the next year. Whether we want to take more or give more, some of us want to win in some ways no matter what.

The spiritually developed person lets go and lets G/god or good intention ease us into proper behaviors. When a mother sees her child under the wheels of a car, many instances have been recorded of a super human strength taking over that can't physically come from muscle. Yes! It has been documented that a small boned mom can lift the car off of her child! Where does the strength come from? It comes from intention and power
of faith, relaxation and life force energy that physically hooks up to tendon power.
Humans love to use our muscles and feel 'muscle bound.' That's just what muscle does. It binds us in many ways toward craving more and more superior strength and power.
So at the conclusion of the linked article, it seems disappointing to imagine a person who thinks an evil scenario versus a good scenario wins in terms of strength. Perhaps humans have not understood where true strength comes from for too long?

Tai Chi training is also based deeply upon moral understandings that correspond to 5 Element Medicine virtues which underline behaviors and have supported the Chinese for thousands of years in their pursuit of good health. (Perhaps until Communism led the country to Capitalism in recent years and possibly earlier at the time when gunpowder replaced the importance of martial arts instruction, does this theory hold true.) Within the quite complicated system of Chinese healing and health from Ancient times, many behaviors are linked with our human viscera. These five organs which include the lungs, kidneys, liver, heart and spleen are understood to hold us to certain moral responses when we train them. In training to be healthy we consider the positive results of moving away from responses that come from our negative emotions. Humans are healthier when our moral responses are not depleting us. Many martial arts separate morality from the fight. Traditionally this is not so in T'ai Chi Chuan. It is an esoteric training which actually builds in precepts to have participants first and foremost AVOID conflict. Modern Kung Fu movies did not all emphasize this sufficiently.

Many people from other spiritual backgrounds certainly can admit to knowing that if we develop our patience and respect in situations, no matter what is going on, we as humans can be happy with a result of losing. Even if we invested greatly in winning we get a good, healthy feeling. We can be joyful for simply having participated and not tag onto ourselves a label of being a failure. This is only one example that I use to let you know that the Ancient people felt that patience, respect and joy can be cultivated. Patience, respect and joy are found through Five Element medicine and spiritual training to 'live' inside the heart. (Varied virtues dominate the other viscera.) By doing this training which include a great many awareness-developing exercises, our responses that might be greedy, impatient and disrespectful can be put to rest. Stress then is no longer
popping-up reactively in a way that we think is "normal."

For me, I enjoy drawing a conclusion that if strength of actual muscles and ego is put aside and humans consciously train their responses toward our efforts; we evolve to become a human race that doesn't 'race'. We slow down and become stronger from the inside out. It doesn't happen over night, but I think our humanity could greatly benefit by considering the idea!