Tonight’s lesson is unusual in nature, in that Moshe seems intent to deliver learning that can be carried in to life, by people curious to get in to the mind of this practice a little deeper.
He also offers a small ‘lecture’ in the middle of the lesson (which will be read during the lesson):
“Of course, it is impossible to do it without something in front
doing the same thing like we did behind.
That means there must be some muscles,
or something that pulls the head forward.
This thing must be connected to the spine, in front.
Then, the muscle contracts.
We are talking about one muscle because,
when you speak of the stick or this simple thing of the head,
it can only do these simple movements.
Slowly we will complicate it
until it will be more or less similar to a human being
and not just four sticks with something round on top.
And so, let us say that these four sticks as we did,
or more correctly,
five
— the spine.
This is a straight stick.
On it, there is something round,
a ball... something similar to the head.
If you lift it in the simplest movement,
it is clear that the stick must press into the floor at some place.
The place that presses into the floor
is the place where there are mainly muscles.
This is not our drawing.
And so you see, it is impossible to lift the head
without pressing the spine into the floor.
It is not that you are pressing it into the floor,
it is pressed into the floor because the pull of the muscles,
so as to lift the head, pulls... now you will see...
what place is it?
This is unusual because when lying like this, if the stick was straight,
the pull would make a large pressure on some place in the middle,
some place in the middle of the muscle.
But, here, something unusual happens.
When you lift the head, the whole area,
which is between the place that pulls the head and the body,
lifts.
The place lowers,
then it lifts from the floor.
Pay attention.
Some place must lift from the floor.
Something also lifts from the floor.
Because, if you imagine to yourself the stick
resting on the floor and something large here.
Here, something is connected to this ball.
It pulls it.
If the stick were very thin, it would break because a pull of the head.
Let us say that the head is heavy and the stick is thin,
weak, and something pulls the head to the middle or to a corner of the stick.
Then, the bottom part of the stick
— or that it would lift from the floor and,
if it were held by way of a heavy pelvis with two legs,
it would break in the middle.
That means the vertebrae of the hips must lift.
They have a tendency to lift.
But, in a factual manner, it does not lift
— the opposite —
it presses to the floor.
That means it goes and becomes complicated
due to an unusual thing.
Instead of a stick in the spine, we have vertebrae.
In a very gross way of talking, “vertebrae”
means a collection of balls
and instead of a stick,
we have many balls that are strung on a string.
Now, to be able to make a wheel from this,
a wheel that will be able to lift a head of eight kilos
that is far from the pelvis,
there is a need for this stick to change.
These balls really will change into a stick.
That means that muscles are necessary between each ball and the pelvis.
Muscles are needed between each ball and the pelvis
—from the right and from the left,
from the front,
and from behind.
They need to contract in a special way so all of the balls
will press exactly one on the other,
so as to turn into a stiff stick that will allow the head to lift.
From here, you will see that this primary structure allows us
to understand what is good movement,
what is good movement,
and how to organise it so it will be appropriate to the structure,
because, of course,
our nervous system
and the muscles are suitable for the structure.
They grew together,
developing within the evolutionary manner of the human species,
from lower living creatures, adjusting over millions of years.
They grew into this phenomenon that we call man.
So, it is clear that they know the laws of gravity,
the laws of opposition of the elements,
the contractions of the muscles.
It must be like this.
Of course, if you do it like this,
such that it directs it to the way that it is built,
to the way it works
— it is much simpler.
We will see that not only is it simple, but it also is built like this.
If this organization is there,
and you do not feel any effort in the work you are doing
— it is unimportant which work —
it is unimportant what you do.
If the limbs do not feel a thing that is heavy or uncomfortable
or is an effort,
there is a feeling that you are not doing anything
under the condition that you keep these laws.
And so, because in our life experience we always have things
that are difficult for us to do and not unable to do.
When this happens,
the first premise is that it is a sign that we do not do what the structure,
the nervous system, the muscles, and the skeleton...
this primary structure does not make a movement appropriate
to the needs of the structure.
The moment that you improve something in this direction,
it becomes easy.
It really becomes so good that any problems with effort,
with feelings of something being difficult, unpleasant,
or uncomfortable,
disappear;
only then is it okay.”
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