The-technique-of-the-needle

The first day Master Lu told me: the most difficult is the technique of the needle. You must master it in order to become a good acupuncturist. I am going to show you how I started a long time ago and I am going to ask you to do the same. He called his wife. She brought a big bundle of undyed wool. Pulling on the thread he first made a not too tight ball by rolling the thread around a smaller compressed lump of cotton wool, and then showed me how to insert the needle. He offered me a tight ball of wool as well as a few needles. “You must practice to inset the needles in the ball. When you will have mastered the technique you will be able to put needles into patients.” As soon as I got back to my crummy room, under the anemic light of the bulb hanging from the ceiling I took the ball in my left hand and, holding the shaft of the needle with the fingers of my right hand I placed the tip of the needle on the wool, I pushed, turned, slanted, the needle would bend but not penetrate. After one hour, shaking from frustration, I abandoned. Lu gave me then a ball which was not so tightly woven, and at last I managed to insert the needles. But he added that every day I had to add a few circles of thread, and make them tighter and tighter, to increase the density of the ball. Following another of his advices I tried also with an orange. It was easier, but juices were trickling all over my desk and my hands were all sticky. I practiced often. Slowly the ball grew in size. Now it looks like a melon. For a long time it was lying about in a corner of my room, but I haven’t used it for a long time…It was a good training. I always show my students the balls of black wool I have prepared so that they can train during the class, and urge them to make the same kind of balls at home.