IMMORTALITY
Your body does not need to degenerate as you get older. In fact, it can continue to get stronger, more flexible and more agile throughout life. The exercise systems of Tai-chi and Zookinesis explain how to keep the body young and avoid aging altogether.
According to Chinese medicine, all the cells and organs of the body communicate with each other through a system of biological energy called, “chi”. They know how to regulate their activities according to the activities of the other cells and organs. This system of chi is not isolated within the body alone, but is connected to this same energy that serves as the basis of life throughout the earth. In this way each cell and organ is aware of the environmental conditions in the area and can adjust its activities according to changes in weather and time of year. In this way the body can stay in the optimum internal condition for health.
The loss of flexibility is another factor associated with aging. Connective tissue (fascia) surrounds each organ, bone, muscle and the body cavities. It provides an interconnected, flexible web that allows the body to act in a rubbery manner. Its looseness, for example, allows the rib cage to expand when you breathe in. If the connective tissue were to lose its elasticity your breathing would become shallow. This would result in a poorer exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen and the cells would be oxygen deprived.
Tighter connective tissue interferes with joint mobility so that your movements become stiff. The proper flow of blood and lymph requires movement of the body. When the body can’t move properly, the blood and lymph cannot do as good a job at getting rid of body wastes such as lactic acid and carbon dioxide. The body remains constantly filled with waste.
Aging is also the gradual dissociation of the mind and body. As children we relish in movement and using energy. As we get older we move less and think more. Our thinking is not connected with movement (as described in previous articles) and so becomes a world within itself. Gradually we “live” more and more in our thinking and not in our bodies.
The thinking mind becomes the center of the flow of energy and the body is deprived of energy, creating an unbalanced situation. According to Chinese medicine, both an excess and a depletion of energy is harmful. Too much chi burns the mind out. Too little chi allows the body to deteriorate.
Yet if we live in our minds we have no sense of perspective about the balance of energy. Most people cannot even feel chi let alone know how to balance this energy. This is why Zookinesis explains that consciousness itself is another type of energy, which also has dynamics and qualities and which needs to be balanced as well. Only by becoming aware of the dynamics of consciousness (or what I call the “dynamics of attention”) can we ever hope to affect the balance of chi.
Consciousness (attention) is what makes us aware. The unique perspective of Zookinesis is that consciousness is not isolated within the body. It is a universal energy, much like gravity that pervades all things. As it flows through each of us, this energy takes on its unique flavor. The physical stiffness of the body tends to distort the flow of attention and created the imbalance of attention. The exercises reveal this relationship between the tightness of the body and the imbalance of attention so that it becomes obvious.
We can then notice how, with each relaxation of the body, the attention becomes more balanced and more connected to the body.
The result is a complete integration, not only of your attention with your body, but of your attention with the greater flow of consciousness of the world around you. You feel less isolated. You also feel less vulnerable because you now can see this interconnection and can understand how to strengthen yourself and prevent the deterioration of your mind and body.
You can also understand how these factors of deterioration affect other people and cause their behavior patterns. This allows you to be more empathetic to them. A student recently asked me how I can stand to live in this world when I see the destructive behaviors of other people. When you see things from a healer’s perspective, all the anomalies you see are an education. They are not aggravating but are just interesting and educational. Yet, I do feel sad, knowing that healing is so easily available yet so many people will live their lives in misery.
In both Tai-chi and Zookinesis, it is essential to understand and to feel how the connection of your consciousness to the general flow of consciousness around you is essential to prevent aging. It is so easy to see the bad things of the world and to withdraw, not wanting to be connected to this world. You then feel as if it’s you against the world.
The clear flow of consciousness and chi through your body is essential to prevent aging and to keep healthy. The exercise of Push Hands allows you to practice extending your energies into another person and to allow theirs in. It is set up as a battle, each trying to push the other over, so that it duplicates what you perceive as your life situation. You are battling against the world. Yet you learn in Push Hands, to connect the flow of force of the opponent (or partner) into the flow of forces within you so as to end the feeling of battle. If you stiffen up against him, he will easily push you over. If you absorb his force, combine it with your own and flow back towards him, you become more effective.
You learn that by ending the feeling of battle you become effective. Your strength lies in allowing yourself to connect with the rest of the world. You can then enjoy life.
The world will still be the same crazy place it was but you can see the mechanisms behind the behavior of people and cultures and not get trapped in them. Instead of identifying with a particular world culture you identify with the long line of people throughout history who were aware of these mechanisms. They were able to free themselves from the destructive habit patterns of the people around them.
Imagine yourself in a smelly, mucky swamp. You curse having to walk through this mess and concentrate on the smell and the muck. Soon you discover beautiful birds and insects. You feel the warm breeze and smell some flowers. Your attention is gradually drawn to the beauty of the swamp until even the smell and the muck seem an integral part of that beauty. You then enjoy being part of this scene.
In the same way, the world we live in is, to a large extent, the result of what we pay attention to. The news on television calls your attention mostly to the negative and horrifying part of our society. Yet the Public Broadcasting programs call your attention to the beauty. How do you feel after watching the news? How do you feel after watching nature programs? What factors in our society direct your attention to its horror?
The question of aging really is about your power to remain young and healthy. Having control over what you pay attention to is vital to prevent aging. This does not mean that you become oblivious to the problems of our world but that those problems don’t destroy you. You must regain control over the dynamics of your attention and the balance of energy. This is where you start in Tai-chi and Zookinesis.
I know that in modern times Tai-chi has become just memorizing a series of movements and Push Hands has just become a shoving contest. This is true even in China itself. But the movements and the pushing are just the surface level of a very deep and beautiful teaching. The teaching of “immortality”, as it used to be called, is about how to stay young and healthy and thereby actually extend your lifespan. It teaches you how to become connected to the world around you so that your consciousness may remain connected to the world even after your body dies.
Don’t give in to the images of aging. Don’t let those images implant themselves within you and direct your consciousness. Instead look to the agility, strength and beauty of wild animals and of athletes and allow those images to direct your consciousness.
I teach seated Zookinesis exercises to a local senior community. When I began six years ago, they could barely move. Now we are beginning to do seated acrobatic movements. Each time I show them what exercise we are working towards, they laugh, feeling they could never do that. Yet a month or two later, they easily do the exercise. Most of them are over 90 years old. I think Zookinesis has given them a new perspective of what they are capable of. They are now headed in a positive direction – stronger, more flexible, more relaxed and more connected to their bodies. When you live your life in this positive direction, you are already immortal.
