THE DYNAMICS OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND HEALING
The dynamics of how the mind can heal the body is a vital part of all ancient healing systems. But just what are those dynamics? I have spent most of my life studying this subject, apprenticing with traditional healers of several cultures and reading ancient manuscripts of others. As a writer, my job is to distill that information and to express it in a way that is appropriate and understandable to modern readers.
Firstly, I need to explain the concept of “attention”. It is important to understand that attention does not mean thinking. Pure attention (called, “True Yin” in Taoist Alchemy) is the state of awareness when thinking stops. You are perfectly capable of functioning, but your intentions come from a deeper part of you than thoughts.
The best way of explaining this very important principle, comes from Christian history. During the first three hundred years after Jesus’ death, there was a split in Christianity. This was at a time when Emperor Constantine chose Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire. In both versions of Christianity, the trinity (Father, Son and Holy Ghost) was used to express the basic principles of the religion. In each version, the Father represented consciousness, the Son reason or thinking, and the Holy Ghost represented creativity (a piece of God within you).
The “Gnostic” Christians believed that thinking was a process used by consciousness to communicate and to plan your activities, etc. It must always be balanced with creativity so that the thinking process does not become rigid.
This was expressed as “The Bridal Chamber”, in which the bride (creativity) and groom (thinking) were united and balanced within the larger space of the room (pure consciousness). And so they explained that the Father “begets” the “Son” and is not the same as the “Son”.
The “Apostolic” Christians believed that thinking is the same as consciousness – that there is no other state of consciousness than thinking. Creativity is also thinking. Everything is thinking. They expressed this as the Son IS the Father or “Jesus is God”.
Emperor Constantine called for a conference in the city of Nicaea in 323 AD to settle these differences. The emperor set himself up as the moderator. Now, using our thinking minds to good advantage, which version would an empire, needing to keep control over vast numbers of people of many different cultures, choose as the “correct” version of Christianity? If thinking was the only version of consciousness considered legitimate, and the Roman Empire and the Apostolics provided a list of approved thoughts, then that inconvenient factor of creativity could be eliminated.
It is easier to control people whose minds all conform. To this day it is hard to convince people that there is another state of consciousness other than thinking. The state of consciousness which is controlled by the thinking process is one dimensional. Each thought follows the other, one by one.
And yet, even while thinking, you must also at the same time, use the state of pure consciousness, even though you might not recognize it. It is this larger state that keeps track of where the thoughts are going to wind up somewhere useful. It is like the map that gives you the overall picture, while the thinking process is like the little dot on the map that shows you where you are at the moment. If the “map” part of the mind weakens and you are left only with the dot (thinking), then you are lost. And that is the state of many people today.
And now the real secret of healing. In modern times, we “think” of consciousness as the by-product of nerve activity in the brain. When you get involved in any traditional healing system, you soon realize that every part of the body is conscious.
In Tai-chi we say that the feet are the “gateway to consciousness”. This means that how your feet are placed on the ground with each step, determines how the rest of your body has to adjust itself to the irregularities of the terrain. Those irregularities are part of the geology and biology of that area. In this way, each part of you becomes part of the geological and biological history of that area.
Of course, in modern times, we pave over those nasty irregularities so that our feet don’t need to be conscious. In many ways we create a culture which allows the consciousness of the body to die so that all of our energy can be focused on the thinking process. And so the body is deprived of conscious energy and begins to decay and age.
Many types of massage such as “Tai-chi Massage” are specifically used to “wake up” the consciousness of the body. The Tai-chi “Forms”, “Chi-gung” and “Push Hands” are used for the same purpose. When each part of the body is conscious, the body “knows” how to heal itself. It knows without thinking.
And so one important principle of Tai-chi (as well as other healing systems) is that “attention” should be evenly distributed throughout the body, so that you feel you are as much your feet as you are your head. Many people feel they are just a big head, and the body’s function is just to carry the head around. Small children in our society usually draw people as big heads with tiny arms and legs sticking out of the heads. I wonder if they are just seeing the distribution of attention in a person, and drawing their pictures accurately from that perspective.
In “internal” martial arts training, your attention needs to fill up the entire area around you so that you can feel your sparring partner with your attention. The action is going by too fast to see everything. One of the great benefits of martial arts training is that you learn to connect your attention to your surroundings, including to your sparring partner. Gradually your attention can connect to all of your natural surroundings in a very spiritual way.
And that “way” is as follows: Consciousness is experienced as a natural force, permeating all things in nature. The consciousness of each living thing is connected to all others. In this way, the earth is a conscious being and the state of health of one part of it is vital to the state of health of all other parts. An attack on one part of the earth is an attack on the whole. The natural flow of consciousness through all living things is vital for the health of any one of them.
We now live in a culture which fosters blocking ourselves off from that flow of consciousness and so, it fosters the deadening of the body. We watch football rather than play football. We text our friends rather than talk to our friends. If anyone is interested in making a lot of money, I have a great idea. Imagine a cell phone that you can talk into and it creates text, so that you don’t have to press on the letter keys. That would be convenient, wouldn’t it? Now imagine a cell phone that receives that text and translates it into voice, so you don’t have to look down at the phone (for example, when you’re driving). That would be convenient, wouldn’t it? But I think that technology may have already been invented. It is called, “Calling someone on the phone”.
Why do people prefer texting? I think it is because they don’t have to actually talk to anyone. Texting provides a separation between people, just as an addiction to thinking provides a separation from your own body.
But thinking that emanates from the combined consciousness of the whole body and its connection to the entire world of life, is truly creative. It is the balance of thinking and creativity that allows the body to constantly heal itself. To heal is to be creative and to experience the creativity of others. Art, in whatever form, is healing. Comedy is healing. Allow your attention to expand, relax and play, and you will stay younger and more vibrant. Spend more time in nature and feel how you are connected to it. This will help you to become more connected to yourself.
Play ball and talk to people face to face, like in “the old days”. Feel how watching the rising or setting sun can heal the body. As the Tai-chi saying goes, “Relax (to allow attention to expand), smile (be playful) and breathe (feel your connection to nature)”.
