Breathe in and ignite the sun within your belly.
Breathe out to release its rays to join the sun in the sky and the earth below.
Center your breath and relax your body to the four directions.
Expect to receive energy from everything you see and feel.
Leave space inside of you for that energy to move.
Allow the energy to continue on in its journey.
This stress reduction breathing exercise is part of the Zookinesis system of chi-gung. Sit in a comfortable chair and place your hands on a table in front of you about at the level of your lower ribs. As you breathe in, first concentrate on your belly, filling it with breath. As you continue to breathe in, concentrate on your hands and then the space a few feet in front of your hands. This is all done in one breath.
As you concentrate on the space in front of your hands, slightly lift your head. If at this point (or any other point) you feel uncomfortable, stop doing this exercise. (Contact us to help you – info@movementsofmagic.com).
Once you feel comfortable with this exercise, go on to the next step. Begin as above but after concentrating in front of your hands, lift your elbows slightly, (about a half to one inch, while still keeping your hands on the table), and concentrate on the space on the sides of your body, while you relax your back into the back of the chair. Your breath will, of course, now need to be slower. (You will need a chair with a comfortable full back).
After breathing in, just breathe out and relax into the chair. Take a regular breath and then repeat this special breath. Repeat this exercise from one to six times at one session (at your discretion). Again, if this is uncomfortable, contact us.
It may take some practice to get all of this working properly, but the results are very relaxing. This exercise can eliminate depression and increase energy. It can dissolve the destructive force of anger and help you to unwind after work. Please feel free to comment on the results of this exercise in the “comments” section of this blog. (Please remember to consult with your physician before beginning to practice any new type of exercise.)
One of my students was in such agony from a punch to his shoulder that he had to sit down, shaking his head from side to side. Yet I only gave him a light tap. The reason that he felt the light tap as a powerful blow gives an important clue to Tai-chi as a martial art and as a healing art.
I struck him at the moment he was about to punch me. At that instant his attention condensed into his punching arm. By striking the area where his attention was condensed, I shattered the attention. Only a light tap was necessary to disrupt the attention because his attention was so condensed.
The instant shattering of a condensed attention is so disruptive that people usually interpret the experience as physical pain. Yet when my student actually thought about whether his shoulder really hurt or not, he realized that, not only didn’t it really hurt much, but it didn’t hurt at all. There was no real physical pain. It was all psychological pain interpreted as physical pain.
In our culture, we are taught to condense our attention into a single point in the head. This is because our eyes are on our head and we are so visually oriented. When our attention is locked into one part of the body or into a habit of thinking or acting, the attention is not really functional.
One of the main reasons Tai-chi trains you to be fluid in your movements is to develop a fluid attention as well – one that can move, vary in its qualities and dynamics. This is essential in fighting but also in living one’s everyday life. The more rigid you are, the less functional you are and the more easily your attention can be worn out or broken.
When practicing a Tai-chi form, allow your attention to sink down into the ground, as if you are a lotus plant, floating in a pond with your roots deep into the mud below. As you breathe in, your attention flows up through your stem (up the body) and into the lotus flower, which is within the chest at the sternum (breastbone) level. Continuing to breathe in, the lotus flower opens and so the front of your body flows up and then opens out to the sides, like an opening flower.
The opening flower then lifts your head which is the center petals of the lotus. Breathing out, the front of the body sinks, the sides of the chest drops to the center and your attention returns to your roots.
This process will bring fluidity to your attention so that it can never be frozen again. Frozen attention makes you vulnerable and ineffective. As the reality of life tugs at your attention and your attention resists the tugs, life seems like a struggle. You feel as if you are at your “wit’s end” because the requirements of the dynamic mobility of your attention is greater than its actual abilities.
Once attention is freed from its rigidity it instantly has all the energy it needs. It becomes more balanced and easier to move – just like the needle of a compass. The needle is so balanced that it can spin around easily. But if you move its fulcrum even a tiny bit, the needle will fall over and not move at all.
Breathing as if you are a lotus flower is a very valuable form of meditation even while standing still (as long as you allow your body to sink down and expand upward as described above). As we get older there is a tendency for our attention to condense (yin condition). The lotus flower meditation helps to prevent this aging process.
Remember that what you may interpret as frustration, anger and even physical pain, may just be the result of a rigid attention which not up to the task of functioning properly in our complex modern world. My student could barely stand up at first because of the “pain” he was experiencing until he realized that it wasn’t pain at all but rather, the shock of a suddenly opened attention.
The process of meditation returns us to our natural state. Our culture and our own minds have weaved many tales of who we are, where we came from and how we must conduct our lives. Yet within us, there is a direct experience of our biological nature. There is also an experience of our connection to the rest of nature. These direct experiences are overshadowed, in modern times, by the stories we have been told about who we are.
The direct, natural experiences are like a small child who constantly tugs at his parent’s clothes to get attention. The adults keep talking to each other and ignore the child.
Meditation is the act of yielding to the tug of your biological nature. It is like water sinking into the earth. As it sinks, the water enlivens the earth, allowing life to flourish. As your attention sinks back into your body, and then into your connection to the rest of nature, the body, mind, emotions and all the other parts of a human being, become enlivened. You realize that you are not just your thinking process. You are not just your opinions. You are not just your job title. You are the experience of life itself. This experience is often lost in the hustle and bustle of everyday living.
Imagine you are walking through a carnival. The carnival barkers (the people running the games) call out to you to put a dollar down to throw a ball to knock down some bottles or to throw a dart to puncture balloons. As you walk, each barker shouts at you loudly to get your dollar.
Life is like this. The story our culture tells you is that your choice in life is to decide which game to play – which barker to yield to. You may yield to the barker of buying the latest fashions or the newest cars. The barker’s job is to convince you that you can only be a good person, you can only be satisfied, if you yield to him. That barker may also be selling a religion or a political party.
When you experience your biological nature, the barkers no longer have any hold on you. They are merely people yelling at you.
So people ask me, “How should I meditate?”
While sitting meditation is popular, I have found the best form of meditation for me is natural movement. This may be Tai-chi, Zookinesis or any other form of activity based on the movement of animals. Even watching animals in nature is a wonderful form of meditation. When you imitate an animal’s movement you participate in its flow of energy (chi) and that heals you. Dance serves a similar purpose.
As the body moves, the mind (attention) moves along with the body. Body and Mind flow together and become united. The connection of body and mind heals a basic rift in the fabric of your spirit. By experiencing the interpenetration of body and mind, you become more sensitive to the possibility of being part of a larger “body” and a larger “mind” – that of nature. You become aware of movements of energy, movements of consciousness that flow through you. You no longer feel isolated.
Rather than your body and mind battling each other, you experience integration. This affects your relationship with other people resulting in a less combative feeling. In this way the practice of meditation can lessen the conflicts between members of a society resulting in less animosity and a more enjoyable way of life. At the same time, each person is more of an individual. Rather than tying your identity to the stories of the society you identify with the experience of your own individual nature. The stories are then seen as creative expressions of deeper truths rather than as shallow facts.
I was inspired to write about meditation this week because of the Christmas holiday and the many television shows about Jesus and the history of Christianity. It always seemed odd to me that all of the focus of these programs were on what happened rather than on what he taught. The same could be said of other ancient religious figures. Nowadays Jesus’ teachings are laid out in beautiful detail in the Gnostic Gospels. They are amazing in their clarity and beauty. Yet it seems that all people want to discover from these documents is whether Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene.
I think that our culture has become shallow in many ways. We seem interested only in the gossip, the soap operas. In the martial arts we are only interested in techniques rather than principles. We think of Tai-chi as a six lesson course to memorize a series of movements rather than as a life long dedication to health and awareness. And I have never been able to figure out why in heaven’s name, is a perfectly good pair of pants or shoes suddenly out of style.
This past summer my daughter told me she finally had it with my lack of style. She bought me a new bathing suit. When I looked around on the beach it was true that no one was wearing the style I had been wearing all these years. There was a new style that looked like a pair of baggy walking shorts. My daughter told me that this new style had been around for a few years and I never noticed the change before.
Apparently your biological nature does not warn you about style changes. It tells you about how to stay healthy and happy. It tells you about your connection to all people and all life. It shows you how being violent to others (physically, emotionally or intellectually) is really being violent to yourself.
Meditation really serves to remind you who you really are. We need to be reminded from time to time.
During the winter months, I take the goldfish from my outdoor pond and bring them to a large fish tank in the basement. I didn’t dig the pond deep enough to be able to leave them out over the winter. As I watch them swim around I wonder if they are aware of the medium of water they are swimming in. The water supports them, protects them and allows them to move.
We are also moving within a dense medium – air. While we can’t see it, the pressure of the air around us is over fifteen pounds per square inch. Several miles of air above us press down on the air around us, making the air at sea level very dense.
Yet we are not usually aware of air unless it is a windy day. Then we can feel the air on our skins and can see dead leaves and trash flying around. We are aware of the effects of air even if we are not directly aware of the air itself.
Without an atmosphere life could not exist. Without water, fish would suffocate, dry out and die. There is another medium which is equally as vital to life as air and water and equally as hard to see. This is the medium of consciousness. While most people can’t perceive consciousness directly we can see its effects. In fact, everything we are aware of is the effect of the medium of consciousness.
I am writing this subject as this week’s lessons for an important reason. Many people have told me that they are seeking spiritual development or self awareness or some kind of inner training. There is a tendency in modern times to think that there is some trick or secret to be learned that will immediately lead to enlightenment or spiritual awareness. So they repeat phrases to themselves or listen to motivational speakers repeat various clichés. If they only hear the right phrase or repeat the right magical spell, they will be transformed.
My take on this is that any kind of training must begin with the awareness of the medium you exist in, the mechanism that you are as a human being and how this mechanism has been designed to work in the medium. Fish have fins so that they can swim in water. They are not just decorations someone placed on them. Animals have muscles and bones so they can use leverage to work with the force of gravity, which is another medium. Reptiles developed a thick scaled skin to avoid drying out in the medium of air.
We can understand how our bodies have evolved to work within various mediums. To understand our minds, emotions and other inner aspects of being human, we need to understand the other mediums in which we exist.
We can know consciousness by the dynamics of our attention. I have discussed this in other lessons. I believe that there is no secret phrase or idea we can think about that will lead to a significant transformation of our lives. But awareness of how our minds, emotions and other “inner” parts are designed to work in the medium of consciousness can’t help but to restore our full potential and vitality.
One of the Chinese Zen (Chan) masters witnessed a group of Buddhists arguing about a waving flag. Some of the Buddhists said that the flag was waving. Others said that it was actually the wind that was waving. The Zen master told them that it was their minds that were waving.
The wind and the flag show how you can perceive an invisible force by watching a visible objects reaction to that force. The force was the movement of the air. In the same way the movement of the flag created an effect on the minds of the Buddhists. The thinking mind and the consciousness are in the same relationship as the flag and the wind.
If you were to see a flag moving but didn’t know about the wind you would wonder, “Why is the flag moving?” In the same way, my first koan (Zen question) as a child was, “Why does one thought follow another in a particular pattern?” To understand this you need to understand the relationship between thinking and consciousness. They are not the same.
The movement of consciousness does not necessarily have to result in thinking. It can lead to the movement of chi (internal energy). It is said that consciousness leads, the internal energy follows and the body then follows that. The saying actually is translated as “mind leads” but this mind does not mean thinking. It refers to attention itself. I use the term “attention” very often in my writings instead of “consciousness”.
Our attention is often ripped and pulled this way and that by the influences around us, like the wind waving the flag. When we are seeking spiritual development, or whatever glorious phrase is used, we are usually trying to bring our attention more under our creative control. We want our creativity to be more of an influence over our attention than the external forces such as advertisers or peer pressure.
So spiritual development is really about perfecting the relationship of creativity and attention. In Taoist philosophy creativity is referred to as the “Yang” force and attention as the “Yin” force. Creativity is active; it is the shaper. Attention is passive; it is the substance, the medium that is shaped.
What we are trying to discover in our training, is: to what extent is what we perceive a result of what is actually there and to what extent is it a result of how our attention is shaped and affected by the forces around us. We are trying to get a clear picture of our lives and the world around us.
Telescopes are placed high on mountaintops because the atmosphere interferes with the light coming into the telescopes. This light is distorted by the miles of compacted air which is usually in a state of turbulence. The higher up you go, the less air and the less distortion.
That is why silent meditation is part of any spiritual practice. The thinking mind is like the miles of air. It is usually in a state of movement which distorts your perception of the world around you. The key is to see things as they really are.
Then you can work on your forms, your push hands or, in other systems, on your rituals and really know what you are doing. You can do your healing such as Tai-chi Massage and really see the problems within your patient about how his creativity and attention interact and how that interaction affects the body. When these factors become clearly visible, then you can easily see how to use the techniques you have learned to correct those problems.
There is another saying that if you put a frog into hot water it will jump out. But if you put it into room temperature water then slowly heat the water up, the frog will not notice the slow increase and will eventually get boiled. We are in a similar situation. We cannot see how the influences around us control our thinking minds, how this affects or interferes with the dynamics of our attention and how that degrades the body. Our whole system gradually degrades until we are in a sorry mess. The solution is to become aware of this whole process.
One of the reasons I love Tai-chi and Zookinesis so much is that it so clearly explains this whole process and gives you a clearly defined, step by step process to use for your training. There is no mysteriousness. Yet there is an appreciation for the process and an awe of the process. It is similar to a car fanatic who loves his cars and knows every detail about how they work. He will spend an enormous amount of time repairing and improving his cars while people like me would rather just send it to a mechanic and only if it really needs fixing.
This winter solstice is unusual. It is also the time of the new moon. The mythological significance of this is that now we look forward to both an ever increasing length of day and an ever increasing brightness of the moon. This is considered to be the best time to work on any practice that gives you greater awareness (light). That is the way ancient people understood things. Our inner world should be in harmony with the dynamics of nature around us. If we can see, understand and predict the patterns of nature, we will then know when to plant, when to harvest, etc.
If we can see and understand the forces “inside” of us, then our training will be more effective. Rather than just making the mind more “windy” by repeating clichés to ourselves or trying to discover the “correct” ideas, we can quiet down the wind and perceive our basic nature and how our nature is designed to work in the medium of consciousness.
