This month, in the Joy of Living program, the focus is on the body. We move from open meditation to object meditation, with the specific object being the bodily sensations. Mostly my meditation this week has been a body scan starting with the forehead and moving down to the feet. In Tergar, before we move on to more potentially distracting objects like thoughts and emotions, we spend a month with the body.
It's good for me to stay with a structured program for a while. Especially as I work on something as challenging as a book. I know I've felt stuck in this intermediate stage for a while, and sometimes the way out of that is to go back to beginner's mind.
One thing I became very conscious of this week is the effect of charged information on my mind. Last Sunday was the Boston Marathon, and this week has been a manhunt. I found myself, like many people, drawn into the spectacle of seeing this young younger brother, captured. Despite everything he'd done, I felt a tremendous empathy for him. It seemed from his story that he was a dependent younger brother caught in the web of a dominant brother, and a terrible ideology. I couldn't stop clicking the New York Times site. I got into stupid Facebook arguments about whether he should be read his rights in the interest of public safety.
I felt my whole body tense and manic.
Last week I read a very interesting opinion piece about the toxic effects of following the news. It seemed a little extreme at the time, but I'm starting to open my mind to the possibility that he's right. There's not much I can do for this young man, other than hope he escapes the death sentence, and that his story in some way gives us insight into how fanatics are formed. But following this constant flow of factoids make us feel powerless, jumpy, helpless and distracted. News is the information equivalent of sugar. I wonder how much of the depression I struggle with is related to it.
I would probably be just as well informed if I read good magazines and recently published books, and my mind would be clearer.
If I want to write high quality information, I need to consume high quality information. And I need to believe that there is purpose, meaning and wisdom in doing this. I'm not going to feel this way, or believe that this pursuit is meaningful if I spend the rest of my life hooked up to the news machine.
This week I lean into this and keep to a resolution to not to follow this case anymore. And while I'm at it, I'm going to give news a break. I'll read about it eventually in the New Yorker, once the facts and the details emerge. I don't need to be kept abreast of every detail.
And truth is I don't need to be kept abreast of every detail on anything. I can stay informed without being up to the minute. And in that way, I hope, I can stay more in touch with the present moment.
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Happy Feet
It's been said that the eyes are the window to the soul. In Zhan Zhuang, it seems, the feet are like the door. Today and for the next while, I intend to focus on what Lam Kam Chuen calls "the pump."
This is an area of your foot that in martial arts transforms chi from a source of well being to a source of explosive power. It's accessed by shifting your attention from the mid-foot towards the ball of the foot and two triangles that can be visualized with the ball of the foot as an important point. The triangle formed by the ball of the foot, the big toe and the little toe. And the triangle formed by the ankle, the ball of the foot and the big toe.
Master Chen suggests experimenting by shifting the focus between standing on a full triangle created by the heel, the big and the little toe, and then shifting to the smaller triangle created the ball and the toes. The first emphasizes health, the second, power.
Either way, bringing attention to the feet creates a tremendous sense of stability to your practice.
It's challenging. Today as I stood, I foccussed on trying to rest calmly in the energy that arises when my attention is on the ball of my foot. So much natural alignment springs from this focus. The knees are drawn slightly, but naturally towards each other, which enables the hips and the lower spine to settle into a natural seating posture. The Tan Tien then falls easily into triangle with the soles of the feet. Eventually, a warm energy begins to flow. With arms in first position, I feel a stable magnetic energy throughout my entire body.
In two weeks I move. It's a stressful time of change and lots of tedious work. It's easy to fall into habits of anxiety and procrastination. The practice goal this week is to bring my attention often and regularly to my feet, hoping that the grounded energy will keep my mind calm and my power flowing and stable.
This is an area of your foot that in martial arts transforms chi from a source of well being to a source of explosive power. It's accessed by shifting your attention from the mid-foot towards the ball of the foot and two triangles that can be visualized with the ball of the foot as an important point. The triangle formed by the ball of the foot, the big toe and the little toe. And the triangle formed by the ankle, the ball of the foot and the big toe.
Master Chen suggests experimenting by shifting the focus between standing on a full triangle created by the heel, the big and the little toe, and then shifting to the smaller triangle created the ball and the toes. The first emphasizes health, the second, power.
Either way, bringing attention to the feet creates a tremendous sense of stability to your practice.
It's challenging. Today as I stood, I foccussed on trying to rest calmly in the energy that arises when my attention is on the ball of my foot. So much natural alignment springs from this focus. The knees are drawn slightly, but naturally towards each other, which enables the hips and the lower spine to settle into a natural seating posture. The Tan Tien then falls easily into triangle with the soles of the feet. Eventually, a warm energy begins to flow. With arms in first position, I feel a stable magnetic energy throughout my entire body.
In two weeks I move. It's a stressful time of change and lots of tedious work. It's easy to fall into habits of anxiety and procrastination. The practice goal this week is to bring my attention often and regularly to my feet, hoping that the grounded energy will keep my mind calm and my power flowing and stable.
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