Thursday Oct 13, 2011
Dear friends,
Embodiment, becoming flesh, takes time. In our culture we have cut ourselves off from the body, and so we have lost a doorway into the now, into the possibility of presence. The body can only live now. Even the tensions that are patterned in from our past histories can only be felt in the now. The ego takes us into the past or into the future. It is how it is made. Not bad, simply that's how it functions. And it has served us well. We are here. We survived, we made it here. This is precious and quite miraculous really.
But something in us wants more, otherwise why do we come together to practice. That longing, that itch that intuits that more life, more presence, more depth, more meaning, is possible So we look for the doorways. Embodiment is such an opening.
And immediately we have to face the superego. We judge our bodies, we hate them. The body is sin, the body is to be denied, the body is to be punished, shaped, manipulated, defiled..... So when we begin to practice presence through the body, the superego will show its face. Yell at it if that helps to push it away. The superego is the structure that wants to keep you small, not capable of growing.
I suggest that when you awaken, you sit on the side of your bed. Start with your right big toe and sense it, feel it, then your toes, then you sole of your foot, then the whole foot, then your ankle, your calf, your shin your knee, your thigh up in the hip. Feeling sensing all the way. Then bring your focus to your right hand, your thumb, fingers and palm. Moving up through your wrist, elbow, upper arm into your right shoulder. Take you time. If you get distracted, and most of us will, come back. Then move over to your left shoulder and sense your way down the left side, until you end with your left big toe. If first thing in the morning doesn't work find some other time. At other times during the day just sense your arms and legs. No need to scan the body, just a simple sensing of your arms and legs. I do this a lot when I am driving, when I am sitting relaxing. Remember there is no right experience- right is the language of the superego. The point is simply to feel and sense what is arising in your big toe, in your shoulder, in your hip. Every time it will be different. Sometimes you will feel nothing, numb, sometimes heat, cold, sometimes aches, sometimes energy and sometimes something very subtle, like a quiet presence. Your superego will want to evaluate what you are experiencing. Notice how that takes you away from your direct experience.
You may also want to journal and discover what the superego has to say about simply sensing and feeling your body.
Take good care and see you soon. Alison
No comments:
Post a Comment