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WORKSHOPS
Certain aspects are the same in all my workshops:
eye contact, circles, dance, pair work, self-enquiry, direct experience, body dialogue, and qigong.
There is also a rhythm and balance in their design that is generic. I will consider the flow from the point of view of the Tai chi. Every outward movement is followed by inward, every fast heart beat to be suddenly watched, pair work to group work, anchoring in self awareness to catharting in “me” expression, using the left brain to using the right brain, being hard to being soft. The spotlight is self-awareness and finding the Tao in all of this.
SOFTENING/YIELDING
I ask people again and again to soften. In tai chi we use the words yielding and issuing. These constitute the yin and yang response to life. Responsibility is ones ability to respond to this moment. Returning to direct experience is what softening is all about. It is meeting all the edges, hardness, pain and uneasiness with presence and the inner eye of awareness, undoing the tendency of grasping mind, breathing them, witnessing them. Yielding is softening, opening and responding to what is. Awareness and breath combine to surrender to what is. We don’t hold on to or resist or harden to our event horizon. We gather closer to its cutting edge softly, softly. The whole breath pattern is one round soft continuous movement that stays in tune and softly, flexibly responds rhythmically to incoming stimulus of this continuously changing movement of life. In the realm of mind it is the capacity to let the thought forms move in front of one without catching hold of one and entering a wave of emotive response. The classic metaphor is of clouds passing before one. The body is another part of mind. Body mind stream is interwoven and actually one continuum.
All is in change, dynamic and endless, except consciousness itself: "the movie on the screen". We are both the movie and the screen. In softening we stay on the wave front of that endless change while remaining settled in self-awareness.
DIAPHRAM
For this reason the diaphragm is of major significance to our wholesome being. This is our main body tool to meet our inner and outer reality softly. The diaphragm is a massive nexus of nerves. In my work I will advice yoga exercises and chi Kung to come to a more conscious awareness of this muscle that divides the body in two. If it reacts and tightens, it separates the heart from the emotions painfully. In a desperate movement to control we contract,harden and loose contact with all. When the diaphragm is relaxed and dropped we are able to sink into our connection with gravity/earth and be rooted solidly in our sexuality and strength. The greater our root the greater our wings. By focusing on our solar plexus the heart and hara return to better health and the heat descends to the belly. How can we respond softly and stay open to all that repulses and attracts us ? Lets watch the breath from the diaphram, uncoiling the karma of our breathing patterns.
TAI CHI PRINCIPLES AND POSTURE
These principles are so broadly applicable to life and the way of good looking. For instance posture becomes a psycho spiritual attitude that reflects itself thro many layers. The knees are slightly bent. The anus is relaxed; the frame is hanging in gravity. Body structure is aligned, in a balance and harmony, so not a single extra gram of tension is needed. The head is suspended from the rooftops. The body moves as one string of pearls. Such tai chi principles are metaphors for appropriate meeting with reality and develop our capacities to embody stillness. We investigate these as we proceed and involve them in our quest for self-understanding.
ANCHORED IN CONSCIOUSNESS
In my workshops I inspire melting back to oneness by making circles and doing eye contact exercises. As we proceed along our journey of discovery I anchor the different exercises in these two kinds of activity. They both naturally bring the thinking mind to zero. This is the right perspective to view reality. Thus it becomes our true compass to navigate from. With eye contact it is impossible to use the laptop-thinking mind. There are many wonderful games to enjoy with eye contact. Likewise with circles there is a particular synergy of energy that occurs that makes individual boundaries fall down and love abide. I counterpoint exercises that turn one in and one out to the circle. I look for ways to show the participants that looking in is looking out. I lead them from stillness and quiet to strong expression with fast heartbeat and back again. All the time the tai chi and the wu chi are considered and I care for the balanced movement back and forth. I must be a sensitive listener, respond to the group and be flexible to their requirements and hopefully keep the dance alive with sensitive dynamics. I ask to be of service and leave myself out of the room.
I like to create flows that go from yin to yang, from in to out, from stillness to movement. Always considering the spiral or Tai chi. where there is movement find stillness. Where there is stillness find movement.
DIRECT EXPERIENCE
When the heart is beating out of control and we suddenly stop to look inside and soften to all that pounding and sweating. I look to reinforce by actually feeling the profound truth that however extreme experience is if we face it head on in the split of a second, it is always easily handleable. To this purpose I will invoke different emotional states with various psychodrama games.
Direct experience is such a powerful tool in our search for understanding and true meaning in our lives. True to truth, we choose to look into this moment for understanding. So we dialogue with our body as it is and commune with all that is painful and soften to that. Direct experience is the mystery of truth in a pragmatic and gritty way. In moments where life leaves us alone to battle with ill fortune of one kind or another it is direct experience that quietly teaches us to keep this in the realm of pain. It is the mind that leads this pain into suffering. Consider direct experience and softening, combine these two methods and see how softening already includes entering direct experience ……
SELF-INQUIRY
Investigation into the nature of self becomes crucial to all this. The spotlight always returns to that.
We must become experts in investigating this moment in asking the question "who am I?". It is time to fully acknowledge and live with reference only to here and now. Consciousness is the only reliable support. In fact this is the ultimate short cut. The journey is to come home and give up all the techniques no matter how efficient and eye opening. Resting in "I" includes direct experience softening, meeting inner world and outer, all is simultaneously abided in. So with each exercise and each movement I reinforce the one true support and anchor, the one original eternal inspiration.
By looking at all these different band aids, therapeutic and meditative activities, we come to realize the ground of being and self-healing.
COMFORT FIRST
I always remind people to stop whatever they are doing if there is any tension or stress or confusion or uneasiness. Always remind yourself comfort first. Hippocrates first oath is “first do no harm“. A facilitator must take care of his own ease grace and silence. If he has tension that will be intrinsic in what is given. The power of simple touch is astonishing. As one’s confidence in the power of present touch increases one takes more risks in just listening to the other, resting ones hands on some part of the body, abiding in the circles and flows of giving and receiving. Placing ones awareness outside of “me centredness” one comes to a place where boundaries melt and merge and one cannot find the edge of giving and receiving, me and you, or two separate bodies. A sense of center location and distance is lost. Bathing in the beauty of the mystery, these two identities are now free in their range of movement and they become immaculate catalysts in their capacity to resolve each other.
CATHARSIS
“The heart is a machine. Keep the mind young”. We must respect the heart as an engine that needs to rev high to keep its injectors clean! There are many theories about catharsis. By catharting we can release the body from tension and pain. This movement is never permanent because the seeds of the pain are wrapped up in thought forms related to one’s small identity. We can clean the body but it will become dirty again unless the “I” concept is rooted out of egoic identity.
Once we see the limitation we can enjoy catharsis for what it is, with more simplicity. For me “cardiovascular exercise” is more honest words. In just 5 minutes of 130+bpm the heart is cleared and the sweat and heaving diaphragm will release the organs of the stagnant emotional chi. We have spent 99.9% of our human history being very physical and now we have entered an age of sedentary and cyber reality. This point is huge and I will find ways to make you feel uncomfortable and emotional and then bring you back to ease with sweat. May we all invite sweat back into our lives for our well-being. This is the single most common advice that I offer in my counseling. It amazes me that people can expect to be happy without being physical.
CIRCLES
Native and tribal peoples from all over the world have long enjoyed the benefits and many religions and magical traditions utilize them. I have long researched them and offered them in celebrations and meetings. They symbolize love, unity and peace, reflecting the great medicine wheel of life itself.
There are sitting circles, lying circles, side circles, feet circles, hand circles, double circles, intertwined circles, star circles, spooning circles, pillar circles, spiral circles, amoeba circles , line circles, head to foot, and so on. The permutations are endless. Once in Australia it was my pleasure to organize a circle for 600 people. There was full side body contact and it went boy-girl-boy-girl [the spooning circle] . We were deep in the nature, in the middle of the circle a fire ragged and above us the full moon beat down. Collectively the whole group erupted in a wave that lasted 20 minutes. It was a glorious moment of unity in ecstasy. As we touch in groups, different circles create different effects. There is synergy, merging and dissolving. This fusion has a tendency to devolve into silence or to take a collective rhythm of peak-valley-peak. Much of the tone is set by the comfort of the bodies, the amount of body contact and which parts are touching in that kind of circle. For instance sitting circles can become quite irritating as the power of circulation increases. These circles can be amplified by sound, intention, visualizations and so on. My favorite is the star lying circles. They are extremely grounded and comfortable and spacious, everyone reports a falling away of the body mind envelope and a swimming collectively in space.
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