1--Dialogue on Taoism and dance....Isabeau Vollhardt and S
WM
Writings and Thoughts on Dance and Spirituality:
(to respond or add send mailto:stevenmalkus1@prodigy.net)
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1--Dialogue on Taoism and dance....Isabeau Vollhardt and S
2-- Follow-up andPoem by Isabeau Vollhardt
3 --Excerpts from an article by Jamie McHugh for the SEMA Quarterly
NEW! 5 --Two Poems by Steven
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Isabeau Vollhardt, l.ac. CinSwan@aol.com --- Cinnabar Swan: Qi Gong ---Ashland,Oregon ---on Qi Gung
there's a few different applications of qi gong that might be of interest to
dancers who are incorporating their art into shamanic learning/teaching, however, with all of them i would include in the class not only exercises with one-on-one supervision/correction but also some of the theory behind qigong (this would include some mention of meridian pathways, five phase theory aka five element theory, and the organ systems as described in oriental medicine).
i'd like to do one workshop focusing on the appropriate breathing techniques for women (which I believe may benefit men in a different way with regard to the prostate, but I need to do a lot more research on this as the prostate is usually not mentioned in oriental medicine classic texts) and another class for men (of course, both will be encouraged to attend both, as the men's breathing is probably appropriate for dance as it's appropriate for martial arts training).
in both workshops, i'd like to touch on not only the health benefits of
qigong breathing, but also different ways that qigong can be used to open up
awareness to alternative realities (experiencing nature in a different way,
especially the wind; meeting spirit guides which in some asian shamanic
traditions are referred to as celestial masters).
and lastly, in terms of theory, covering qigong in both workshops with regard
to how it works with our body being the physical and qi bridge between heaven
and earth; and some pragmatics on working with pain and injury for both self
and others (keeping in mind that using qigong on another, unlike using reiki,
is using one's own qi and therefore qigong practice is necessary to offer
such assistance to others on a semi-regular or regular basis).
in terms of movement, qi gong movements when they are based on walking or
weight shifting exercises are similar to t'ai chi movements (some of which I
will teach as they're good complicated qi gong exercises) in that they focus
on moving the bones, rather than the muscles (which remain relaxed) and
achieving movement through awareness of where one's center of gravity is at
every part of movement. It's about removing momentum and gravity from
movement, and using one's own center of gravity to consciously place the body
in each position. So in this respect, at least compared to what very little I
know about dance, it's quite different than dance. Certainly, however, useful
to dancers in that it will help preserve their body as well as give them
increased qi flow to bring to their creative endeavors.
IV
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S.W.M. to Isabeau Vollhardt
What you speak of is a source of continuous wonder and conflict in my own
dance practice...I feel that the requirements of the presentational art
often run counter to the needs of dance or movement as spiritual(read:
"health and sanity") practice.
It seems that in our need to spell out inner states for an audience we have
gone to a dangerous extreme of turning the body into a visually proscribed
conveyor of objectified symbols---(in most dance these days those symbols
relate fairly exclusively to the lower chakras....not much poetry there!)
Anyway, I believe that there is a huge need to return to the subjective
experience of dance(read: "yin" "ritual" "spirit guide",etc.) even if these
means a less audience oriented form...or perhaps a form that encourages audience
participation, or where those demarcations are consciously blended.
The touchstone experience of my recent evolution in my dancing was
witnessing firsthand the ceremonies of the Pueblo Indians(Tewa) in New
Mexico. As a male dancer I find it staggering to try to convey the
impression of seeing a hundred male dancers (with the elders at the center)
"performing" one of their seasonsal dances of renewal---Tribal Qi Gung! and Planetary Qi Gung for that
matter! SWM
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to SWM
there were a few things that came to mind that i think dancers would
appreciate understanding about internal martial arts:
the key to relaxed balance is understanding how the body is an energetic
bridge between heaven and earth (we are the only creature set up
physiologically to accomplish this energetic bridge).
in order to move and meditate at the same time, guarding one's own space is
required, as is respecting the space of others. all of this can be done
without eye contact, facial expression, and especially without touching.
learning how to maintain one's own pace of movement and direction of movement
regardless of where others are going, and how fast, is part of finding one's
internal center of balance and gravity.
rather than using the body to express emotion, the body is used as a conduit
for internal energies. these energies rebalance the body, affecting
physical/emotional/spiritual health; they also change concepts of space and
time (making the here and now a larger space and a longer span of time).
many people in our culture are taught that motion is to a destination; that
getting to the destination quickly is a feat of accomplishment. internal
martial arts teach that motion is for its own sake; that where we are is
where we should be (and if where we are is uncomfortable for us, if we pause
to determine what is uncomfortable, we learn how to amend the situation and
stay away from it in the future if that is required for our personal
well-being); and that every step on the road is both journey and destination.
there's a poem I wrote on how one walks with the dao that i'll e-mail
to you; it's actually a mnemonic for remembering specific meridians and
points that need to be focused on when establishing posture, balance, and
pace.
dao walking
step slowly, thoughtfully,
one foot at a time,
let the body's weight shift
from the Kun Lun Mountains kun lun/UB 60
down to the Gushing Spring yong quan/Ki 1
and send roots down
into the earth
as your weight rests
on one foot. . . releasing
your grasp with the other;
with knees gently bent,
spine straight through the waist,
the Life Gate can face the Sea of Qi ming men/Du 4, qi hai/Ren 4
and the body cans rest,
sunk toward earth,
and suspended from heaven
like a pendulum
by one hundred convergences bai hui/Du 20
so that the original child yuan er/Ren 17 (alternate name)
can be open to the sky. . .
then let the inner vision sense
the whirling emptiness rising chong mai
to conception; then allow their paths ren mai
to be girdled and governed dai mai, du mai
so that yin can blossom
safe in the shelter of yang;
and each step will join
space and time
here and now
infinity and eternity
to heaven and earth
through you. . .
without leaving a trace
on your path.
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EXCERPTS FROM AN ARTICLE BY JAMIE MCHUGH FOR THE SEMA QUARTERLY
"...Certainly, we all need a refuge, a personal shelter to restore ourselves. We all need comfort.
But how can we incorporate mindfullness of the larger circle? How can we challenge
the boundaries of our experience to seek a greater vision for our lives that
includes other beings?
Everyone talks about being stressed out these days. Are we stressed, or just
blessed, with an over-abundance of energy that is seeking soul fulfillment?
When I look at the vital energy of youth, especially teens who are not
invited into the larger discourse of life, I realize that we are teaching
them indirectly to sequester their energy, to adopt the somatic formation of
resignation and despair. The lack of meaningful opportunities for engagement
and participation reflects our trivialization of their great life-force, and,
by extension, our own collusion with the myth of personal impotence.
A free body cannot be controlled by political orthodoxy. A free body derives
its pleasure and sustenance from Nature, God and other human beings. A free
body is not bound to the materialist, consumer-driven illusion of
satisfaction. A free body has consciously re-formed itself to be engaged with
life now rather than replicate its conditioning and continue to live in the
past. A free body is informed by the fluid movement of love. But a free body
is only one step in the larger liberation of our human spirit.
No matter how much we "work on our stuff", or get grounded and centered and
free in our bodies, it all becomes a moot point if we forget our larger body,
the planet Earth, which sustains all life. If we are not consistently acting
on behalf of our Earth body in the same way that we are acting on our own
behalf, we are not really acknowledging the source of our power. It becomes
difficult to think of ourselves as "spiritual people" if we, through our
daily actions, contribute to the desecration of the sacred, our planetary
home. Sometimes, we need to question the complacency of being enmeshed in a
comfortable corporate, consumerist web that begins to define our values
unbeknownst to us through our inaction. Or, more precisely, through our
unconscious action.
Each day we are challenged to be a wise body in a body-phobic culture, to
breathe, move, wiggle and hum. Each day we are called upon to manage our
energy with mindfullness and treat our bodies compassionately as a way of
giving thanks to the Creator for this miracle of life.
Each day we are challenged to be a wise consumer of natural resources in an
increasingly nature-phobic culture, to make choices about our use of water,
autos, paper and plastics. Each day we are called upon to manage our
consumptive desires and treat the Earth responsibly as a way to give thanks
to the Creator.
When we take our bodies for granted and ignore their signals, we invite
disease. When we take the planet for granted and ignore its signals, we
invite catastrophe.
As Brother David Stendal-Rast has written,"All religious experience is
inherently ineffable and unmediated. In light of that experience we ask,
'What does it mean?' and that is theology. We ask, 'How can I extend this in
time?' and that is liturgy. We ask, 'What difference does this make for the
way I live?' and that is ethics." Somatic and ecological awareness and action
are inextricabley linked in the shared body of life, and must be forged
together to formulate a new ethics. We can also begin to re-discover the old
liturgies of sacred dance in a contemporary fashion as a way to embody
connectedness and experience community somatically..."* * * * *
This formal activation of the collective body can remind us of our basic
biological reality, the essentially cellular dance of coming together and
moving apart, merging and individuating, in patterns of relationship. It is
important to remember the power of the larger body moving together. Movement
doesn't just begin and end in the individual body...in our alignment, finding
center, moving forward and up, etc. The movement of the individual self is in
dynamic interaction with its social and natural environments and is
constantly affected by these exchanges.In these days of increasing physical isolation and withdrawal, we need to restore the rituals of belonging and worship, the dance of community, which can evoke the memory of organismic
unity for the individual body. Somatic psychology and human growth
experiences that become enmeshed in the industrialized, commodity
marketplace and cater to the individualistic values of contemporary culture
are missing an essential element. Our individual somatic support,
psychological articulation and spiritual potential are informed by
relationship and through a primary inter-connectedness with the earth body.
"In Africa gods are thought to be themselves dancers, frequency waves and
rhythms that are closer to the great rhythms and patterns than our local
selves. To dance, then, is to pray, to meditate, to enter in communion with
the larger dance, which is the universe. And because the universe dances, as
the Ghanian Yoruba priest explains, 'he who does not dance does not know'."
(Jean Houston)
So, I end this reflection with the questions, how can I nurture the
life-force within my body as well as protect the life-force of the planet as
a daily practice? And how are these daily practices informed and strengthened
by prayer, in any form, individually and in groups?
I am interested in your answers to these questions and any other feedback you
have on these thoughts. -- Jamie-- EMAIL: JamieRMT@aol.com
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An Essay by Steven Malkus on Yin and Yang in relation to our culture and planetary health:
I.
Energy,
pondered by the earliest mind, was determined to be
something that could be channelled by consciousness. The "densities"
of energy that become serious blockages to vitality can
arise from both nature (genes) and nuture (behavior), but
traditional religious views have convinced a surprising majority
of humans that pain and death are the punishment for living. This
is now becoming slowly recognized as the brainwashing of an elite
to control a degraded mass population---hence, Marx, Scientism
and the many secular substitutes for a "faith."
Energy management, however, subsumes these issues.
Anyone who allows themselves the priviledge of a moment of reflection (even rigourously logical reflection) arrives at the conclusion that one can not arrive at any final conclusion about the ultimate nature and purpose of existence. Life is infinite and thus by nature finally mysterious. To some extent the concept of the Great Mystery has remained central to all spiritual traditions. However, secular rationalism from its inception in the European Enlightenment has attempted to provide a mechanistic explanation of everything humans perceive within an assumed random universe. This credo, most satisfactory to a materialist social order, props up a hubris that now leaves humanity poised on the brink of global disaster. Progress is the name this hubris uses to disguise its driven and dangerous nature. The childhood programming that leads to our addictions to money, work, more, faster, bigger, is no longer a necessity in humankind's struggle against the elements and itself. Perhaps it never was, as the vision of certain primal cultures would still show. It is not inevitable that we eat up and destroy the planet. And it can be reversed---but only if the deep sources of the imbalance are addressed. They are imbedded in the very flesh of our cultural, sexual and individual identity. Our culture, the one currently prevailing around the world, is yang top-heavy to the point of collapse. This explicitly suggests a universal condition of energy use on both the individual and collective level that further intensifies the unhealthy condition.
What is now stunning Western thinking at its most
ethical (i.e.,what is right living?), is the
ancient Chinese concept of synchronicity(Carl Jung's term). This
concept refers to a complete
interpenetration between part and whole, finite and infinite.This
identity between part and whole
is elusive to empirical quantification though modern science is
revealing surprising examples
in every realm from particle physics to the study of eco-systems.
It is elusive and will remain so because it is rooted in an
immeasureable consciousness---a consciousness we touch only with
the imagination, or in specific terms, the infinite possible
perceptions of reality available to the mind over time. In the
failure of rational empiricism to include the subjective mind we
have gradually blotted out one half of our natural humanity---not
how we cope with the measureable, so-called "objective"
realities, but how we cope with all that remains unknown, and
perhaps, unknowable in our lives. Synchronicity reunites these
two simply by placing the objective and subjective mind in an
equal relationship.
II.Consciousness
In Taoism anything perceived in consciousness of
any type, scale or duration, brings into simultaneous existence
an equal and opposite. This notion of an "other" and
"otherness" in general, is the very thing(non-thing?)
modern rationalism attempted to live without. Instead the
ingrained "rational" mind has merely created a collosal
increase in the type of energy already too prevalent. We
tend not to sit quietly and just be. We tend instead
to think we have to be "doing" things even though there
is no need, or, in terms of sustainability, a different kind
of need altogether---the need to curb our growth.
Consciousness as we interpret it incorrectly, is a yang energy
because we conceive it as the means or channel of an assertive
perception (geared toward action). It can, however, be yinenergy
which is yielding or receptive ---(to open also requires energy).
Only emptiness is still and unified. The instant of being is
motion. Unified quiescence splits into yin and yang. Life is
change; change is motion; motion is imbalance. Yet in the
broadest picture, energy is conserved:yin and yang everbecoming
each other in the gradual or sudden transformation of opposites...The
universe continues whether we burn ourselves out or not. We are a
part of a larger consciousness even as we hold its essences.
Balance or harmony (which is true health---beyond mere
homeostasis into an ever-creative, poised calm), is maintained by
awareness and adjustment of yin/yang or the two types of energy
as they manifest themselves in our bodies, our minds, our
feelings---and in relationship to the external world, or rather,
as all of these interact in an unavoidable continuum.
Western medecine which is solely based on empirical and
mechanistic approaches, is now at the predictable levels of chaos
due to overcomplexity (an Uncertainty Principle for the
Overmedicated). Could it be that there is far more to health than
this absurd game of matching a symptom to a drug or other
intervention? What about the preventive ounce of restorative
energy balancing that can actually turn stress energy into
renewed vitality?--or so we've been told. And it is clearly true---the
direly needed prescription by the doctor for rest and relaxation!
Yet it is equally clear that we need to reprogram ourselves in
order to bring this sensible rebalancing into our own personal
day to day regimens.
III.
First you must believe that you can affect your
own well-being on such a profound level by yourself. Second, you
must approach yourself with a respect unlike that we normally
confer on things in our lives---except our dearest loved ones. It
is in true wonder of the blessing of the gift of our lives that
we will be able to approach our problems with sufficient
attentiveness.
Attention, attentiveness, awareness---all imply the state of
listening that can only occur if the usual
noise or distractions are at least temporarily put in abeyance.
This requires the disciplined will power to set aside time when
our time increasingly is filled by high energy consuming
activities. Breaking the pattern of these addictive habits
is the major battle in regaining control of one's life and
becoming capable of self-healing. Awareness in quiet is a
form of detached observation, in this case, self-observation. It
is helpful in
getting to this place to remind oneself that very little of
what preoccupies us is actually in any way life-threatening. This
gives us pause, time---time to reflect on the actual motives and
consequences of our actions.
Again, in Taoism, action of any kind, even focused mental effort alone, is considered movement and thus creates imbalance. The essential caveat prevading all Taoist writings and practices is the notion that perhaps, just perhaps, within the mysterious shadow of doubt we inhabit, we are unnecessarily convincing ourselves to move---in any way, in any direction---and that perhaps, just perhaps, the place we currently exist, this infinite Now, is already balanced, certainly more than we will let it be! This explains the vital importance of the cultivation of yin energy in the mind. Its prime expression is not passivity per se but humility and reverence---those ancient, beautiful, forgotten words. We are by both nature and nuture prone to a overly yang consciousness, and need very much to balance this in order to affect the manifestations. These manifestations reach through our behaviors in external world right into the deep structure of our identities and physical selves. Indeed, we both act and look stressed---and we are stressing the entire balance of planetary life.
We all sleep---(more or less). We are practicing
yin/yang balancing unconsciously or automatical-
ly as biological entities, and consciously as social animals---and
sometimes on higher levels as well in our efforts to be creative
or become "enlightened"(which I take to mean, whole and
at peace with things as they are). Further, we all
will accept intellectually that being physically calm,
emotionally centered and having a clear mind, are crucial to
either split-second response or high level decision-making. We
must give ourselves permission to aspire after and achieve these
states.
Permission is the key to the door of expanded consciousness, a
consciousness capable of inclusion, compassion and calm---acceptance
of the way things are. This process arrives in playfulness and
love, not stern fanaticism or martyrdom. The ideal of
inclusionary consciousness is unconditional love---yes, ideals
exist with as much reality as objects in a belief system that
recognizes the subjective as the given other half of being. From
ancient times the highest ideals have been inclusionary rather
than discriminatory... But in the same way true stillness will
always elude us while we yet live, so will the ideal. Just
in being alive even the most inclusionary consciousness takes
form, makes choices. Choices
are obviously non-inclusionary. The challenge then is to make our
choices as inclusionary as pos-
sible. This brings us to the crucial concept of the
interdependence of clarity, stillness and possibility---the so-called
quantum hologram. Simply put, the greater the stillness,
the greater the possibilities.
IV.
If one gives credence to the subjective mind, one is inevitably led to the relativity of Reality. In fact, even as a diligent empiricist one is led to this realization. For every perception there is a countless number of other equally valid perceptions. We now live in a world deconstructed of values and meanings. From the Taoist point of view this is not necessarily bad. The glass has gone beyond half-emptiness or fullness into a sublime substanceless. The subjective mind is not the feared respository of superstition, but a door to clarity, being without judging, centeredness that in maintaining its quiet, lets the swirling everbecoming work itself out with a minimum of interference...
So it is to walk lightly on the EARTH...but...quiet,
I fear to say, does not come from the negative thrust of
deconstruction!.
To maintain this quiet state that allows the moment's possibility to achieve its widest scope, requires the discipline to not be easily moved by the ego-mind (or to flow without becoming fixated is a better way to view it!).Those with agendas are bound by them,become top-heavy with them. Those who are top-heavy are eventually pushed over. Those whose energy is "down" are more firmly rooted. This is not an abstract process. We each can witness in ourselves the effects of moving energy from unstable to more stable positions both internally and externally. Again, you must first give yourself permission to do this. Letting go of the rigid clinging to ego drives, is already the beginning of bringing yin to the top and letting yang settle down. So much pain and confusion is a yang energy tightening around a deeper source that is either being ignored or blocked with conflicting messages. Pinpoint a tightness either physical or mental, or an area where you are consistently fanatical in dealing with others, and you have found where an excessive yang is covering an obscure yin. Try to move the yang into another channel, or try to visualize the yin and so siphon off the yang .Think easy, or better yet, feel it.
The hard thing is to identify for consciousness
the nature of the imbalance in order to successfully
use directed visualization. "Getting down" is the
fundamental exercise! For the physical body
it means moving energy(manifested as tension) from higher points
to lower ones, eliminating in-
efficiency and letting the body support itself from its most
aligned skeletal base. This is a literal
lowering of one's center of gravity---a must for
athletes,dancers, and martial artists. On a more abstract level
this could mean not responding to mental and emotional impulse,
but letting things fulfill themselves from a deeper center---resisting
the urges of self and getting the big picture.
It is of course possible to be too yin, but
generally speaking our culture is yang top-heavy.
The "Cult of the Ego" is a direct evolution of the
Industrial/Information Age and the decline of
simpler, more co-operative ways of life. However, many now are
sick and fearful of where this
spiral of competitiveness leads us. Many are in search again of
their mythic identity, a selfhood
transcendent of their social status. Without the yin energy
up in the mind opening it to the Mystery everywhere around and
within at any moment, no such identity can be discovered.
This opening, budding sense of wonder, is innate, but is drummed
out of children in education and social programming. As it goes,
so does creativity, family and community---and soon enough,
Biosphere. This opening is compassion, is a sense of union with
the sacredness of all life, is connection to the All. It is
nevertheless not a wholly mystical thing. It can be worked
on simply by conscious choice. This choice is subjective---the
decision to move energy from ego-drives to quiet roots.
When we let go of the yang ego-gripping something
called "grace" floods through us---another
of those beautiful, forgotten words. The balancing for
excessive yang that goes uncorrected is sickness and collapse. We
are now in the era of sickness.
"The gods have become our diseases." -Carl
Jung Sickness has brought many to reconsider
the nature of wellness. The Western mechanistic models
which are really quite new, are playing themselves out and
becoming infiltrated by concepts older than the medical
profession itself---and they are as obvious as they are neglected!
These "concepts" are actually our own deep intuitions
about natural vitality. Each of us already deeply knows what it
is to walk lightly on the Earth while carrying the full power of
the gift--- This gift is the glory of being human, a
majesty as great as mountains, ocean and sky! The biosphere's
energy suffuses us after billions of years of perfecting
and we walk about still enslaved to the obsolete machinery
of the ego!
Yet, it is our birthright to be free and
empowered! Be quiet for the next moment and let the cloudy
waters clear! What you feel in the stillness is your eternal
beauty...
Steven
Malkus
Vancouver,
B.C. November, '98
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TWO POEMS BY STEVEN
Innocence
Big flakes of snow, here and there, very sparse
with the sun already out of the clouds in the west---too warm anyway for anything to stick
Each feathery flake so delicate floating down, disappearing
even before it hits the mirror-grey of the pond
The male mallard's head is the blue-purple of the crocus--
both shining irridescent even without the sun
The flicker's song is the waver of the cedars reflected,
Twilight growing there a soft hycinth
A flame rises in the sap, radiant,
A high violet aura to frame a silent face
Tentatively the slight breeze through the reddening branch ends
caresses us---
How easily we become again
the ones living only on air!
A voice thinner than our tiredness is being sung into evening sky... Jonquils foolishly dipping,
a robin bubbling over...
Desire for clear spaces, pristine vista, (abandonment!)
becomes this intricate devotion to
The elusive one with lilac eyes
that glint between silver trees...
Still... the mirror of the soul
Where newness begins
The face demanding to be touched
But only by a white cloud
A month of sighs and shyness
as my own body
Feels the ache again and still knows that it is blameless...
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Lightning
Herring, a.k.a. alewife, beating their way up a fish ladder in early spring silver-sheathed adrelin pushing up sideways over the sluice-boards
into the small pool before the final hurtle, the giant pipe under the road
There they swim in place against the current, all pointed the same, all
gills fanning, all tails slowly wagging
Big bang big flash and I see all their dark empty eyes fixed
on the the very soul of spring...
single, fierce below the narcissus-scented angel's wing
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