But a bird should not try to surpass
itself and fly into the sun; it should descend to the earth, where its nest is.
Hexagram
62. Hsiao Kuo, Book of Changes
It took me some time to see the extraordinary nature of the Alexander Technique. On one level the Technique is a very small thing. On another level it is priceless.
Is there a difference between cutting a slice of bread, opening a door, walking down the street mechanically, daydreaming, and undertaking the same activities cultivating an awareness of sensation?
What is the difference between a man walking along a footpath, letting go towards the deepening relationship of sensing and witnessing of that sensing, and another walking along the same street outside of this step? The essence of such a movement is sacred for it allows experiencing of the life within and the taking of impressions.([1])
The shift between the two states of being there and not being there is minute, and yet the gulf between them is immense. Mr Macdonald would sometimes say, “This is closer to you than your next breath, but further away than the moon.” It seems such a little thing, an effortless effort([2]) that takes years to learn.
A Zen master, when once asked how best to live, replied, “When hungry I eat. When tired I sleep.”([3]) Yet have you tried to eat without listening to the radio, watching the television, reading the newspaper or what is written on the packet of corn flakes? Can one eat because one has a need to eat, and to do so without anxiety, worry, or other distractions.
It is beneficial to ask ourselves: where is up, and where are we going if we are not growing upwards? It may seem an odd question, but it is so that many people no longer know where up is. And those who may have been shown or experienced the direction all too often forget.
Many times Mr Macdonald would ask us: “Where is up?” To emphasise the point, he would request that the person he was addressing indicate with a finger the upward direction.
Here it may be appropriate to say that there is a down force([4]) which has a vital part to play in the search for a balance within the body. Although the down force is necessary, Mr MacDonald observed that this downwards force in most people has become dangerously predominant and it is essential to draw it into harmonious relationship with other forces in the spine. [Lack one lacks both-Whitman].
In many traditions the pupil is counselled to cultivate a low centre of gravity, with the attention focused below the navel. The vital centre of gravity([5]) for both the Chinese and Japanese martial arts is in the belly. In the Middle Eastern Dance form Raqs Sharqi, there is a low centre of gravity in the abdomen with flexibility in the “floating spine.”([6]) This centring allows for a balancing between the up and the down to take place.
Psychologically it is alright, even necessary to go down as long as we begin to understand what the down is about and so gain benefit from the downward journey. Not being aware, however, we tend to waste those opportunities when we are taken down, or even more dangerously, in our attempts to avoid the down, we may try to take ourselves up artificially, which may lead to among other stations, oppressive verticality. We cannot stay up all the time and attempting to do so is a pursuit of fool’s gold.
Rhazis([7]) wrote in the Light of Lights: “Heavy things cannot be made to ascend save by alliance with light things, nor can light things be brought down to the depths save by combination with the heavy.”([8])
When it was appropriate to do so, Mr Macdonald showed, through the application of the hands on the head and back of a pupil, how to apply downward pressure to the body, thus encouraging a flow upwards in the spine of the pupil. This is not easy to carry out in teaching-practice, however, and it is best not attempted without a good deal of guidance and preparation.
In her book, Old Age - Journey Into Simplicity,([9]) Helen Luke devotes a chapter to suffering. She indicates that the precise meaning of the word “suffering” has been lost. The root of the word is the Latin ferre which means, “to bear,” and the word “suffer” derives from it. We have to bear up against the legitimate force pulling us down. To go up against that which bears down calls for intelligent suffering and not for that which masquerades as suffering. [There are levels to suffering. There are many different kinds of suffering. So much of our suffering however intense or ‘black’ it may be is entirely subjective.] We have to suffer as it were to let go of what we call our suffering; then we may begin to come into the awareness of how much “It” is suffering to keep the way open for us.
To move up into that space which is being kept open, we need to learn to stretch in such a way that we open effectively. One can open in all directions but it may not be of much use. It is essential to open upwards, while at the same time remaining grounded. The more one grows upwards, the more weight one has to bear.
While training in Alexander Technique, I had noticed in class that my fellow students seemed to become lighter in their bodies as the months and years passed. On my graduation day, Mr Macdonald asked me on whom I wished to work. As it was a special time, I asked to put my hands upon him.
I expected him to be as light as a feather. It came as a surprise that he was nothing of the sort. Indeed, the weight I felt was like no other that I had experienced. It was not the usual body weight; it was not a “dead weight.” Neither, for that matter, was it the weight you experience when you lift heavy materials such as coal, iron, or cement. It was heavier than all of these, yet pervaded with a lightness, which by its very nature, indicated weight beyond measure, the weight of Being.
One has to take care in dealing with this weight. It can be deceptive, sometimes giving the illusion that the person within whom it is manifesting is pulling down.([10]) In fact, the opposite is the case. Indeed, in my experience it is those who are too light([11]) who need a few good “shovels of earth” in the belly as an aid to internal stability.
Some may be familiar with the story of Saint Christopher,([12]) deemed to be the patron saint of travellers. He was a ferryman, his daily labour guiding people across a river. One evening, when he had finished his day’s work, a child came along the road to the crossing point on the bank of the swollen river opposite to where Christopher stood. The child called out to the ferryman to bring him over. Christopher, known for his height and strength, waded across the water, placed the child upon his shoulder, and began the return journey. Initially, the weight of the child was easy and light. With each step, however, the weight that he was carrying became heavier, and Christopher, for all of his great strength, began to stumble. By mid-stream the weight had become so overwhelming that he felt that he would soon collapse under its burden. He asked the child who he was, and the child replied, “I am the light of the World.” The story has it that, with the aid of the child, Saint Christopher safely made the crossing.
This tale hints to us something of the mystery of returning, the interplay between “the light” and “the heavy” and the reconciling which needs to take place within ourselves of both these forces. And though on one level, we can never be light enough, often in our misguided attempts to improve ourselves, we yearn for and sometimes acquire a lightness that “feels nice” but which lacks foundation and force.
The Christian mystic St John of the Cross warns us in ‘Dark Night of the Soul’ not to be taken by ‘the sweetness’ of spiritual exercises.
“For many of these (beginners), lured by the sweetness and pleasure which they find in such exercises, strive more after spiritual sweetness than after spiritual purity and discretion, which is that which God regards and accepts throughout the spiritual journey.”([13])
This discretion is not possible unless one has reason. And a reasoning mind entails a much more wholesome use of the organism than that required for logical mentation. The purity that St. John speaks of is brought about by entering into the fire of love.
“That fire separateth those things that are unlike and bringeth together those things that are like.”([14])
Extracting or separating what is pure from the impure is an extremely subtle psychological process, which takes many years to accomplish. This is an important stage of the work. Psychologically, too much ‘fire’ in the case of the inner work and the pupil can be left damaged or even destroyed, too much ‘water’ and the pupil emerges weakened. There is a kind of separation that leads to unity, leads to transformation. On the path of awakening accurate guidance is essential; the passage is then possible.
“We have passed through fire and water, and thou hast brought us forth into rest and refreshment”([15])
Throughout the ages it has been indicated that the body is the origin of all cosmologies. Its structure offers definition to the six major directions (including the four cardinal),([16]) the three co-ordinate axes of space intersect at its centre, the omphalós([17]) symbolising the navel of the earth. One needs to discover how to be, as it were, between up and down, left and right, forward and back. When the body is used properly, one discovers that it is possible to “fall upwards,” to fall upwards into a state of relaxation which is there, waiting to receive us, as Mr Macdonald among others said to me.([18]) Falling upwards is a paradox, yet it is through paradox, which remains a treasured spiritual possession, that we can come anywhere close to understanding the wholeness of life.([19])
This effortless effort of falling upwards calls for, among other things: freedom of the neck, lengthening in the spine, widening of the back, opening knees, releasing ankles, heels well down, allowing the breath to enter without interference. In letting go into this type of falling, we may meet something finer coming down from above to help us.
It is not easy to stay back and up. There are all manner of forces and attractions, which pull us forward and down. The demands of life often necessitate that we move forward; however, it is possible, by moments, to receive a free neck, remain connected to the back, be centred in the belly, and have a spring in the step, because the spring of the spine is operating as nature intended.
Is it possible to return to a childhood place, or enter familiar or unfamiliar surroundings with attention to the moment? Should we apply ourselves to the discipline of sensing the body, [whatever the external conditions] and maintaining an awareness of that sense, we may,
… arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, remembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning…([20])
[1] Sensation in itself is not the end of the matter, but it is indicative of an inner relationship to which there are levels and qualities.
[2] “Effort only has a place if it leads to a mystery called non-effort, and then if for a short instant one’s perception is transformed, this is a act of grace. Although grace cannot be obtained it can sometimes be granted.” Peter Brook Threads Of Time A Memoir Methuen Drama (London) 1998, P.126.
[3] This saying is attributed to Po-Chang. See Alan Watts The Way of Zen Penguin Books, 1962. P.119
[4] There is an organic downward direction of energy, known in contemporary science as geotropism. The existence of this force is essential for growing upwards.
[5]
In 1686 Isaac Newtown’s (1643–1727) treatise entitles Philosophiae Naturalis Principia
Mathematica was presented to the Royal Society. The mathematical
work presented Newton’s laws of motion and his inverse square law of
gravitational attraction. The presentation and subsequent publication of
Newton’s work was not without controversy as Robert Hooke (1635–1703)
claimed to have published a clear statement of planetary motion and
gravitational attraction in 1674. (For a view of this controversy see The Curious Life of Robert Hooke Lisa Jardine, London, Harper Perennial
2003.)
Generally gravity may be expressed as — the force or influence which
pulls one object towards another because of its mass. Our understanding of
gravity a force which is always with us is limited. According to Einstein’s
theory which supplanted Issac Newton’s insight, gravity causes a curvature in
the phenomenon known as spacetime, the medium in which matter floats. According
to Professor Rainer Weiss physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology “gravitational waves causes a simultaneous stretching and
contraction of spacetime.” Although
Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves, their existence have
remained a theoretical possibility. With the recent activation of an instrument
called the laser interferometer gravitational wave observatory (Ligo), in the
USA which can detect disturbances
down to a thousandth of an atomic nucleus the actual existence of such waves
may be proven.
[6] See Suraya Hilal, Divine Rites, Raqs Sharqui, Egyptian dance and music.
[7] The authorship of “Lumen Luminum,” is credited by some scholars to the Arabian Alchemist, physician and philosopher Rhazis, (al-Razi) (‘the man of Ray’), Rasis in Latin, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya Al-Razi (c.825–c.924) Others consider it the work of Aristotle. Rhazis is credited with introducing into chemistry the necessity of weighing matter. One of his maxims was “A little bit, that makes the whole difference.”
[8]
“That which is below is as that which is above, and that which is above is as
that which is below”; but, to understand this formula and to apply it
correctly, it is necessary to relate it to the “Seal of Solomon,” composed of
two triangles which are placed in opposite directions, the one from the other.”
See Rene Guenon, Man and His Becoming, Chapter 1, Generalities concerning the
Vedanta.
The De Profundis and
the Miserere are
finely expressed by St. John of the Cross in his poem ‘Upon love’s chase I went my way’:
The
further upward did I go
In this great chase of love so high,
The baser, humbler soul was I,
The more exhausted did I grow.
‘No hope of conquest!’ did I say,
But as I sank so low, so low,
So high, so high did upward go,…………
[9] Helen M. Luke, Old Age, Journey into Simplicity. Parabla Books 1987.
[10] An oblique criticism of Mr Macdonald in this regard can be found in An Interview with Peggy Williams a pamphlet compiled by Glen Park, Trojan, May 1982., P.6. It is often the case that when students first encounter something of this weight within the body they experience it as something very gross, a variation of pulling down, which needs a lot of work to be corrected.
[11] ‘dark with excessive bright’. Milton, Paradise Lost Bk III 380
[12] Many stories offer account as to how the name Christopher came into being. The one I relate is associated with a third century marytr who may have first borne the name Reprobus. Later his name was changed to Christopher which in Greek means ‘Christ-bearer.’ For a version of the Legend of St. Christopher see pps 168–172 in The Art of the Story Teller by Marie L. Shedlock Dover Publications 1951. Christopher is said to have died at Lycia around 251 A.D. See also John Delaney’s Dictionary of Saints Doubleday 1983.
[13] St. John of the Cross Dark Night of the Soul, Book I, Chapter VI.
[14]
Quod ignis separat heterogenus et
cumulat homogenea. Aurora Consurgens IX. The Fourth Parable: Of the Philosophic
Faith.
“In order to be able to find one’s place in the infinity of being, one must be
able to separate and to unite.” I Ching, Book of Changes, 3. Chun,
The Image. The Richard Wilhelm translation.
[15] Transivimus per ignem et aquam, eduxisti nos in requiem et refrigerium. Ibid. Psalm 66:12
[16] Influenced by the Etruscans the Romans laid out their streets from the axis of the north-south (cardo) and east -west (decmanus) roads. The wider meaning of cardo, from which we derive the term cardinal, related to the hinge of conduct necessary for a stable relationship. The four virtues of good conduct were justice, fortitude, temperance, and prudence.
[17]
Anatomically pertaining to, or connecting, the navel and the mesentery. In
Greek mythology a sacred stone in the temple of Apollo at Delphi in Greece. A
mythic mnemonic for the four directions, the crossing place of the flightpaths
of the two eagles sent by Zeus to locate the centre of the world. Apollo,
originally a god of light was the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin brother of
Artemis. In fairy tales the centre of the world is “between the two feet of the
person who cares to be centred.” Elliot B. Gose, Jr., Irish
Wonder Tale An Introduction To The Study Of Fairy Tales Brandon
(Dingle, Ireland), 1985, P. 151. See also Ch. VII The Centre in Celtic Heritage by
Alwyn Rees and Brinley Rees Thames and Hudson 1961.
Navel Old English nafela related
to Sanskrit nabhila, and
Latin umbilicus. The
centre or central point of anything.
“It was clear to me, even if I could not rationally explain it, that yajña is the heart of
any spiritual discipline. The usual translation of this as ‘sacrifice’ is not
quite adequate. I understood that it is much to do with an exchange of energies
between levels. Many years earlier I had read the remark of a great sage in the
Rig Veda that “Yajña is the navel of
the world, around which the whole cosmos turns.” Until now I had not understood
what this meant.” Ravi Ravindra Heart
without Measure Work with Madame
de Salzmann Shaila Press Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1999, pps 92–93.
[18] Shaikh Muhammad Karim Khan Kirmani wrote “he breathes deeply; he is freed from the restrictions that stifled him; he gives himself up to relaxation in immense tranquillity; at last he breathes freely.” Spiritual Directives for the Use of the Faithful, Kirman, 1354/1935, Vol II, Part 3, 274–275.
[19] Paradox in etymology from late Latin paradoxum . The word is composed of the preposition para which means “against” conjoined to the noun stem doxa, meaning “belief”. The liar paradox and other paradoxes were studied in medieval times under the heading insolubilia.
[20] T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets, Little Gidding V. Eliot echoes the first epistle of John 1.1 ‘That which has existed from the beginning, that we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have looked upon, and touched with our hands, of the Word of life;’