Learning to turn off autopilot.
(The work in a nutshell.)

Exploring Emptiness & Silence

A mind
conducive
to energy

In meditation practice, we neither hold the mind very tightly nor let it go completely. If we try to control the mind, then its energy will rebound back on us. If we let the mind go completely, then it will become very wild and chaotic. So we let the mind go, but at the same time there is some discipline involved. The techniques used in the Buddhist tradition are extremely simple. Awareness of bodily movement, breath, and one’s physical situation are techniques common to all traditions. The basic practice is to be present, right here. The goal is also the technique. Precisely being in this moment, neither suppressing nor wildly letting go, but being precisely aware of what you are. Breath, like bodily existence, is a neutral process which has no “spiritual” connotations. We simply become mindful of its natural functioning. This is called samatha practice.

—Chögyam Trungpa

Once, having a difficult time pushing hands with my teacher, he lost his patience and yelled:
—Don't let me stick to you!
—How do I do that? I asked feebly.
He paused then calmly replied:
—You need to change the way you live your life.

As we navigate life we gather maybe a handful of masters – life affirmers – whom we return to whenever we need to be reminded that we have a soul – that we are, first & foremost, creatures of spirit. These could be teachers, writers, artists, performers, friends & family even – people whom you can always count on for inspiration – the proverbial wake-up call.

Yin & Yang unite when the mind stops
This insight comes in flashes as you face fear
These flashes become a steady stream of light
You are truly blessed to know you have no choice
All is energy and everything is in its rightful place
I am with you out of time.

—John Kells

I have adapted this to use as a (silent) chant:

'Yin & 'Yang u'nite
'when the 'mind 'stops

'This 'insight 'flashes
'as you 'face 'fear

'These 'flashes be'come
a 'steady 'stream of 'light

'You are 'truly 'blest
to 'know you 'have no 'choice

'All is 'ener'gy
'in its 'rightful 'place

'I am 'with 'you
'out 'of 'time.

(Apostrophes precede a stressed syllable.)

Each line has three beats (triple time) or can be ended with an added silent beat to give common time. The first line of each verse is the in-breath and the second line the out-breath.

eschew a life
impoverished
by certitude

Montaigne puts not self-satisfied understanding but a consciousness astonished at itself at the core of human existence.

—Maurice Merleau-Ponty

We are hunters.
Hunting for spirit with spirit.

Work in such a way that action & passion are barely discernible.

always return with spirit

always return to spirit

on the edge
of your seat

THE JEWEL

There is this cave
In the air behind my body
That nobody is going to touch:
A cloister, a silence
Closing around a blossom of fire.
When I stand upright in the wind,
My bones turn to dark emeralds.


—James Wright

Eventually, after half a lifetime struggling away, you realise it's all vanity & folly, and you're going to fail (miserably, joyfully – it's your choice) but you continue anyway because it's the only way to live – heroically, selflessly, impeccably – catching occasional glimpses beyond the mundane world.

always alive
to the
possibility

The secret of life?
Never stop delving.

When mind stops thinking it becomes an energy we call awareness.

Following the introjection of external emotions (atmospheres), the world appears neutralised and tragically devoid of all that pathically “moves” human beings; on the other hand, the soul, thus closed-off, turns into a black box from which the five senses escape always only “on parole”, testifying the outside world in a weak way.

—Tonino Griffero

Force is directed by the will
Energy is sparked by spirit

Meditation is the most effective & reliable tool to regain equilibrium & composure.

She was slowly straying from that zone where things have a set shape and edges, where everything has a solid, immutable name. She was sinking deeper into the liquid, quiet, unfathomable region, where mists hung as vague and cool as those of the dawn.

—Clarice Lispector, Near to the Wild Heart

Mankind's greatest technological achievement was not the plough or the wheel or the clock or the computer but the Ego. To pull the mind into the head and separate it from Mind-at-large (creating subject & object) was a bold move akin to Lucifer's withdrawal from God (was this Adam's Fall from Grace?) and I'm sure when we first learned to do it it was a temporary useful stunt. The trouble is the world it enabled us to create is so intoxicating that we no longer know how to slip out of Ego and back into Mind-at-large.

Mind is not in the body
The body is in the mind

Working mindfully – slowly, deliberately, intentionally – frees mind, body, spirit for real spontaneity & speed. One of the many paradoxes of Taiji. (Musicians understand.)

When man discovered the mirror, he began to lose his soul.

—Émile Durkheim