easiest/ hardest thing to do...relax

[manitou]

some years back we had a trailer down in Baja California, south of Ensenada. We decided to paint the old thing on one vacation down there.

 

We worked real hard in the morning on the trailer, then walked down to the beach and just relaxed in the afternoon. We did this every day for a couple weeks.

 

Wow. I have never been more relaxed than that. Sometimes I think it was because of the slight amount of structure - painting the trailer - combined with nothing else to do in the immediate area. By the end of the two weeks we were on nature's schedule, getting up and going down with the sun. The sense of BALANCE was immediate, after a time.

 

It was so humble. The trailer was so humble. the trailer park was really humble. That was part of it too - being barefoot in the Mexican dirt - interacting with the kids in the Mexican community that lived right there.

 

We both felt like about 17 years old by the end of the vacation.

[Rara]

some years back we had a trailer down in Baja California, south of Ensenada. We decided to paint the old thing on one vacation down there.

 

We worked real hard in the morning on the trailer, then walked down to the beach and just relaxed in the afternoon. We did this every day for a couple weeks.

 

Wow. I have never been more relaxed than that. Sometimes I think it was because of the slight amount of structure - painting the trailer - combined with nothing else to do in the immediate area. By the end of the two weeks we were on nature's schedule, getting up and going down with the sun. The sense of BALANCE was immediate, after a time.

 

It was so humble. The trailer was so humble. the trailer park was really humble. That was part of it too - being barefoot in the Mexican dirt - interacting with the kids in the Mexican community that lived right there.

 

We both felt like about 17 years old by the end of the vacation.

The balance between hard work and relaxing is the best feeling.

 

Question is, were you tense while you were working?

[manitou]

No, I don't recall being tense at all. Just hard work in the hot sun.

 

I'm retired, and I have no particular schedule. I've noticed that on the days when I've put a little structure into the day (like planning to mow the grass, trim the bushes, etc) my days have less stress in them.

 

I was one of those kids whose folks were real pushers. Pushing overachievement, always. When i would be merely sitting in a chair, my father would immediately make me get up and "DO SOMETHING! IMPROVE YOUR MIND! CREATE SOMETHING!" The man was a 6'4" cop and real intimidating. This created an anxiety in me from real early on.

 

I do believe that that same knot in the stomach, the knot that Amoyaan referred to, has been with me since early childhood too. Relieving the knot, which is always there - is a function of consciously removing the knot by deep breathing and disengaging every muscle I can without hitting the pavement. I wish that knot of anxiety was not there. But I'm pretty sure it will be with me ad infinitum - I have just learned to manage it. How to get to the point where it's not there at all? My guess would be that if I were serious about Qigong, martial arts training, etc, it would go a long way to alleviating the physical lump.

 

The only thing that really gets rid of it is a Lot Of Physical Work. But it's there again the next morning. Just a general, hovering anxiety. Lack of trust in the universe?

 

So this is my default position. Each day, sometimes hourly, sometimes more often than that - I seem to be engaged in the physical process of removing the lump. My inner visions, my inner learning and/or wisdom are the thing that I know "should" be able to remove it. To know that We (or I) am the Manifester should go a long way to removing the lump. After all, if we are the Manifester, what's to worry about?

 

What I know after walking this path for eons, it seems - is that the assuredness that the Universe is truly a "friendly" place would be with me 24/7 by now. This is my goal, apparently. But i've a ways to go to have my inner body (the knot) align with what I know to be my truth. This is a merger that doesn't seem to happen overnight. It seems that it must be 'lived' for a period of time, or at least in my particular case. That life seems to be a big proving ground for us, to Prove to Ourselves that all is One - and if that mindset can be maintained (and the knot removed!), bliss ensues.

 

Bliss is almost like the absence of anxiety.

[fugue]

"Bliss is almost like the absence of anxiety", I love this!

[Brian]

The balance between hard work and relaxing is the best feeling.

 

Question is, were you tense while you were working?

Tense enough, I suspect.

 

[fluidity]

Let me ask, do you guys find that releasing The Knot results in the lower dan tian opening up and suddenly deep breathing becoming easy?


I cultivated this state for a few days. As has been said, the knot is like a whirlpool which attracts every possible stressor and they all form the knot.

From that brief few weeks of experience, I found that it was possible to remain unknotted. But here's the catch. The knot is like a newborn baby, the slightest stressor will set it off. Isn't it funny that Lao Tzu writes in the Tao Te Ching, are you ready to become like a newborn baby?

[#10]
Can you coax your mind from its wandering
and keep to the original oneness?
Can you let your body become
supple as a newborn child's?
Can you cleanse your inner vision
until you see nothing but the light?
Can you love people and lead them
without imposing your will?
Can you deal with the most vital matters
by letting events take their course?
Can you step back from your own mind
and thus understand all things?

Giving birth and nourishing,
having without possessing,
acting with no expectations,
leading and not trying to control:
this is the supreme virtue.




And these precepts are what I found to be the essence of the knot. Any attachment triggers the knot. Incredible, is it not? But this acting without expectation, it may perhaps include acting without the expectation of not getting hurt! Fundamentally the knot is there to stop you getting hurt in some deep perceived fashion, whether emotionally or physically. Physically it is as if the knot is a limiter on the dynamic range of the human beingness - when it is removed you can act in loud, confident ways that are physically impossible with it engaged!



There is a meditation I developed out of this. It works for dream states and waking states. In the dream state it results in taking active control of the dream - being lucid, aware, and also it results in cessation of negative dream phenomena - dark entities, fears, paralysis, so on. There is a threshold whereby once it is bypassed, the dream state becomes filled with bliss, intrinsically ecstatic, deep rest is attained.


One very interesting thing is that when the knot is removed correctly, at night you may happen to feel the body squirt fluid into a certain chamber in the central part of the brain! This fluid is literally felt as a squirt, to be crude it is literally like something ejaculates inwards into the cavity. This fluid is felt to be exceedingly cool and refreshing and it feels so as to wash out the brain and a sensation of clarity and release is experienced when it finishes. I used to wait every night during this phase to feel this. Here is a potential connection - the glymphatic system; this might in fact be the very fluid in question.


Anyway, back to the meditation. When awake, the primary result of the meditation is a direct action unto this knot - each breath is felt to unknot it so long as it is sustained.

How is the meditation done? Very simply, you will notice that each thought elicits a directly corresponding system-wide reaction in the body. Now, *either* stress hormones are secreted OR relaxation hormones are secreted. If you are keen, you already grasp the full essence of the meditation from this description. What you wish to do is to disconnect the thought-reaction impulse. There is a neural circuit which seems to mediate this Thought<=>Tension impulse and we want to actively work on this to switch it off.


Consider: nerves that fire together, wire together. Whatever we do, we strengthen the neural connections thereby rendering it easier. Bad if you do stress, great if you do happy! The knot in fact has a clear neurological origin. There are two amygdalas, the left and the right. This organ is responsible for raw hardware level impulses - fight or flight, desire, semi-reflex actions, so on.

So we want the left amygdala connection to strengthen, and the right amygdala connection to either weaken or stay dormant, I am not sure which occurs with meditation here and it does not matter too much.

 

So again, how is the meditation done? Well, you identify the two opposing flows of energy. You will find each and every thought, however subtle will trigger the circuit. Each and every time you will identify the energy flowing one direction or the other: tightening or releasing. If you have no meditation practice then identifying this will be hard. But by practicing Insight meditation (Vipassana), you peel back the layers of the Self enough to finally see this in front of you.



Regardless, when you identify the two opposing flows, it is as simple as flowing your mind in the releasing direction. Again and again and again. In fact it took me thousands of changes of direction per day and it might take you the same, the mind is relentless. Flowing the mind in the releasing direction is something you learn by doing it, learnt with trial and error as you keep trying and start making fewer and fewer errors. It is an internal teaching, you are teaching your body that it's OK, that everything is fine. At its essence, this is what it is, this is the very knot itself - the idea that "everything is not quite OK so I must tense". So this is the meditation, every time a thought elicits stress-response, you release the clutch. You let it go. It is a physical process, it is a directly felt action. I guess this is where non-action originated, some genius identified this early on in history. While they had to describe it in vague terms like "do without doing", we can cut open a hypothetical brain now, and point to the bit that's the issue. How excellent!

 

 

 

I will add, at some point during this unknot practice, Samadhi arises. You can fall asleep inside your own body. Deeply awake to the outside world, fast asleep within - this is like the reverse of Yoga Nidra. Breathing from the heels, you fall asleep into the rhythm of the breath. By the time you enter this state, breathing will no longer feel like what you know as breathing. Rather you will be actively feeling the breath/prana making purposeful rhythmic motions up and down your body, and you will physically feel the lightness of the breath orbiting the body (MCO). It is a truly stupendously amazing sensation when you enter this mode. You can harness prana in and out of your body - for the tense person, prana is like a volatile gas that quickly dissipates and disappears; for the one in deep relaxation the prana takes on a viscous, almost liquid state where it is felt to have momentum and mass. If you can enter such a state you will be able to collect prana, condense it into a ball, and do stuff with the ball; the ball will have physical mass, momentum and effect.


The harmala alkaloids are very useful for developing the awareness of the knot. Found in syrian rue and b.caapi (ayahuasca), they light up the pranic pathways and present a kind of grace, a leeway in the meditation such that where efforts were tight and narrow and indeed precarious, they become relaxed and spacious, indeed efficacious.


As with all things, this too must be constantly cultivated and maintained. Real life took over and I dropped out of trying this stuff. It takes a lot of effort ironically, to relax. When real life returns to fanta sea, I will hopefully start again. I know now, the body is a breath machine at its root. The true essence of the body is the breath and think how few amongst mankind have ever found the true power of the breath!

Edited June 3, 2014 by fluidity

[Mark Foote]

Would that be this knot?

 

[johndoe2012]

That knot I find gets triggered by effort and also energies which are forceful.

 

This is why going the way of non effort for me is better.

[johndoe2012]

Manitou

 

That anxiety is caused by the life forced being suppressed in my opinion.

 

Creating - that is moving with life - releases that bit by bit it seems for me.

 

So coming into the flow of life by inner guidance of the impulses naturally occuring I find better than sitting still and suppressing myself.

[manitou]

Manitou

 

That anxiety is caused by the life forced being suppressed in my opinion.

 

Creating - that is moving with life - releases that bit by bit it seems for me.

 

So coming into the flow of life by inner guidance of the impulses naturally occuring I find better than sitting still and suppressing myself.

 

 

Yes, creating 'stops the world' and the knot is gone.

 

i'm not identifying so much with the sitting still and suppressing myself reference. It doesn't seem to be that sort of thing. It's something I wake up with in the morning, it's there. Until I take steps to remove it. The general hovering anxiety of 'not doing something I'm supposed to be doing', the direct life conditioning of the young years. I do note that, as I've had to do this for years now (relax the beast) it does get slightly better over the years - but very slowly.

 

Oh yes - there are many moments of beauty and bliss where it's not there. Those are the moments when the Awareness is 'ahead' of the body reaction. But when I allow the illusions of life to be in the front and forget to be in Awareness, this is when the knot always goes to its default position - clenched.

 

I use it now as my Advisor. It lets me know when I'm not in the zone. It's similar to a shaman using 'death as an advisor'....to be in continual (as much as possible) awareness that this breath may be the last. To appreciate everything more.

[amoyaan]

At its essence, this is what it is, this is the very knot itself - the idea that "everything is not quite OK so I must tense".

 

Great post and very interesting. "The knot" is the perfect term for it, i think. Like a clenched fist constricting the gut. I think for most people this knot is totally subconscious, they aren't really aware of it consciously, but the moment I discovered it it was a revelation. It's just an energy...or a conglomeration of energy, and it can be observed, dis-indentified from and worked with. Still exploring this. It's definitely nowhere near as strong or pervasive as it was.

[manitou]

Great post and very interesting. "The knot" is the perfect term for it, i think. Like a clenched fist constricting the gut. I think for most people this knot is totally subconscious, they aren't really aware of it consciously, but the moment I discovered it it was a revelation. It's just an energy...or a conglomeration of energy, and it can be observed, dis-indentified from and worked with. Still exploring this. It's definitely nowhere near as strong or pervasive as it was.

 

I think it is a revelation to know it's there. Slow steady progress is all we can ask for, IMO.

[Mark Foote]

One of the things that comes back to me in odd moments is the description of the ilio-lumbar ligaments in Anatomy in Movement by Blandine Calais-Germain; the ilio-lumbars are in two sets, one from the pelvis to the fifth vertebrae running horizontally, the other from the pelvis to the fourth vertebrae running vertically. I can't shake the notion that the horizontal ligaments support the lower spine in exhalation, while the vertical set support the spine in inhalation. I can sometimes relax my center of balance a little forward and down in exhalation and find my breath; sometimes upward against the spine in inhalation for the same. The knot that holds the key to my breath, literally, while my breath holds the key to the knot.

 

That's what I think the Egyptian illustration is about, too, the ilio-lumbar ligaments and how they engage. The god Hapi on both sides represents involuntary coordination in the movement of breath (I would say).

Edited June 5, 2014 by Mark Foote

[Horus]

Nice topic. Yes, relaxation is good; tension is bad.

 

Agreed, but tension can be useful to help one relax...

 

DynamicTension Relaxation method releases tension with tension & relaxation.

 

When you breathe in and tense, then release it with the breath, it takes you into a deeper relaxation - so deep you can leave the body when you master it (die without dying).

 

So, tension's not all bad

 

I guess it depends on your intension.

[silent thunder]

Agreed, but tension can be useful to help one relax...

 

DynamicTension Relaxation method releases tension with tension & relaxation.

 

When you breathe in and tense, then release it with the breath, it takes you into a deeper relaxation - so deep you can leave the body when you master it (die without dying).

 

So, tension's not all bad

 

I guess it depends on your intension.

I like this method... using the inertia of the tension to expand the release cycle.

[Rara]

No, I don't recall being tense at all. Just hard work in the hot sun.

 

I'm retired, and I have no particular schedule. I've noticed that on the days when I've put a little structure into the day (like planning to mow the grass, trim the bushes, etc) my days have less stress in them.

 

I was one of those kids whose folks were real pushers. Pushing overachievement, always. When i would be merely sitting in a chair, my father would immediately make me get up and "DO SOMETHING! IMPROVE YOUR MIND! CREATE SOMETHING!" The man was a 6'4" cop and real intimidating. This created an anxiety in me from real early on.

 

I do believe that that same knot in the stomach, the knot that Amoyaan referred to, has been with me since early childhood too. Relieving the knot, which is always there - is a function of consciously removing the knot by deep breathing and disengaging every muscle I can without hitting the pavement. I wish that knot of anxiety was not there. But I'm pretty sure it will be with me ad infinitum - I have just learned to manage it. How to get to the point where it's not there at all? My guess would be that if I were serious about Qigong, martial arts training, etc, it would go a long way to alleviating the physical lump.

 

The only thing that really gets rid of it is a Lot Of Physical Work. But it's there again the next morning. Just a general, hovering anxiety. Lack of trust in the universe?

 

So this is my default position. Each day, sometimes hourly, sometimes more often than that - I seem to be engaged in the physical process of removing the lump. My inner visions, my inner learning and/or wisdom are the thing that I know "should" be able to remove it. To know that We (or I) am the Manifester should go a long way to removing the lump. After all, if we are the Manifester, what's to worry about?

 

What I know after walking this path for eons, it seems - is that the assuredness that the Universe is truly a "friendly" place would be with me 24/7 by now. This is my goal, apparently. But i've a ways to go to have my inner body (the knot) align with what I know to be my truth. This is a merger that doesn't seem to happen overnight. It seems that it must be 'lived' for a period of time, or at least in my particular case. That life seems to be a big proving ground for us, to Prove to Ourselves that all is One - and if that mindset can be maintained (and the knot removed!), bliss ensues.

 

Bliss is almost like the absence of anxiety.

I've come to learn that both paths are as valid as each other.

 

I've usually been quite wired...as a kid, very hyperactive and to this day, I get fulfilment from finding things to do. I enjoy schedules, challenging myself and doing things to "improve my mind".

 

Without learning new things, improving skill sets, going onto new adventures, I find I'm not living up to my potential.

 

That said, I went through a period in which an easy, unplanned and poorer life was very good for me. I learnt that career, family stress, falling behind in some things because I took too much on, was not the be all end all. I had a wonderful change where I would just get up and do what I felt like...I felt so free.

 

But I also realised that as the days went by, life was also passing me by. So I decided to go back into my super-productive life.

 

I will retire myself one day...then I will have plenty more days at my disposal to enjoy that other good life

[manitou]

One of the things that comes back to me in odd moments is the description of the ilio-lumbar ligaments in Anatomy in Movement by Blandine Calais-Germain; the ilio-lumbars are in two sets, one from the pelvis to the fifth vertebrae running horizontally, the other from the pelvis to the fourth vertebrae running vertically. I can't shake the notion that the horizontal ligaments support the lower spine in exhalation, while the vertical set support the spine in inhalation. I can sometimes relax my center of balance a little forward and down in exhalation and find my breath; sometimes upward against the spine in inhalation for the same. The knot that holds the key to my breath, literally, while my breath holds the key to the knot.

 

That's what I think the Egyptian illustration is about, too, the ilio-lumbar ligaments and how they engage. The god Hapi on both sides represents involuntary coordination in the movement of breath (I would say).

 

 

maybe you've located the very yin/yang place within us. the place where it is the seat of tension because of its the crux of the yin yang dynamic, the tension (or grip) that keeps the whole thing operating. The design of the taiji symbol (yin yang) has always reminded me of a sort of perpetual motion design, wherein the force for motion is exerted and works because the light has a remnant of the dark in it, and the dark has a remnant of the light in it also, each pulling the other along.

 

I agree that breath is the key to the knot.

 

I've also wondered whether this knot phenomenon isn't the same as Castaneda's 'assemblage point'. In his version, the assemblage point (of electrical currents in the energy body) is located about 2 feet behind the upper/middle back. The knot I speak of does seem to have two noticeable locations that it inhabits - the one at the top of the stomach and behind the sternum, and yet also somehow behind me (in some other dimension, but 'feel-able' all the same.

[GrandmasterP]

A week at the beach is a great way to relax.

Barefoot QiGong on the sand as the sun comes up.

Pretty darn good.

Edited June 6, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[johndoe2012]

Consider: nerves that fire together, wire together. Whatever we do, we strengthen the neural connections thereby rendering it easier. Bad if you do stress, great if you do happy! The knot in fact has a clear neurological origin. There are two amygdalas, the left and the right. This organ is responsible for raw hardware level impulses - fight or flight, desire, semi-reflex actions, so on.

 

 

So we want the left amygdala connection to strengthen, and the right amygdala connection to either weaken or stay dormant, I am not sure which occurs with meditation here and it does not matter too much.

 

This was a good video I liked it.

 

From what I understood there needs to be created a "force" / energy to go from the right to the left amygdala to get enlightened.

 

It seems that this is what happens when the energy centers open up and the energy goes up in the head.

 

I have heard of one kind of enlightenment happen where the energy was very gentle and smooth. I understand this is when it happens by the body's own energy and not from external energy like in neigong.

 

The thought / tension loop seems to stop at a certain point when one is completely unattached just by watching one's thoughts.

 

That one should be completely unaffected by emotions as in dzogchen by letting them release makes the energy go from the right to the left amygdala - so emotions in this context help one wake up.