Three Practice Principles

[liminal_luke]

I´d like to propose three practice principles for discussion that I believe are generally applicable across a wide spectrum of cultivation disciplines.  These are ideas that I´m trying to integrate into my practice.

 

(1) Savor the rest periods.

 

Juan Li, an instructor with the Healing Tao, introduced me to the concept of "yin practice."  After any period of yang practice -- actively doing something whether in movement or meditation -- he´d sit for a time and just let things settle.  He instructed his students not to "do" anything during this yin practice period, just be.  

 

In Zapchen, a somatic practice developed by Julie Henderson, there´s the practice of napping.  Who would think of napping as an actual practice?!  Much like Juan Li´s yin practice, napping in Zapchen is the quiet counterpart to more active doings.  First you do something, then you nap.  It´s during the nap that the benefits of the earlier doing integrate in the body.  

 

I think there´s a tendency in our somewhat frenetic get-a-move-on culture to devalue these periods of rest.  But continually going from one doing to another we miss out on a lot of benefit.  It´s important to give our bodies and minds time to process without consious interference on our part.

 

(2) Connect with the lineage.

 

Whatever we´re doing, it´s likely that other people have done it beforehand.  It´s great to be part of an actual flesh-and-bones sangha, to have a teacher and a practice community, but that´s not what I´m getting at here.  I´m talking about connecting with lineage on a subtle meditative level, sort of like prayer.  We could take a moment before or after practice to imagine all those who have gone before -- and those who are practicing with us now in spirit.  We can ask for help and express gratitude.  There´s a huge wellspring of unseen assistance available from our lineages that largely goes untapped if we fail to tune in.

 

(3) Embrace boredom

 

I´m not always the best judge of my own progress; my awareness of what´s going on in my body and mind is necessarily incomplete.  Oftentimes I´ll be bored and think nothing is happening in a practice.  The temptation at these times is to drop the practice and move on to something more likely to create somatic fireworks.  Often what´s needed instead is more faith and more trust.  The benefit of my practices outstrip my conscious awareness.  Just because I feel bored doesn´t mean that nothing´s happening.  Quite the contrary.

[freeform]

On 30/08/2019 at 4:11 PM, liminal_luke said:

(1) Savor the rest periods.

 

Spot on. In most lineage based systems there will always be a fundamental practice - usually a standing form that ‘does nothing’. By does nothing it basically means that it’s a form that is completely balanced and isn’t moving energy in a particular way - just places your body in a state that allows your Qi to move.

 

After every form, you always go back and stand in this fundamental form, this is where the effects of what you were doing work their way through you.

 

In fact the way all Daoist systems work is - they create the cause, and then allow the result to manifest of its own accord.

 

That happens in ‘rest’ period. (Although I think rest as a term has certain connotations that aren’t helpful)

[dwai]

Very sensible and wise points raised there @liminal_luke! 

 

Sitting quietly after practice is essential to assimilate the energies. In the tradition I follow, we usually sit for 10-15 mins after standing/form work etc. 

 

I would add to your second point that along with connecting to a lineage, also connect with the teacher as she/he is teaching. Depending on the lineage, there is a transmission that emanates from the teacher. I think of it like the teacher becomes a radio tower who is radiating lineage information, especially while teaching. When we tune into the teacher’s frequency, we become receivers of that transmission. 

 

One could of of course say, just by following the teacher/copying his/her postures and movements we are doing so. And it is so. However like you pointed out, there is also a subtle energetic/spiritual transmission that occurs too. This gets amplified when we practice in a group as well. Our fields combine and get amplified. The effect is quite palpable when we have several experienced and advanced level practitioners together. The space starts to vibrate at a much higher frequency, and all the stuff that seemed hard becomes easy.

 

the third one is perhaps the most profound. My teachers told/tell me that when we feel we are not progressing is potentially the time when most significant change happens. 

 

Boredom teaches us patience and how to allow change to happen. It teaches us Wu wei.