Okay,
I want to do a practice with you as a seated Qigong Neigong practice.
Now,
Some of you may have done this practice with me before.
I teach it from time to time.
You've probably done or seen variations of this practice.
It is a spiraling gesture that we're going to do.
We're going to lean forward and do a little bit of a circle here.
I'm doing my Dalai Lama impression right now.
If you've ever sat with a Dalai Lama or seen him,
This is one of the things he,
You know,
He'll sit and talk about Nagarjuna for hours and just be doing this wonderful Qigong practice.
But here's the,
I want to add a dimension to this practice.
This is a feeling practice and it is not about range of motion and moving all over.
We want to keep the sense of the spine not stiff,
But alignment.
And the quality that we're going to have here is this center line drops down and the focal point of this is going to be the base of your pelvis,
The perineum.
Because what we're going to do is have the sense that,
Let's say that where my hands are,
That's the base of your pelvis.
So when I move to one side,
The energy below that base moves to the other side.
When I'm coming forward,
It moves back.
When I move back,
This comes forward.
So there is,
It's like an hourglass or a figure eight that we have.
Again,
This is representing the fulcrum of the base of your spine.
So I can't actually show it like that,
But you can get the idea here.
One side moves,
Alignment,
The other side moves,
One forward,
One back,
And all the dimensions in between.
So we create an energetic grounding connection with the earth as we move the upper body.
This is quite a delightful practice because it moves us out of the natural alignment that we have in stillness.
So that when we come back,
The sense of this natural vertical alignment is even more present.
Here's what we're going to do.
Small range of motion.
The idea in this practice is to feel the movement.
And we're going to begin with that sense of that connection down here.
I just move a little bit forward and then slightly to the side and then slightly to the back.
And let's just get that motion moving just a little bit.
Don't worry about the base so much.
Just feel the alignment,
This moving of the upper body,
What muscles are engaged in this motion.
Always mind your own body,
Listen to your own body.
We're not pushing into resistance or pain with any of this.
Okay,
Now that you have that established,
We'll stay going in this direction for a moment.
But now feel the base of your pelvis,
The perineum,
And feel how that action opens in that bottom part of the hourglass or the inverted V shape.
Stay doing this for a moment.
It's very easy.
Small range of motion,
Small range of motion,
Not big.
Feel,
Relax breath.
Earth connection.
Whether you're seated on the floor,
Seated in a chair,
You kind of feel that the hourglass-like energetic structure,
Head lifts,
All right.
I'm going to small that up and now feel as you gradually return to the stability of your relational field with gravity and that center line.
So you noted that when you lean forward,
You're engaging certain muscles.
When you lean to the side,
You're engaging certain muscles.
Now for the uprightness,
There is that natural lift and alignment that is balanced by the space of the base of your pelvis.
I'm talking about the perineum and that opening out as a ground of stability.
Just rest in that for a moment.
Feel that opening hourglass shape.
So has that 360 dimension here.
Drop your presence of awareness down into the space of the hara and that field that we recognized below the navel,
Just above the pubic bone,
But directly in the core of your body.
Now we're going to move in the opposite direction from how we just spiraled to kind of unwind that.
But this one,
We're going to,
As you lean forward,
You feel that line opening down and back.
And now start to do the opposite direction.
Keep that very small so that you can feel every moment with ease,
Comfort,
Sense of settling,
How the muscles engage there.
Easy in the breath.
Don't hold your breath.
Okay,
We begin to complete this practice by returning for just a moment,
Slowly,
Not suddenly,
To feeling the energetic center line in up and down,
Feeling the plane of spread in the base of the body from the field of the hara opening out spherically.
Rest,
Rest in that sense of natural alignment that has the harmony and balance of the vertical plane opening spherically as the harmony and balance of up and down center line,
Vertical,
The other horizontal,
And that opening into a sphere of life energy all around from above the head,
Underneath your body.
So not in your head,
Drop that presence awareness down to be in the center of the sphere.
The sphere obviously below your body as well.
So there's equal proportions below as there are above.
Just rest in here for,
We're just going to stay here for just one more minute,
Maybe 90 seconds,
Just to have this sense of feeling,
Settling presence.
Centered and centering,
Not as a noun,
As a verb,
Living presence.
These moments relatively stable still,
But not static.
Okay.
What does the world feel like now?
You have cultivated a better sense of center.
What's the world feel like?
It's a kind of a Zen question,
Not a trick question,
A question of genuine import.
One in which we're really considering that from a centered place or from a centering process place that our perception will likely change.
So as we settle and center,
Our sense of self transforms.
This is the nature of the Buddhist understanding of dependent origination.
And that's just the sense of causality and what the impact of actions have and don't have.
And working with our senses,
Working with our mind,
Our heart,
Spirit,
And awareness.
So that's a question and one to genuinely engage with.
