Freedom is the other side of being a child once

The underbelly of the golden rule

Moshe Feldenkrais talks about:
(In The Potent Self)
if you want to train a bear, first you have to make it dependent; and from there talks a great deal about human childhood’s huge amounts of dependence and how that leads to frightened and constrained living, thinking feeling and moving.

And what does that have to do with the price of beans in Peru?

Everything.

We are meant to be happy, I believe, and this could be right or wrong or just nonsense, or a useful lie. Doesn’t matter, I’ll say it again: we are meant to be happy.

Or saying it another way (I’m a Feldie, if I can do, think, say, feel something at least three ways: I’m not free): the underlying current, if nothing is added on is either peaceful or happy.

Or another: if we are unhappy, or in pain, it’s a grand gift of life to us that we are doing something “wrong,” i.e. we could wake up, shift something and have a “better” life.


Okay: so we are meant to be happy. Dependency is a elusive obvious undercurrent to human development.

Where to go from here?

Enjoy your life and when you don’t, look into dependence being at the root of un-enjoyment. Dependence on an idea, or the way we are using and holding ourselves, dependence on others to make us happy.

And so on

If you’re a Feldie, come up with some variations of this understanding for yourself.





See The Potent Self,  by Moshe Feldenkrais, to learn enjoy and change your life.

The Potent Self