Below the navel day-- enlightenment in Action #1

Day Three:
First Enlightenment in Action—- 
BOTTOM LAYER = Below the navel

Or:

No body = nobody

Enlightenment can be a flaky word, going off into the woods, starving yourself, meditating forever and ever and then “awakening” to the Oneness.

This is cool in a way, and a terrible mistake when some rather monstrous things are happening in the world.

And even worse, you still have your mate to love and who is designed to drive you crazy and “push your buttons,” and off in the woods no one is pushing your buttons, so you don’t learn what is most important in life: how to be happy and to love when things aren’t “going your way.”

So the off in the woods, meditating fervently path of enlightenment, though perhaps useful for some, is not what this book is about.

This book’s idea of enlightenment is: full time (almost) happiness, full time (almost awareness), ease grace and creativity in the world, success in what’s really important in life, and “making a difference” in the Big Picture.

For the purposes of this book enlightenment will always be taking place in everyday life. 

WE ARE GOING TO HAVE FOUR DAYS OF ENLIGHTENMENT IN ACTION:

THE BOTTOM LAYER, below our waist.

THE MIDDLE LAYER, from our waist to our neck. 

The ARM & LEG  & SPINE DAY, of adding the legs and the arms and spine as a complete outline of our body in action, as skeleton, in the world.

The TOP LAYER, from our neck up, and not in the “thinking” mode. The top layer as actually here and now sensations that are in the moment and not dependent on the inner chatter.

In fact, all the above, as present sensory awareness, are a great relief and vacation from that yammering that goes on in our heads.

Let’s make this easy.

Let’s make this soothing.

Let’s make this health producing.

Let’s make this back healing, or improving.

Let’s make this circulation improving.

Let’s make this sex improving, if and when sex is part of your life.

Today is the day of the bottom layer.

A wonderful and wise man I know, who has brought back an amazing 5000 year old energy system from China, has told of a monastery in China with this slogan out front:  

NO BODY = NOBODY

If we aren’t aware of our body, nobody’s at home

Reality is that we are in a body.

Reality is that, unless we are in space, we are in gravity.

Many people speak of “grounding” and are off in space while they are so speaking.

And it’s easy as pie: the Earth is down there, pulling on all of us, and we usually experience that, at least in sitting and standing, coming through our feet and legs and pelvis.

So that’s the fun of today’s game: to get “grounded” as we write gratitudes, and to get “grounded” as we do the sex and breath and health and happiness opening pelvic rocking.

Enlightenment in Action Game #1: Sensing your BOTTOM layer

Better sex, better breathing, better back, a relief from all the stiffness of sitting too much, and a reminder: we are in a body, on the Earth, in gravity, right now.

All we’ll be doing, and it is huge, is add three sets of awareness to the pelvic rocking we did yesterday.

This rocking was like this, so you don’t need to leaf back and find it: 

The rocking goes like this:

1. Pelvis rocking forward on your chair.
2. Breathing in 
3. As you push your belly forward
4. And arch your back
5. And raise your sternum 
6. And look up slightly

Then pause, smile, and go the other way

1. Pelvis rocking backward in your chair
2. Breathing out
3. As you pull your belly in
4. And round your back (as if “slumping” forward)
5. And lower your sternum
6. And look down with nose and eyes toward your chair or your pelvis

Step One: Do the pelvic rocking/ shifting for its own pleasure and your own increased awareness.

Do this a number of times ( six or more) for the ease, delight and pure enjoyment of coordinating your pelvis and your head and your spine and your breath.

This is extremely beneficial to your whole being.

Please feel free to do this many times a day.

And now we add on the BOTTOM LAYER to amp up our awareness of who we are in the body, in this moment, in this real world of ground and gravity.

STEP TWO: Pelvic shifting with awareness in four places below the navel.

Do the pelvic rocking a number of times.

Go through this pattern at least eight times:

For two times, have your awareness on your feet as the grounding part of your body.

For two times, have your awareness on your legs as a big part of your body, and the miracles that walk you around in the world.

For two times, have your awareness on your pelvis as the big bone in your body that is pressing down into the chair/ bench/ rock or whatever you are sitting on.

For two times, have your awareness on “whatever is inside the pelvis.” I’ll leave this to you to sense whatever you can sense in there. Please enjoy how breathing in with your belly and and arching and rounding your back allows you to feel easier and freer and softer in this “inside” area.

Take a pause to sit up easily and breathe and relax, and then return to another eight cycles of pelvic rocking and in/out breathing and spine reversing, with the four sets of attention:

Your feet

Your legs

The pelvis as bone against chair, in gravity

The pelvis as bowl containing…. whatever you can sense. (Don’t have words for it. Just sense what you sense “down there.”)

Then go back to the feet, then legs, then pelvis, then “inside.”

Do this as long as you enjoy it, and then walk around a bit, seeing if you can take this awareness of feet, legs, pelvis and “inside” with you as you walk.

Now, let’s take it out into the world. We walk a lot. Even in offices. And out to our car. And if we are smart and wise, down the street under the blue sky, or at the nearest park within walking distance.

Make getting outside several times a day a top priority in your life.

And here’s STEP THREE:

TAKE A WALK AND KEEP YOUR ATTENTION BELOW THE NAVEL.

Feel your feet as you walk.

Feel how big your legs are as part of your real estate, and feel their motion as you walk.

Feel the weight shifting from one leg/ knee/ ankle/ foot/ toes pressing into the ground, and then to the other leg. Notice, without words or judgment, the feeling of the earth, ground, floor, pressing back up into your skeleton and your body.

Feel your pelvis as the big bone that takes the legs at the hip joints and transmits that force up into your spine.

Feel the “inside” of your pelvis as a soft and interesting collection of fairly essential parts to the human package, the human miracle, the YOU.

Have fun, go for it, wake up: see if you can sense all four at the same time during some of your walk. (If you want to get very connected to the Earth: find a place you can walk on the Earth, or its grass or stone, with bare feet. More on this later. We are a part of the natural world. The Earth is part of us and we are a part of the Earth)

This is good.

This is fun.

This makes for better sex.

This makes for better digestion.

This makes for better health. 

And here, too, this is a WONDERFUL break in your day, anytime you are fatigued, or tired of sitting, or tired of thinking, or feeling “stressed,” or wanting to get out of your head, or feel like you need more “energy” to heal or feel happy in your body.

Do the rocking.

Or,

Take a bottom layer walk.

Do this for one minute, or five minutes or ten minutes or even twenty.

Treat this attention on your whole self of breath and spine and pelvis, as well as this additional honed in attention on the BOTTOM LAYER of your body, as a treat that the real, natural, childlike, animal you loves, loves, loves.

In summary: Enlightenment in Action Game #1: the BOTTOM LAYER

Step One: Rock your pelvis in the breathing and spine shifting and head and sternum shifting way for it’s own sake and pleasure and awareness.

Step Two: Rock your pelvis an add on awareness in four areas:

Feet

Legs

Pelvis as bone in gravity

Pelvis as bowl bone containing ?????

Step Three: Go take a walk, preferably outdoors, and sense these four areas.

Extra credit: do this barefoot.