A game for Learning as Enlightenment, and Connection as Love

Day Eleven:

Enlightenment as 

Learning, or..

“Trying” less hard, or…

“Enjoying” more

with a friend (or

on your own)

This can be done with a partner.

If you have a partner, this is an amazing way to come to presence and touch and learning and connection, as you become a newer and more highly organized person.

That’s a mouthful.

Okay, it’s fun.

How’s that.

Enlightenment as Learning Plus Touch

Enlightenment Game #3

Sit with a partner.

(You can do this game on your own.

You’ll learn a lot.

And…

If you want a partner, keep playing the games in this book. We’ll come to the “Heart’s Desire” part of Lust. Then it’s your time to write goals about the partner you want, and more important, about the shape and quality of the relationship you want.)

Take turns reading these instruction, until you each “get it.”

Then, hold hands and “do/ learn/ experiment/ experience” this game.

Head turning with doing it different/ better instead of doing it “right.”

Turn your head left and right as your partner matches you.

Come up with a mirror image direction you both want to improve. (One to the right, the other to the left)

We’ll call the direction you want to enjoy improving, the “happy” direction.

We’ll call the direction that might well “lag behind” the “normal” direction.

Turn right and left with this false idea: to make this “right,” I need to turn farther and farther.

Strain a little.

Do the famous “stretching.”

But..

Don’t do this too much.

Now, (again read these to learn in turns, then do it together)

Turn your head both ways and notice the difference between the happy direction and the normal direction.

Now, try this “better”….

As you turn in the normal direction, don’t change anything.

As you turn in the happy direction, go at half speed and half effort.

Do this four or five times and then close your eyes and “rest.”

And you can do the whole thing with eyes closed if you’d like.

Now try this better:

Normal do without any changes

Happy: keep up slower and softer and add on smiling.

Go back and forth the two ways for six to ten times, see how much you can enjoy the happy direction as slow and easy and with a smile on your face.

Rest again.

Feel the overall shift in your mood from movement with attention.

Feel the easing up from doing things in the new=now mode.

Back to improving movement by “better not right.”

Turn halfway to the happy direction.

Stay there and easily, while smiling, turn your eyes more in the happy direction and then back to where your nose is pointing.

Combine this with slow.

Combine this with less effort.

Combine this with enjoying paying attention.

Then come to the middle and rest.

Now, go the sixty percent to the happy direction.

Play the easy eyes, with smile and slow and less effort, to the happy direction and..

Let your tongue come to the edge of your lower lip and playfully head back toward the center when your eyes go a little in the happy direction.

This will be tongue one way and eyes the other.

Relax.

Breathe easy.

Enjoy new = now.

Enjoy learning = noticing differences.

This IS REWIRING YOUR BRAIN.

Without you trying.

Actually, especially because you aren’t trying. You are experimenting and experiencing.

This is real learning.

Enjoy.

Come back to the center.

Rest.

Now experiment with turning easily to the normal direction and the happy direction.

What do you notice about differences in each way.

Good.

Do this separately.

Then do this holding hands.

Enjoy what goes on as you do this in synchronization.

It could be good.

It might be very good.

It might even be very very good.

Enjoy.

Life is movement.

Life is learning.

Life is connection.

This is all that…. and more.

And if you don’t have a partner.

Maybe a friend can stand having their hands held. (PS, if you don’t have a mate, don’t use this as a dating tool. Find a friend of the sex you don’t want to date/ mate, and if they are game, good. If not.. keep wondering what life might be like with a learning buddy/ friend/ great love in your life.)

And if you don’t have anyone, fine… Do this learning on your own.

Remember the meta learning here: doing it right, sucks.

Find more and more ways of doing it “better,” especially if “better” means slower and happier and with less effort, will be key in finding a real person to be with, instead of the ghastly results that will occur if you find the “right” person.

So, learn on your own.

Learn with a friend.

Learn with your partner.

Learn.

You’ll life will expand every day.

As our buddy Bob Dylan says, “He not busy being born, is busy dying.”

Or, mystical subtext: “He or she not busy being born, is busy dying.”

Be born.

Turn your head more fun in one way.

Discover some “better” ways of your own.

Good.

Smile.

Breathe.

Sense your feet on the floor.

Feel gravity.

Enjoy a piece of nature out some window.

Smile some more.

Good.

Cure vs Improvement

I've been exploring this for a long time on this blog,
and here,
in re-reading "The Case of Nora," good old Moshe Feldenkrais lays it on thick,
and with a variation I'd never really articulated,
an understanding of people's preference to be "asleep,"
although he doesn't call it that.

Watch this though:

From Case of Nora, page 51:

Nora wanted or expected cure, not improvement.

"Improvement" is a gradual bettering which has no limit.

"Cure" is a return to the previously enjoyed (practiced) state of activitiy,
which need not have been excellent or even good.

The habitual and familiar we do not question; improvement we grade.

The former is the automatic background for our system; the latter is the
foreground of our awareness.

The two are different dimensions. One is an atavistic sensation;
the other is a learned knowledge that gives us freedom of
choice---
which is the major prerogative of Homo sapiens."


That's the quote.

I've often said it like this:
people plod along at some state like negative 3, but
it feels normal.

Then they get in an accident or some such, and plummet
to negative 6.

They want to be cured, put back to negative three,
rather than slowly getting better, negative 6, negative 5, negative 4,
and on and on, plus one, plus two, plus three, and so on.

Be not good, if you can stand it

In this moment,
we are neither right
nor wrong

We just are

This can be a wonder
and
a relief,
to just
be
in this moment

Because the experience
we are having
right
now
is life
and us
experiencing life

any add
on
is from the word world
telling us:
this is the "right"
thing to do,
or this is the "next" thing to do
(or feel, or think)

The voices telling
us what to do

What if we don't listen
and follow
our present based experience?


And if a lesson,
giving
taking
inventing,
experiencing,
we are interested in
the variety of ways we
can do it
"wrong"

Because if one way is
"right"
then everything else is "wrong"
and there are hundreds,
millions of
"wrong" ways,
all of which
might be leading to a better
way,
or an easier way,
or
a more pleasurable way.

This applies to movement lessons
and
almost anything
else

Good.

Tango, Dance, Walking, Learning and Love

Most of us learned to walk along the way.

It was hard, easy, fun, amazing.

Mainly, if you think about, or really feel how small the feet are
under such a tall, large thing this body of ours,
you'll see that standing (harder than walking)
and walking (harder than being three or four legged)
are
both almost miracles.

And then, we grow up and want to dance,
and sometimes have fun and then we go to dance classes.

And the teacher, good old teacher, shows the "right way."
Once: we get it or don't.
Okay, the teacher shows it again: we get it or don't.
Then the show the "other" (usually follower) part, once, twice.
People get it or don't.
Put on music and you're on your own.

But every move is right foot, left foot, or some pause with the weight on
one foot or the other.

What if we learned dance as a fancied up walking,
where we get to try by ourselves as the pretend "leader"
a bunch of walking to music variations.
Then we explore, by ourselves, as the pretend "follower",
a bunch of walking to music variations.

Then we pal up, guy and a gal, gal and a gal, guy and a guy, father and a daughter,
mother and a daughter, or son, and so on.

Play around.
Invent some steps.
Learn to float around the floor with the music.


Would this be nice?

I think so.

Come and find out.

Here's the word part of a flyer I have around town on Orcas Island in Washington.

Tango,
Feldenkrais® &
Learning how to Learn
A 4 class series at Odd Fellows Hall
Thursday, 6:15-7:15 PM, June 17- July 8
What if we went about learning Dance (anything)
as a process of discovery,
rather than a determination to “Get it Right?”

Chris Elms is a beginning Tango student and an advanced Practitioner
in the Feldenkrais Method®.

He teaches private lessons to Undo Pain, Relieve Stress,
and Increase Mobility & Skills.

A BABY LEARNS TO CRAWL, NOT BY FOLLOWING ANY RULES, but
by experimenting with hundreds of movements, many of them “mistakes,” then one
day, she puts 30 of them together and crawls, not so show off or accomplish anything,
but to get the toy across the room.

DANCE CAN BE LEARNED AS PLEASURE, EASE, and LISTENING.
Listening to the music, listening to your own body, and listening to your partner’s
ease and movement.

EVERYONE DANCES “LEAD” & FOLLOWER”

IF YOU DON’T LIKE DANCE: come and learn as if walking to music.

IF YOU DO LIKE DANCE: come and treat yourself to a way of learning that
can improve & relax many areas of your life.



That's it.
Let me know, if you are a practitioner,
and want to collaborate on teaching any form of dancing
this way,

or collaborate working with and getting mentored working with,
special needs children.

Chris.

"tucking the pelvis under"

"tucking the tailbone under"

in Tai Chi

in Yoga

in whatever

lots of people
recommend this

I don't

unless you are coiling into
to expand/ punch/ push
outward afterward

stretching brains, not attacking tight muscles

barn in morning


a muscle can contract
it can stop contracting and release and return to loose

if a muscle is chronically contracted
and you try to "stretch"
it
the body has an automatic "stretch reflex"
to tighten against that,
so if you do succeed in
"stretching," you will be
actually only succeeding in tearing
the muscle

ah, so what to do?
find the muscle on the other side
use it
and
as you use it,
see just how much
easily
and honestly
you can uncontract
which is to say let go
which is to say release
which is not to say stretch
the muscles on the other side

so "stretching" hamstrings is cruel
and useless
and using the quadraceps
and honestly stopping when hamstrings bind
and honestly seeing about letting go
as the effort goes into softness at hamstring side
and appropriate use
(to lengthen leg, not to stretch anythng)
of the quads

make
sense?

if not,
come get some lessons,
amazing results in
all sorts of areas of ones
life
from this:
use effort where it should be used
let go where it should be let
go

good

Pose, Warrior, Warrior Pose

Non warriors with the great teacher: Earth and flower and Life

Sad but true:
the warriors are out there
posing away right now.

The Russian hot shot.
Some Georgian hot shot.
Even the brilliant little boy who
is playing President, is busy posing:
I am warrior.

I can send enough
bombs
troops
guns
planes
(not myself, of course)
to blast,
kill,
push away,
push around,
stop,
bully
get my way.

E gad. A world lived out at the level
of sandbox bullies,
whether the so called Terrorists,
or the now hung dead Bad Guy Sadaam Hussein
or the Bush Sr
or the Bush Jr
or the Lyndon Johnson
or the JFK
or the Truman
or the Hitler
and on
and on.

Warriors
posing.

And the poor idealistic
young men,
full of love for something bigger than themselves,
and anger at they don't know what,
and testosterone,
and whoosh,
they are off getting killed
as some older man or men
go through their warrior pose.

And then in yoga:
we hold
"poses."

What are we posing as?
Strong?
Doing it right?
Get our act together?
Taking our punishment?
Being good to our bodies?
Dedicated?

And sure,
yoga can be just plain old fun
and interesting,
if the teaching were just
about finding and discovering ourselves
in the moment,
and in the movement,
and so often,
that gets so lost
in the
poses.

And warrior poses.

What are we at war with?
Our bodies?
Doing it wrong?
Being weak?
Not being young any more?
Our teachers for being better at
poses,
than us?
Our bad habits?
Our wish to not be in pain?
A lifetime of not being perfect?

Who knows?

How could we do warrior
one
as a heart opener,
and no posing,
and lots of learnig.

How could we do warrior
two
as a shoulder and leg support
discoverer,
with no enemy?

How could we do warrior
three
with a sense of learning to
press down into the sweet Earth
and letting it all fly up
from there?

Play with it one your own.
Come to me from private yoga lessons.
Join the neurological upgrading lessons.
Go home from yoga and turn the war into
pleasure.
What would that take?

Won't that be interesting to find out?

movement and Independence

Independence

indie
independence

freedom
from what?

to do
what?

and sure
it's nice to have
some habits,
know how to walk,
say,
or tie our shoes,
though that's not needed
much,
how to hold a fork,
or chopsticks,
how to speak a language
all nice habits

and what would freedom
in thinking
and movement
feel like
look like
be like?

what if we had a bunch of
things in our lives
that were new and
not scary
but new
and curious
new and
interesting
new
and exciting:
that good old
freedom from the place:
i don't know?


what if
instead of rushing
through something new
we slowed down enough
to know
that we had possibilities
for change
for a larger way
of seeing
and knowing
ourselves and the world?


what if
instead of
going to yoga
class and
trying to "do it right"
and not giving ourselves rests
and not exploring whether
the "rules" these barely
trained "teachers" are passing down

we actually sensed ourselves
and discovered
inside what was going on
not what we were told was going on?

what if same
with tai chi,
instead of slavery to the form
and the rules
we explored
slowly
each pose,
what does this give us,
how could we do it easier,
how could we connect down to Earth better,
to ourselves
better
to ease and strength
better?

what if
in chi gung,
when they tell us to tuck of tailbone
under,
a great way to tighten up and restrict
freedom of breathing and movement,
we instead tried this
and tried to opposite
and learned
what was real for us
and how we fit together?

can we be free
to not know
which is to be free
to learn
which is to be
free
to become more
than what we
are
so
far??




and pain
back
shoulder
neck

do we crank away
or message away
or "adjust away"
at the pain

and other than gnawing
like an animal chewing off a
trapped paw,

what would a free and independent
way of exploring and
transmitting
this "pain"
be

and our attitude
to "pain"
how conditioned
and stuck is that

and our attitude
about going from something
we are good
(or adequate) in
to more fine, more delicate

from good to great

from effort to exploration and ease

these are some
possibilities

do we see life as
a bunch
of possibilities

that is
nice
when we are there,
isn't it???


happy 4th

get high without drinking
and what fireworks
can be find in inner silence???

Triangle in Fedlie Land

this boy
is not afraid
to be himself

and so in yoga
sometimes
the whole fun
is to
just make a mess
of whatever
it is
"they" think
we should be doing
and
whatever we think
we SHOULD be going
and
whatever we THINK
WE SHOULD be doing

and just fool around

triangle, Trikonasa
is kind of a pain in the ass pose
anyway.

like this,
again the words are
harder than monkey see,
monkey do,
too bad
live with it:

1. stand with feet apart and point one foot a direction
you'll call forward
to make life simple we'll say R, right foot, is forward
face that way.
L, left foot, is behind and in a line with R heel.
R heel bisects middle of L foot

2. raise arms up to shoulder height,
facing forward

3.play,
rotate arms to face the direction your belly is facing
(left)
and rotate your arms to face the other direction
(around the the right)
have fun with this.

4. rest.

5. arms up again, rotate arms so R arm forward, L arm back, keep spine
straight, and tilt at the waist your whole torso forward
R arm will go down by R leg
L arm will come up in air
pointed to Up, up, up

look up at the up hand

6. Have some fun
look up at the up hand
and have eyes goes down,
and look down at feet with nose
and have eyes come up.
then eyes and nose toward up hand

notice other stuff: pelvis, ribs, feet
bend knees
unbend knees, explore

are you breathing???

7. rest

8. the same position, R foot forward, L back,
heel of R in line with mid of L,
rotate arms so L arm is foward direction same as R foot,
L arm back
tilt down at waist
R arm up
L arm down
spine straightish
head looking up at up hand

play with eyes and head
as above

9., play with triangle and reverse triagnle:
once arms one way,
once the other
sometimes head and eyes follow up hand
sometimes they go opposite

horse
around

breathe

have fun

Posture and Acture

Northern California sort of has seasons.

POSTURE AND ACTURE
Posture and what? Well, good old Moshe Feldenkrais didn’t think posture was all that it was cracked up to be. He thought that what mattered was function, and the best state to be in was one in which you could easily act in all six directions: right, left, back, forward, up and down. That would be good acture, being in that state.

Stand at a military salute kind of posture leaves you severely limited for anything but falling backwards.

So, how would you stand to move easily and quickly in all directions?

Well, it wouldn’t be the slumpy over stuff that caused all our mothers to nag us to “stand up straight.” So the moms were kind of right. Stand up straighter anyway, but not stiff, not tight, not tense.

POSTURE IS FOR POSTS.

That’s what Moshe used to say. Or, if you want to be a movie star and stand in front of a crowd looking regal, have a regal posture. Posture is for posts and for impressing people.

And acture is a word that never really took off, but still: let’s keep the idea. Sitting now, how can we be in a position to move in all directions easily? If we were to stand and just think about moving six directions, what would that do to our organization?

Almost any Feldenkrais lesson, either of the group Awareness Through Movement type, or the one to one Functional Integration type, is great for “posture,” in that you stand taller and lighter after the lesson, and the lessons can be about just about anything, and are almost never about “standing up tall.” Most are in the lying or sitting position and still, after they are over we stand taller.

Why is that?

Because we are wired up in our brain with more of us connected to more of us, and when we use our legs and our pelvis and our feet and our spine and our ribs and our eyes we are going to, without “trying,” end up coming to a useful and more graceful standing pose than we usually do. Awareness is the key, and not awareness of “how to stand,” but this sweet awareness of how amazing it is to be in a human body and how great it feels to be pushing down into the ground and feeling that force transmitted through our skeleton, holding us up, almost as if weightless.

We can feel like that?

Sure.

Come get a lesson, or put on one you’ve got at home on a CD, or purchase some lessons, or just spend some time getting the various parts of you happier and more connected with the other parts, preferably in an on the ground, variation and experimentation and discovery way.