Potency, Difficulties, Sex, the Good Life and Moshe Feldenkrais

"The overcoming of difficulties 
is one of the essential parts
of the pleasure of living" 
is a part of the second to last sentence in The Potent Self.

This is a book worth reading,
either front to back
of bit by bit.

There are tremendous sections on the problems
of how most of us were raised, most specifically
the "oh, that's so good" praise/ conditioning when e
were "good". This seems so kind, and yet, the message is
always there:
Stop the rewarded/ approved behavior and you are
not so good
which can quickly and easily be felt and expereienced
as
you are bad.

Tremendous sections of how the central feature
of humans is that they learn,
here with the upside of becoming Pablo Cassals or Michael Jordan,
and the downside of become the same sort of neurotic that
Mom or Dad was.

And then, this is Moshe Feldenkrais, right?
Huge amounts of the book talk about real posture,
which he calls acture,
and the use of the back and spine to further
mobility and ease

and potency.

Sex is important to life
and to Moshe.

Good sex is one of the essentials of a good life.
He shows how his work compliments
and even transcends traditional talk therapy
for dealing with potency issues,
and gives examples of people who
under his guidance where able to go from
impotence to potency.

And then, of course potency
is potency is
potency.,

And one of the great and glorious things to do with potency:
dive into the pleasure of overcoming difficulties.

Good.

And, if the "overcoming of difficulity,"
was the Cancer thing,
how much better to go about this with the peacefulness
of a good sex life,
and the clarity of functioning in a potent
and mature way.

Landmark Forum thoughts, with two links to Moshe

Link one:
in Potent Self,
the contradiction between being in school
forced to be a good little robot
learning about "great people" in history
exactly those who threw off their robot

Link Two:
Werner at an EST gathering saying
"All you asshole don't even know how to walk"
and Moshe's reactions to that:

read on,
if you wish,
and don't stone me
if Landmark changed your life

the technology is there
but there's a reason so many people are repulsed
by the cult thing
(hey, it even happens when we practitioners really
"get into" Feldenrkais. or Anat Baniel)

here goes

Well, I went to the Intro Evening

which with diabolically clever packaging,

was the last 3 hours of a weekend training

people were all whoopie do about their 

training

and for some good reasons

and their last night assignment:

bring in the newbies

and it clearly had 

"worked"

(recall a statement I annoying make now and then,

our three choices as humans:

low grade robots, high grade robots, awake--

worked meant, it appeared to me, radically upgraded robots)

And yet,

and yet,

this work is obviously hugely effective

for those

not having done anything like the work of Byron Katie

or encountered, apparently,

the difference between attachment and non attachment

or story vs not believing the story

or identification with programming vs not identifying

a huge gob of people

had woken up to their pre-judging

and had made phone calls to parents

ex-mates

and so on

apologizing for narrow mindedness

needless to say,

lots of breakthrough

but back to the diabolical

because the "sharing" some of these breakthroughs,

plus the clever pitch that this was an invitation not a demand

and then throwing in some hints about the power of

realizing we are run by our "view" of reality

and the frenzy built

and by the end

the pressure was on:

if you came,

as a guest and didn't sign,

your life was forever lost, you'd blown it,

you really were making a mistake

huge pressure

after the promise of no pressure

I'll talk some in tomorrow's slow sonoma essay

on the difference between trying to push (hard)

someone to give up their story (done in the example time

at the end by Mr Trainer, an ex-Marine with all the 

suitable breakthroughs)

and Byron Katie's loving the person with and without their

story

and having no attachment to them "getting it"

or 

even 

doing her work

But, if you've come this far,

the thing,

and the way it's set up for a lifetime of associates

and friends who all "get it"

in the way of Landmark speak/ understand/ breakthrough

(dating services, huge crowds, endless keep up with it courses)

reminds me of Moshe in Potent Self

 talking of "great men" in history,

studied in books in school

in exact circumstances to stiffle the originality

and thinking for themselves that made the "great men"

(or women, of course)

the wild weird contraction:

wanting to bring freedom

to a herd

and not giving them the internal experiences

that say

a movement lesson

could give

leaves people in a weird bind

almost a double bind

 a cult devoted to deprogramming you from the ongoing

cult

I'll have to mull it over

because it's fun seeing how useful and effective their 

work is

and how

convoluted the pressure to bring in everyone you know

OR ELSE

is compared to / distinct from the thrust for freedom

and if you are still reading

good,

here's a

story from Denis Leri on Moshe at an EST

thing

and Werner up front ranting about "all you assholes don't

even know how to walk"

and Moshe standing up and walking across the floor

so

Werner

modified:

"All you assholes except one don't know how to walk."



And now,
ala Landmark:
an ad for "something to buy"

over to the right
a book
an ebook
written by yours truly,
has 108 practical and deep
activities/ meditations/ games
to "Wake Up"
in
Movement
Thinking
Emotions
&
"Soul"

there's links to a table of contents
and plenty of chance to try out the first eight
"games"

go there and play/ learn/ wake up
if you so wish

no cult approval for having done
so
and then again
it might up your happiness/ being present
quality
which, after all,
is the main
"inner weather" of our own going life

that and love
and there's TONS
in the book to improve love

ciao
for
NOW

Chris