Meditation in Stillness, Meditation in Movement - Awareness & Time

By Stephen Cheney

Previous Chapter: Movement

AWARENESS

Meditating changes and sharpens and expands one’s awareness. In combat there are large stretches of time with no threat action and so the mind tends to go to sleep or daydream. But when not actually sleeping the mind needs to stay awake to sense the edges of danger as danger approaches and be ready and waiting, primed to act. When mediating in movement, the mind is transformed by its focus on itself in the form of its body.

To control and know all the body in the present moment, to search the future and decide where a part is to go to, so to merge that future into becoming the next present moment. So we, like other entities, make Time by our movements, giving it a real history. We are the Time Lords. We are the snails that leave the glistening trail; we make the silver cord of mental travel real. One can ingress the mind to know the body and internal self. Then one can expand the mind to know all the surrounds.

The meditative Oneness arises when both the internal universe and the external universe are brought together to meet as One. Feeling All, as it is by Feeling or a form of Touching by our senses, that we know reality. One becomes more than what one was and flowers into what we are meant to be in the evolutionary vine spiral. This mental action when dancing or when moving in combat can also be done when still or waiting.

Awareness is both an exploration of self and an exploration of surrounds. They are not separate.

With still meditation arts you get to be more keenly aware of and know the self, in which you mature; the Universal Centre. With moving meditation arts you get to be more keenly aware of and know your environment, in which you exist; the Universal Surround. Both must merge to One. Your mind can be influenced by what you do with your body, just as your body is influenced by your state of mind.

In Still Meditation you use contemplation; in Moving Meditation you use intuition.

The correct way of breathing must be mastered or you will never progress beyond doing a few tricks. -  Grandmaster Mas Oyama (Choi Yeong-eui)

Both the man of science [the mind] and the man of action live always at the edge of mystery, surrounded by it. - J. Robert Oppenheimer

To hear, one must be silent. -  Ursula K. Le Guin

Two Awareness exercises

1. Mentally draw a circle around you, say a few metres out.

• Within that circle focus on what is there and on what moves there.
• Draw a larger circle around you, say many metres out.
• Within that larger circle focus on what is there and on what moves there.
• If little is happening close to you in your inner circle, look to whatever is coming into your larger circle. Whatever moves can be a danger, especially if its direction is incoming.
• Keep your awareness in circles of distance around you. Do not forget the sides and behind. If you have to look behind then do so.

2. Take your index finger and hold it up in front of your eyes about 30 cm away.

• Focus your eyes upon that finger. 
• Now, still holding your finger there, look passed it into the far reaches until your eyes touch something, or a wall, or the horizon. 
• Now look back to your finger. 
• Now alternate between finger and farther. You seek to merge the two distances within your attention. This also is a good eye focusing exercise.

TIME

In both stillness and in movement is Zen, the capturing and releasing of the moment, so its manifestation in breathing, in sound, in meditation, is in daily living. Zen is practice of awareness of being and an appreciation of the wonder of life and existence of all. Time is full of experiences, each should be savoured.

Life and movements tend to have a rhythm, by noting that rhythm one can match it and thus dance with nature or others. In combat when you match an attacker’s rhythm, their force does not trespass on your space and damage you. Matching momentum (a mass’s force and direction) you blend, you dance with it, so there is no impact with a high difference between the velocity of the defender and the velocity of the attacker.

The Samurai utilised crafts and arts, such as calligraphy and poetry to teach feeling or techniques and strategies of the martial arts, and we can do the same.

A Samurai, before imminent combat, did not dance around with weaving arms, wasting energy that could be needed later. A Samurai would control visual indicators and timing. Not showing threat, not retreating, not giving away any prowess nor telegraphing his intentions or movements, so denying the opponent useful combat information, could wait in stillness, letting the opponent and his sword or weapon, the deliverer of death come into his presence.

When the external movement invaded his space, a Samurai exploded from stillness into action so there was no telegraphing or reading of his intention; and thus although the aggressor had the initiative of attacking first, the surprise came from the defender. Who attacks first must transverse space, and un-guard their weaknesses as their limb/s extend and thus expose targets on themselves. It is the attacker who is uncovered and the defender who is guarded.

There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it. — Alfred Hitchcock

The Samurai style of fighting with its stillness then a reaction to the movement of an attack, sort of “borrows” the will to move of the attacker to initiate a will to move in the defender.

In post encephalitic and Parkinsonian patients, those with Akinesia – the loss or impairment of the power of voluntary movement, a state of inner struggle - would be motionless unless a movement outside of themselves initiated a movement from within themselves.

The Will of the Ball:

A patient would often sit frozen and motionless unless he were thrown a ball; this would instantly call him to life. A ball thrown at the patient would prompt an instant and perfect catch. Some patients would defreeze themselves by using minor movements that they could do, such as blinking. From the unique methods discovered or devised by such Akinesia patients I have learned more from them than from a library of volumes. - Dr Oliver Sacks, MD, FRCP; poet.

Atoms are very special: they like certain particular partners, certain particular directions, and so on. It is the job of physics to analyze why each one wants what it wants. - Richard P. Feynman

Next Chapter: Focus & Balance

(Image: Samurai Fight - Mariusz Szmerdt)

[The views expressed in this publication are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Dissecting Society™ . © 2007-2019 Author(s) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED]