Meditation in Stillness, Meditation in Movement - Movement

By Stephen Cheney

Previous Chapter: Breathing

MEDITATION IN MOVEMENT

In Taoism, the symbol of Yin and Yang reflect the world as it is. A mixture of opposites in ever swirling change. The circle that surrounds the movement or flow is the contemplative mind that expands to see all and thus know all. The mind can in its stillness perceive when all that IS, is in constant movement.

If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to. 

If you are not afraid of dying, there is nothing you cannot achieve. - Laozi (Lao Tzu)

There comes a moment in a young artist's life when he knows he has to bring something to the stage from within himself. He has to put in something in order to be able to take something. - Mikhail Baryshnikov

Tai Chi. Tai Chi is a mediative exercise form of Tai Chi Chuan the martial art, the combat art from whence it came. Beginners in Tai Chi, or indeed in any martial art which teaches Kata, forms or combinations and complex techniques, are highly engaged in the form of What to do, How to do it, and What comes next in the sequence.

The ultimate aim of course is not just learning formations by rote, forever practicing structures, but by using body movements as the means or method, to enable a transcending to take place. A transcending of the moment in time when the mind and body blend harmoniously as one. When at that higher state of unity, one merges also with the environment and knows it, perceives its essence, experiences All at the height of being a living being in a living, holistic Universe.

We have more than the usually considered five senses of Sight, Hearing, Taste, Smell and Touch. 

Our sense of Balance, needed for stillness or movement, is linked to our proprioceptive ability, which is knowing at any given moment where you are in three-dimensional space. Where you are, for a balancing of forces, is where your centre of mass, or Tanden, is. An Awareness of where you are in a 3D environment is important for movement, especially if that environment contains hostile moving elements.

If the mind focuses too much on a single point of hostility, such as a fist, it fills instead of being receptively empty and forms a tunnel vision. It disengages from an awareness of its own body and so does not give the attention that it should from other inputs such as a strike from some other limb or from someone else. In stillness the mind can focus internally on itself or on a sole item and then spread that into the environment for all to become One.

In movement you broadly expand your attention to encompass the whole environment and then converge that to merge with your self and so all becomes One.

Spirals in Meditation

As your mind both directs and follows the spirals made with your body entwined with your visible or invisible partner in dance, or entwined with the opponent in combat, your mind enters a meditative form.

One can counter a linear force with an opposing one. One can counter a circular force with a straight one. But it is difficult to use a linear countering force to counter a force that constantly changes direction, that goes smoothly from one direction into another; or a spiralling force that uses three dimensions to steer the momentum of an attacker into leading him off balance to perhaps impact into the ground. When your opponent is stationary he can stop a curved strike with a straight block; but if you move him in an arc, his use of strong straight forces will not counter the angling that he is shifting through. The ground is the surface of the planet Earth and curves, draws us, into its centre.

It is the Universal Force of gravity, always present and so always available to any Jedi Knight or martial artist who wishes to use it.

An opposing force is drawn around and into a vortex. The defender represents the central point [upon which the attacker has converged]. The action is like that of a whirlpool, and is called Centripetal Force. At the other end [of the contact] the opposing force spirals out, struggling away from the central vortex — this is Centrifugal Force. Since the force must be redirected in a single well-coordinated move (without the defender destroying his own balance), it is imperative that a controlled center of gravity be maintained during a continuous circular movement. — Thomas Makiyama, Aikido Shihan (1928–2005).

It is beneficial to draw and propel an opponent into moving in an arc that is a spiral shape such as an equiangular or logarithmic spiral. For the velocity of the opponent increases through the winding movement of the throw, continually keeping him off balance.

As a moth into its fate in a candle, an attacker can be spun into an impact with the ground. You simply bring your firmly held contact point, such as their wrist or hand into an ever tighter curve. This is maintaining a relationship of form. Indeed, relationships of form govern the movements in atomic nuclei and orbiting electrons, the sweep or the arms of galaxies and even living chemistry and evolution. Thus when we meditate using movement we relate to the wondrous innate properties natural to all things.

The Theory of Evolution consists above all in establishing relations of ideal kinship, and in maintaining that wherever there is this relation of, so to speak, logical affiliation between forms, there is also a relation of chronological succession between the species in which these forms are materialised. — Henri-Louis Bergson (1859 –1941), French philosopher.

The spiral in a snail's shell is the same mathematically as the spiral in the Milky Way galaxy, and it's also the same mathematically as the spirals in our DNA. It's the same ratio that you'll find in very basic music that transcends cultures all over the world. — Joseph Gordon-Levitt, actor.

Movement Meditative Exercise

Here is a mini four-direction Kata I designed that engages the mind in imagining the attacker, in looking before moving, in defensive body movement, in attacking body movement, in balancing on one leg to counter gravity and control the self, in covering the four directions around you, in Zanshin the deliberate awareness of the environment. It can be practiced in a limited space. Addressing a threat and strikes at you, in turn, from four directions.

You stand in normal stance, breathing in then slowly out, the out used to mentally flush out your thoughts, emptying your mind. You breathe in and fill your mind with an imaginary opponent in front of you:

(1) That opponent moves in and strikes at your head say with his Right Hand. You breathe out and do an upper inside high deflection with your Left Arm as you step back with your diagonally opposite (Right) foot, then smoothly follow with a front punch with your other (Right) hand using your hip twist, then deliver a front kick from your rear (Right) leg. Deflection, punch and kick are all delivered as inseparable parts of one movement. The kick is by chambering your knee to your chest and thrusting forward using your hip to extend the leg. As your leg returns to the chamber position you do not set it down but remain paused on one supporting leg to train your balancing ability.

(2) With your guard up you turn your head to face 90 degrees to your Left (anticlockwise) and look Left at a new attacking opponent who moves in to launch a Right hand strike to your head. Under your intense gaze into a new direction, to match the incoming body you again do an upper inside high deflection with your Left Arm as you move your high chambered Right foot back to the ground at your rear. Punch and Kick as before from a solid planted base. End in your kicking foot coming back to your knee, you on one leg and again look 90 degrees to your left. For full use of the support base of the foot ensure that your toes are pressed down.

(3) Do same actions as before to that direction.

(4) End and do same sequence to the next 90 degree direction.

(5) You now have covered the four quarter or compass directions. Now set your foot down into normal stance and do the same sequence but going the other way, clockwise: Opponent punches with his Left Hand to your Head, You deflect upwards on the inside using your Right arm. You punch to front with your Left hand and kick with your Left Leg from its stepped back position. End on one leg and turn head to face and glare 90 degrees to your Right. Continue your sequence to the four quarters going clockwise.

While your leg is held chambered bent in the air after a kick, keep it very relaxed and your weight from the top of your head down to the ground very centred as you turn your head and eyes seeking any new threat. You are as a radar dish receiving any ripples of incoming motion.

Next Chapter: Awareness & Time

(Image: Tai Chi Vector[Ed] via Google Images)

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