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Dropping the Mind - Week Three - Holding and Beholding
‘Details Matter’… Although, this statement always has a ‘conditions apply’ tag attached to it.
So when do ‘no conditions apply’? No conditions apply when we drop the conceptual. It’s like the difference between holding and beholding. Holding is, however gently, a form of grasping. Beholding, is holding without grasping - it is seeing; witnessing.
A ‘hold’ can also denote an area that something is contained in. For example a cargo hold of a ship or an aircraft. A holding pattern is a fixed loop that runs until further notification; a flight path maintained by an aircraft awaiting permission to land.
Stop waiting for permission to land. Stop holding. Just land. Ground. Give yourself the permission to do so and then just behold the process and experience it without judging.
Something else you can explore in your practice this week is the difference between ‘I am this’, and ‘I am that’. Again, this is not a conceptual exercise. You will only find yourself in a holding pattern if you explore the difference of these two intentions conceptually. Just let go into it. Trying taking your Wuji stance and experience the difference in feeling into both ‘I am this’, and ‘I am that’, respectively. How do they feel different. What power is in ‘this’ and ‘that’?
Be. Behold. Only just don’t hold. Let it be and behold it. Breathe, and continue.
Qi Gong notes and videos below are a carry over from last week with the addition of the full Earth Cycle form of the Wuji Gong.
Qi Gong
Standing Meditation - Dropping into the Dantien. Connect and check in with your feelings and energy levels
2. Warming and loosening up the joints - Shifting blocks, getting the internal juices flowing.
3. Clean Body Qi Gong - Mini explosions expelling of stagnant and sickness Qi
4. Golden Flesh - Consciously breathing/massaging and nourishing Qi activation in the flesh, tendons, fascia and bones (NB bone focus requires hitting with the hand or bamboo).
5. Posture and Alignment - Wu Ji Stance - Opening up to and connecting Earth and Heaven - Drop into the pelvis, breath with gravity.
7. Wuji Gong Earth Cycle - Week three - Four directions of form. Remember, a movement has its seeds in the state of stillness before it is seen. Before we rise, we sink our awareness deep into the earth to contact the roots.
7. Microcosmic Smoothing - Starting at the Thymus Gland perform the smoothing down the arms, front line of the body, moving down the outside of the legs, connecting with earth, smoothing up the insides of the legs, up to the perineum and under to the tailbone, up the back (spine), back of the head and over to begin the cycle again. Finish at the Dantien.
Want More to Explore?
Nada Yoga
The following drone can be used to support the beginnings of your Nada Yoga practice
Try deeply sighing
Slowing start to pay more attention to shifting tone and pitch of your voice and continue until you find a resonant note you want to explore
Explore the relationship between the shape of the sound using not only your voice shaped by your mouth, throat and vocal chords but also your entire body. Go with the flow.
“You cannot get directly from thinking to being. Thinking, feeling, being. Feeling is the bridge between thinking and being.” - Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
Introduction to Pashyanti in Seated Meditation
Paśyanti or paśyantī (Sanskrit: पश्यन्ति or पश्यन्ती), the Sanskrit term which means 'see' is derived from the word paśya meaning 'to see' and paśyat meaning - seeing, beholding a particular sound.
In Indian philosophy the notion of individuality, which is the third level of personality and the seed of all thoughts, speeches and actions is called Pashyanti , meaning 'that which witnesses'. Thus, Pashyanti refers to the visible sound which is experienced as a feeling or a mental picture.
After you have finished your Nada Yoga practice just sit with the after effects of the luminary resonance. What is there? What are you witnessing in mind-body continuum?