14.      Energy Play                                                             4/11/03

 

“The birth of Padmasambhava cannot take place unless there is an experience of the awakened state of mind that shows us our innocence, our infantlike quality.”
Chogyam Trungpa

Allowing our fingers and hands to move freely, without being unconsciously held motionless, releases energy or allows energy to flow on its way without being held still in our body.

If we consider the conditioning factors, which are presented to stop our motion, we can see that physical motion seems to be upsetting to many. Phrases I hear from many parents like, “Stop moving so much” or just plain old “Stop that” or the always popular “Don’t touch that”, conditions our ability to move or freeflow. Whatever the belief system is that has been imposed on us, we then have to rediscover what it is like to move the limbs of our body without a self-conscious holding of the arms and hands.

Since you are sitting and reading this, let’s try something sitting at the computer.

Sitting with breath moving in evenly so the back feels straight, open the palms of the hands and have them face the ceiling. Let the elbows come away from the body and have the fingers soft and straight. This usually will lead to some immediate feeling to move the arms hands and fingers in a spontaneous way. Go with what ever shows up as motion.

Following this out for a period of time will reveal that the body has a lot of potential motion or childlike play in it that we seldom explore. If you are working all day at a desk doing this every once in a while will release tensions and energy that is generally held still. If you get the idea of this then you can try this while moving around a room or walking.

To start releasing the holds we have on the arms and hands while upright we can let the arms come away from the body, and let the palms of the hands face forward. This gives a feeling of having space in the armpits. Then allowing the fingers of the hands to open and move in what ever way they want to. This at first can be very active if they have been held still for years. The elbows and wrists are soft and relaxed while doing this, which can then allow hands and arms to go into any unpatterned motion that seems to evolve out of allowing the fingers to move.

Competitive swimmers stand around before starting an event and let the arms and hands shake off. This is very much in that mode of free play of the arms, yet when exploring our own motion we have to allow and welcome the unpredictable motion that will arise.

After a time you may notice that the hands and fingers also tend to move with symmetry. By playing with this symmetry, a quality of dance or flow can come in to play. I have seen this expression of the hands and fingers in dance, kung fu and groups that work with freeing up the energy of the body. I read that when Sri Si Baba is resting, often his hands and fingers are moving, as if shaping and forming energy.

On some level I feel that the fingers are like sensors that feel energy in the space and can read what is going on as well as direct it. Just a thought!