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15. Wizard of Oz 4/23/03
”Oz never did give nothing to the
Tin Man that he didn’t already have”
~~Lyric by America~~
Reading and working with the book The
Future of the Body by
Michael Murphy
is a challenge because of the enormous amount of material presented and
catalogued, representing self-development potentials. Equally challenging is
looking for the slots where I can insert my understandings with Alignment and
Breathwork for the body that respects all the fields available while
suggesting some additions or refinements. Considering the size of the book,
almost 800 pages and the elegantly presented data fields I will be walking in,
this involvement becomes an exercise and delight that is hard to explain.
Something like explaining the delight of playing out chess games of Bobby
Fisher’s.
So, I will just relate an idea or two as I move back and forth in this book to see if I can get a foothold on the subject of integrating body awareness with the extraordinary potentials of our human nature.
“By orienting us toward a many-sided realization, it *{the12 sets of developing attributes} can help guide our imagination, research, aspirations, and practices to integral development. By helping us assess the comprehensiveness, as well as the comparative strengths and limitations, of various institutions, teachers, and practices, it can help us find practical methods to achieve a balanced progress toward extraordinary life.” Michael Murphy pg.38. {* } insertion mine.
Finding activity that gives us somatic balance, tone, vitality, strength and flexibility and inner peace and compassion to help us cultivate the dignities and graces of being human seems to be a primary endeavor. In chapter 26, Mr. Murphy, outlines and suggests Integral practices or ways that we can work with our body/mind to bring the physical, emotional and spiritual or numinous aspects of our being into harmony.
This can be a vast field of legitimate activity for producing positive results. Although, I feel more research in the integrative somatic practices will help open the spectrum of potentials that may remain dormant in us. The key here is potentials!
When I look at the physical form I see structural potentials as well as what is. Others see potentials in mind and spirit from reflectively viewing the individual and knowing the potential states of order. In other words when problems are presented, people who have mastered a field can usually see the potentials that are dormant.
The other key would be simplification. Simplification, since we would have to be able to discern what to keep and what to let go of in terms of practices or aspects of practices that efficiently evolve and develop our potentialities, so we get better at problem solving.
We have potentials for being at one with our self and with life but, this can become subverted and complicated by the external world. I believe, by working to unfold our psychophysical potentials we can better co-create a world space that allows for those potentials to manifest naturally. Smoothing out the road bumps along the spectrum of development through first tier into second tier consciousness is ideally, a task we are engaged in, when we work on our own self development and share those findings with the integral community.
For me, having a root understanding of the body that helps us extract from the manifold practices the very essence of their content is to simplify this activity. At the same time by having a root understanding of our physical we can better discern what works for us in the somatic disciplines. One example that I have treated in another entry is the sit-up, as an example of a practice that needs more examination before we lay it on the body. As part of a useful somatic activity in any program I would want to examine this element of tightening the stomach wall for generalized conditioning. Is this something I need to mechanically be doing to my stomach muscles or can they remain as is while I focus my attention on Breathing? Are the activities of the day sufficient to give tone to our stomic muscle group? This I feel, are reasonable questions for non-professional bodybuilders.
Others elements that appear in weight training programs can have us working
muscles groups around some alignment deficiencies that we are not aware of and
might actually compound problems rather than release them. Saying all of this,
I am also aware of the longevity we have already accomplished without any
specific alignment guidance. It is the results represented over the years of
dramatic transformations of physical problems that prompt me to suggest
alignment keys to others before physical problems can set up. Of equal
interest are the possible improvements that can occur for us in all areas of
development with the awareness of some fine points about physical alignment.
Posted by Harmon April 23, 2003
Comments
Harmon,
I had trouble with Michael’s book, although I recognize the fantastic effort and scholarship that it represents.
A long time ago I discovered John Curtis Gowan's Operations of Increasing Order. In a much smaller space, Gowan catalogued paranormal abilities (and first brought to my attention the words "Ken Wilber" and "Terence McKenna") in a much more efficient and effective fashion. You can read OOIO online; follow the Enlightened Community links (or search for Gowan in our main search engine), and then you'll get to the relatively recently deceased Gowan's memorial page. I highly recommend it.
Posted by: Jordan on April 28, 2003
Jordan, I have been through JC Gowan’s material and have found it remarkable as a body of work. In reading both Gowan’s work and Murphy’s work I find the desire in me to be isolated with such materials so that I may digest the external space they occupy as springboards for further development and examination of our three in one nature.
When reading these men as well as Wilber and your writing, I become immersed not only in the scholarship, but also in the mind of each. To get lost in paragraphs or comments and travel the roads of thought coming from the pages, naturally excites my own intuitive processes for one, but more interestingly I feel an affection, as if I am rubbing shoulders with inner compatriots that have a personal interest in our well being.
Since my chore apparently is to fill in some keys to physical alignment, as I understand it, Michael’s book has a value of providing fields to be treated. I can sit feeling empty, open his book and sure enough there are dots to be connected.
Gurdjieff used the term “Brain Food” There are books and papers that are just that and perhaps are useful in their ability to work the muscles of the brain. I read many text because they are important as opposed to entertaining. Reading Wilber is just such an exercise that works out the brain and may leave one exhausted. But once done I wouldn’t try to slip a "We are all oneism" by that brain.
I once asked Chogyam Trungpa a question that was loaded with self-importance and in the context of his response he said, “ I can no longer be fooled”! If our children can reach this state of mind mankind will be blessed.
Posted by: Harmon on April 29, 2003
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