I'm enjoying thinking about an article I recently read, so here's an excerpt...
A question I’ve been exploring for most of my life is: what changes when we move our spirituality, or let movement become our spiritual practice? In this essay I offer some characteristics of a moving spirituality that I explored in my PhD and later in my book Dancing in the Muddy Temple: A Moving Spirituality of Land and Body.
Movement is about Connection & Transformation
First of all, movement adds a different language for encountering the sacred. It’s not just ‘sitting still and emptying the mind’, or ‘dancing ecstatically’ (did you know that ecstasy means something like ‘having the god within’?).
Instead, it is a way of searching for and communicating with the layers of the seen and unseen world.… Recently I even start to see it as a way of encountering the mystery in the space between, between objects, emotions and thoughts.
Movement strengthens an immanent (instead of transcendent) spirituality that is expressed in our living, breathing body. Instead of still form mediation while the mind travels, movement mobilises our spine, (called the ‘Hollow Bone’ in some traditions), to enable receiving divine wisdom. Instead of consciousness travelling outward, beyond the corporeality of the body, we draw it in, and ‘wake up’ inside this interior reality where we are a spirit in a body. That way, we can experience the divine with literally just a movement away.
Movement also offers a way of ‘transforming’ states on the plains of the body, heart, mind and consciousness. A simple breathing exercise or repetitive gesture can help to transform different emotions. It’s like we are giving clear ‘direction’ to meditation in this way, by gently swaying from side to side, or calming our mental activity with a grounding movement from up to down. The combination of moving the spine in conjunction with conscious breathing seems to reset the nervous system more effectively than anything I know.
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From Feminism in Religion, by Eileen Kieft
You may have read several years ago when I enjoyed practicing Feldenkrais movements. Slow and minimal body gestures and postures were different but somewhat like yoga...but mainly the awareness one gained was a big part of it. Muscle memories are wonderful.
I even remember some of the Tai Chi that I learned years ago.
This morning I watched a jogger running down the street below my apartment. I haven't ever been interested in that practice myself, but watch the rhythm of motion that those people enjoy.
Yes, movement and meditation are really great.
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Joy is our birthright. Each and every one of us, especially those of us who have been conditioned to feel unworthy of it. |
RACHEL RICKETTS ------------
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