Root

For Rod Philp:

Basically we are not naturally rooted because of two things: (1) we are wrongly motivated, and (2) our bodies fight gravity instead of working with it. As babies we are perfect until we start to be greedy. This coincides with starting to crawl and then walk. A baby crawls because it sees something it wants, it puts its mind on the object and struggles towards it. And so it starts a lifelong habit of endgaining – striving to gain something relatively oblivious of how it is achieved, rather than sinking into the process or the action and allowing the end to be simply a natural consequence of what preceded it. This also starts the fight with gravity. If we could we would turn gravity off to speed up the endgaining: gravity and time are an inconvenience because they prevent us from having the thing now. If instead we worked with gravity, and let ourselves take the time, then we would develop energy and energetic connexions, specifically a lifelong relationship with Mother Earth, and this energy would be far more enriching than the objects of desire ever could be. Now these bad habits run very deep and they cannot simply be turned off by changing our minds – they have organized us physically and energetically as well as mentally, so a period of time (3 years is recommended as a minimum) is required, along with a body of correct work, to retrain ourselves to cooperate instead of fight – specifically with ourselves (body and energy), the Earth and everything else, as we do anything – even (especially) the simplest of tasks. Tai Chi, Hatha Yoga, Alexander Technique, Pilates, are all methods to achieve this: to make us acutely aware of our physical actions, our physical world, and our connexions. Tai Chi works fundamentally with root and with yielding (these are really the same thing – yielding is rooting to the other person as an extension of the Earth). Alexander Technique is very interesting: a good teacher will demonstrate in the first lesson that endgaining (forgeting the process for the sake of acquiring the object(ive)) actually makes it far more difficult to achieve the end result. Now the problem with a purely physical approach to anything (I include energy in physical) is that it refuses to recognize the importance of emotion, and especially emotional trauma, in our lives. If we do not confront our fears then they will always haunt and inhibit us, so we need a methodology that encourages them to manifest (show themselves), and encourages us to face them and work through them. In other words there must be therapeutic value in our work. This can only happen if the working environment is totally supportive, non-threatening, non-competitve, above all open – i.e. rooted in Mother Earth. Which brings us back to where we began.