all this shade erases me
John Martone
28 February 2009
Single-Weighted
If the principle of Central Equilibrium maintains energy, then the principle of Single-Weightedness maintains lightness by ensuring both full and empty are present all the time. Full supports empty and empty attends full. Then emptiness never collapses and fullness never hardens.
Emptiness
The tension we house sullies our perceptions and conceptions to such a degree that the world we experience is no longer the real world but one largely of our own making. This means that nothing can be believed as true: our senses are flawed – biased – and our interpretations even more so. So how do we proceed? Softly. With a flexible feeling (for belief). We believe but set nothing in stone. We live now as best we can and leave analysis, generalization and philosophizing – all terribly idle occupations designed to give us an unfair advantage but really just giving us an excuse not to be present – behind us. The feeling is of seizing the moment the way the empty foot seizes the ground. This is what emptiness is: a readiness to fill; the same way that fullness is a readiness to empty.
26 February 2009
Breathing
Being too much in the mind and not enough in the body is a form of depression. It leads to a stoop – a depressed outlook. The mind keeps itself dominant by controlling the intake of oxygen – the fuel of the body – forcing shallow or thin breathing. The way out of this situation is to deepen and extend the breath.
21 February 2009
Breathing
Extending the in-breath opens the chest/heart.
Extending the out-breath strengthens the belly.
Don't cover the gullet with the epiglottis when breathing through the nose otherwise the throat becomes tense and the energy flattens.
Extending the out-breath strengthens the belly.
Don't cover the gullet with the epiglottis when breathing through the nose otherwise the throat becomes tense and the energy flattens.
20 February 2009
Freedom
The only thing a teacher has are a few insights that may possibly enrich the student's life. There are millions of useful insights out there. Each teacher has just a few. He then builds a world of knowledge or energy using these as axioms or foundation. This is when he becomes an expert – blinkered and limited by his own magnificence. If he wishes to remain free he must be ready to shift his foundations and move into ever more humble dwellings until he is free even of foundation – a Bedouin in a simple tent in the shifting sands.
