|
|
 |
Creating Bridges: S
pirituality & Philosophy:
|
|
|
Awakening To The
Miracle Of Ordinary Life:
The World of Sensation
by Dennis Lewis |
|
|
|
|
|
The world of sensation is a world of great power and mystery, a world filled with the potential for rich, informative perceptions and impressions of many different kinds. Most of us, however, make little use of this potential. To be sure, we take in many impressions through our “external senses,” through seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching. But there is another aspect of the world of sensation that many of us have little conscious experience with. This is the world of kinesthetic and organic sensations, the sensations that put us in touch with the inner dimensions of our own bodies.
Because we are often more attracted to impressions coming from the outside, and to the thoughts and feelings that arise in relation to them, we generally take these internal bodily sensations for granted. We pay attention to them only when we have an intense physical experience of some kind—pleasure, pain, discomfort, and so on. This is unfortunate, because these internal sensations are constantly speaking to us, constantly telling us about our relationship to ourselves, others, and our environment.
When we reflect on the meaning of this kind of sensation, most of us think about it in one-dimensional terms. “Sensation is sensation,” we say to ourselves. “It feels good, it feels bad, or it feels neutral.” But for those who have started on the journey of self-discovery, the picture changes dramatically. As we begin to sense ourselves more intimately, we discover that our internal sensations of ourselves have many different densities and levels. We learn that these densities and levels often correspond to the underlying densities and levels of matter itself. We can discern, for example, solid, earth-like sensations; liquid, water-like sensations; and gaseous, air-like sensations. We can experience the dense, contracted sensation of pain, the fluid sensation of pleasure, and the spacious sensation of joy and love. We can even experience the “empty,” open sensation of inner freedom, freedom from our self-image. In this state in we experience ourselves as pure receptivity.
The world of sensation is also the world of energy. For it is through the sensations of our body that we can experience the various energy exchanges and transmutations that are needed not just for ordinary life, but also for spiritual growth. The great spiritual pathfinder G. I. Gurdjieff was perhaps the first teacher in the West to teach in depth about the relationship of inner sensation to the transformation of energy. Some teachers within the world’s great traditions—including Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam—have gone deeply into the alchemical relationship of sensation and energy. Until recent years, however, these more “esoteric” teachings were only revealed at crucial moments in the teacher/student relationship or in special groups working together for spiritual development. Certain Taoist teachings, for instance, speak of transforming our heavy densities of sensation and energy into higher frequencies of vibration. We may be asked to locate any sense of contraction in ourselves and to experience this as “ice.” We may then be instructed to use our awareness to dissolve the “ice” into “water” and the water into “gas.”
Whatever words we use to describe this transformative process, what we are talking about here is, at least at one level, the process of deep relaxation, of loosening the energetic knots that keep us bound to our present perceptions. It is through deep, organic relaxation that we learn to untie these knots and to let go of what is superfluous in our lives, the unnecessary structures of thought, emotion, and sensation that we have constructed to support or defend our self-image. These structures not only consume our energy, but they also keep anything new from entering. Learning how to see and let go of these unnecessary structures not only has a beneficial influence on our health and well-being, but it also helps conserve and produce the energy we need for a work of inner transformation.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dennis Lewis,
Teacher of meditation |
 |
Dennis Lewis is a teacher of meditation, authentic breathing, and qigong. A long-time student and group leader in the Gurdjieff Work, he also studied for three years with Advaita Vedanta master Jean Klein.
Lewis has been certified to teach various qigong and Taoist meditation practices by Bruce Kumar Frantzis, Mantak Chia, and Dr. Wang Shan Long. The foundation of his approach today is the awakening of consciousness, of presence, in our everyday lives.
His writing has appeared in numerous publications, including Yoga Journal, Gnosis, Parabola, Somatics, Library Journal, Manas, and the San Francisco Chronicle. He is co-editor, with Jacob Needleman, of two books: Sacred Tradition & Present Need (Viking) and On the Way to Self Knowledge (Knopf).
His acclaimed book The Tao of Natural Breathing: For Health, Well-Being and Inner Growth, published in 1997, is now available in eight languages. His audio program Breathing as a Metaphor for Living was produced in 1998 by Sounds True.
His new book Boundless Breathing: Teachings, Exercises, and Meditations for Health and Self-Transformation will be published soon.
www.authentic-
breathing.com
|
|
11111 |
 |
You'll find it in
The
Directory!
|
|
| |
|
