2010.06.08 19:00 - Conscious Embodiment

The Guardian for this meeting was Eos Amaterasu. The comments are by Eos Amaterasu.

Eos Amaterasu: Hi Eliza, Calvino

Calvino Rabeni: Good evening, Eos!

Eliza Madrigal: Oh :) Hi Calvino, Eos :)

Calvino Rabeni: Konnichi wa, Eliza-san

Eliza Madrigal bows

Eliza Madrigal: :)

Eos Amaterasu: :-)

Eliza Madrigal really curious to hear anything you have to share about the event this week, Eos...

Eos Amaterasu: Very full

Calvino Rabeni: What event was that ?

Eos Amaterasu: Excellent day today, starting with a meditation instruction done by lady who is a bugaku and other dancer

Eos Amaterasu: (speaking of Japanese ladies)

Eliza Madrigal smiles

Eos Amaterasu: beautful form

Eos Amaterasu: form

Eos Amaterasu: this is at ALIA (Authentic Leadership in Action) summer program

Eos Amaterasu: in Halifax

Calvino Rabeni: That sounds very enlivening.

--BELL--

Eliza Madrigal: Quite a bit about bokaku on the web... how interesting

Eos Amaterasu: Saw her perform once with Philip Glass

Eliza Madrigal: My

Eos Amaterasu: The institute program is an interesting, and successful, container for a pretty transformative journey

Eos Amaterasu: framed with openness (through basic sitting) and including arts permeated by that

Eos Amaterasu: For example, I'm doing a module on "Power and Love" re working with conflict situations, with one of the two presenters being an Aikido master (Wendy Palmer)

Eos Amaterasu: who has developed a practice of "conscious embodiment"

Eos Amaterasu: She even has a 7-second exercise! :-)

Eliza Madrigal: ! :))

Calvino Rabeni: That's a great approach, which I hope gets more well known.

Eos Amaterasu: Nice thing is that it's very inclusive of perceiving _through_ the body

Eliza Madrigal: conscious embodiment... intersting idea... Ah! You just answered my question!

Calvino Rabeni: Yes, that is pretty indispensible

Eliza Madrigal: Say more if you can?

Eliza Madrigal becomes more conscious and sits up straighter ;-)

Eos Amaterasu: It includes for example notion of aligning head, heart, and belly (hara)

Eos Amaterasu: http://www.tam-aikido.org/ and http://consciousembodiment.com

Eos Amaterasu: As a head-oriented guy it's a learning edge for me to be more aware of and from my heart and my body/guts

Calvino Rabeni: I've often thought of those 3 as the "simple" version of the idea of cakras, and also the embodiment of the functional centers in the body.

Calvino Rabeni: Those functional centers being Thinking, Feeling, and Moving

Eos Amaterasu: It's a bit like becoming more aware of different types of avatars' bodies that make you up

Eliza Madrigal musing a bit.. yes 'multi dimensional ways of being'...

Calvino Rabeni: There are a lot of somewhat similar maps of embodied consciousness

Eos Amaterasu: Yes.... many many

Eos Amaterasu: This is an area I'm becoming more aware of ,and so looking for some really simple practice I can relate to....

Eliza Madrigal nods, yes I relate to that also. There have been many times I've flipped through a book with complicated maps and just put it back on the shelf...

Calvino Rabeni: What would "really simple" be, Eos

Eos Amaterasu: (btw, I'll have to catch up on the WG activities)

Eliza Madrigal: but a few simple things to work with is usually best

Eos Amaterasu: Yes, Wendy calls such books "Shelf Help", because that's where they end up :-)

Eliza Madrigal smiles. Yes, especially you'll need to stroll by village square Eos! :) bustling with activity :)

Eliza Madrigal: haha, I like that

Eos Amaterasu: Oh, yes, the photographs!

--BELL--

Calvino Rabeni: That is the ironic thing though - people don't take the simple things seriously. Partly the maps and diagrams are to get people to think there's enough complexity for it to matter. :)

Eos Amaterasu: Really simple means short and sweet enough that I could actually do it

Eliza Madrigal: :)) yes that's a great observation Calvino

Eliza Madrigal: indeed

Eliza Madrigal: The practices I tend to stick with, tend to be the ones that are easily integrated one by one

Calvino Rabeni: There is a basic foundational practice - it is, simply - "Be aware of what is happening in your body"

Calvino Rabeni: That's all - just simple attention, and keep doing that

Eos Amaterasu: question is, as with any act of observation, is to tune or grow the appropriate organ of observation

Calvino Rabeni: So, it's too simple to be taken seriously eh? :)

Eos Amaterasu: I'm just becoming aware of the subtlety of that

Calvino Rabeni: Sure, it is endlessly subtle

Eos Amaterasu: or put it another way, a probe can help open space

Calvino Rabeni: It can - attention is a kind of space itself

Eos Amaterasu: the probe is not the space opened up, but it makes a relationship with the space

Eos Amaterasu: yes, attention is the ultimate space

Eliza Madrigal: I have to admit that for many years I disregarded talk of chakras and such... amazing how things come back around and one can find a bit of why ideas tend to come back up

Eliza Madrigal: ways of seeing, ways of being :)

Eos Amaterasu: in "the flow" form is dropped, or it's not separate from what is happening

Eos Amaterasu: but form helps you get there

Eliza Madrigal: And also, it seems, capacity/relavance

Eliza Madrigal: *relevance

Calvino Rabeni: It's fine to ignore all those chakra systems and stuff - without the embodied awareness it is just another mental compexlty-

Calvino Rabeni: But with the awareness, then those maps might give someone a way to see some of those subtleties

Eos Amaterasu: yeah, can give you more fine-tuned vocabulary

Calvino Rabeni: I believe, when people just pay attention, they will see that "map" for themselves, as it lives there

Calvino Rabeni: the vocabulary is for teaching or communicating, not so much for some kind of practice

Eliza Madrigal: yes, ... I think that's a bit of what I meant... there is a more and more subtle context... precision, etc

Calvino Rabeni: That's my bias anyway - toward conceptual minimalism

Eliza Madrigal: and well is it about a certain kind of ability/concentration to be able to move attention?

Calvino Rabeni: The great thing about an art like Aikido - a martial art, is that it has to WORK RIGHT NOW :)

Eos Amaterasu: I tend that way too: "three words that strike vital point" over "sutra in 10,000,000 verses" :-)

Eliza Madrigal: :))

Calvino Rabeni: Or else :)

Eos Amaterasu: Yes, a complete action takes just a few seconds

Calvino Rabeni: i.e. Instant Karma

Eliza Madrigal: gonna get you

Calvino Rabeni: right, that one :)

Eliza Madrigal: :)

Eos Amaterasu: like the moon and the stars and the sun :-)

Eliza Madrigal: :::holds hands and sways::: hehe

Eos Amaterasu looks for lighter in inventory

Eliza Madrigal: Ah, but still, all very fascinating. How many of these presentations/workshops have you attended Eos?

Eos Amaterasu: Well, each summer session has modules to choose from, each of which is 3 hours/day, and then there's other activities, plenaries, and lots of peer-to-peer interaction

Eos Amaterasu: Thursday will be "Social Presencing Theater"

Eliza Madrigal: hmmm

--BELL--

Eos Amaterasu: http://www.presencing.com/projects/sp_theater.shtml

Eliza Madrigal: Interesting description. Have you taken part in this kind of thing before?

Eos Amaterasu: Not exactly that, but I've been at events which are maybe more extended and complete versions of that, such as the all-night Javanese shadow puppet play

Calvino Rabeni: Calvino Rabeni puts link into his bookmark collection

Eliza Madrigal: I learned only recently that the word 'theory' derives from the same word that theatre dervies from... thought that was fascinating connection

Calvino Rabeni: That's fascinating :)

Eos Amaterasu: theories: ways of seeing

Eliza Madrigal: yes :)

Eos Amaterasu: language is amazing

Calvino Rabeni: It shows the truer early relationship between knowing and Drama

Eos Amaterasu: playing as

Calvino Rabeni: as it is a Dramatic Universe

Eliza Madrigal: hmmm, nods :))

Eos Amaterasu: I guess there's some connotation of acting and knowing that you're acting (or, being, and knowing that you're being, is acting)

Eliza Madrigal: yes, seeing your views

Eos Amaterasu: which means awareness could rest in itself

Eos Amaterasu: gulp

Eliza Madrigal smiles

Eliza Madrigal breathes

Eos Amaterasu: (sixth word of Tilopa :-)

Eos Amaterasu: rang sar zhag: rest in itself

Calvino Rabeni: That archaic consciousness still carries a lot of truth that has been "forgotten" by moderns

Eliza Madrigal: have been thinking about that fellow a lot... about 'beyond effort' and Rest that is active

Calvino Rabeni: Like, the classic imporance of the Art of Rhetoric

Calvino Rabeni: as an essential part of the education of the mind

Eliza Madrigal: Its nice to take the lids off those forgotten things perhaps

Eos Amaterasu gets dust mop

Eliza Madrigal giggles

Eliza Madrigal: Depends on the environment they are opened into perhaps :))

Calvino Rabeni: Good point - rest is active - the paradox is it a kind of fulcrum - like the pivot of a lever - least movement but most active

Calvino Rabeni: Ah, they still seem fresh after all those centuries :)

Eliza Madrigal: :)))

Eliza Madrigal: So sleepy... I'd better say goodnight. Thanks for the lovely session

Eos Amaterasu: Near midnight here, will also make departure (early risings these days :-)

Eos Amaterasu: Bye Eliza, Calvino

Calvino Rabeni: Bye Eliza (what a dramatic departure)

Eos Amaterasu: :-)

Calvino Rabeni: Bye, Eos