Energy, Part 2

The theme for today is Energy and Experience.

Energy and Experience
are the outside and inside views
of the same events.

Energy is the way Nature moves:
It comes in waves, pulsations,
openings and closings,
"more"s and "less"es.

We are rhythms within rhythms
exquisitely tuned to the cycles around us,
to the weather and seasons
and to the more subtle qualities of our surroundings
the physical as well as the
social and emotional field around
to which we are closer than a fish to water
because we are the water
both creating and being moved by it.

The whole body is an energy symphony,
and the Heart is the Conductor

that moves energy throughout the body:
Contracting, pushing and reaching, relaxing, opening and receiving.
The heart is not a pump,
but an intelligent center of the body-brain.
The quality of its energy is warm and motivating,
conveying nourishment and courage.

Each heart beat is different,
creatively customized to NOW and THIS.
Each beat arises from, and reflects organic knowledge
of self, world, and their relationship.

The pattern of a beating heart is distinct and individual,
telling the story of the moment
as that moment is to you,
and the story of a life lived in your particular way.

Breathing moves a different quality of energy.
Subtle, light, the quality meant by the word "inspiring";
the in-breath feeling different than the out-breath,
and the full state a very different quality than the empty state.

Breathing is a crossing place for experience
because it's both intentional and automatic
and reveals how intention and naturalness
work together.

Many meditation and health practices are based on
awareness of heart and breath.
not to occupy or control the attention
but to allow the knowing that is inherent in heart and breath
to spread throughout the whole self
and in doing so bring it to a deeper unity.

The yang and yin of what happens:
Seen from the outside,
energy rises and falls.

Seen from the inside, as experience
this is called Action and Rest,
Doing and Being
When we are mindful of this happening,
the active and passive modes of Mind
are called Attention and Awareness.

The poet David Whyte writes:

"To rest is to give up on worrying and fretting
and the sense that there is something wrong with the world unless we put it right;
to rest is to fall back, literally or figuratively from outer targets,
not to an inner bull’s eye or an imagined state of inner stillness,
but to a living, breathing inner state of natural exchange."

We cycle through the energy state called Rest
within each breath, each heartbeat,
within the tremor and pulsation of each micro-movement.

We move from rest to full engagement
and from engagement to rest
in a personal and characteristic way.
In a sense, this pattern is "you".

Chances are you have practices and habits,
your own "medicine"
for "working with" energy and intention,
regulating, channeling, focusing,
supporting, stimulating, encouraging, releasing.

This may be mundane, like getting to bed on time for a good night's rest
and knowing what foods to eat for their future effect;
social, like sensing when to listen or to add to a conversation,
or esoteric, like tracing felt energy flow within one's body
or filling space, objects, or other bodies
with the energy of attention.

Of all these practices
the mundane and habitual are the most important.

One of my favorites is
the paradoxically powerful effect of
giving things full awareness and attention and then
"letting it be".
if you did this mundanely and habitually
some would call you "enlightened".

Take some time to consider
how you know Energy
as a matter of direct experience

from time to time
in response to different events and surroundings
with different people, moods, and intentions.
or how it feels right now.
...

Perhaps it is possible
to be present enough to one's own "enegy"
to tell those stories with clarity and specificity
embodying the qualities
that they actually have
so that others can get a sense
of being the Being inside that same heart-beat.