When I sit, I start out having to relax and calm down, to let go of my mind, and hopefully to find my impermanence and some equanimity toward a little bit of pain around the edges. If I do drop into where I am now, I experience movement in the location of self-awareness, but I can double-down on “free to move through the whole body and as though in open space”. I surrender.
How much can I transition to action initiated in the stretch of ligaments, and stop moving myself around, I wonder lately. A lot to learn, between the pelvis and the spine, between the lower spine and the thoracic spine, and between the neck and the head.
My late teacher Wu Tsu said, “With this turtle-nosed snake, you must have the ability not to get your hands or legs bitten. Hold him tight by the back of the neck with one quick grab. Then you can join hands and walk along with me.”
(Yuanwu, “The Blue Cliff Record”; tr Cleary & Cleary, p 144)
I’m bound to be bitten by Wu Tsu, if I take his advice to mean there’s something I should do. It’s about realizing a cessation of “doing”, but I think I might run into him, in the stretch of ligaments.