While the Political Far-Right and many of the rich (The Constipated Rich) publicly decry Big Government, the cry is a decoy.
These are the people who call at every turn for deregulation.
Well, another group of people also call for deregulation: infants and adolescents. They want out from under the control of their parents. They want freedom -- and they want it without responsibility. So, also, do the self-indulgent, the lazy, and the criminal, liars, hypocrites, and a certain class of politicians, lobbyists, and news commentators and editors.
That much they have in common with the Political Far-Right and The Constipated Rich. All want to do as they please without obligation to or regulation by others -- or the self-regulation that characterizes morality or even ordinary maturity.
The difference is that infants and adolescents make no pretense about whose good they are seeking -- their own -- whereas the Political Far-Right and The Constipated Rich want us to believe that it is for everyone's good that they seek deregulation.
More than that, there seems to be an even more immoral trait about them: the belief, acted upon commonly in political campaigns, for example, that "anything goes" -- lying, distortion/disinformation, selective recounting of history, mischaracterization -- victory at any cost. They consider fairness quaint or naive -- and so degrade public discourse. And the public, in their (either) naivete or self-dishonesty, believe that they are immune to the same strategies being employed against them.
Let's take an honest and sober look at the pros, cons, and the safe conditions of deregulation and reduction of government.
The pros: government regulations impose bureaucracy, and all of the time-wasting paperwork and hoop-jumping that goes with it, upon society. Deregulation and reduction of government promise to reduce the bureaucratic overload and attendant costs, both in dollars and in humanpower.
The cons: unregulated, the principals of certain, well-recognized Big Business corporations -- many of whom are The Constipated Rich -- act in their self interest, not in the interest of society at large. Their mentality is that of children raiding the forbidden "cookie jar", hoping never to get noticed or caught. They are quick to label altruism as socialism -- a problem because Socialism suffered the same onus as our degraded Capitalism suffers: the onus earned by abuse.
Though some Capitalists may not admit it, Capitalism and Socialism suffer similar degradation, and the consequence shows up as a sluggish economy and growing class stratification.
The thing is, the Political Right and the Constipated Rich want class stratification because they think (wrongly) that it benefits them. It's as if the leaves of a tree, the branches and the fruit, detested the tree's roots.
They regulate themselves badly and it is for that very reason that Big Government and regulation become necessary.
The safe condition for an Economized Government and deregulation would be if people, including and especially the Political Far-Right and the Constipated Rich, exercised their intelligence and saw that they depend upon those whom they strip bare (impoverish) and uproot (disenfranchise) -- and acted accordingly. Cause the economic waters of society-at-large to rise, and all boats rise.
Instead, they foolishly and dishonestly lay out the decoys of "taxes and government regulation" as the culprits, or socialism, or terrorists, or drugs, or government-mandated health insurance coverage, or The Left.
Such people's behavior creates unnecessary and avoidable strain within the body-politic and pain for the general population -- and for that reason, they should be expelled from the political commons, and would be by a wise electorate. Perhaps we could afford them in earlier times, but today's problems require broad cooperation among many public and private sectors. Cooperation requires, at its base, trust, and trust (to be sound) requires honesty and integrity among those whose cooperation is needed.
It is all too obvious to cursory intelligence that many of the problems that beset us, today, stem from socio-economic imbalances and disparities that disturb and weaken not just societies, but also international relations -- imbalances that can and must be redressed by a balancing of the economic flow of all societies. By fostering conditions that reduce the overall class-stratification of our societies (not merely economically, but also in terms of education and health care -- the primary means and requirements of all productivity) -- we can thereby reduce the need for government bureaucracy and regulation.
To protect their positions, the Far-Right and the Constipated Rich build houses of brick -- legislation and preferential treatment (through lobbyists) -- so that they may be safe from the storms of fate that beset those not so well-off and who live in houses of sticks (mortgage borrowers) or of straw (renters).
And the electorate (voting public) lets them get away with it. Thus, the saying, "The People get the government they deserve."
Now, let me ask, "Who's Afraid of Big Bad Government"?
Not the top 1%, the Political Right, the CEOs; they own the Big, Bad Government through lobbyists (should be banned) and unlimited political contributions ("Citizens United").
The Supreme Court: Unfit to Rule
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We start down-to-Earth. Just send for and listen for free to a beautifully articulated and nuanced reading, in nearly its entirety (divided by chapter sections) and in the moods of its author, of the transcription of Thomas Hanna's fervently inspiring rant one afternoon in 1974 and into the evening. That rant became The End of Tyranny. Hear him describe what is happening today with such penetrating clarity that you'll be aroar with the fire of righteous intelligence as you recognize what you see and hear happening, today, with new understanding. Once you've started, you'll be drawn right in. It'll light a fire under your hiney, so take it a little at a time, in sections lasting ten minutes, or so. No need to rush through it.
MORE: The Constipated Rich and Trickle-Down Theory
Constipation of the Greedy and Trickle-Down Theory
Allow me to start with two wisecracks, befitting the title.
"The Fat Cats has been liposuctioning the "fat" out of the economy, into their own pockets, which they don't seem to mind.
Or, otherwise, our world economy appears to be suffering from "Constipation of the Rich".
Trickle-down theory only seems to work when you put the squeeze on, and the ones in control of the squeeze are those who would NOT be squeezed -- so, no squeeze, no trickle-down.
So, this watered-down economy gets by on a trickle while the Fat Cats of the world are bloated with Constipation of the Rich.
And when Constipation of the Rich is concerned, everything slows down. Stagnation sets in. People complain. The News Media make news out of it, as if it's something that results from mysterious economic forces out of anyone's control.
But there's nothing new or even newsworthy about Constipation of the Rich.
Why?
Because no one's done anything (consequential) about it.
Some of us are working on it.
By the way, one major player is "The Fed" (The Federal Reserve, as in what you see on dollar bills) -- named as if a federal agency, but actually a Congressionally established (during the time of Woodrow Wilson), Congressionally endorsed, private, for-profit banking corporation that creates money by "declaring it to exist" with no other backing, lending it to the Federal Government which injects it into (or withdraws it from) the economy, and charging interest on the loan, which we, the taxpayers, pay. Don't believe it? Look it up on YouTube.
You may become a member of the elite club, The Integral Somatics Association of Earth -- "Busybodies, All".
We start down-to-Earth. Just send for and listen for free to a beautifully articulated and nuanced reading, in its entirety and in the moods of its author, of the transcription of Thomas Hanna's fervently inspiring, book-length tirade one afternoon in 1974 and into the evening. That tirade became The End of Tyranny. Hear him describe what is happening today with such penetrating clarity that you'll be aroar with the fire of righteous intelligence as you recognize what you see and hear happening, today, with new understanding. Once you've started, you'll be drawn right in. It'll light a fire under your hiney, so take it a little at a time, in sections lasting ten minutes, or so. No need to rush through it.
MORE: Big, Bad Government -- the Decoy of the Far-Right
"The Fat Cats has been liposuctioning the "fat" out of the economy, into their own pockets, which they don't seem to mind.
Or, otherwise, our world economy appears to be suffering from "Constipation of the Rich".
Trickle-down theory only seems to work when you put the squeeze on, and the ones in control of the squeeze are those who would NOT be squeezed -- so, no squeeze, no trickle-down.
So, this watered-down economy gets by on a trickle while the Fat Cats of the world are bloated with Constipation of the Rich.
And when Constipation of the Rich is concerned, everything slows down. Stagnation sets in. People complain. The News Media make news out of it, as if it's something that results from mysterious economic forces out of anyone's control.
But there's nothing new or even newsworthy about Constipation of the Rich.
Why?
Because no one's done anything (consequential) about it.
Some of us are working on it.
By the way, one major player is "The Fed" (The Federal Reserve, as in what you see on dollar bills) -- named as if a federal agency, but actually a Congressionally established (during the time of Woodrow Wilson), Congressionally endorsed, private, for-profit banking corporation that creates money by "declaring it to exist" with no other backing, lending it to the Federal Government which injects it into (or withdraws it from) the economy, and charging interest on the loan, which we, the taxpayers, pay. Don't believe it? Look it up on YouTube.
You may become a member of the elite club, The Integral Somatics Association of Earth -- "Busybodies, All".
We start down-to-Earth. Just send for and listen for free to a beautifully articulated and nuanced reading, in its entirety and in the moods of its author, of the transcription of Thomas Hanna's fervently inspiring, book-length tirade one afternoon in 1974 and into the evening. That tirade became The End of Tyranny. Hear him describe what is happening today with such penetrating clarity that you'll be aroar with the fire of righteous intelligence as you recognize what you see and hear happening, today, with new understanding. Once you've started, you'll be drawn right in. It'll light a fire under your hiney, so take it a little at a time, in sections lasting ten minutes, or so. No need to rush through it.
MORE: Big, Bad Government -- the Decoy of the Far-Right
There is No Mind-Body Connection | There is No Mind-Body Split
Yoga, Religion, and Psychotherapy are Based Upon a Misunderstanding.
The words, "yoga" and "religion" have something in common: they both refer to the unity (one-ness) or union of two things that are presumed to be un-unified in the ordinary person. But in both cases, those two things are always already in union, or "not-two"."Yoga" means "union" and comes from the same root as the word, "yoke". Agricultural cultures use the yoke to unify the efforts of two beasts of burden -- whether oxen, bulls, or horses. In yoga, it is the individual self (you) and the Great Self (God or Brahman or Ultimate Reality) that are to be unified (or realized to be one) through practices outlined in Eastern scriptures -- and also "mind" and "body" that are to be unified.
Thus, practices exist at the "physical" level (hatha yoga, kriya yoga, etc.), at the emotional level (bhakti yoga), at the "mental" level (jnana yoga, etc.), at the behavioral level (raja yoga, karma yoga), and at the subtle-energetic level (kundalini yoga and siddha yoga). I put those terms into quotes because they represent not actual, separate levels of the self, but soma-self seen and considered from different perspectives, with different phenomena (kinds of events). It's the perspectives that are different; "level" means "a perspective and its content".
"Religion" comes from the root words, "re-" (again) and "ligare" (to bind together). "Ligare" and ligament come from the same meaning-root (ligaments bind bones together). In religion, it is the individual self (you) and God that are to be re-united -- "God and sinners reconciled", as the Christmas carol goes -- and their separation is the very definition of "sin" -- "to miss the mark".
Yogic scriptures attribute the separation of self from Ultimate Reality to "Maya" or "Samsara" -- conditional reality, which the scriptures describe as "illusory", with Ultimate Reality being the only "Real". "Conditional reality" is everything experienced through the senses, through memory, and through self-awareness. Maya or Samsara are called "illusion", while God or Brahman or Ultimate Reality are "the Real".
These statements apply to the more exoteric teachings of religion and yoga.
Well, the whole thing is wrong.
Self and God (or Ultimate Reality) are always already one and the same, and mind"and"body are always already fully united (or more properly, "not-two").
The esoteric teachings state that the self and Ultimate Reality (or God) are always already one, but that actuality must be realized (not merely mentally believed as dogma or arrived at by reasoning, but observably recognized).
However, there exists a reason why they appear to be separate from one another, and that reason is, "memory". The "ten dollar", Sanscrit word for memories is, "samscaras". Memory, the carrying forward (persistence) of impressions of past experience (and our reactions to them) into the present moment, is the nature of illusion called, "Maya" or "samsara"; memory (persistence) is a feature of existence, itself, and it is the very mechanism and meaning of the word, "karma" (which literally means, "action").
We, in the West, readily accept the notion that some memories are accessible to us and others are buried in the subconscious or unconscious. We accept the notion that subconscious memories affect our behavior. What we may not so readily recognize is that memories are embodied physiologically and that memories define and are what we regard to be ourselves.
In Western psychotherapy, the idea that manifestations of subconscious ("repressed") memories "affect the body" is called "somatization". Somatization always involves physiological effects -- alterations of bodily functions -- muscle tension, nervous arousal states, glandular and immunological changes. (A related scientific field is called, "psycho-neuro-immunology".)
Because some memories are subconscious (or unconscious), we feel their somatic effects without recognizing the underlying memory or memories that create those effects; we feel out of control -- and so we say that there exists a mind-body split. I will say more about subconscious and unconscious memories later.
There exist two faults with this understanding.
The first fault is the notion that one "affects" the "other"; that they are "two". And there we are, in the notion of a mind-body split that can (or must), through some efforts, be unified -- even though psychotherapy recognizes "somatization".
The second fault is to fail to recognize that all of our chronic or repetitive stresses and tensions are somatization in action; psychotherapy may recognize "clinical" forms of somatization (as outlined in the DSM manual), but if its understanding were more inclusive, it would recognize that ordinary emotional distress, nervous tension, all speech, and all actions and behaviors are forms of somatization, not just clinical disease-entities.
In Western religion, we accept the notion of "sin" as "voluntary wrong action" that separates us from Divinity. Some branches of Christianity postulate "original sin" -- sin that exists by virtue of being born as a human being that can ultimately only be remediated in heaven after death or upon the Judgment Day.
There exist two faults with this understanding.
The first fault is the notion that one can cease to be a sinner by accepting and vigorously reinforcing beliefs and right behaviors. The closest correction to this fault is the notion of being "saved" in Christianity -- saved by grace bestowed upon oneself by a religious authority.
The second fault is to fail to recognize that sin comes from deeply entrenched memory patterns that show up involuntarily and without recognition, as our very self. "Original sin" approaches this understanding but falls short of obviousness; it fails to recognize that the body or born self is not the problem, but that the subconsciousness or unconsciousness of the memory patterns that define self is the problem. The automaticity, the automatic nature, the automatic control of the memories of self-identity (and all of our ways, which stem from those memories) -- the unconscious automaticity is the problem. The unconsciousness is the problem -- the "sinning" behaviors that come from subconscious memories being secondary effects.
So, let me say it another way. There is no mind-body connection; they are two views of the same thing. There are two ways of viewing the same living process -- from inside ("mind") and from outside ("body"). From a scientific perspective, "mind" is the "field" and "body" is the "particle" -- two aspects of the same thing. The two perspectives, together, constitute what we call, "soma" -- your experience of yourself as a conscious, living person with the ability to direct attention and to exercise intention. Mind and body are always already "one" (named, "soma").
The ability to direct attention and to exercise intention is the very basis of the idea of "sin" (because it presumes we have free will or even absolute control of our actions), but our self-control is limited by the unconsciousness of the controlling memories by which we remember "ourselves", control our actions and make sense of our experiences.
This is a practical distinction that flies in the face of the New Age-y notion that "we are total controllers of our own reality and totally responsible for our experience" -- which is nonsense. Personal experience shows it to be so. You should feel relieved. On the other hand, we are not relieved of responsibility; we still continue to suffer until we get a handle on (not just "right ideas about") the cause of our experience -- which doesn't mean, "understanding" in a mental sense, but the ability to resolve and release their binding, involuntary effects. Responsibility is a practical matter, and for it to be a practical matter, we must be actually capable of perceiving and doing something practical. Otherwise, the idea of responsibility is just an abstraction.
However, that understanding, as it is, is insufficient to relieve suffering, which is the ostensible goal both of Western Religion and Eastern spiritual practices.
Our target is properly the unconscious/subconscious material that, when rendered "fine-tunable" or "adjustable" (instead of stuck or poorly adjustable to immediate conditions), becomes recognizable as our repertoire of activities, not assumed as our somehow "human nature" identities.
There is no "mind-body connection" to be restored; there is no "self-and-God" to be re-united. What there is, are all of the unconscious memories that cause compulsory thinking, compulsory feelings, behaviors that seem to be out of our control, that seem to "happen to" us, the internal conflicts and dilemmas that afflict us in the course of life -- the whole mass of which constitute an illusory "opacity" that hijacks and blocks attention from intuiting the formless, un"knowable" ground of being that Western religions call Divinity and that Eastern spirituality calls "liberation". The "split" is entirely conceptual, a matter of labelling and of conventional or learned behavior, but not the actual nature of things. Divinity is being the flow of concepts and sensations that we identify as duality, or split.
The Divine cannot correctly be sought (because seeking depends upon memories that determine "what is to be sought", and memories are precisely what hijack and trap attention); The Divine can only be revealed in the transparency of memory that occurs when unconscious (unrecognized) memory patterns become conscious (and recognizable as memories), so that they lose their binding attraction ("stickiness") and attention can "see through them" (external perception) or "fall through them" (internal apperception) -- to enjoy intuition of self-source, which is Divinity, or Brahman, BEING them -- and which is not some spectacular accomplishment of mind-blowing insanity or weird perception, but merely the easy ordinaryness of the experience of our own most ordinary faculties, unfouled by unconscious memories.
As a practical matter, binding and deluding memories (which may be anything and everything) exist at different levels of the being (or ways of organizing intention/actions and attention/sensations) which we may call "physical", "emotional", "mental", "higher mental", "intuitive", etc., according to their content. As a practical matter, my experience is that memories must be addressed on their own terms -- or the terms of the level at which they appear -- and that certain principles of conscious awakening and change apply to memories at all "levels". It's a matter of learning how to apply those principles at different levels.
In my experience, perhaps the most accessible way to learn to exercise those principles is through one form of somatic education or another, which, though it may illuminate any and all levels of the being, approaches through the perspective (or doorway) of embodiment. It's very easy to tell whether your application of somatic principles is effective; did you feel immediately different after practice? Was the change durable? If so, then so; if not, then not.
Somatic education is a doorway -- but not the entire path -- simply because people commonly consider the scope of somatic education to be "matters bodily" (or physiological); it's a fault of the mind-body "split"-concept. Actually, somatic education is a full-spectrum affair that runs from physiological concerns to the highest matters of consciousness, and throughout that spectrum, different means apply for awakening responsibility, some of which may look clinical, others psychological, and others, spiritual/evolutionary. In whatever ways the technical means may differ, the principles are identical.
There is no mind-body connection, there is no yoga, there is no true religion ("binding again"); there is just the uncovering and mastery, freely intelligent use and free release of the patterns of memory by which we define life as a many-ness (of which the minimum is duality) and the logicalities of how we interact in life by habit and unconscious tendency.
As the "stickiness" of memories (Tibetan: dukkha) dissolves, we are more free to relate freely (in relationship), and so the sense of separation so decried in spiritual circles as the affliction of humanity, ceases to pertain -- as the binding force (entangling stickiness) of memory diminishes and dissolves.
So be it.
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PRACTICAL
somatic education exercises
We Cannot Stop our Minds -- nor Need We
But when we steadily observe the flow and the feeling of each thought, the space between thoughts gets longer until mind stops by itself, for periods of time.
Attention and intention are the two fundamental functions of all sentient beings ("somas"). Everything more is varied instrumentality for those two ends: Sense organs (organs of attention) and organs of intention (musculo-skeletology -- hands, feet, mouth, paws, trunk, claws, tail, etc., then speech and then tools and technology that externalize somatic functions). Sensation and movement. Emotion (feelings) and motivation (actions). Imagination and preparation. Perception (incoming) and conception (outgoing).
While the language may indicate that attention and intention -- and their organs -- are separate from each other, they are altogether intertwined, as I describe, as follows.
The most primal intention is the movement of attention, experienced as the impulse to be, which is actually the experience of movement. Movements maintain the sense of being, even movements as subtle as the movements of breathing and the internal pulsing of heartbeat; without movement, the body-sense fades out, insensate, even as hair and nails lack sensation.
The movements of mind are subject to attention: movements of thought, the movements of reverie, all of which bear the force of intention to some degree; to discover what the intention of mind at any moment, pay attention. Here's a funny thing:
Anyone who has ever practiced a meditation or attention discipline has noticed the incessant arising of thoughts and reveries. The funny thing is, these thoughts and reveries arise before we know them, fading or congealing into existence -- and doing so always, to some unknown degree, before we know it.
Intention is force ("wattage") -- or in the language of physics, "tendency". Tendency is the movement of things happening and things changing into something else.
Objects of attention and new intentions are arising in us, ongoingly, as our swooning reveries of thought and daydream-streams.
Now, spiritual fascists -- I being a recovering one -- may have the idea that meditation is about quieting the mind. Well, that may be an effect, but it isn't the intention, per se, and to attempt to do so by an act of will is less than fruitless; it is counterproductive, reinforcing the mind in this novel, almost-all-encompassing intention:
QUIET THE MIND !!!!!
We can't quiet the mind by an act of will because thoughts and reveries are always already in existence by the time that we notice them to quieten them. More than that, and in addition to the swooning reverie of thought, the effort to quiet the swooning reverie of thought is just another thought-intention added to all the rest.
There is a loophole, however. To say it explictly . . . . .
Thinking and reverie
are kinds of stress
which can be felt if we pay attention.
Every thought is evidenced by a feeling --
otherwise, how do you know when you're thinking?
-- never mind, what.
Thinking is an ever-shifting play of feeling
and if a person is imagining (reverie),
there may be imagined sounds, sights, and smells.
These are things upon which we may place our attention.
After all, they are already part of our experience,
so no need to go looking.
We notice that, if we place our attention on a thought
we have caught ourselves having,
and if we feel the "thought stress",
we notice that the thought dissipates in time, often fairly quickly,
leading attention straight into the "space between thoughts" --
that fabled Bramanic zone of conscious awareness . . . . .
until the next thought reverie captures you
as it rises as a momentary preoccupation
Then, you notice it
and dive your attention down upon it,
like a duck on a bug
feel it,
and follow it through its development.
Feeling the thought-stress
rather than concerning yourself with the content,
the mind dissipates,
dropping you into the Thoughtless Unknown between thoughts.
Then you have an interval of ordinary
thoughtless abiding . . . . .
no mind, though you are present
no thoughts, though you are intelligently present
no special effort
either of action or of rest.
Until the next one arises! like gas! effervescence! The Universal Alka-Seltzer Fizz! Fizz Mind.
Anyhow, some things dissipate much faster than others,
so take that into account.
Also, some thought-reveries, instead of dissipating under attention
seduce you into their fascinating content
congeal, develop, and become more solid.
They become tangible creations and interactions
with life and duration enough to affect us.
They run their course as life-experience
and then dissipate into the Silent Drop-Off.
It all goes on.
The mind goes off on a tangent.
Then it goes off.
If ever you want to know the way out,
the way "out" is "in-and-through".
phut!
Back Spasms -- The Inside Story
Back spasms catch us unawares
so to speak.
The Back Story of Most Back Pain
Back during a period of prolonged high stress — maybe during an employment crisis or facing deadline after deadline after deadline — you got yourself used to driving yourself hard or used to being in a state of urgency. Maybe you listen to too much news or talk radio and get "wound up". Maybe you stayed too long in a situation you really wanted to get out of, or maybe you put and kept yourself in uncomfortable positions, by sense of necessity, that you would rather have gotten out of, and got part-way used to that, while keeping going. Or maybe you just “trained” badly or trained on top of old injuries. You’re musclebound, whatever the story, with a spasm in your back.
It’s been coming for a long time, your back spasm — you’ve been getting closer to the edge of cramp or spasm for a long time. You got so used to being tense and stiff that, one day, you pulled on that tenseness and stiffness and it pulled you right back, something like an internally generated whiplash action.
What If It Was a Whiplash Incident?
Maybe you were involved in an accident that yanked or jerked or jolted you a bit too much.
Then, you tightened up suddenly, got prone to sudden yank-back, and you knew you were caught — even if, at first, you didn’t realize it was a protective spasm you were feeling.
A Back Spasm Shows Brain-Muscle Conditioning
Caught in your own conditioning– think about that. Your spasm is your conditioning.
We all caught in our conditioning, to varying degrees and in different ways. Had you thought of it like that, before?
However, sometimes, it’s “just enough” (too much), and with just one more challenge we suddenly go hard-line, uptight, tense, caught in the grip of our own conditioning, in spasm, body and mind (two aspects of the same thing). Think about it: didn’t your back spasm stop you in your tracks? mid-step? It wasn’t “a back spasm“; it was a "you spasm“.
The Problem with a "You Spasm"
Not enough reserve capacity, not enough tolerance for additional demand. On edge, trying to be nice, perhaps. Not much more capacity for stress, however. Used up, or close to it, in the grip.
The solution?
Recover much of that reserve capacity by dispeling obsolete tension patterns. Lose the excess tension. Get back to normal. Recover your reserve capacity. Feel like a human being. You may have forgotten what that feels like and you may not have known that you can do it, yourself.
Common Back Spasms are Simple
"Simple When You Know How"
Common Back Pain is a fairly simple condition to master. It’s just a primitive “go” reaction (“Landau Reaction“) turned on too hard and too long. You’re overheated; you’re idling too high. You can learn to turn this reflex (Landau Reaction) down and up again, temper it, recover a bunch of reserve capacity, flexibility and freedom of movement. No more spasm, no more back pain, more reserve capacity, more movability.
Back Spasms from Injury are More Complex, May Take More Doing to Clear Up
Back pain from injury may consist of a number of overlying contraction patterns. However, bending over or twisting and getting a spasm isn’t an injury; it’s a malfunction that falls under “Common Back Pain”. Recovering from a complicated injury isn’t more difficult, particularly; it just takes more steps, some sorting out, and more doing, of course.
The same principle applies, either way.
Recover voluntary (deliberate) control of the muscular grip and let it relax, then deliberately use it freely and so reclaim it. Strength, reserve capacity, free control. Security.
One Right Reason
That’s one very good purpose of somatic education — to get people out of pain. It’s effective, it’s faster than more well-known or popularized methods, and it brings durable benefits under all life conditions.
Different -- and More Like Yourself
A larger effect of somatic education is to train people to free themselves from the excessive grip of their conditioning; to re-acquaint people with what it feels like to feel fine; so people feel different and more like themselves.
Relief comes primarily from what the person does, secondarily from what someone else did with the person. If you do sessions of this process, you contribute at least 50% to the change, moving between effort and non-effort (in clinical sessions), or more like 90% if you’re working at a distance from me (Lawrence Gold) following recorded instructional material and taking distance-coaching, as needed.
Because the person is contributing energy, intention, and intelligence to the process, and because they’re changing from within (if guided from out), the change is theirs — theirs to maintain or theirs to re-create, if necessary. More than that, it’s faster than by externally operating methods, whether scalpel, laser, or stretching device ("spinal decompression"), longer-lasting than manipulations or interventions of many kinds. It’s longer-lasting because it covers more of the bases and from the internal control center, the self, oneself, and faster because it works from the inside, out.
MORE ON BACK PAIN, DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES
so to speak.
But here’s the odd thing: when a back spasm happens, it’s most often been coming for a long time.
The Back Story of Most Back Pain
Back during a period of prolonged high stress — maybe during an employment crisis or facing deadline after deadline after deadline — you got yourself used to driving yourself hard or used to being in a state of urgency. Maybe you listen to too much news or talk radio and get "wound up". Maybe you stayed too long in a situation you really wanted to get out of, or maybe you put and kept yourself in uncomfortable positions, by sense of necessity, that you would rather have gotten out of, and got part-way used to that, while keeping going. Or maybe you just “trained” badly or trained on top of old injuries. You’re musclebound, whatever the story, with a spasm in your back.
It’s been coming for a long time, your back spasm — you’ve been getting closer to the edge of cramp or spasm for a long time. You got so used to being tense and stiff that, one day, you pulled on that tenseness and stiffness and it pulled you right back, something like an internally generated whiplash action.
What If It Was a Whiplash Incident?
Maybe you were involved in an accident that yanked or jerked or jolted you a bit too much.
Then, you tightened up suddenly, got prone to sudden yank-back, and you knew you were caught — even if, at first, you didn’t realize it was a protective spasm you were feeling.
A Back Spasm Shows Brain-Muscle Conditioning
Caught in your own conditioning– think about that. Your spasm is your conditioning.
We all caught in our conditioning, to varying degrees and in different ways. Had you thought of it like that, before?
However, sometimes, it’s “just enough” (too much), and with just one more challenge we suddenly go hard-line, uptight, tense, caught in the grip of our own conditioning, in spasm, body and mind (two aspects of the same thing). Think about it: didn’t your back spasm stop you in your tracks? mid-step? It wasn’t “a back spasm“; it was a "you spasm“.
The Problem with a "You Spasm"
Not enough reserve capacity, not enough tolerance for additional demand. On edge, trying to be nice, perhaps. Not much more capacity for stress, however. Used up, or close to it, in the grip.
The solution?
Recover much of that reserve capacity by dispeling obsolete tension patterns. Lose the excess tension. Get back to normal. Recover your reserve capacity. Feel like a human being. You may have forgotten what that feels like and you may not have known that you can do it, yourself.
Common Back Spasms are Simple
"Simple When You Know How"
Common Back Pain is a fairly simple condition to master. It’s just a primitive “go” reaction (“Landau Reaction“) turned on too hard and too long. You’re overheated; you’re idling too high. You can learn to turn this reflex (Landau Reaction) down and up again, temper it, recover a bunch of reserve capacity, flexibility and freedom of movement. No more spasm, no more back pain, more reserve capacity, more movability.
Back Spasms from Injury are More Complex, May Take More Doing to Clear Up
Back pain from injury may consist of a number of overlying contraction patterns. However, bending over or twisting and getting a spasm isn’t an injury; it’s a malfunction that falls under “Common Back Pain”. Recovering from a complicated injury isn’t more difficult, particularly; it just takes more steps, some sorting out, and more doing, of course.
The same principle applies, either way.
Recover voluntary (deliberate) control of the muscular grip and let it relax, then deliberately use it freely and so reclaim it. Strength, reserve capacity, free control. Security.
One Right Reason
That’s one very good purpose of somatic education — to get people out of pain. It’s effective, it’s faster than more well-known or popularized methods, and it brings durable benefits under all life conditions.
Different -- and More Like Yourself
A larger effect of somatic education is to train people to free themselves from the excessive grip of their conditioning; to re-acquaint people with what it feels like to feel fine; so people feel different and more like themselves.
Relief comes primarily from what the person does, secondarily from what someone else did with the person. If you do sessions of this process, you contribute at least 50% to the change, moving between effort and non-effort (in clinical sessions), or more like 90% if you’re working at a distance from me (Lawrence Gold) following recorded instructional material and taking distance-coaching, as needed.
Because the person is contributing energy, intention, and intelligence to the process, and because they’re changing from within (if guided from out), the change is theirs — theirs to maintain or theirs to re-create, if necessary. More than that, it’s faster than by externally operating methods, whether scalpel, laser, or stretching device ("spinal decompression"), longer-lasting than manipulations or interventions of many kinds. It’s longer-lasting because it covers more of the bases and from the internal control center, the self, oneself, and faster because it works from the inside, out.
MORE ON BACK PAIN, DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES
- How You Can Relieve Your Own Back Pain
- On Chronic Back Pain
- De-Spookifying Medical Terms about Back Pain
Esoteric Somatics and Tibetan Buddhism
In Tibetan Buddhism, the human being is regarded to have three interfitting "bodies", which correspond to the waking state ("Nirmanakaya" or dense/"gross" physical flesh/genetic body), the dreaming or imagining state ("Sambhogakaya" or "subtle" body), and deep sleep ("Dharmakaya" or "causal/most subtle" or "unborn, unmanifest" body). This entry discusses our experience of them and how they evolve as a given individual develops and evolves.
These bodies are not separate. I consider them "nodes" or octaves on a continuum. This continuum consists of the primal "substance" of existence, which is self-radiant awareness, which gives rise to "soma" (or "living, aware, psycho-physical person"); soma consists of these three "bodies" or nodes.
Of these three "bodies", two are manifest (limited and defined), consist of changing processes, and exist in time: the Nirmanakaya (genetic body) and the Sambhogakaya (dream body). These two bodies are not static and unchanging, but exist as living, changing processes.
The third "body," the Dharmakaya, is transcendental, all-pervading, and is the ground of being from which the other two arise and in which they exist, consisting of self-radiant awareness.
This writing describes and explains the interrelation of the three bodies in terms of personal/conscious evolution.
People who are just learning the process of deliberate growth and change, we call "proto-mutants"; people who are actively engaging deliberate growth and change, we call "mutants" -- after Thomas Hanna's usage in his book, "Bodies in Revolt".
"Pointing Out" Instructions
When the Nirmanakaya (manifested genetic/memory body) and the Sambhogakaya (imaginary dreamed-body) align (or attain a high degree of mutual congruency), as the individual remains consciously awake, volitionally present and at a sufficiently poised state of equanimity or balance (free attention), the Dharmakaya (deep, silent, formless body or field) may be intuited by feeling the content of experience and, while feeling it, feeling beyond it into what is deeper.
By "a high degree of mutual congruency", I mean that the genetic/memory body is sufficiently free of the grip, or "gravitational attraction" of habituated patterns to be able to transform freely and stably into new subtle perceptions captured by awareness in the dream/imagination body (Sambhogakaya). Otherwise, subtle perceptions are fleeting and quickly replaced by the habits of dense memory seated in the genetic/memory body (Nirmanakaya). They can't be captured, so subtle perceptions, new insights, and emerging abilities vanish and get missed.
The Dharmakaya is the "clutch pedal". As the formless aspect of buddha-nature, "resorting" to it (or "taking refuge" in it) is the means of disengagement from, or relinquishment of, the memory-form of the moment. Dynamic balance between the intuition of the Dharmakaya and intuition of the form and feeling of the Sambhogakaya (imaginary dreamed-body) allows the Sambhogakaya to transform. Without that dynamic balance, the Sambhogakaya remains bogged in its current form, anchored by the Nirmanakaya's tangible memory pattern (present as physiological adaptation, neurological conditioning, and the patterning of the myofascia/soft-tissue), which feeds back the memory pattern to the Sambhogakaya in a self-perpetuating feedback loop. You can't lift the foot you are standing on; you're using it.
The Nirmanakaya/genetic body is the densest seat of memory and is slower to (and more resistant to) change than the Sambhogakaya (dream-body), and so introduces a lag into the process of change -- which has survival value, but slows re-adaptation.
The "anchoring" of the Nirmanakaya is its habitual pattern; intuition of the Dharmakaya "lifts anchor".
Ordinarily, the perception of the Nirmanakaya/Sambhogakaya dynamic fades in deep sleep, leaving only the Dharmakaya's formless nature. This is rest. Upon passage from the deep sleep state (Dharmakaya) into the dream state (Sambhogakaya), residual memories imprinted upon the Nirmanakaya (daytime body) "leak" into the emerging dream-activity of the Samghogakaya. Dreams appear, whose elements are, every one, aspects of the dreaming individual.
The "Ins" and "Outs" of the Subtle/Dream Body (Sambhogakaya)
Though it has been said that dreams are the royal road to the Unconscious, it is better said that they are the royal road to pervading the Unconscious with Consciousness. It is fruitless and misguided to consult "dream interpretation" texts for their meaning. They are indirect, second-hand, and intellectually biased, if not outright arbitrary.
There is a better way: Merely to remember each element of the dream and notice what you feel as you put your full attention on each element -- that action reveals the latent significance of the element attended to. It's a "feel" thing. The feelings are likely to be very familiar. More than that, with recognition comes dissolution of the binding forces of those feelings.
With each recognition and dissolution come both greater access to intuition of the Dharmakaya and release of the physical form (Nirmanakaya) from hitherto unconscious patterns of contraction (or somatic/psychophysical shaping forces). The body changes.
As the process of recognition and release continues, there appears a feeling of "straightening out". The process gives meaning to a term that Castaneda used, "The Mold of Man". (I think it was in "The Fire from Within"). The "straightening out" progressively approximates a feeling of more natural wholeness, of "self as you would prefer to be", which is The Mold of Man.
The process of that straightening out may involve passages through personal distortions, recognized as "damaged self", dysfunctional patterns or neuroses, some of which may be pretty hairy. It gives meaning to the term, "Lions at the Gate" or "Personal Demons" or "The Dragon's Lair" or "The Green Knight" (but not The Jolly Green Giant).
As it proceeds, the energy-dynamic of the individual changes -- not wholesale and in some general fashion, but in specific ways energetically/vibrationally related to the material recognized and released. A person gets more spontaneously intelligent in various ways.
The Special Function of the Formless or Most Subtle Body (Dharmakaya)
However, without the balancing influence of intuition of the Dharmakaya, transformation is slowed, rather than allowed -- hence the value of meditation -- and of a good night's sleep! Paradoxically, as the process proceeds, the person may find (s)he needs less sleep and spontaneously spends more time in early-morning meditation. Or maybe it's just insomnia. But you can put the time to good use!
Now, as the energy-dynamic of the individual changes, the field of the individual tends to become quieter -- that is, less beset by occlusive noise -- more "resonant" to processes occurring within and outside. The faculty of intuition becomes more available. With less internal noise, the individual is more sensitive -- particularly to subtle forces guiding and shaping the emergence of actual existence. In other words, the person may become spontaneously pre-cognitive, getting intimations of things to come through revery and streams of thought. When those things come to pass, people call it, "synchronicity" or "signs of wisdom".
It's a natural result of doing "clean-up" which, by releasing the "glue" of memory patterns, allows the Nirmanakaya to change more quickly/fluidly, and the energy dynamic of Nirmanakaya and Sambhogakaya to be more congruent. (The physiologically-based memory-"glue" of the Nirmanakaya makes it slower to change, and so less dynamic than the dream-body/ Sambhogakaya. They get out of phase, as attention is trapped in memory. Somatic education helps in the releasing of that "glue".) As Nirmanakaya and Sambhogakaya become more synchronous and congruent, they seem more transparent and attention is more free to penetrate to the deeper layer or node of consciousness: the Dharmakaya.
As both Sambhogakaya and Dharmakaya are simultaneously intuited, spontaneous adjustments in the field of the Sahbhogakaya (dream body) occur in the direction of felt balance and centered wholeness (these words being metaphors for a felt experience), these being how the Dharmakaya manifests through or as the Sambhogakaya. The Nirmanakaya undergoes corresponding evolutionary mutations (at a personal, not species, level).
Transformation
This simultaneous intuition may be fostered by the presence of persons or objects imprinted with the harmonic of "Nirmanakaya/Sambhogakaya Manifesting Dharmakaya". Such is the virtue of spiritual masters, the localities of such masters, and the relics of such masters, of teachings generated from such intuition, and of groups of practitioners.
What may start out as an idealized state in certain aspects of the individual's make-up broadens to include more of the individual's functions, with consciousness of the Dharmakaya progressively pervading the dream-body and its manifested-memory (neural/genetic) body, to the benefit of ongoing mutation or "personal evolution".
These bodies are not separate. I consider them "nodes" or octaves on a continuum. This continuum consists of the primal "substance" of existence, which is self-radiant awareness, which gives rise to "soma" (or "living, aware, psycho-physical person"); soma consists of these three "bodies" or nodes.
Of these three "bodies", two are manifest (limited and defined), consist of changing processes, and exist in time: the Nirmanakaya (genetic body) and the Sambhogakaya (dream body). These two bodies are not static and unchanging, but exist as living, changing processes.
The third "body," the Dharmakaya, is transcendental, all-pervading, and is the ground of being from which the other two arise and in which they exist, consisting of self-radiant awareness.
This writing describes and explains the interrelation of the three bodies in terms of personal/conscious evolution.
People who are just learning the process of deliberate growth and change, we call "proto-mutants"; people who are actively engaging deliberate growth and change, we call "mutants" -- after Thomas Hanna's usage in his book, "Bodies in Revolt".
"Pointing Out" Instructions
When the Nirmanakaya (manifested genetic/memory body) and the Sambhogakaya (imaginary dreamed-body) align (or attain a high degree of mutual congruency), as the individual remains consciously awake, volitionally present and at a sufficiently poised state of equanimity or balance (free attention), the Dharmakaya (deep, silent, formless body or field) may be intuited by feeling the content of experience and, while feeling it, feeling beyond it into what is deeper.
By "a high degree of mutual congruency", I mean that the genetic/memory body is sufficiently free of the grip, or "gravitational attraction" of habituated patterns to be able to transform freely and stably into new subtle perceptions captured by awareness in the dream/imagination body (Sambhogakaya). Otherwise, subtle perceptions are fleeting and quickly replaced by the habits of dense memory seated in the genetic/memory body (Nirmanakaya). They can't be captured, so subtle perceptions, new insights, and emerging abilities vanish and get missed.
The Dharmakaya is the "clutch pedal". As the formless aspect of buddha-nature, "resorting" to it (or "taking refuge" in it) is the means of disengagement from, or relinquishment of, the memory-form of the moment. Dynamic balance between the intuition of the Dharmakaya and intuition of the form and feeling of the Sambhogakaya (imaginary dreamed-body) allows the Sambhogakaya to transform. Without that dynamic balance, the Sambhogakaya remains bogged in its current form, anchored by the Nirmanakaya's tangible memory pattern (present as physiological adaptation, neurological conditioning, and the patterning of the myofascia/soft-tissue), which feeds back the memory pattern to the Sambhogakaya in a self-perpetuating feedback loop. You can't lift the foot you are standing on; you're using it.
The Nirmanakaya/genetic body is the densest seat of memory and is slower to (and more resistant to) change than the Sambhogakaya (dream-body), and so introduces a lag into the process of change -- which has survival value, but slows re-adaptation.
The "anchoring" of the Nirmanakaya is its habitual pattern; intuition of the Dharmakaya "lifts anchor".
Ordinarily, the perception of the Nirmanakaya/Sambhogakaya dynamic fades in deep sleep, leaving only the Dharmakaya's formless nature. This is rest. Upon passage from the deep sleep state (Dharmakaya) into the dream state (Sambhogakaya), residual memories imprinted upon the Nirmanakaya (daytime body) "leak" into the emerging dream-activity of the Samghogakaya. Dreams appear, whose elements are, every one, aspects of the dreaming individual.
The "Ins" and "Outs" of the Subtle/Dream Body (Sambhogakaya)
Though it has been said that dreams are the royal road to the Unconscious, it is better said that they are the royal road to pervading the Unconscious with Consciousness. It is fruitless and misguided to consult "dream interpretation" texts for their meaning. They are indirect, second-hand, and intellectually biased, if not outright arbitrary.
There is a better way: Merely to remember each element of the dream and notice what you feel as you put your full attention on each element -- that action reveals the latent significance of the element attended to. It's a "feel" thing. The feelings are likely to be very familiar. More than that, with recognition comes dissolution of the binding forces of those feelings.
With each recognition and dissolution come both greater access to intuition of the Dharmakaya and release of the physical form (Nirmanakaya) from hitherto unconscious patterns of contraction (or somatic/psychophysical shaping forces). The body changes.
As the process of recognition and release continues, there appears a feeling of "straightening out". The process gives meaning to a term that Castaneda used, "The Mold of Man". (I think it was in "The Fire from Within"). The "straightening out" progressively approximates a feeling of more natural wholeness, of "self as you would prefer to be", which is The Mold of Man.
The process of that straightening out may involve passages through personal distortions, recognized as "damaged self", dysfunctional patterns or neuroses, some of which may be pretty hairy. It gives meaning to the term, "Lions at the Gate" or "Personal Demons" or "The Dragon's Lair" or "The Green Knight" (but not The Jolly Green Giant).
As it proceeds, the energy-dynamic of the individual changes -- not wholesale and in some general fashion, but in specific ways energetically/vibrationally related to the material recognized and released. A person gets more spontaneously intelligent in various ways.
The Special Function of the Formless or Most Subtle Body (Dharmakaya)
However, without the balancing influence of intuition of the Dharmakaya, transformation is slowed, rather than allowed -- hence the value of meditation -- and of a good night's sleep! Paradoxically, as the process proceeds, the person may find (s)he needs less sleep and spontaneously spends more time in early-morning meditation. Or maybe it's just insomnia. But you can put the time to good use!
Now, as the energy-dynamic of the individual changes, the field of the individual tends to become quieter -- that is, less beset by occlusive noise -- more "resonant" to processes occurring within and outside. The faculty of intuition becomes more available. With less internal noise, the individual is more sensitive -- particularly to subtle forces guiding and shaping the emergence of actual existence. In other words, the person may become spontaneously pre-cognitive, getting intimations of things to come through revery and streams of thought. When those things come to pass, people call it, "synchronicity" or "signs of wisdom".
It's a natural result of doing "clean-up" which, by releasing the "glue" of memory patterns, allows the Nirmanakaya to change more quickly/fluidly, and the energy dynamic of Nirmanakaya and Sambhogakaya to be more congruent. (The physiologically-based memory-"glue" of the Nirmanakaya makes it slower to change, and so less dynamic than the dream-body/ Sambhogakaya. They get out of phase, as attention is trapped in memory. Somatic education helps in the releasing of that "glue".) As Nirmanakaya and Sambhogakaya become more synchronous and congruent, they seem more transparent and attention is more free to penetrate to the deeper layer or node of consciousness: the Dharmakaya.
As both Sambhogakaya and Dharmakaya are simultaneously intuited, spontaneous adjustments in the field of the Sahbhogakaya (dream body) occur in the direction of felt balance and centered wholeness (these words being metaphors for a felt experience), these being how the Dharmakaya manifests through or as the Sambhogakaya. The Nirmanakaya undergoes corresponding evolutionary mutations (at a personal, not species, level).
Transformation
This simultaneous intuition may be fostered by the presence of persons or objects imprinted with the harmonic of "Nirmanakaya/Sambhogakaya Manifesting Dharmakaya". Such is the virtue of spiritual masters, the localities of such masters, and the relics of such masters, of teachings generated from such intuition, and of groups of practitioners.
What may start out as an idealized state in certain aspects of the individual's make-up broadens to include more of the individual's functions, with consciousness of the Dharmakaya progressively pervading the dream-body and its manifested-memory (neural/genetic) body, to the benefit of ongoing mutation or "personal evolution".
The End
"The Controlling Moment"
Growth and Change are a Mystery to Most People.
This piece clarifies.
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." So wrote Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richard's Almanac.
Failing that, another saying carries the point: "The biggest problem could have been solved when it was small." So wrote Lao Tzu, a Chinese Taoist sage, in The Tao Teh Ching, an ancient text of wisdom.
Changing behaviors and entrenched conditions isn't as simple as it sounds -- a mere decision powered (at best) by enthusiasm -- as anyone who has worked to change a habit has found.
People do it by "trying" -- working harder to change -- rather than by uncovering their/our own remaining impulse to be "the old way" -- working smarter.
However, without taking into account the root of action, any change of action remains incomplete and in conflict with old ways of acting. This understanding applies as much to social politics as it does to individual behavior and experience. That's why, "You can't change minds with guns."
There's a way of "working smarter", rather than harder -- and that is part of what I cover in this entry.
There's a "Root" of Action??
The idea that there is a root of action doesn't occur to most people. That's because people generally experience action -- theirs and others -- only once it is well underway. The root of action, because it is small, subtle, goes unnoticed. So, I will, in this entry, illuminate the nature of the root of action (and it isn't psychological, but more primordial/rudimentary than that). In the process, I will show the relationship between the subjective experience of the root of change and the objective (and outwardly observable) bodily sign of the root of action. Let's get started.
The Root of Action
The root of action is so common as to go unnoticed, except in certain specialized situations. Its word is, "readiness".
Readiness is not merely an emotional state, a state of anticipation. ("Yeah, boss! Yeah, boss!") It's a state of preparation, the first step of shifting from rest (unreadiness) into action. ("On your mark, get set . . . ") It's a "steering" action, the step of organizing oneself for a particular activity, generally based upon the memory of the action we are about to do, but also modulated by the relationships of the moment. It's that subtle.
Because it is that subtle, as subtle as memory and the subtle effects of a person or place upon us, it generally goes unnoticed.
Memory and imagination go together, are two sides of the same coin. The act of getting ready is preparation for a leap into a (however vaguely imagined) future which has some connection with a memory.
I call the moment of getting ready, "The Controlling Moment." As we leap (or subtly drift) into action, we rally our determination, springing (or gliding) forward from that controlling moment into full action. As we launch into action, we power up. The controlling moment points our direction. Powering up builds upon the controlling moment, and away we go.
Now, here's the odd thing about human beings: it's common for us automatically to redirect our launch, so that what we do after the Controlling Moment misses the mark we (think we have) set in our Controlling Moment. The act of redirecting ourselves occurs automatically, involuntarily, and is based upon memories of life situations similar to the one into which we are launching. Fears, conditioning, beliefs all change our trajectory, but "behind the scenes", without conscious awareness. That means we get unanticipated results.
Not only do fears, beliefs and other conditioning change our trajectory; they also disguise or obscure the Controlling Moment of that action, so that an observer of our action often can't tell what our precise intention was at the controlling moment -- and we, ourselves, find it difficult to tell why things went awry. ("The road to Hell is paved with good intentions," a pathetic saying based on the presently-described dynamic).
What we and others perceive is everything that followed the Controlling Moment of that action, but the Controlling Moment remains obscured and obscure. Why? Because the experience of "powering up" is so much "louder" than that of The Controlling Moment. The root remains buried. That's why it's so difficult to self-correct, to change habits, and to understand the motivations of others whose actions we observe.
Two "Layers" of Action
We may regard The Controlling Moment as the core of an action (steering) and Powering Up as the extension of that core (acceleration).
Another odd thing, however: the two layers don't always go together. Sometimes, we get ready for an action but refrain from carrying it out; sometimes, we do an action for which we are not really ready, and our heart really isn't in it, but carry it out, anyway. We counteract our own Controlling Moment or we act without the precise internal guidance of a mature Controlling Moment.
In those cases, we have a condition of self-arrest (Controlling Moment without Powering Up -- ineffectuality) or poorly organized action (undeveloped Controlling Moment and lots of Powering Up -- stupidity or clumsiness). In such cases, a residue of the action (or lack of action) remains in memory. The residue of self-arrest is regret, frustration and/or self-recrimination; the residue of poorly organized action remains in memory as a sense of guilt, shame, and/or lower self-esteem.
Integrity
What's lacking when we have one but not the other is integrity. Integrity is intelligent, well-regulated, well-modulated power. In other words, when we have one but not the other, we fail either to exercise our intelligence adequately or we fail to exercise our power appropriately.
What happens as aftermath when we act without intelligence or without well-regulated power is we experience our lack of integrity as disempowerment. What to do? What to do?
Forging Integrity
Congruence between our Controlling Moment and our Powering Up shows up as integrity.
To forge integrity, we must correct one or both of our errors -- the error of acting without adequate intelligence or an error in the exercise of power.
However, it's not sufficient merely to power up; we must power up to a degree of intensity appropriate to our circumstances. Likewise, it's not sufficient merely to power up to an appropriate degree of intensity; we must power up intelligently, which means in alignment with the intention present in our Controlling Moment.
The Controlling Moment is the truth of any action. The kicker is that we can't have intelligence about a Controlling Moment buried by an unintelligent powering up -- and powering up always buries the Controlling Moment simply because it's louder. So, we have to uncover the Controlling Moment underlying any action or habit we find problematic. How do we do that?
First Attention
Self-correction requires that we catch the fault when it is small. Otherwise, we have to deal with both the momentum of an action in progress and the direction of that momentum. Think of turning a vehicle at slow speed vs. at high speed.
Again, unfortunately, we may (and commonly do) miss the Controlling Moment. One way to catch the Controlling Moment is to slow down so that we can observe the first moment of action, the Controlling Moment. Another way to catch the Controlling Moment is to repeat the action with close attention each time, so that we ultimately catch the Controlling Moment. And yet another way to catch the Controlling Moment is to alternate doing an action with refraining from that action, so that, by virtue of the contrast between doing and not-doing, we get enhanced perception of the action. And yet another way to catch the Controlling Moment is to take instruction (and example) from someone adept at the intended action, so that, by virtue of the contrast between their competence and our incompetence, we catch our own errant Controlling Moment and correct it, with repetition, by degrees (successively accurate approximations).
Whatever the approach, we must catch the Controlling Moment, so that we perceive the contrast (or difference) between our Controlling Moment and the subsequent Powering Up (which may be out of close alignment with our Controlling Moment) -- so that we can self-correct at the root of action.
A master of anything is one who has done so.
I've just outlined the theoretical (not hypothetical) underpinning of action and of change of action. I'm going to leave you with that basic understanding without outlining specific techniques so that you can form an intention to form your own Controlling Moment to improve your access and control of your own controlling moments.
What follows is an addendum of interest to somatic educators and Rolfers. To continue this consideration, please see this entry on The Big Pandiculation. We continue.
For Somatic Educators
Feldenkrais pointed out, in "Body and Mature Behavior", that laboratory studies showed that we can sense a stimulus about 1/20th of the intensity of another, immediately preceding stimulus. That means, when a stronger stimulus immediately precedes another, weaker, stimulus as little 1/20th as intense, we can sense both, but if the weaker stimulus is less than 1/20th as intense, we may not be able to sense it.
Thomas Hanna pointed out that to alter a pattern of function (or behavior) voluntarily, we must deliberately do the old pattern of function (to be changed) at a level of intensity at least equal to that of the same pattern, when done involuntarily (by habit or "kneejerk reaction"). By matching or exceeding the level of voluntary intensity to the intensity of the involuntary habit, control shifts from involuntary habit to voluntary performance. At that point, lasting change is possible.
However, to make a change, we must reach, or catch, the Controlling Moment, and that requires two things: that we:
This piece clarifies.
"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." So wrote Benjamin Franklin in Poor Richard's Almanac.
Failing that, another saying carries the point: "The biggest problem could have been solved when it was small." So wrote Lao Tzu, a Chinese Taoist sage, in The Tao Teh Ching, an ancient text of wisdom.
Changing behaviors and entrenched conditions isn't as simple as it sounds -- a mere decision powered (at best) by enthusiasm -- as anyone who has worked to change a habit has found.
People do it by "trying" -- working harder to change -- rather than by uncovering their/our own remaining impulse to be "the old way" -- working smarter.
However, without taking into account the root of action, any change of action remains incomplete and in conflict with old ways of acting. This understanding applies as much to social politics as it does to individual behavior and experience. That's why, "You can't change minds with guns."
There's a way of "working smarter", rather than harder -- and that is part of what I cover in this entry.
- closely match the voluntary pattern of action to the habitual/involuntary pattern.
- maintain continuous sensory awareness from full intensity if the action all the way to zero intensity.
- soft (open or free) core, hard (restrictive or tight) sleeve -- conformity -- "going through the motions," "going along to get along"
- hard (restrictive or tight) core, soft (open or free) sleeve -- outwardly obedient, but internally resistant behavior
- open core, free sleeve
- freely responsive core and cooperative sleeve
Comprehensive recognition of human structure includes not only the physical body, but also the psychological personality -- behavior, attitudes, capacities.MORE READING An Advance of Somatic Education Technique -- The Diamond Penetration Pandiculation Technique The Integration Process The Incarnation Taboo Psychotherapy and Integral Somatic Education The Big Pandiculation VIDEO about SOMATIC EDUCATION
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