Saturday, July 15: Thumb on Earth, Feldenkrais and enchanting-ment

THUMB ON EARTH
Moshe Feldenkrais and Fritz Perls both clued us in: don’t get bogged down in the “Why?” Stick with the “How?” Not Why are you feeling bad or sore or in pain or limited or stuck, but How? This leads to understanding and ability to change, rather than the sort of "understanding" that is just bullshitting about all the reasons we are so wrecked.

That’s a lead-in to a project Marlie and I are embarked on: chanting a mantra, a long mantra, 108 times each day with our thumb on the Earth. I’ll write out the chant later, and skipping the why we are doing it, I’ll just say that once you start, it’s pretty interesting to keep going. The idea is to do it for 41 days, and if you miss a day you start all over again, so that’s an incentive to keep going, once you’ve started.

Why do it?

Why not? It gets you down on the ground and gets you using your tongue. Recall the homunculus, the little man representation in the brain of what parts of our body are important and which aren’t? The parts that are important, the mouth and tongue and thumbs are huge. The back and legs are little tiny things. Anyway, this chanting give an opportunity to be thumb and tongue for about an hour. And to be outside.

And to do some Feldenkrais along with this, since to keep count, I shift my orientation from 1 to 8, going in almost a whole circle of where I’m facing. Thumb stays put, but sometimes I side sit to the right and sometimes to the left. I have different areas of trees and earth and horizon to scan as I go from one to eight in my cycles. And then I have cycles of three eights (24, eh?) after which I turn one of my shoes to mark that off.

So, the latest fun is adding on a differentiation between the first eight (attention on the pelvis as I move through varations on looking down and up in whatever orientation 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8 take me), the second eight (attention on ribs) and third eight (attention on movement and variation in head, neck, eyes all that good stuff.)

If you haven’t done Feldenkrais, this can sound obscure. If you have, you realize how much you can learn from attention to head and pelvis and ribs. So I get to go thru this 4 times as I work up to 24 and 48 and 72 and 96, and then one more set of 8 and a 4 and I’m done.

Sounds nutty, but I love being next to the Earth and seeing what I see in that hour and sensing tongue and thumb and pelvis and ribs and head and neck and eyes and jaw and spine and feet and toes and arms and fingers. I.e. I’m doing the chant and focusing, living in lots of here and now moving attention. Crazy or not, it’s very intense and healing.

What’s the chant?
Here she blows, goes,
grows, and sometimes: glows:

Om Aim Kleem Sauom
Sera Hana Bhava
Saya Noli Bhava
Tri-pura Bhava
Tiga Yoli Bhava
Wari-pura Bhava
Bhava Noli Bhava
Pari-pura Bhava
Bhava Noli Bhava
Om Adi Ti-ru Mu-ru-ga
Om Guru Guru Paramaguru
Om Kumaraa Rana Kalaam
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti-hi


Wild, eh? Earth and sound and commitment and attention. Not a bad combo. Why? Who knows. Why not?