Copyright Lance
Kinseth, Gateless Gate / Mumon, 2011
A CONSISTENT BODY-MIND practice forms a pathway that begins
somewhere in the past and reaches into the future. Consistent practice might be likened to an upward trail
around a mountain. If we have
practiced for a while, we have likely encountered points where the pathway
offers new perspectives. Looking
back to where practice began, things that once were large are now small—as if
on a mountain trail and gazing back at an outspreading moraine below where roadways
are reduced to thin lines and details are lost. And looking ahead, there is a vast, opening terrain, where
the present moment of practice is somehow a tiny facet of the vast—as if gazing
into an archipelago of clouds and the tips of numerous summits of a range of mountain
uplift. And ahead on the pathway,
there are turns that will offer views now hidden.
While the depth of our practice will grow with consistent
returns, it is also possible that we might travel a good distance and fall far
short of what the pathway offers us. This occurs when the pathway becomes routine, and we
hold to narrow expectations rather than calm. In yoga, for example, we may settle for a little more
strength or flexibility or familiarity with the routine. And our practice may then become a
walled tunnel rather than an opening gateway.
When we come to a body-mind practice session, we cross a
threshold. We might believe that
we are simply stepping from the face pace of everyday into a still space for
some moments of respite. But when
the body-mind practice optimizes calmness, we might cross over into an unwalled
landscape that is almost like finding another world inside the everyday
world. This newfound world is not
an esoteric escape, but rather is a step inside the deep work that buoys up the
everyday.
In everyday time, we might say, “It is 1PM—time for
restorative yoga to begin.”
However, by 2 PM, the practice room will have rotated perhaps one
thousand miles to the East as the Earth rotates and, in our everyday vision,
the sun appears to move West. By 2
PM, on our matts, we have journeyed well over one million miles as a dust speck
aspect of the Milky Way Galaxy—flying carpets of sorts! All of this might go unperceived since
we find comfort in creating distance and boundaries as a “nectar” of
familiarity that offers comfort, while each moment, cosmos sweeps through our
actions, and we, almost unknowingly and not wanting to know, express cosmos.
Coming for a physical workout or for relaxation or for
respite, we likely will find walls where there is a gateway. When we do not calm, this gateway is
likely to remain hidden. But when
we calm, where there once seemed to be a wall, a pathway may open an enduring child state that offers a sense of
wonder.
Copyright Paige
Andreas, age 8, The Door At The End Of The Rainbow, 2011
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