In the dark, you wander aimlessly, at least when you dare take a step. It is the crippling fear, no, not fear, terror, that both creates lack of movement and simultaneously, movement out of necessity. I have written in the past about the Void, about the darkness and its value as exploration. Looking into the abyss to find what lives there. To crawl beneath the surface of our own existence to see what lies in the shadow. In a sense, to become whole. I wagered that experimenting by projecting myself into the utter desolation and darkness of space, or finding a lightless room, or oven working with submerging beneath enough water (or water at night) would bring me closer to the sheer terror that would create light out of the darkness. I seem to have projected my focus much to narrow. It is not the only way.
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There are dangers to the contemplation of emptiness. I am not talking about the emptiness of my tea mug right now, which clearly needs to be filled with more Earle Grey (be right back). Ah, now that’s better. Anyway, where was I? Oh, so emptiness is an interesting concept to explore. It is an instigator of Vastness. It also has the benefit of being something you can set up to experience yourself.
The darkness is woven out of mystery. Inherently, and I say this in experiential terms and apologize for the broad brush or if I offend any Vulcan-esque individuals, people are emotionally driven. Our natural first reaction, unless otherwise trained is rooted in an emotional response. This is a well-known fact and the reason why we are so susceptible to marketing. You do not see advertisements that appeal to your intellectual side, now do you? Every television show, every movie, most writing all have that checkbox ticked off. We obviously gravitate to certain emotional responses more easily than others: love, warmth, peace, and joy are easy to give in to. Uncertainly, fear, mystery, the unknown, and smallness, on the other hand, make us uncomfortable.
In my years of practice with martial arts, one of the fundamental aspects, for me, has been my practice of qigong. This is fundamentally a form of moving (usually, though at times it is standing only) meditation designed to calm the mind, strengthen the body, and help the practitioner learn the concept of the mind directs the qi and the qi directs the body. One of the most basic forms of this is called “Standing like a Tree”. The practitioner stands in a rooted (feet shoulder width apart, back straight, top of the head rising) posture with their arms out in front of them roughly at the level of their shoulder as if they were holding a large beach ball. This posture is designed to help the practitioner achieve a state known as wuji. Wuji is a compound word comprised of wu “without; no; not have; there is not; nothing, nothingness” and ji “ridgepole; roof ridge; highest/utmost point; extreme; Earth’s pole; reach the end; attain; exhaust” A translation of this in terms of qigong can be “that which has no pole” or “ultimate nothingness”. |
Lasciel AnnwynnI am one of those. Yes, that kind. I poke around in the corners and lesser explored paths of life looking for it's mysteries. There is so much magic in the world when you open your perception to it. Look with eyes of wonder. Archives
April 2019
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