Chapter 19

Meditation in Motion

Although meditation aims for stillness and the quieting of the body and senses, it doesn’t mean you have to just ‘sit’ through it. We’ve seen how some meditation approaches make full use of the senses and our mobility. Moving meditations can make good use of the necessary – and pleasurable – tasks that fill our daily lives.

The Tiger and the Dragon

When Asian martial arts were initially divulged to the West in the 20th century, most of their meditative roots remained hidden. Instead, the glamour of speed, precision and the quiet little guy getting the best of the bully took centre stage. Sure, we all knew there were ‘ancient Chinese secrets’ to be learned, ones that could unlock the powers of combat and endurance. But we assumed that they were also techniques for using brute force and aggression, only in different ways than we used them in the West. Some films still reflect those assumptions, despite the accessibility of the metaphysical dimension in martial arts today.

In Asian culture, two consistent images present themselves to the practitioner as themes of the warrior nature: the tiger and the dragon.

The tiger is a highly reactive animal, instinctive and aggressive. It is relentless in its pursuit of prey and devastating when it has concluded the chase. All energy is expended in the hunt and the kill; then the animal is satiated and enters oblivion, in complete and unconscious rest. Because of its habits, the tiger lives a very short life.

The dragon is restful but observant. All energy is conserved. Its senses are engaged in the awareness of time, space, and everything that is within and around its existence. It does not hunt; it waits. When it encounters its prey, it allows the unconsciousness of the opponent (brought by fear or overconfidence) to do the work. Because of these habits, the dragon lives a very long life.

The warrior spirit is a necessary role in every life, and sometimes we are called on to assume it. If you are called to a combative situation, physical and mental preparation are absolutely necessary, but only meditation can engage the body and mind in taking the proper action. Here are some meditative points to cultivate:?

Meditative Spirit and Team Sports

Sports usually involve groups of people and the formation of a team. And in most competitive sports, the team is the core of the game.

This is probably the toughest obstacle in sports. Relinquishing your individuality to become a part of something else, even if it’s temporary and not binding, is a bigger challenge than having the skill to win at the game. For children, it’s the best exercise for socializing the personality and civilizing the instincts. For adults, it’s a hard task to give up an identity you’ve worked for years to create. But it’s the only way to get the full reward of sports: achieving a flawless performance in unison with others.

The Meditative Team

Being involved with a team means building a group mind. One of the best ways to accomplish this is through group meditation, which bonds the minds of the individuals to create a team consciousness.

Individual members of the team should be knowledgeable and honest about their own strengths and weaknesses. They should also have the opportunity to communicate those strengths and weaknesses to the others. With an understanding and acceptance of those qualities, the goals of the team – to perform and compete well – are reinforced.

These points can be discussed; but to become truly meaningful, they should be included in group meditation sessions. The key strategies are releasing the individual ego and engaging the group mind. This process builds the inviolate circle of the team, what American National Basketball Association coach Phil Jackson calls the ‘sacred hoop’, a Lakota Sioux tribal concept.

When the time comes for playing the game, the group mind must be directed by a coach who possesses more than an awareness of the individual strengths and weaknesses. The potential of the whole to achieve goals and bringing the group mind to that awareness can be developed through group meditation.

The Meditative Athlete

There is some emphasis in sports circles on being ‘in the zone’ of a game, completely absorbed in the play. This may well be a metaphor for blurring the ego enough to experience the rhythm of the event and the flow of the players together. But it is really moving meditation.

The playing field is a mandala of experience. Your personal meditations should be focused on that mandala, and your experience should be in all parts of it. Whether your game gives you the opportunity to move through all the parts of the mandala, your bond with the group mind allows it to happen.

Winning is not the aim of your participation, becoming part of the flow is. Your responsibility to the game is to fuse with your team and play with one mind. Your reward from the team is the opportunity to play to your optimum ability.

Your Own Sacred Dance

Moving in a free flow is the objective of some meditative systems. Here, the mind is freed of thought when the body is freed of its inhibitions and everyday habits. Dance has always been a vehicle for this experience. It is one of the few meditative activities that allow for self-expression. This is because the body possesses all the natural rhythms needed to blend with the larger and subtler life rhythms around us.

In Hawaii, where much of the ancient culture still lives despite the incursion of colonialism, the indigenous dance tradition lives through the hula halau (‘dance house’). Many think of Hawaiian dance as touristy performances, but the kahiko hula (‘ancient dance’) is a powerfully expressive moving meditation. It combines poetry, chant, religious symbolism and movement in the body of the dancer.

The Hawaiians see the human body as having three pikos (navels). The first is at the crown of the head; it connects us to the past, to our ancestors. The second, in the middle of the torso, connects us to the present, to our parents and siblings. The third, at the genitals, connects us to our children, the future. In the body of the dancer, these three navels connect to the stream of life and are joined in rhythm.

We can easily follow the thinking of cultures like the Hawaiians’ in using dance to join the body with the dimensions we are separate from. Like them, we can be aware of the connections we have to the different streams of life: past, present and future. We can also be mindful of the different realms in which we move: body, mind and spirit. And we can do all of this by evoking the meditative attitude.

If you want to practice meditative dance, arrange your space so there is unobstructed room to move. Choose music that you personally feel resonance with. Rhythm is more important than style or lyrics. Choose an instrument that you can play to accompany the music, if possible. Bells, chimes, drums or any percussion are simple to incorporate into dance.

Originating in ancient China, yu pu is a meditative dance performed by Taoist masters. Its purpose is to attract beneficial spirits while driving away harmful ones. The dance resembles a slow, limping gait that imitates birds walking among pebbles.

Spend at least 15 minutes in a warm-up that should include breathing exercises for oxygenation and yoga stretches to limber and tone muscles. Listen to the music during your warm-up to become accustomed to the rhythm.

Begin with at least 15 minutes of simple movement. Swaying and turning in the beginning; then rhythmically moving your feet, arms and hands. Use as much of your body as possible. See the musical rhythm entering your feet, energizing the muscles and organs as it flows upwards. Allow your body to express the rhythm without impediment for at least 15 more minutes. Be spontaneous.

When your dance is concluded, engage in two minutes of silent reflection. Be aware of the sensations in your body at rest. Monitor your breathing as it moves from a rapid to a relaxed rhythm. Thank God, the gods, or the universe for accepting your dance.

Walking Meditation

In the Soto school of Zen Buddhism, ‘just sitting’ becomes the vehicle for enlightenment. By emulating the Buddha, the meditator observes the mind as it moves inwards to a point of pure awareness. Another practice emphasises attention in a similar situation, by focusing only on the body’s natural movements. The idea of ‘action without motive’ is applied to this style of meditation, so that the meditator is consciously engaged without a specific aim or motive. ‘Just doing’ is the goal here. One form of this is kinhin, the Zen walking meditation.

If you go to an unfamiliar religious or cultural site for meditation, be mindful of the guidelines and customs. For example, at mosques, churches and temples, you may be asked to remove your shoes or cover your head. Show respect for other traditions, even if you may not agree with their dogma.

In the Zen walk, the erect posture of zazen (‘sitting’) is maintained; the only difference is that the lower half of the body is moving. The walker matches breath with each step and places mental focus solely on walking. He meditates on the body’s movement and rhythm, not on the scenery. The walker moves silently in a clockwise direction. The Zen walk can be practiced wherever and whenever you are on foot. Whether on your morning constitutional or during a brief visit to the shops, mindful walking is a stimulating form of meditation.

Meditating in Nature

We all know how restorative nature can be. But nature as preventive medicine is now regarded as an important component in everyone’s health regime. Scientists at Emory University in America suggest that a beautiful landscape may be a better remedy than medication in some instances. They explain that human beings possess a ‘habitat seeking’ instinct, and the exercise of that best takes place in the natural environment. Four dimensions of the natural environment play into this instinct:

  1. Contact with animals (wild in nature and pets).
  2. Contact with plants (gardens, trees, houseplants).
  3. Contact with wilderness (hiking, boating, camping).
  4. Visual contact with landscapes (rolling hills, fields, mountains, forests).

The research noted that hospital patients healed more quickly when they were exposed to the natural environment. So it is no wonder that meditation in a natural environment increases the quotient for wellness and well-being considerably.

If you want to meditate in a natural environment, look into visiting the accessible, large-scale natural environments close to you. Consider arboretums, botanical gardens, parks, meditation gardens and memorial grounds.

Plan a meditative walk. Have a map or know the layout of the grounds so that you won’t lose track of your location. Bring appropriate foot and eyewear, layered clothing and a water supply. Walk through the environment in a clockwise motion, beginning at the entrance, which we’ll designate as six o’clock.

Stop for a meditative rest when you reach nine o’clock. Allow the sounds of the place to take precedence in your awareness. Move to 12 o’clock and stop for another meditation. Allow the sights of the spot to take precedence. Continue to three o’clock and pause for another reflective period. Allow the scents and textures of the location to take precedence.

Back at your starting point, take in the entire scene. Sounds, sights and other sensations can now communicate the spirit of the place to you. You may want to return to one of the places you passed through for a concluding meditation.

Animal Meditation

Animal meditation is a wonderful way to relax and centre oneself. Advocates of pet therapy affirm that the comforting presence of cats, dogs, birds and fish in the home or office provide a calming influence. In some instances, attaching monitors to the owners confirms that blood pressure goes down, breathing is less laboured and physical pain is lessened.

Animals have the ability to ground us, because they bring the physical presence of nature directly into the environment. Closely tuned to the external world, animals hear the sounds we miss, and see the subtleties around them that we dismiss.

‘If you wish to escape from suffering and fear, practise wisdom and compassion.’?– Anatole France (1844–1924), French Nobel Prize winner for Literature, 1921

If you want to practise animal meditation, spend the same amount of time at the same time of day with your pet, even if it’s five or ten minutes. The awareness of time in animals is remarkably high. Communicate in non-verbal ways. Gazing into the eyes, stroking, smiling and gesturing are messages well understood by animals.

If you have problems, communicate them to your pet. They have a vast capacity for understanding and patience that you can access. If your pet is having problems, especially of a health nature, communicate your concern and love. They always acknowledge affection.

Wild animals can also spark meditative insights. Go into open countryside or a park with an open, questioning frame of mind. You may want to work on some particular problem, but put it on hold for a while and allow the setting to speak to you. Find a place to sit down quietly for a while. You need not go out of your way to find animals: simply sit and listen. Animals live all around us and share our world. You need not see an exotic animal: a squirrel or a robin will do. Allow the experience of that animal to draw you away for a time. Enter its world for a while as you watch it feeding or playing or building a nest. You may take the time to jot down a few notes or make a sketch as an aid to attention. More often than not, you will emerge from the experience with a lighter frame of mind, often with an answer to that nagging problem. Take a minute or two mentally to say thanks to the other beings that we share our world with and go through the day with an awareness of our interconnections with other species.

Everyday Moving Meditations

You may think that meditation in some places and environments is difficult, if not impossible. For example, you may often find yourself queuing at the post office or stuffed into a crowded room at a charity event. With nothing to do but wait, restlessness can easily set in. And there’s nothing more irritating than waiting around with the person nearest to you fidgeting nervously while another is rattling coins or keys in his pocket. Your inner voice may be crying, ‘Get me out of here!’

Instead, focus on a peaceful scene around you. It may be depicted in a painting on the wall or outside through a window. A sleeping baby in someone’s arms or a patient, elderly person waiting nearby can provide the visual support that says to you, ‘Everything is moving in the right rhythm, and so am I.’

But you have much more to do besides waiting in queues. The daily grind asks much of the inner resources, and meditation can support you along the way.

A Commuter’s Meditation

You may experience the whole spectrum of negative emotions if you have to commute to work every day. Frustration, exasperation, rage – all result in stress. By the time you get to work, you are probably frazzled, and the coffee isn’t going to help. What can you do while driving that will get you to work in a better frame of mind?

Focus on relaxing your body. Pay attention to what your mind is thinking about. Be sure to maintain a balance of both body and mind. When you’re commuting, noises are distracting but some can’t be avoided. Choose uplifting music on the radio with minimal talk. Eliminate stressful news updates or traffic reports. Don’t tap your fingers, feet or hands, and avoid beeping your car horn. Visually focus on careful driving.

Don’t race other cars at the traffic lights; you will only gain a few seconds. Avoid critiquing other drivers. Acting like a trapped animal is useless. Just release and accept the situation.

In the meantime, nurture yourself. Stretch and relax your hands, one at a time. To de-stress, lift your shoulders up to your ears, release. Practise mantras; use tones for calming.

A Dieting Meditation

Many experts in diet and nutrition would probably agree that the problem of being overweight is not eating; it’s the thought patterns of the person. Attitude – your view of yourself and food, how others see you, and how all those elements blend – is one dimension. Feeling – how food makes you feel in relation to what you can’t feel (love, acceptance) – is another dimension. The last consideration is really the food itself, because that is more of a side issue than the rest. As long as we can choose our food, we can choose a diet that is appropriate. But life is more than that. The complex of thinking and feeling takes the larger share.

Meditation for breaking bad habits and establishing good ones can include the basics that nearly all approaches use. Proper breathing, posture, quiet time, reflection and the development of openness to self are important. You can reverse bad habits by observing the passage of thoughts attentively. Think about whether there are some thoughts that lead to the desire for food and comfort. Observe the passage of feelings and sensations as well. Do some of them suggest emptiness or hunger?

Make no judgments about the cause or the blame. Make no resolutions. Simply observe and make note of your observations. Carry these observations into your daily life as much as possible. Notice if some events, such as speaking with colleagues at your job or discussing a problem with your partner, bring up the thoughts, feelings and sensations that you noted in meditation. The objective is to become more familiar with the situations that trigger the condition of eating to replace or compensate for feelings. Observation leads to correction. Dr Dean Ornish, the cardiovascular doctor whose breakthrough programme on reversing heart disease utilises meditation, has a suggestion called mindful tasting. Knowing that chocolate, for example, may be off-limits in your diet doesn’t mean you have to do without it forever. Instead, try an exercise in mindful tasting.

At your meditation oasis, bring yourself to relaxation physically and mentally. Unwrap a modest amount of chocolate. A small truffle of high quality is a good choice. Place the chocolate in your mouth. Don’t chew; don’t ingest it immediately. Allow the chocolate to melt slowly in your mouth. Hold it on your tongue for as long as possible, savouring the taste and texture. Absorb the chocolate essence into your being. Become the spirit of chocolate. In this way, you don’t deprive yourself of a food you love and yet you don’t overeat.

Meditation for a Test

Learning is potentially stressful. Besides understanding new material and organizing it in ways you can recall, there is always competition and the high expectations that go along with it. Altogether, these things do little to inspire confidence when you are faced with turning points like taking a test.

Don’t cram before a test. Take new material in small stages, spend enough time until you understand it and rest before going on to the next stage. Meditate for at least 20 minutes before studying. Regulate your breath and posture; bring calm to your mind. Don’t think about the test and avoid seeing yourself in the test environment. The only thought you can entertain is the result of the test and what it means to you.

Always get enough rest before a test. Be sure to meditate before going to the test site. You want to arrive calm, relaxed and confident.

Don’t throttle your thinking by trying to recall all you studied. If you studied well, it will reflect perfectly through a transparent mind. Seek that transparency.

Group Meditation and Releasing Emotions

How is it possible to be meditative if you are dealing with a group of people? Popular psychology gives plenty of lip service to forgiveness, releasing anger, bitterness and dealing with pain and conflict with others. But there are few approaches that can be applied to every situation, and even fewer that deal with groups. Families, groups of workers, classes of students, clubs and organizations – all of these units generate problems.

Once again, the Hawaiian culture provides a tradition that psychologists and social scientists admire. The ritual of Ho’o ponopono (ho-oh-po-no-pono) means ‘to bring about order’. This ritual is enacted because the culture believes in harmony, the key to health. Harmony doesn’t just involve the individual. In this case, it includes the spiritual powers, fellow human beings, nature and one’s own being.

Ho’o ponopono is a group meditation, a spiritual work to mend interrelationships. A fivefold process is used to return harmony to the group, which takes meditative action at each stage. The group gathers and begins with group prayer. Everyone is reminded that a greater power is present that will be involved in the resolution of the problem. The problem is stated. Each person in the group speaks of it and each person responds to what has been spoken. Each person exercises mindfulness. The group peels away the problem, seeking the fundamental reasons, feelings and motivations. The members enter into reflective thought to discover any entanglements. The feelings and thoughts affected by the problem are brought out into the open. Insights are obtained. Each member of the group comes forward to resolve their involvement in the problem. Compassion is engaged. Then the group shares a meal to allow peace to settle and offers a prayer of solidarity. No member of the group will ever revisit the problem again, and so harmony is established.

The Tapestry of Life

In bygone days, things like weaving cloth and making furniture were necessary tasks of everyday life. At the same time, they were meditative experiences, like other daily chores. Time moved slowly; attention was focused on the work at hand. Such jobs were reduced to the simple exchange of physical energy with nature, enabling the mind to become clear. And without the distractions of television, industry and traffic, the mind had no need to ‘tune out’ the sounds of life. We admire people who maintain the simple calm of attending to the tasks of living, without regard to past concerns or future speculation.

There are many ways these same attitudes can be cultivated. Outside work or domestic tasks can become a vehicle for meditative experience. They can also be a test of your practice in focusing, calming and mindfulness. Here are some physical activities that promote the meditative experience:?

Mindful attention to these tasks, which engage the imagination, can lead to noesis (‘creative insight’). Like art therapy, the thinking process is calmed in a way that joins physical activity with creative energy. Through these activities, opportunities arise for self-awareness, understanding and healing.