The Potency of Perception, Presence & Passing  -   9/2024

 

Experienced bodywork practitioners often have a standout ability to inherently attune and embody three quarters of this title - yet, more often than not, overlook the vital quarter.Let me expand on this:In the context of promoting health the first three ‘P’ words of this title can be understood as individual felt-sense qualities, whilst relating to one another inseparably. For example potency is the equivalent to what is universally understood as life-force (chi, prana, ki etc) and is inherently endowed in both the act of subjective/objective perception and in the vitality of presence. Similarly, the act of perception is endowed with the invigorating stillness of presence - even if only for a moment. Likewise, presence is part of perception and, as mentioned, involves the energetic felt-sense of potency. Reams of ancient and contemporary literature have been written and presented on these three terms to help better understand how to optimise an individuals health and wellbeing. Furthermore, a plethora of therapies and health related courses have weaved in techniques and methods to help embody perception, presence and potency in order to benefit the wellbeing of others. So, these three ‘P’s have been known, and are known, to be vitaly important ingredients in the process of helping another to reestablish their health, especially in the field of bodywork.Ok, so what about the the last ‘P’? I hear you hark! This is the term that tends to vex even the most keen and astute mind of a health practitioner. The other three terms help us to understand the process of developing a relational field and meeting another individual in a connected yet neutral, non-judgemental, agenda free way. Whereas, passing seems to imply a process of death, ending, loss etc. Why would a practitioner trying to encourage health want to incorporate such destructive terminology, and further still a process based on it - what’s the point?…Nihilistic tendencies…escapism…dissociation? As it turns out passing is the essential quality underpinning the other three qualities which enhance the expression of health in another. It is an extremely subtle quality of expression, which usually evades the mind of the practitioner and notably the client. In fact it is so subtle that if a practitioner intentionally moves (their own body and/or their clients) then it is unlikely that such dissolution will be felt or understood, let alone promoted. This is where biodynamic craniosacral therapists (bcst) stand apart in their ability to feel, understand and promote this quality. Most bodywork therapists, including structurally oriented craniosacral therapists, miss the felt-sense expression of such an important component of the therapeutic process. That is because their intention to alter something in the client distracts them from the intelligence of their client’s body already containing the, albeit stymied, process of change itself - i.e. the nature of patterns having the inherent potential to fulfil their passing process. By encouraging the felt-sense of passing the intelligence of the body gets to finally digest the previously undigested impressions and reactions (arising patterns) held in the clients system. In this way, rather than the practitioner ignoring the inherent capacity of the clients system, or the client escaping/dissociating from the experience, the natural process of passing is acknowledged and encouraged enabling the body to express and dissipate the patterns stored in the body. Despite such liberation often being accompanied by transient emotions, sensations and thoughts, the more the passing is encouraged the greater potency has an opportunity to express itself as a whole (the whole body). Whereby passing gets to vibrate intimately with fresh perception, presence and potency (i.e. free of undigested content) in each subsequent moment. When potency is freed in such a way then the body reconnects to its expressive intelligence, which feels less fragmented and more fluid like. In this way potency, perception, presence and most importantly passing, dance with one another as a continuum, dissolving the fear of old age, dis-ease and death. This is because there is now awareness and understanding that there is, in essence, nothing other than a relative perspective of getting old, being dis-eased and eventually dying which is based on delusion. The delusion is mistaking the perceived solidified nature of our body, and the clients body, for being who we and they are in essence.

Therefore, the felt-sense perception and presence of passing is crucial to understanding beyond such delusion and is the hallmark skill that biodynamic craniosacral practitioners provide.

 

Yours in health

Andy

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The ramifications of intention in subtler therapeutic bodywork - 9/2024

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“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is 'thank you',

it will be enough”

Meister Eckhart

 

Take a moment to observe yourself. Are you moving, conceptualising, memorising, remembering, fidgeting, facilitating, procrastinating, manipulating, behaving, not behaving, ruminating, acting…? If so you are ‘doing’. Most of us don’t even realise that these habits are born, and supported, by the three pillars of ‘I’, namely identification, impressions and intention. This is because we identify ourselves with the feeling, outcome and content of these reactive habits.

 

Actually, numerous studies demonstrate that we would prefer to be with these habitual tendencies rather than face doing nothing. This includes tendencies which cause pain!All intention is a movement away from the current ‘experiencing’ moment and will therefore obfuscate our present felt-sense. Whereas, if you are aware of merely sensing, feeling, perceiving, experiencing and being, then you are embodied in a field of non-doing (free from intention, even intentional-attention dissolves in this awareness).

Bearing this in mind, ask the following question: Is it possible to invite a field of non-doing? Now try it by observing the changing nature of your bodily sensations…any sensations, gross or subtleAt first this short awareness exercise can seem quite a challenge, because even the act of trying is doing. However, by persevering with awareness, gently attentive of the changing nature of our arising sensations, the quality of perception alters, from being influenced by past impressions and future projections, to being fed by presence, free from intention. Presence of this nature doesn’t just involve awareness of sensory input and the arising of its corresponding sensation, it includes insight of the sensation/s ‘passing away’.

 

The insight of sensation passing away is radical because it automatically results in the arising of a fresh and less conditioned sensation, freed somewhat from the identification and conditioning of tendencies, impressions, memory and experience (TIME). In other words the felt-sense awareness of a sensation(s) passing away does not mean that the sensation(s) ceases per se. It means identification to sensations dissipates to allow space for a subtler sensations to arise. Awareness of the subtlest sensations provides non-dual insight.

The felt-sense of these subtle sensations arising are, therefore, dependent upon the felt-sense of sensations passing away. When we are aware of this the content of thought (T.I/ME) becomes less influential and distracting. Such awareness casts a very different perspective on what we generally call sensations, as their arising and passing are not separated by tendencies, impressions, memory fragmentation or expectations.

 

END therapists call the felt-sense of this “potency”. In other words, being aware of the passing phase of any sensation creates the opportunity for the body-mind to refresh and express health and for non-duality to gradually reveal itself.It is very worthwhile, therefore, for an END practitioner to effortlessly inquire into the passing nature of sensations. Insight from such enquiry will help us to realise that non-doing is not the opposite of doing, just as non-duality is not opposite to duality.

Actually, we might discover that the very ‘act’ (non-doing awareness of sensations passing) is an act free of intention, which a clients system really appreciates.3.2 Intention prevents insightWe gain clarity to the importance of orienting to our clients in this way, compared to other ways, by investigating the multifarious fields of body and psychotherapy.

 

There is no paucity of literature conveying the need for us to help clients find stillness within themselves in order to feel healthy. Moreover, a deluge of books and courses declare the importance for a practitioner to engender stillness in themselves so as to promote stillness in another. From there they go on to advocate various methods, techniques, intentions and meditations, which, when looked into, are actually all forms of ‘doing’. Please forgive this repetition but it is good to emphasis that the premise of this book proposes that it is this very doing which prevents the awareness of stillness, in the true biodynamic sense of that word. When we explore the nature of stillness with awareness, free from doing, it will become apparent that it has a dynamic quality to it. This quality is one of arising and passing, free from T.I/ME, i.e. it is potency itself! Awareness free from intention, therefore, enables insight into the changing non-dual quality of subtle sensations.

 

Put into biodynamic terms, a familiarity of non-doing helps us become sensitively attuned to the feel of potency and what this feeling implies i.e. the expression of health. This awareness can be felt as both calm and intense at the same time, which might seem paradoxical to the mind, but is a huge relief for the body of both therapist and clients). When perceived free from interpretation this felt-sense of calm intensity provides insight. Yet, when it is interpreted by thought it becomes a conceptual paradox and becomes vulnerable to the seeming contradictory distortions of duality i.e. T.I/ME.

To fully understand the felt-sense of calm intensity it is better to first explain what it is not. So, we will begin by exploring different types of intention before attempting to deepen our perceptual and conceptual understanding of non-doing.

 

Intention, is the conditioned basis upon which an individual is motivationally responsive and/or reactive to sensory input, including the content of thought. Conditioning of this nature will be regarded either as intention, intent, or ’doing’ for the rest of this book. It is, nevertheless, useful to acknowledge that intention is often needed as a means of reminding oneself to be present and attentive to the general courtesies of interaction and to consciously navigate our body. Moreover, in the therapeutic setting, the intention of moving our hand to a region of initial therapeutic relevance, helps a client to feel heard and met. Furthermore, it would be hard to argue against the benefits obtained by upholding the intention to remain awake and to not overtly react to a clients emotional expressions (especially those which we might deem shocking). Yet, wakefulness and non-reactivity are, potentially, much more present without intention. Intentional-attention could, therefore, be viewed as a reminder for not getting side tracked by subconscious intentions formed by T.I/ME. Such intention acts as a balanced platform to establish relevant initial contact, and to provide a grounded presence to encourage the client to feel safe.

 

Question: Does intention hold value beyond this?

Many contemporary self help authors promote the use of positive intention to act as an ignition to help create a proactive outcome in alignment with individual goals. In other words the intention is focused and acted upon, based upon a desired outcome. A trajectory of intention is, therefore, promoting the need to achieve a specific result. Reliance upon intention in this way, i.e. projecting a desired result and following a set path to achieve it, rather than being open to perceiving and trusting the body’s inherent expressions, regardless of whether they seem ‘good’ or ‘bad’, collapses the potential possibility of health fully expressing itself.

Considering this, it could be deduced that clinicians who hold intention in their body-mind will not only limit the optimal expression of health, they will also, ineluctably, prevent insight.

 

Additional question: Does this mean we should suppress intention apart from the initial intention of setting up, meeting and helping to orient the client?

Unfortunately by suppressing intention the nature of it will continue, in another form, beneath the radar of consciousness. The result of which will be that the tension of intention will remain part of the therapeutic interaction, thus limiting the expression of health. It is, therefore, important to be aware of our explicit and implicit intentions rather than suppressing them.Impressions, identification to experience, fluctuating memories and expectations are psychological antecedents to the tendency of subconsciously reacting with like or dislike. These reactive evaluations results in a subsequent ‘charge of desire’ set forth to change, sustain or suppress the impression of a perceived object, person, relationship, activity etc, thus fuelling an amplification of this desire, here called intention (see appendix 1 in the Intention & non-doing book).

 

Clinical significance: Whilst tutoring bodywork trainings in the past I have noticed how the last two minutes of a twenty minute hands on session can be a most profound learning period for both the student treating and the student on the table, especially for newer students. During this tapering period of the session the clients health often starts to express itself in a much more evident way. The reason for this is that I ask the student treating to find the most appropriate way to end the session during this last couple of minutes. This window period exposes the stealth intentions and helps them to dissipate as the student lets go of the unconscious desire to effect the condition of the person on the table. In other words the student lets go of their subconscious ‘doing’ (intention) and opens to another way of relating to the person they are contacting.

 

Experiential exercise: Attention to insight

Use a white piece of A4 paper and draw a 5cm circumference black dot in the middle of the paper. Place it on your lap, or at arms length on a table. Look at it the black dot without blinking for two minutes. Then close your eyes. What do you notice in your minds eye? Keep looking at whatever is in that space. Is there any like or dislike with what arises here?

Try not to answer this too quickly.

It is an opportunity for the minds tendencies to reveal themselves and for you to notice their passing nature. As space replaces the impression in your mind notice the dissolution of the image. Let the dissolution of the impression open you up to the dissolution (laya) of the body sensations….they are ultimately the same!

 

Types of intention:

There are a gamut of different types of intention which could be described. Moreover, the complexity of the human mind would ensure we continue to discover more. Nevertheless, in the context of touch based therapy, intent can be broken down into seven main types of intention and two forms of attentiveness (awareness stretching itself):

Held intention

Directing intention

Beguiled intention

Grey-zone intention

Facilitatory intention

Guidance/reassurance based intention

Ground intent

Access attention (intentional attention)

Invitation

 

Held intention: An example of held intention is when tension is held in the hands after being used repeatedly in actions such as lifting, manipulating or facilitating objects (e.g. using spanners to undo bolts etc). If we clench our fist an effort is required, but after some time of holding our hand in that state the clenched fist will seem to be the natural condition of our hand and we will no longer be aware of the effort required to maintain it. If we were to now open our hand it would initially seem that we needed to make an effort to do so. Such tension, therefore, results from subconscious intention and becomes stored as a body based habit following the sustained input of wilful intention. Clinical significanceIt is not just our hands that fall prey to the habit of held intent. The whole body can echo with this subconscious tension and, as a result, it becomes a part of the way we structure belief and function in the world.

A very helpful way to simultaneously realise and soften this intention is to practice visualising a clenched fist and imagine the gradual relaxation of it for approximately one minute. Repeat this a few times. Once you have become familiar with the process then visualise the whole body as clenched and let it release over the same duration and repeat it the same as before. With this type of visualisation there is often a realisation and release of held intention which provides a wider perceptual field. A perceptual field which was already ‘there’, only clouded by the habituated tension of covert doing.

Feel the space left by the passing away of the tension. In other words sense the nature of intention dissolving. This opens a whole new way of perceiving the body….which is much more fulfilling.

 

Clients will react to the therapists held intention by reciprocal reaction, i.e. subconscious tension/protection. Whereas, a non-doing therapist, in the manner outlined, reduces a clients reactivity thus the clients body gets the chance to express itself in a different way - it gets to express health.

 

Directed intention: Subconsciously held intention often stems from a consciously directed intention. For example, mechanical interventions are incorporated into bodywork therapies due to our understanding of machinery (working parts of something) with which we provide a force to effect the position of the parts. However, a presumption is made when we translate the mechanistic impressions and understanding into the world of body therapy. This is because the understanding formed by mechanical impressions tells us we are merely machines and are nothing but inert matter subject to the mechanical effects conducted by applied force .

 

Thought, especially western thought, has continued to reinforce the mechanical mind set and as a result our rationale for how body based therapies work are mostly dependant on it. Consequentially, the therapist is conditioned to implement directional force to alter that which is perceived as needing to change. This perspective then seeps into our motivation (motor based intention) to direct a clients body. Unfortunately, this will engender a ‘doing’ tension in the therapist’s system and despite this therapy asking a therapist to not ‘do’ anything the directing habit is hard to come out of.

 

To illustrate, a massage therapist who intentionally contracts and relaxes the muscles in his or her hands, in order to mould and shape various tissues of the clients body, repeats similar movements many times. In so doing the wilful intention will likely become instinctively reactive and/or automated, to preserve the energy expenditure of the therapist having to consciously think about each individual movement. From an evolutionary perspective this kind of intention would likely have an adaptational advantage, in certain environments, due to the repetitious intention becoming less conscious thus requiring less cerebral energy to maintain the intention. For example a monkey subconsciously gripping their hand or foot, in order to hang from a tree branch for extended periods of time, would free up more conscious attention to notice environmental opportunities such as potential food or danger. However, just because much of a therapists intention is subconscious does not mean that intention has any less impact on the tissues of the client.

Such subconscious intention fragments perception due to its nature of maintaining motor output and overriding sensory input. This results in decreased skin and subcutaneous awareness. Furthermore, intention of this kind has a desensitising effect on the wholistic felt-sense of the therapist and promotes habituated reactivity to stimulus, rather than relational sensitivity. It is pertinent, therefore, that we become conscious of our own subconscious intentions prior to and during a treatment session (along with equanimity and insight).

 

In embodied non-doing training sessions we are reminded again and again that the body knows what to do when the appropriate relational contact is made. Nevertheless, intention held in the therapists body, due to the repeated use of directed intervention, is often so deeply ingrained that it can take a great many practice sessions and/or self awareness exercises before the habit of mechanical intention dissipates fully. Still, with perseverance and patience it does happen.Beguiled intentionAn example of beguiling intent is when ones mind scans either the body of oneself, the client or both, in order to discover and isolate rhythms.

Over time this intent becomes a habit and sets up a trajectory of ‘blind intent’ and a consequential form of imagination. With this kind of intention the impression of a rhythm or flow can emerge. Yet, this movement is nothing other than the formulated reflection of the movement of the therapists own mind. In other words it is the habituated translation of subtle sensations via the minds tendency to project an adopted rhythm. Yet, the impression of natural un-facilitated movement may seem very real….as real as the clothes on the metaphoric naked emperor!

This presents a problem for the therapist, in as far as the intention has not only developed beyond the purpose of a biodynamic platform, it is born from the charge of desire formed by ones own reactive tendencies. Such desire will, by nature, extinguish open curiosity and therefore prevent the insight of change and so cannot be used as a platform for enquiry.

 

Grey-zone intention: It becomes more problematic when a therapist translates mechanical concepts into ‘energetic’ intent (‘grey-zone’ intent). Directed and/or channelling energy is a very difficult intention to let go of. This is because such intent is both subtle and beguilingly attractive, especially for people who already realise the limitations of mechanical intention but unknowingly wish to remain in control. This grey area intention can, therefore, have a bit of a witch or wizard ‘healing’ the client feel to it. Not only is this a really tricky intentional base to let go of it can also be hard to ascertain the reason why one should let go of it at all! This is because the lead up to this kind of intention involves the presence of a certain amount of potency based awareness, which is useful for encouraging the expression of health. But equanimity, understanding, and insight, are not present, which means true relational touch is not present and an optimal expression of health is, thereby, not possible.

 

Awareness and equanimity of potency are like two wings enabling the bird to fly (metaphor for insight). If one wing is operational but the other isn’t then the bird will never ascend to the air. The moment one perceives arising and passing as the essential reality of potency then TIME and intention cease to exist. If this is not realised then the translation of potency will remain a perspective of duality (observer separate from the observed). This is obviously a hinderance to the felt-sense understanding of non-duality and will consequently inhibit the ‘knowing’ of dynamic stillness.

 

Without a felt-sense understanding of the non-dual nature of nature any equanimity will be transient and, therefore, stop short of providing beneficial insight pertaining to change and ultimately preventing the expression of health at its full potential. It is very common for therapists who have developed a subtle(ish) awareness of potency to become ‘involved’ with it. This is ill-fated as such involvement is based on perpetuating intention and will inevitably prevent the expression of health from presenting itself fully. This is a grey area as it is obvious that there is only one ‘wing’ in operation. Fortunately therapists trained in the field of embodied non-doing often come to realise this and release the intention held around projecting and wilfully being mesmerised by subtler expressions, such as pseudo-tides and pseudo-midlines. This approach of realising the habit of inherent intention and releasing it powerfully effects our awareness and equanimity and deeply acknowledges the inherent intelligence within the body.

 

Question 1: Can we, as embodied non-doing (END) practitioners, really be non-intentional when we are aware of this subtlety (fluids, potency, tides, midlines)?

 

Question 2: Or, are we more likely to surreptitiously project and overlay concepts onto the expressions and delude ourselves into believing we are non-doing?

 

Flow states act as useful sign posts for a clients synching into a subtler way of communing with nature and expressing as a whole. However, these states are also potential grey zones for bodyworkers. It is useful not to be transfixed by this subtler demonstration of health, which requires a fair amount of equanimity on the part of the practitioner. This is because if a flow state is not felt for what it is then the mind of the therapist will become enchanted by the tide-like current, and, whilst being pleasant and helpful for relaxing into a relational space (so potency can gather) it can also be the source of preventing deeper equanimity. If equanimity does not keep up with awareness then non-dual insight will not present itself. This is a problem well known by many established meditation traditions.

 

Let’s recap here; awareness of sensations passing, equanimity, ‘equi-present’ perceptual fields, and non-dual insight are all needed to be truly non-doing. If they are not all present we are most likely treating with an aspect of intention and are therefore…doing! The following Chan allegory might help illustrate the situation we face in this grey zone: Two monks were arguing about a flag.

One said: “The flag is moving.”

The other said: “The wind is moving.”

The abbot happened to be passing by and overheard them.

He told them: “Not the wind, not the flag; mind is moving”.

Commentaries on this story note that the mind (TIME) is in and of itself a movement based on intention, whereas ‘no-mind’ is the paradox of both movement and stillness free of intention and, therefore, operating from non-doing.

 

The most difficult expressions for us to develop equanimity towards are the subtle pleasant ones. Not reacting to the gross unpleasant sensations, such as pressure, tightness, tension, pain, heaviness etc is a piece of cake compared to not reacting to pleasant sensations. Check it out...

We are socially conditioned to want more of what is perceived as pleasant. This includes the expressions which appear as tides of fluidity and potency. When aware of subtlety, the doing habits of the mind want to get involved with the felt-sense of arising and passing and do something with it. If it were not to get involved then the essence of expressions such as the ‘tides’ would provide insight of sensation passing more than arising (P>A; see Appendix 1 in Intention & Non-Doing book), and therefore help open to the felt-sense non-doing interface between the relative and the absolute. This is not dynamic stillness, it is the calm yet intense ‘state’ which reflects dynamic stillness (the base resonance, or grounded interface) i.e. that which is non-dual. It is an interface between dynamic stillness and the primary midline of physiologic organisation and sensory differentiation. Appreciating this, as body based therapists, it might be dawning on us that, despite treating efficiently in the way we have been taught, we might not be enabling the full depth and potential of what our particular therapy has to offer. And the reason for this is due to our overriding intentions which react with doing and prevent non-doing. Another issue presents itself within this metaphoric grey-zone and that is the issue of ‘preference'. If the therapist surreptitiously starts preferring a particular state over what the clients system is wishing to express, then the therapist’s subtle inclination to like and dislike will further prevent equanimity and, therefore, limit the insight of non-duality and non-doing. This is because when a thought based upon an object is liked or disliked the feeling and memory become one and stored in the body as a potential sensation and in the mind as an impression. It now resides as a merry-go-round of reactive tendencies and goes towards forming and sustaining what we (END therapists) call patterns of experience.

 

When one is aware of this pattern, and settles into it, it can be perceived as sensation which we either desire more or less of. However, if there is enough awareness of the tendency, and if the reactive pattern is given space to reintegrate into the natural expressions as a whole, it will enable the perception of the sensations to neither be liked or disliked. Many cultures and traditions provide words for such subtle neutral sensations. Yet, the very naming of this expression will separate it from the experiencer and therefore promote a dualistic perception (followed by the associated reactive tendencies). Nevertheless, we call ‘it’ potency to placate the minds yearning for a noun and let it dissolve into a verb as realisation increases. Facilitatory intention The use of gentle guidance by a therapists hands has been a key principal incorporated by the predecessors of craniosacral therapy practice, especially since Dr William Sutherland first introduced cranial osteopathy. The therapist listens (non-intentionally feels) to the body with openness and interest whilst incorporating manual facilitation to the bones, joints and adjoining tissues, thus encouraging rhythmic movement to structures which may have become restricted. This was a unique contribution to the world of body therapy as it was perhaps the most notable time (at least in the west) that listening to the body was prioritised over doing something in order to change the body. Nonetheless, there is still intention to change something in the clients body. This intention follows very soon after the therapeutic listening, often by exaggerating the vector of ease and/or ‘inducing’ a still point in the clients body. This approach became more popular and well known when Dr John Upledger verified its efficacy and added to the technical component of various hand holds and directions for applying intent.The technical precision and intention to facilitate a mechanical movement are distinctive features which are relinquished in biodynamic practice, as it becomes clear that reintegration of experiential patterns are due to the body’s inherent intelligence, not from intervention. Many therapists, utilising facilitatory intention, argue that some clients need to feel that something is being ‘done’ in order to relax and feel confident in the presence of the practitioner. However, a counter argument offered, usually by biodynamic craniosacral practitioners, is that the only reason for a client needing an intervention based excuse in order to feel something is because of the client feeling a lack of connection and safety.So this kind of intentionality could be a help or a hinderance for the client. If it is helpful for the client then it can certainly be helpful for ourselves as the therapist to reduce our own intention default patterns of intention. For example, we can start to facilitate the slowing down of the breath by intentional nose breathing and slightly contracting the muscles of naso-oral pharynx during the out breath. After a while of practicing this we might realise that we don’t need to continue with this intention, as the breath will naturally balance to the needs of the environment and physiologic demand when body awareness is established. Therefore, the initial intention is really only to help the mind settle and to help the body to be aware of its needs. Try the subtle fasting of the breath exercise in chapter six (access attention) to help experientially understand this. Guidance/reassurance based intentionThis kind of intention is the intention used by the likes of physiotherapists and yoga therapists, amongst many others. It is the tactile guidance and reassurance used to compliment the vocal instruction helping a client to adopt various postures, exercises and breathing techniques etc (see chapter 12: Cranioga). The hands are mostly used to help a client isolate a particular area of their body and to provide comfort of tactile contact. An aspect of directing and facilitatory intention is often amalgamated into this intention which can itself be reassuring for the new client. However, this also mean that the therapist must have a way of accessing the awareness of T.I/ME passing, as an aspect of both directing and facilitatory intention will, at some point, transition from being conscious to being subconscious.

 

Hands on exercise:

Noticing Intention and letting it go.

Working in pairs.

Start with the hands at the feet.

Hold an intention in the mind that wills your partners body to relax.

Notice the feeling of the clients body that unfolds with this intention.

Now come to the awareness of the touch of the breath as it passes through your nostrils for one minute (still in contact with the clients feet).

Then come to the awareness of tongue touch for a minute.

Come into the awareness of tympanic touch (only sound) for a minute.

Now retinal touch (only sight) for a minute.

Finally, come to the awareness of the skin touch (only touch, whole body touch) for one minute and after a minute come back to the awareness of the client with the awareness of the touch your whole body.

With this contact do you notice the irrelevance of intent?

Recall the initial contact when you applied intention.

How does the client system feel different?

 

Ground intent, attention & invitation

Ground intention - Until now we have explored intention formed by the desire born from a reactive mind. Now we’ll mention intent born from nature beyond the mind, which can sound pseudo-scientific or perhaps even poetic at times. This is because the way we generally perceive intention is to identify its source as either from me, her, him, them etc. However, natures intent cannot be isolated in this manner.

Actually, the only way to identify its source is to surrender to the fact that we cannot isolate it and appreciate it as the ground of dynamic stillness which manifests as form.

 

So, the ‘ground’ has an intention to manifest itself. We refer to this process of manifestation as the breath of life and it is from the ground of potential that health and body intelligence express themselves. If we conceptualise stillness as being separate to the mobile nature of form it appears as if stillness is opposite to motion. Whereas insight reveals that stillness is in fact also dynamic, but not in the way that thought perceives stillness and motion.

 

Therefore, the intention of the groundswell of potential is not the mobilising intention bought about by thought, it is presenting its true nature in a way that reveals the representation of dynamic stillness. Realising this is embodied non-doing insight. Non-doing sounds easy for us to incorporate into a treatment session and it is not uncommon for many practitioners to think we just need to be still and quieten our minds and voila we are not doing anything. Yet, the reality of what is meant by non-doing requires a calm and dedicated enquiry into the felt-sense of intention (doing) before there can be an appreciation of what non-doing really implies.

Following with this perspective it may, at some point, be realised that the engaged felt-sense enquiry into doing…is non-doing! In other words embodied non-doing leads to the end of intention. Awareness of, and equanimity towards, the sensations primed by intention eventually unveils a wholistic calm intensity which reveals the representation of dynamic stillness. This revelation acts not only as a gateway to realising ‘ground intent’ but also into perceiving the changing nature of nature, i.e what is sometimes referred to as potency, chi, prana etc.

 

Access attention - Attention is awareness ‘stretched’ to form a distance between subject and apparent object. In this way attention helps establish a subject-object relationship and is the starting point by which all conventional knowledge and experience are known. Everything, that is, apart from awareness itself.

Wilful access attention (intentional attention), in the context of embodied non-doing contact, is conscious orientation to an area bought about by the initial desire to achieve the specific result of relinquishing the binding nature of intention (conscious and subconscious), thereby providing enough space, safety and stillness for the body to feel able to express itself. In this way the noble-desire forming attention is a form of focused awareness (attendere), on a specific area of the body, to help sensations show themselves. This helps awareness to sense the passing of TIME, providing an opportunity to reveal and relinquish intention, including the initial noble-desire incorporated by the applied attention.

 

In embodied non-doing practice we are aware that conscious mechanically directed intention, as an intervention, is too gross for the sensitivity of perceiving the health promoting expressions of the fluids and potency, so we gently discard this approach, as and when it is appropriate, e.g. when relevant guidance based intention is no longer necessary. This does not mean (as explained above) that we relinquish intention entirely, at least not as an initial part of the treatment, when it can act as a platform to help the clients appreciation for non-doing and enhance our own awareness.

For example, the intention used to set-up the environment to optimise the provision of safe touch is a hugely helpful initial intention, although it is not needed once a safe relational field is established. Another example is the intention of listening to a client speak. The listening often starts as a motor act by contracting certain intrinsic ear muscles. The act of listening, therefore, begins as a motor intention (a form of facilitatory intention). When an interesting conversation progresses the attention becomes effortless and engaged non-doing replaces the motor intention, the motor is humming without the need to keep turning the ignition key.

 

So, the access attention (initial intention and sustained attention) promotes orientation, which can open to insight, which then relinquishes the need for intention.

An example of access attention, which can be very useful, is that of attuning our felt-sense to the philtrum of our upper lip and letting the natural non-doing touch of the breath unveil the sensations of our skin in that region. Awareness of sensation in this way can encourage the whole body to show itself and consequentially develop a relational field necessary for the clients system to show itself. This particular example will be expanded upon later, as it is a generically useful area for accessing the initial insight of subtle sensations arising and passing.

 

These access areas act as a platform for attentively letting go of the initial intention and beaming aware of the subtle felt-sense needed for the insight of TIME passing. Intentions beyond this are inevitably fuelled, and reacted upon, by a synthesis of knowledge, tendencies, impressions and memories which one has accumulated from past experiences and projected expectations. In other words the make-up of what is deemed to be ‘me’, deciding what should or should not change, is an amalgamation of knowledge and a maze of reactive habits, the two being inseparable from one another.

 

When a practitioner understands this he or she understands that ‘my’ intention will always involve some form of projection based upon a desire fed by something other than the relational felt-sense of the present timeless moment. Wilful intentional attention, therefore, is different from reactively fuelled intention, in that it can be used to gain access and orient to the body’s intelligence. The body intelligence is the real key to acknowledging and adapting to the individuals needs and helping their potential for patterns of experience to express themselves. This is ‘done’ whilst the therapist does nothing apart from remaining aware, not needing to achieve a particular result. Yet, any form of wilful intention will overshadow the intelligence of the body if not relinquished soon after biodynamic expressions are felt.

So, perceiving and acknowledging the ephemeral nature of intention is of utmost important.

 

Invitation - Once access attention has opened to the sense, and understanding, of bodily sensations arising and passing the therapist is in a position to invite various perceptual fields on a spectrum from narrow to wide. The benefit of having established this awareness and understanding is that there is no need to fixate on a particular field. In this situation intention turns to attention and open inquiry. Interestingly the therapist who promotes a relational field such as this is often in touch with what the body might need and is in a position to non-verbally ask the body what it needs and/or whether it requires narrow or wide fields to join the ‘party’.

This is, in effect, open felt-sense invitation…not intention.Invitation of this nature can help encourage a clients system to open into more subtlety. For example the therapist might invite the bones of the skull to soften or the fluids expression of the body to show itself.

Invitation of this kind can also be used to help the clients system to calm down, or, wake up. It is important to note here that this is not intention, as the therapist is neutral to there being a particular outcome. However, it is also useful to be cautious to the fact that any invitation involving expectation, is an intention in disguise. Suspecting the potential for change is not expectation, it is an experienced practitioner knowing to surrender to possibilities whilst recognising felt-sense themes.

 

Experiential Exercise - Gazing and breath attention

Options: Nose tip gaze (nasikagra drishti)

A) Sitting comfortably direct your eyesight to the nose tipIt will feel as though you are going cross eyed.

One side of the nose will be noticed more than the other.

See if you can balance the awareness by looking through the eye which has less nose tip in its visionSpend half a minute here then spend ten seconds with the other eye.

Keep swapping the eyes with this ratio of visual duration.

After a few minutes see if the nose tip can be seen with both eyes.

Useful exercise for eyesight balancing and oclular muscle release.

Good for easing agitation in a hyped up system (good for aggitated temperaments)

 

B) Third eye gesture (shambhavi mudra)

Direct your vision towards the space between the eyebrowsYou will just notice the curved silhouette of the orbital aspect of the frontal bone.

One curve will be more prominent than the other.

See if you can balance the awareness by looking through the eye which has less orbit curve in its vision.

Spend half a minute here then spend ten seconds with the other eye.

Keep swapping the eyes with this ratio of visual duration.

After a few minutes see if the curves can be seen with both eyes.

Useful exercise for eyesight balancing and occlular muscle release.

Good for invigorating a system which is lacking spark (good for lethergic temperaments).

 

C) Touch of breath awareness (anapana)

Breathe through the nose if possible.

Notice the natural breath leaving the nostrils with exhalation.

Notice the natural breath entering the nostrils with inhalation.

Which nostril is the breath passing? Left or right or both nostrils together?

Is the natural breath shallow or deep?

Is there a sense of temperature difference on the inside of the nostrils when you breathe in compared to when you breathe out?

Do you get a sense of the touch of the breath on the inside of the nostrils?

Do you get a sense of the touch of the breath on the philtrum of the upper lip above cupids bow?

If you do notice the touch of the breath on the philtrum of the upper lip, how long can you be aware of this without being distracted by thoughts, feelings or emotions?

If you are aware here for longer than one minutes without being distracted do you notice any subtle sensation?

If you can sense a subtle sensation here is there insight of the sensation arising and passing?

This is a useful exercise for opening up the subtle sensation awareness of the whole of the body and good for accessing a state of balanced awareness. Often accessed easiest by those with more balanced temperaments.

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