Ascending1,
I had a hard time with your previous posts. When I got to the part referring to paragraphs and bullets, etc., I felt I was in a tax form of sorts, and my mind fuzzed out!
Okay,,,one question here on step 9 of Harmony of the Universe.
- Inhale up to the full extention of the stretch. Anytime you do an inhale, there can be an element of "holding the upper breath". This is not holding the breath, but rather a period of time experienced, in a heightened, elongated upper breath(top of the inhale), where you are totalled replenished and full, and experiencing a slowed down shift from yin to yang, inhale to exhale, or that point travelling around a circle when it goes from moving up to moving down, etc... It is a slightly extended 'transition'. One doesn't have to do this, but it can be there. The idea of 'holding the upper breath" is mentioned in many systems, sometimes as predominate as a phrase like 'suspending the crownpoint". This transition can have a somewhat euphoric experience to it too,,,,a heightened moment of something completed, and transitioning. Slowing down, and feeling transition points in movement is very pleasant. Nothing to rush.
-In this exercise, I heard Master Lin, when I first learned it at a clinic, only really emphasize two points. One, no matter how you breath, 'hold' the breath when you get up to that point where the hands come together over your head the second time(where you are supposed to hold your breath). The other, was pointing out the bend of the upper hand in that stretch, being key, in that it opens the channels bending the hand that way. That was it.
At another time, he mentioned once how slow movement can be executed, with any exercise. In Tai Chi, alot of the styles of start, with a movement picking up the hands and lowering them down. He mentioned seeing a very high level master doing this form, and that it took so long for this master to pick up and lower his arms, that most people left, and lost interest. The idea being, that you 'can' change the pace of things, and slow down the breathing. The only 'key' reference point is that top point where you hold the breath. In theory, although not in the manual, you could take several slow breaths going up to that point, not just one, as given. I am not saying change the exercise. I am just saying there is some possible variation, without compromising the desired effect sought from doing the execise. I pay no attention to the breath, until, I get to that holding the breath point. I do at least one full inhale/exhale as I lay my head on my folded arms, and one as I stretch. The first movement, opens up to heaven, so much, that you should perhaps, focus more on 'feeling' that thinking and marking time. The simple position of opening your arms to the sky, can be full of wonderful 'experienced feeling'. Same with laying your head in your arms and feeling heaven shine down on your face. Time and cadence become secondary to feeling the blessings within the movements.
One person's moving through these positions or alignments, might be a totally different experience than anothers. The outward 'appearance, or structure to the exercise "aligns" one with the universal and spiritual energy. You are merging with it at this point, feeling it, letting go, opening up, relaxing. Thinking in a linear, one, two, three way, will keep you from the felt ectasy in the movement. The pleasure to aligning, merging, healing...
There is another important concept, always in play. There is a saying too, of, 'the mind moving the energy', or 'the energy moving the mind'. You start out with your mind focused on a specific thing, as you yield to the exercise, and this conscious directed thought, you slip into emptiness here and there, or completely , and the exercise does itself. The energy moves you.
love,
gallen
