Showing posts with label supple. Show all posts
Showing posts with label supple. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Dialoguing with Nature, The Nuts and Bolts, 5

The reward for cultivating suppleness in response to natural/physical/biological intelligence is that we gain our own uniqueness. In a culture of mass production and ongoing, relentless pressure towards conformist thinking, gaining our uniqueness is no small prize.

What strikes you as a more supple way to move through your day today? Or if that's too overwhelming a thought, how could you be more physically, emotionally, or mentally supple in the next hour? Note that suppleness is not a compromise, and you will know you're on the right track if you feel, even for only a moment, that you are suddenly more yourself.

For another, less abstract approach to this question, spend three or four minutes imagining you are a living blade of grass, rooted in the ground and bending in the wind, or a lithe cat or fox, stretching your muscles in new ways. How about feeling yourself as an earthworm? Now there's a most supple creature that nonetheless is collectively responsible for moving and creating vast tons of soil.


Here's the human world meeting a fox's world—and this fox is certainly exhibiting great suppleness and aliveness!:




Saturday, October 1, 2011

Dialoguing with Nature, The Nuts and Bolts 4

Habits of perception and thought can be useful shortcuts on the one hand, chains of delusion on the other.

To truly meet natural/physical/biological intelligence, be prepared to change your habits... regularly

The attitude required for success is beautifully described in this passage from the Tao Te Ching:


Human beings are
     soft and supple when alive,
     stiff and straight when dead.


The myriad creatures, the grasses and trees are
     soft and fragile when alive,
     dry and withered when dead.


Therefore, it is said:
     The rigid person is a disciple of death;
     The soft, supple, and delicate are lovers of life.


An army that is inflexible will not conquer;
A tree that is inflexible will snap.


The unyielding and mighty shall be brought low;
The soft, supple, and delicate will be set above.


—Tao Te Ching: The Classic Book of Integrity and The Way by Lao Tzu, in a new translation by Victor H. Mair, Bantam Books, 1990