Mastery in Empty Space

The empty space. That which becomes the active in the next moment, immediately replaced by the neutral once moved. Active and passive are not stillness and movement but reaching, contracting, fixing, shrinking, compacting, rigidifying, adding density, swelling, exploding and collapsing. The law of opposites mediated by the third, the middle way. The empty space, the neutral space, an extra degree of freedom, something to spare, the only true “movement.” It is extending, limitless, existent beyond the horizon of knowledge, awareness without reason.

In application it is the source, an open circle, movement agency. Development follows principles of self-organizing beyond ego reach. Ego is always following behind, constricting, limiting, cutting, power hungry, finite.

The application is that the idea of therapeutic neutrality is ego fiction, applicable to misshaped agents that are uncoordinated and getting in the way of natural development of self-organization. The therapist ego flavors the exchange, vivifies experience, models and entrains experience but also allows the freedom of movement in both from impulse to perception to memory. Active to passive to neutral.

Interaction is the guided conversation. Congruence the active, empathy the passive and unconditional positive regard the neutral stance. Simple rules. In martial art there is a neutral space, not just separation but a field of neutrality maintained throughout the execution of the arts, the reminder or enactment or acquiescence of no separation. Separation is pulling or intruding or passively detaching or collapsing. At higher levels of energy and movement, passive is just going through the motions, movement for movement’s sake. Once you learn how it all works then you are really actively “doing something” but that is too much about you. Active yang, passive yin, neutral tao. Going to the neutral space.

It is not enough just to go meditate in a cave, be removed from the world, choose exile, experience neither the pain of movement nor despair of paralysis. Be the void. The neutral, mundane sameness of it all is essential and obvious. Not profound as such. And yet so well eluded, avoided, misinterpreted, embellished, co-opted, defiled. All ego or folly, not it.

It is not in the fixing but in the transformation and movement, the change. How to bring essence to everyday, to the therapeutic but not reek of Zen or God or Buddha or the rarified realm of dogma, insight so profound that it surpasses definition. It comes down to simple virtues and earnest efforts and sincere words. Humility.

The challenge across situations is the intensity, the juxtaposition of shallow or ignorant with the wise or fast moving. The principles of movement and the universe apply equally no matter the relative status of the individual being. The only difference is the individual understanding of rhythm, alterations in movement, the letting go of façade, edifice and scaffolding, levels of development, stages of expertise, from novice to master. The master is novice, able learner, advanced practitioner, superior practitioner and visionary, in simultaneity and flow. The master can constellate the profundity from anywhere in the field or matrix. Humility.

Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. Humility arising is transcendent. Rising from density into lightness rather than swelling, collecting out of swelling without density, rousing out of collapse without rigidity, letting go of rigidity without collapse. Therapeutics would teach the virtues and not indulge the vices, make earnest to be a model, be optimistic, be courageous, stay honest and sincere. Be present.

Numbers

Solitaire
Meditation, mindfulness, service, contemplative writing, mind-body coordination, openness.

Têtê à têtê
Vis à vis, dyad, mutual, dual/polar, synergizing, synchronizing, generative, intercourse

Trois
Yin-Yang-Tao, active- passive- neutral, adult-parent-child, subject-object-verb, players-audience-stage.

Quatre
Triads of threes, odd man out, transitional space down to three, two, one or up to higher levels.

Salon
Five to eight. Shared experience of meeting, exchanging ideas and improvising artistic performances. Unscripted drama.

Assemblage
Multiple salons. Nine to Thirty Two. Aggregates of artifacts and material evidence in support of a theory concerning culture and communality. A sculptural technique for organising or composing into a unified whole a group of unrelated, often fragmentary or discarded objects. An emergent record of interactions.

Milieu
Multiple assemblage with an emergent resonance of the record of interactions. The feedback system. The mix, the energy, the vibe. Six degrees of separation

Fête
Tradition over multiple earth cycles. The tipping point.

Principles of Inquiry

The essential nature of being is the field of consciousness.
The body is a vessel for individual consciousness.
Force and power act on the body/mind but do not act on the field of consciousness.
Coordinating the mind and body allows fuller revelation of the field of consciousness.
Every human encounter carries the potential of raising the quality of expression of the field of consciousness.
The value of our existence is in furthering the fullness and quality of the revealed field of consciousness.
Our habits, distortions, fixations, concepts, language, knowledge all denote consciousness, but consciousness can only be connoted.
The evolution of consciousness is revealed through myths and mysteries.
The role of the helpers is to use awareness and compassion to inquire into the condition of the other's mind and to look for stability.
The clarity of your own inquiry shows your own stability and condition of your mind.

Ethics of Behavior

Do no harm
Keep a proximal distance to each other, not too close, not too far
Approximate your behavior to resemble others closeby
Say yes
Listen for meaning
Be enthusiastic
Observe what is emergent, eg. synchrony, and return to the first ethic

Hope, Duty, Redemption, Enlightenment

Good endures evil out of hope.
Evil brings evil out of duty.
Evil turns to good through redemption.
Good brings good out of enlightenment.

The themes of hope, duty, redemption and enlightenment coincide with the metaphors of light, fire, water and dark. Out of darkness, no-thing-ness, comes a point of light. The point of light is just pure being within chaos. So begins the sense of hope and wonder that infuses all experience. Yet there is embodiment, pain, a sense of frustration, unfulfilled needs and loss of connection. Through the accumulating repetitions of living there are little deaths, the corrupting and decay of awareness of pure being. Distinctions are made, differences directly experienced, history made, the relative world comes full upon us.
The badness and evil burns in the body and mind. Shame, guilt, grief and self-betrayal become known. Devices, fixations and passions become the masters and always the overlord of them all, the insistent, inpatient, greedy, selfish ego dominates the focus of being. In a world of fear and uncertainty, conflict and resistance, life objectives become concrete, serviceable and practical. Duty and obligation subsume the individual ego under a more powerful group ego or solipsistic self-serving becomes the reason for being. The world of power and competition becomes the only veritable reality. The school of hard knocks becomes the initiation into “the way it is.”

Yet out of the duality flows the third way. Polarity, the dynamics of the union of opposites, is expressed through the constant shifting and figure/ground reversals of the phenomenal world. Through the passage of time, the call to adventure, destiny is set before us. The meaning of our efforts comes to redemption. There is an offer of greater meaning for our suffering, striving, conflict and corruption. To see oneself through the eyes of the other is to make the empathic connection. To be fearless and searching is to turn from evil to the goodness of the world. Goodness is in the living force of others, other lights, the hope and wonder all around.
Yet the reflective mind is limited for the truth is transcendent of memory and history, ego and objects, personalities and enterprises. Into the dark, the chaotic abyss, the enlightened are one with it, for only through darkness comes the light.