I have had the great fortune of studying with and, in some cases, just been able to listen to, some people that I would consider to be genuine geniuses. My fortune has been so great, that it would not be possible to list everyone here. One of these people is David Harvey, who I met and studied with when I was a student at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York. David Harvey is a critical geographer and anthropologist with significant passion for improving the conditions of life for humans everywhere. Anyone who has studied Anthropology, or perhaps, any social science, knows that, it doesn’t look good for humans. Almost every ethnography documents some kind of suffering—-the kind that we inflict on each other, the kind that we inflict on ourselves and the tragedies inherent with war, famine, natural disaster, racism, disease and the list goes on. After six years of graduate work in Anthropology, I can tell you that the research consistently reveals that we aren’t that nice to one another and we don’t like to share. Therefore, it is of considerable joy to read the hardly lighthearted, yet somewhat hopeful, work of David Harvey. Specifically, I refer to his Spaces of Hope (2000). Basically, the news still isn’t good, but Harvey presents small flickering lights in the tunnel of human doom that provoke the reader to become a part of something bigger than themselves in the name of the greater good. The other risk of reading Harvey is that you have a song in your heart for Balzac, Marx and Benjamin even though you’ve never had the least bit of desire to read their work.
What role does Karl Marx and the body play in all this? Harvey (2000) suggests that Marx, “…from the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts onwards, Marx grounded his ontological and epistemological arguments on real sensual bodily interaction with the world (Harvey 2000: 101).” Here, Harvey quotes Marx (1964 edition, 143):
Sense-perception must be the basis of all science. Only when it proceeds from sense-perception in the two-fold form
of sensuous consciousness and of sensuous need–that is, only when science proceeds from nature–is it true science.
What is not discussed here is how, for many of us, we have lost our sense perception. Many of us dis-abled our tools of sense perception somewhere along the way and now we move in a most un-sensual way through the world separated from our bodies. We do not know hunger or fullness and spend a remarkable amount of time in some variation of the over-pose: over-whelmed, over-ate, hunched over, over it, over you, over and under—-trapped. One of the only sensations we recognize is discomfort. While this can be seen as negative, this discomfort is an invitation to return to a sensual state and to notice how we feel. For many adults, this discomfort encourages a first experience with yoga and many new opportunities for health and wellness.
If all you feel is discomfort, there are two things that you can understand that may be helpful:
1-As you are human, and your discomfort is part of your experience, you can now be open to a deeper sense of compassion for all other humans. I invite you to sit and feel your discomfort and know that you are not alone. We can use our own suffering as a connective link to all living beings.
2-No matter where you are and no matter what your circumstances, if you can feel discomfort, there is still hope! If you have remained sensual enough to feel this pain, then you can use these sense organs to feel non-pain. You can use the skills of yoga and movement to wake up these capabilities that you have for something different. Something better!
Here is a short exercise that you can do for as long as you like or as short as you like and wherever you are right now. This is the exercise of pure sound:
Take a moment to open your hearing senses and listen to sound without judgment. No, it isn’t easy when you’d like to throttle your neighbor for power washing his driveway each time you try to take a nap with your newborn. But, just for the sake of this exercise, hear the power washer minus the judgement. The same goes for hearing something lovely, like the song of the Cardinal outside your morning window. You might hear this lovely bird-song and suddenly wish that it would never end, or think of some other time you heard such a song or you might think that it is time to purchase more bird food. The idea is to just listen—-without the stories, ideas, thoughts and negative or positive judgements. As soon as your mind starts to wander from the pure sound, let go and return to a sensing of sound. Don’t get frustrated if this takes work. It is work. This work helps us understand the quality of our thoughts and how so very much of our experience is determined not by reality, but by what we are doing with it. The mind is constantly moving, but the more we can create some space between experience and thought about the experience, the more rested, relaxed and clear we are. Less angry, less in pain, but more sensual, more open and liberated from the confines of our memories and experiences.
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REFERENCES:
Harvey, David.
Spaces of Hope. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
Marx, Karl
1964 edition, The Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844. New York
Four Noble Truths
Although we associate fear of something in the closet, a monster having taken residence under our bed, shadows in the shape of snakes and the dreaded bad dream as afflictions of children and young ones too new to be able to apply logic to fantasy, when we are being honest, adults struggle with sleep and the role of sleep in their lives. We try to fall asleep, but that chronic ache in our shoulder is suddenly a symphony of pain and no matter how we move we can’t get comfortable. Our bodies are exhausted, but we lie down and immediately our mind is an Olympic quality racer and we can’t even trace the tracks. Essentially, the monster that has taken residence under the bed may no longer be some slimy, toe biting, one eyed, baby napper…….it’s that car insurance bill that slipped behind the desk, that last e-mail you read at work before you shut down for the night that caused fear and loathing, the dreams you had to climb the mountain and now you wonder if your car is going to start or how you are going to both fill that same car with gas and feed your children……..and poems you want to read and a new color you wanted to add to your painting and all the flavors of ice cream you haven’t tried yet and how you are going to get to the beach and wondering if you remembered to take the clothes out of the drier or sign the permission slip or, for that matter, lock the door. Did you remember to lock the door? Forget the door, is your alarm set?
argues that there is no way to prove the existence of an outside world and that, for all anyone knows, the entire outside world could be a dream (20-21). “When I’m in bed having a dream, I see a world of events just as vivid as the waking world…But when I open my eyes in the morning, I know that these vivid events were all produced inside my head. I’d never make the mistake of falling for this trick because I already assume that dreams aren’t real (20-21).” When we learn how to open to a calm space before sleep, we prepare for a more creative, abundant and satisfying dream life. This spills into our waking life as we apply the same creative principles to our movement and appreciation of space, time and relationships during the daytime.
Cooper Edens has written and illustrated two beautiful little books that are perfect for adults and for reading and exploring with wee ones right before sleep. One is titled, “If You’re Afraid of the Dark, Remember the Night Rainbow.” The other is titled, “If You’re Afraid of the Dark, Add One More Star to the Night.” Suggestions for dealing with fears include, “If your eyeglasses wear out….put them on your back and call them your wings.” and “If your elephant forgets…perhaps your aardvark knows the answer.” Yes, ridiculous, but soothing and joyful and just what you, need to send the concerns of the day off to rest so you can too.
Children.” I’m not embarrassed to share that I personally find these to be incredibly helpful to read and visualize before I go to sleep. There are most definitely “adult” techniques that are not necessarily more complex, but use our ability as adults to locate sensation in the body in a deeper way or actively release tension and I do not suggest that this is the best resource for adult relaxation and visualization, but it is a resource that you can use with children that will benefit you as the facilitator in ways you may or may not be able to predict. In the Introduction, the author teaches you a basic starting meditation that you use in the same way for all meditation sessions using the book. Basically, you create a garden and then, you choose one of the individual meditations to continue your garden journey. For example, “The Clouds” meditation on page 65 begins with:
a story from the book, “Buddha at Bedtime: Tales of Love and Wisdom for You to Read with Your Child to Enchant, Enlighten and Inspire” by Dharmachari Nagaraja. Here dear reader, I’ve got to be honest with you. I don’t get the attraction to these stories. But, I simply can’t deny that both of my children (ages 2 and 7) listen to them intently and I can visually see them relax. So, I guess the attraction is that they work for children and that means good things for the parents who previously had to go 20-rounds of “But I’m not tired….my foot feels squished….I need a drink of water….these pajamas are itchy…” and now only have to read a remarkably boring story that somehow manages to lull a wee one into a state of creative calm. A calm child sweet before dreaming is a relaxed parent.
For adults, I would also like to suggest that how you wake up changes how you perceive your sleep. My phone is my alarm clock and this is dangerous. As soon as I wake up, I also see how many Facebook Messenger chats I’ve received, new e-mail messages and I am tempted to check Facebook and the weather too. Instead, what I do is read a Lojong slogan and commentary by Pema Chodron from her book, “Always Maintain a Joyful Mind.” This is the best way to make meditation practice a part of your morning. It takes less than two minutes to read the slogan and the commentary and during my morning I keep returning to it. Sometimes I return to it through the day and the slogan provides a thread of awareness from my waking self through the day. So many of my students and clients desire to wake up earlier and make yoga and meditation a part of their day. But, for most of us, we are barely getting the rest we need to begin with and we simply can’t dedicate even 20-minutes to contemplative practice or energy work as the day starts. For parents of young children, there is literally no time between that early morning cry for food, a fresh diaper or a cuddle and when the day must begin. But, a nursing mom or father can read a slogan while feeding a baby in bed and carry that contemplation into the care of the infant and through the day. We all have two minutes, a few of us even have five minutes. This is my absolute favorite resource for making contemplation and the energy of meditation practice a reality no matter how pressed for time I am.