Enlightenment through the body

by Hoa Newens

With modern publishing tools, we are seeing a bevy of publications related to higher state of consciousness, including sharing of personal experience, research analyses and how-to manuals. Add to these publications other online sharing tools such as Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, etc. and the average person has access to plenty of useful information and insights on these higher states. Search for “self-improvement” in amazon.com or Google and you’ll see what I mean.
 
The question that comes to mind is that, given this abundance of information shouldn’t we also see an upward trend on the number of highly conscious people in the world? Well, the world has generally become more conscious, since we are not killing as many of our fellow human beings as in the past century (120 million casualties resulting from World Wars I and II combined). However, it appears that the correlation between plentiful information and enhanced states of consciousness is still anemic. The mass wants to be more conscious and has a treasure of information, yet it does not know how to use it.
 
We have abundant and useful information, why aren’t people acting on it and elevating themselves? what is missing? I explain below how we are not using properly the most effective enlightenment tool at our disposal.
 
Most human knowledge is converted into information that feeds the mind. What the mind does with it determines its eventual benefit to us. As an example, most people are aware of the three essential requirements for a healthy and happy life, namely healthy diet, regular exercises, harmonious personal relationships. Yet healthcare expenditures account for 18% of the U.S. gross domestic product in 2016 in a continuingly rising trend. Internationally, the U.S. is the top spender in health care per capita. Apparently, the overabundance of information on healthy lifestyle does not have an effect on public health.
 
Normally, we come across valuable information first through our mental faculties, that is, we either read or hear about it. The mind grabs the information, processes it and digests it, then files it away as an “experience”. So, when the same or similar information is fed to it a second time, its automatic response is “been there, done that, don’t need it”.
 
Here is an example. Oh, Zen? I’ve read all the popular Zen books in the 1960’s and 1970’s written by the likes of Dr. D. T. Suzuki, Shunryu Suzuki, Eugen Herrigel, Alan Watts and others, including Zen Mind Beginner’s Mind, Zen in Archery, Zen in the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, etc. I even had discussion with a couple of Zen monks. I understand Zen, I know Zen, I’ve done Zen. So my mind says, and I’ve checked off Zen on my to-do list. Next?
 
If I am to believe my mind, then I have experienced Zen. I am my mind, and the mind represents me. Well, an awakened person would see through the fallacy of such statement. The mind, which is a minute part of the conscious self, impersonates the totality of the self and attempts to take over the entire domain of consciousness. If we are not vigilant, this is what our mind does all the time. It gobbles up data and processes it then inducts it into the realm of human experience.
 
You can try this experiment. Before traveling to a new destination, Google it and review all the information that you can find online, including narrative, images, sound and video clips. If you have done sufficient homework, when someone asks if you have visited the location, and even if you have not physically done so yet you’d hesitate before answering. This is because your mind has been there and has experienced a sample of the local sights and sounds and is tempted to misrepresent that the totality of you has had the experience.
 
The big difference between a mental exploration and a total body-mind experience is that in the former your consciousness is limited to a rather passive role and the stimulants (images and sounds) are very limited and captured through intermediate sensors, whereas in the latter, when you were physically present, your total being is able to interact directly with real life in all of its glory, and make choices. This active participation causes friction between the totality of yourself (your consciousness, your mind, your emotions and your body) and other life agents that results in residual “feelings” about the experience which are stored in the body. Subsequently these “feelings” become memories of the experience, or karma.
 
These residues of interaction with life gradually become part of our internal make up and shape our future choices and decisions. In other words, if the memories were negative and we do not want to repeat the experience, we would make choices to avoid the experience in the future. If the memories were positive, we would seek repeats. This is how we extract lessons from life – by rubbing our total being against life and making choices. Below is a more esoteric explanation of this life growth process that underscores the importance of physical experience.
 
The consciousness that we were given at birth transforms itself upon contact with the manifest world into energies of various densities. In the human body, these energies are gathered in energy vortices that are joined together in a vertical pole in the middle of the body, sometimes referred to as the Taiji Pole, or just the Central Axis. Each energy center governs one aspect of our total being. At the simplest level, the center in the abdomen regulates the densest energy that makes up our physical body; the center in the chest controls the more subtle emotional energy; and the center in the head governs the more refined energy of the spirit. These energies constantly feed into each other and are bound together by a common central thread, our innate consciousness, which retains its connection with the unmanifest.
 
Life throws at us a variety of situations that impact each aspect of our being differently. Each of these impressions is a potential life lesson that we can choose to ignore or process. If we choose to ignore it, we should  let it go completely; if we choose to process, we should process it fully in order to extract the lesson and grow on it. Full processing means to process the experience through the three energy centers. Unfortunately, most of us choose to process these life impressions partially, never arriving at the lessons that they contain.
 
For example, you might have read about how the most effective and holistic pain management method is to face the pain and accept it. The description of the practice and the benefits made a lot of sense to you, at least mentally. However, if you left it at this intellectual understanding stage, the experience is incomplete. The next phase of processing might be to take up one of the practices and engage in it daily. Feel the physical pain in your joint; don’t take drugs to mask it. Let it come, listen to what this painful part of the body is telling you; don’t put up any resistance, mental or physical. As pain is given free rein to surface, it may uncover other pain of an emotional nature, such as repressed anger. Acknowledge it, and let that pain come out too, and let it go. 
 
This internal processing by all three centers, mental, emotional and physical, may last a while and require much forbearance on your part. However, the end result is that, as the pain is fully processed by your being, an amazing transformation takes place: the pain disappears, or rather transmutes into its original essence, which is consciousness. The pain that we store is made up of energies that have been locked up due to our inner resistance; the inner processing subjects it to the cleansing vibrations of consciousness. These high frequency vibrations shake off the detritus that attached to our consciousness when it interacted with life agents in past encounters. This is how pain or other sensation that taints our consciousness, is removed to allow the reabsorption of consciousness. This is how we learn from life and grow our consciousness.
 
During the full processing of any experience, physical pain or sensation is liberated through the guts; emotional pain or sensation is liberated through the heart; and mental anguish or sensation is liberated through the head center. Skipping any of these phases will not allow the full alchemical transformation to take place. To grow wiser, we need to turn on all our processors and take on the multiple facets of life directly.

​As students of Aikido, we should read the history of our art, research the biographies of its founder and main proponents, understand how Aikido principles work on the mat and in life; and most importantly, we should not forget to complement this understanding with physical austerities and partner training on the mat. The learning is not complete until the body feels and understands.
 
Life is all around us; to grow, we just need to do one simple thing: open up fully - body, mind and heart, to each moment.
 
Hoa Newens
12/18/19