Spirituality, or dissociation?

Too often, spirituality is seen as something magical or imagined.

So it’s no surprise there’s so much spiritual talk going around that seems so “nice” yet un-grounded or pretentious.

Everyone seems to know all the stuff, but who is actually embodying it behind their Spiritual Identity? I’ve been guilty of this at times too.

So, how can we start? Because some people seem to manage.

Usually people who are in the world, in touch with reality, doing the “ground-work” and living towards, rather than beyond, their humanity.

It’s the people earning their wisdom that we should learn from. Those who are interacting — living through their bodies, and the material world we are all very much part of.

The real gold in the process is changing yourself from the inside out.
Nothing external can do this for you.

Sure, there can be external aids, but these are like maps. 
Having the map doesn’t mean you can navigate the territory, or that you should even visit that territory unless you have the skill to navigate it.

More and more, I feel that we can cultivate skill simply by spending time in motion with the intent to notice ourselves. Maps are getting less interesting.

Sustainable change doesn’t happen quickly.
Your body, mind and nervous system can only change so fast.
It’s a long process that takes years of attentive, interactive physical practice — alone and with people… in the world, not in the imagination.

There just isn’t time to get far in this short life if you’re chasing imagined things, seeking to escape yourself or mentally masturbate.

You need time spent moving. 
Time spent being (relatively) still.
Time spent noticing your tendencies.
No secrets. Just direct experience.
And a lot of it.

But some people don’t leave enough time for direct experience because they’re addicted to what is indirect. You know, that “free stuff” that isn’t free, because it takes time and energy from what is real. The entertainment that keeps you leaking, outward.

So, here’s how I see it.
Here’s the advice i would give.

Thoughts, visuals, tantalising mind-forms — they’re always changing.
So, how reliable are they? Don’t cling. Let them be.

Release. Releasing means letting go of a position — of an identity.
It’s not the same as relaxing a muscle. 

When you release what is temporary, what is real(er) will remain. 
The feeling of the body.
The life-force within it.
The consciousness which beholds it.

But what often obscures this is all the stuff we’re carrying. Our preconceptions.
Our clinging to what we know prevents us from releasing the old and gaining the new.
In this way, practice is about unlearning to re-learn in a more integrated way.

Start with the gross layers — the body — and the subtler layers, life force and consciousness, will reveal themselves more and more tangibly as you practice.

Be hypersensitive to internal detail. Fully inhabit bodily sensations.
Feel into each tissue as you’re moving, or as you’re still (we are never really still).

In this way, you give your body the opportunity to meet consciousness in presence.
And as you meet the literal fibres of your being, in presence, they can release memory.

When your body is holding memory, it is holding past (dead) experiences. It is clutching, holding, tight, frozen, restricted.

Why? Various traumatic events which have been “stored” in your nervous system. Stored away from consciousness because you weren’t able to process them.

Like a dusty room in a house, that needs some attention — some affection.
We want to live in and move through our body, not use it as a storage container.

By feeling your body in fine detail, you are investing in what is real, now, within you.
This isn’t the same as thinking about your body, or visualising your inner parts.

Direct experience is the essence of internal practice. Direct experience is your body-mind connection. It’s internal because it’s yours. No third parties (thoughts). 

Can you just be with what’s yours? Without fixating on that other stuff?

The practice of being with your body helps you internalise the conditions for life force (vital energy) and consciousness to make themselves at home within you.

Or, within more of you than just your head.
So, every muscle, fibre, tissue or cell you practice feeling, can gradually unlock.
A process of moving from muscle-memory (old thoughts) to muscle-meditation (new consciousness).

It’s a cycle.

Movement helps us notice our body parts — and gradually see what is stuck.

Then, by paying attention to these parts, we can develop our internal connection with them.
This internal connection is the direct line between consciousness and matter, or, symbolically, heaven and earth.

Man is the life-force flowing through the nervous system. Not just body. Not just consciousness. Rather, the living, witnessing, moving conduit. 

If you want real, embodied results, you need to develop this bodily connection.
It’s a very literal, physical thing. Structural changes need to occur.
But these changes can only occur correctly under the right conditions.

The nature of your mind is one such condition.
Saturate it in the body and release preference to continue knowing more clearly.

Go practice. Stand, breathe, walk, sit… with utmost attention to detail.
You will never understand it by reading and thinking alone.

In a world that draws you out of yourself all the time…
Shine the light of consciousness within your body.