head and go down through your feet into the earth. Be sure to stay in touch with your spine as you exhale; see if you can maintain its length. Feel as though your breath is simultaneously raising you upward and rooting you downward ( Figure 26 ). Don’t think about the irrationality of this experience—just let it happen.
Figure 26
6 Connecting heaven and earth
Once you’ve been able to sense these movements, try the following exercise using the same basic standing position. As you inhale, slowly rise up on your toes, and simultaneously raise your arms up in front of you. Your arms should arrive straight over your head (palms facing forward) at the same time that you have reached your full extension ( Figure 27 ). As you exhale, slowly lower your arms and feet until you are in the original standing position. Try this many times. Sense the upward and downward movement of energy. Sense your whole body breathing. Experience how your breath is putting you in touch with your own verticality—connecting heaven and earth both inside and outside your body. Once you’ve felt this, walk around for a few minutes and see how long you can maintain this sensation.
Figure 27
5
THE SPACIOUS BREATH
... each breath we take is filled
not only with the nutrients and energies
we need for life, but also with the expansive,
open quality of space. It is this quality
of spaciousness, if we allow it to enter us,
that can help us open to deeper levels
of our own being and to our own
inner powers of healing.
Thirty spokes together make a wheel for a cart.
It is the empty space in the center
of the wheel which enables it to be used.
Mold clay into a vessel;
it is the emptiness within
that creates the usefulness of the vessel.
Cut out doors and windows in a house;
it is the empty space inside
that creates the usefulness of the house.
Thus, what we have may be something substantial,
But its usefulness lies in the unoccupied, empty space.
The substance of your body is enlivened
by maintaining the part of you that is unoccupied. 39
Lao Tzu
To experience the natural healing power of breath is to experience its inherent “spaciousness.” Our breath can not only move upward and downward to help us experience our own verticality, but it can also move inward and outward to expand and connect our inner spaces with the space of the so-called outer world. In the same way that our experience of external space allows us to differentiate and relate to each other and the various objects and processes of the outer world, our experience of the internal spaces, the “chambers” of our bodies and psyches, allows us to differentiate the various functions and energies of our organism and keep them in dynamic harmony. As Chuang Tzu states:
“All things that have consciousness depend upon breath. But if they do not get their fill of breath, it is not the fault of Heaven. Heaven opens up the passages and supplies them day and night without stop. But man on the contrary blocks up the holes. The cavity of the body is a many-storied vault; the mind has its heavenly wanderings. But if the chambers are not large and roomy, then the wives and sisters will fall to quarreling. If the mind does not have its heavenly wanderings, then the six apertures of sensation will defeat each other.” 40
Clearly, for Chuang Tzu and the Taoists, the various chambers or stories of the human organism—especially the abdomen, chest, and head—need to be experienced as “large and roomy” if our various functions and energies are to work in full harmony. Without some sense of spaciousness in our organs and tissues, we are unable to feel space in the other aspects of our lives. It is just this feeling that there is no space in our lives, that there is no room to expand our experience of ourselves, that lies at the root of much of our stress and dis-ease. It is one of the main reasons we so cherish trips to the countryside or ocean, where we find not only
Figure 26
6 Connecting heaven and earth
Once you’ve been able to sense these movements, try the following exercise using the same basic standing position. As you inhale, slowly rise up on your toes, and simultaneously raise your arms up in front of you. Your arms should arrive straight over your head (palms facing forward) at the same time that you have reached your full extension ( Figure 27 ). As you exhale, slowly lower your arms and feet until you are in the original standing position. Try this many times. Sense the upward and downward movement of energy. Sense your whole body breathing. Experience how your breath is putting you in touch with your own verticality—connecting heaven and earth both inside and outside your body. Once you’ve felt this, walk around for a few minutes and see how long you can maintain this sensation.
Figure 27
5
THE SPACIOUS BREATH
... each breath we take is filled
not only with the nutrients and energies
we need for life, but also with the expansive,
open quality of space. It is this quality
of spaciousness, if we allow it to enter us,
that can help us open to deeper levels
of our own being and to our own
inner powers of healing.
Thirty spokes together make a wheel for a cart.
It is the empty space in the center
of the wheel which enables it to be used.
Mold clay into a vessel;
it is the emptiness within
that creates the usefulness of the vessel.
Cut out doors and windows in a house;
it is the empty space inside
that creates the usefulness of the house.
Thus, what we have may be something substantial,
But its usefulness lies in the unoccupied, empty space.
The substance of your body is enlivened
by maintaining the part of you that is unoccupied. 39
Lao Tzu
To experience the natural healing power of breath is to experience its inherent “spaciousness.” Our breath can not only move upward and downward to help us experience our own verticality, but it can also move inward and outward to expand and connect our inner spaces with the space of the so-called outer world. In the same way that our experience of external space allows us to differentiate and relate to each other and the various objects and processes of the outer world, our experience of the internal spaces, the “chambers” of our bodies and psyches, allows us to differentiate the various functions and energies of our organism and keep them in dynamic harmony. As Chuang Tzu states:
“All things that have consciousness depend upon breath. But if they do not get their fill of breath, it is not the fault of Heaven. Heaven opens up the passages and supplies them day and night without stop. But man on the contrary blocks up the holes. The cavity of the body is a many-storied vault; the mind has its heavenly wanderings. But if the chambers are not large and roomy, then the wives and sisters will fall to quarreling. If the mind does not have its heavenly wanderings, then the six apertures of sensation will defeat each other.” 40
Clearly, for Chuang Tzu and the Taoists, the various chambers or stories of the human organism—especially the abdomen, chest, and head—need to be experienced as “large and roomy” if our various functions and energies are to work in full harmony. Without some sense of spaciousness in our organs and tissues, we are unable to feel space in the other aspects of our lives. It is just this feeling that there is no space in our lives, that there is no room to expand our experience of ourselves, that lies at the root of much of our stress and dis-ease. It is one of the main reasons we so cherish trips to the countryside or ocean, where we find not only
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