DANCEMEDITATION

Below are three stages of development in the tradition of Sufism articulated by Qushayri. Their simplicity is helpful — graspable benchmarks.

Moving from one to another rests on understanding oneself. In Dancemeditation this means time spent with, and in, the body. We are our bodies. Within a movement practice, we see, feel, and discover who and what we really are. As Qushayri’s stages suggest, we are more than the ’self’ we can cognitively grasp, more than we can intuitively grasp. We are picked from Nothingness, grasped into being-ness, beyond our understanding.

1. Shu ‘a u’l basira — Awareness of Your Being
This concerns spiritual knowledge and information, aslo doctrinal and theoretical knowledge. This is where we learn through words — reading, talking, analysis. Accessing the cognitive to penetrate the mysteries of our Path.

2. Ayn al basira — Awareness of Your Non-Being
Opening of the spiritual heart’s ‘eye’. (Ayn means eye.) In this stage, the heart opens and the ego diminishes. Intuitions flows, we begin to be less involved in the illusion of control, and we acquire trust.

3. Haqq al basira — Awareness in Truth, beyond Being and Non-Being
Truth, Certainty in the Divine Eternal, the end & goal of the Path. This is fana, or dissolution of the small self into Unity.

Tags: Qushayri

DUNYA:
We invoked you (Urvashi – PhD candidate in neuroscience and Certified Teacher of Dancemeditation)   yesterday morning at the Advanced Group here in NYC.  I need to describe what we were doing.
We were using the inward Shafi. (Arabic: to Heal, to Cure)
We inhaled, then did a narrow quick breath (breath of fire) for a period of time with the sound moving quickly on the inhaling-exhlaing; then a larger exhale and a few normal breaths to recover before working that pattern again.
We focused our attention during the quick breathing at the junction going straight back from the bridge of the nose and above the occiput.
This spot of was an intuitive choice and not based on any information about brain structures. Of course it is pretty easy to feel this area simply from the passage of breath, but I almost wondered if it acted as a massage of sorts to a particular brain structure.
So here are my questions:
- Can proprioceptive targeting of specific brain areas have an effect?
- I think that I can feel (have sensation in) different areas of my brain. Is this possible?
UVASHI:
I will think about the practice you have described and try it myself.

How do I look at the brain and body? Well, after all this training I see them as groups of specialized cells that cooperate to sustain and create the experience of our lives. Further, cells are cities built by intelligent molecules, so at all levels of our being we are the result of cooperating entities.

As for feeling events happening in the brain, when I have mentioned to some of my friend scientists that I can sense things happening in my brain, they reflexively state there are no pain receptors in the brain. My response is, the sensations of brain activity I’m referring to aren’t pain, they are sensations of activity. So, I too have those sensations, so yeah, I think people can sense parts of the brain at work. Can most people? I don’t know. That being said, what is the mechanism by which we target specific areas of the brain? Are we guided by these sensations or does the very act of doing things that require and stimulate those parts of the brain produce the sensations we later report?  I can’t answer that yet.

AND MORE FROM URVASHI:
The short answer is yes, you can directly target different parts of the brain via actions. Those areas experience plasticity (learning) as a result of those actions. Over time, you will get better at those actions because of molecular level changes in the tissue subserving those actions.

With regard to breathing, the brainstem is involved in normal respiration. So, one region you may be targeting is the group of cells in the brainstem that monitor and stimulate normal respiration. Maybe.
It is as likely that you are targeting the anterior and posterior serratus and abdominal muscle groups that assist inflation and deflation of the lungs. This means the motor regions in the cortex are addressing relevant motoneurons in the spine, thus overriding signals from the brainstem that would normally recruit these muscles for respiration.

There have been a few scientific studies directed at understanding just what the patterned respiration in yoga is doing to the brain and body. No studies have been done on Sufi practices, to my knowledge (yet . It is clear these practices cause plastic changes in the cardiovascular and nervous systems. The exact mechanism of these changes is unclear. I will dig around and see if I can find copies of these papers to send you. It is probable that cell groups in the basal ganglia and forebrain that subserve executive attention control are driving conscious control of respiration, but I haven’t seen any studies on this question. That doesn’t mean they aren’t out there. Must run now! More later!

In Dancemeditation™ practice, there is a point of getting through The Crust. The usual psychological things that impede doing a practice include habits, laziness, resistance, fear, boredom. Those are one type of Crust, but today I encountered The Real Crust for embodied practice—the physics of getting going.

The physics of getting going might mean,  for an early morning practice, being tired or sleepy. Launching out of bed for me is a bit of a foggy period.  My body has been in another condition: sleep. If I dance and breath a song first thing, I feel sluggish, but that’s okay. Just an observation. If I dance and breathe a song in late afternoon my body has been through various unconsious experiences of sitting and walking. Getting going into awareness of sensation and gravity takes a moment or two, or ten or fifteen. Fifteen minutes to really wake up inside my body. So there is more than will or attentiveness involved here. We have the physics of the body.

Wake Up Inside my Body. I might be awake in my breath, or my mind, but to be awake in my body takes a little longer. How interesting to be in a body all the time and to be so unaware of this obvious fact. Even those of us who practice conscious embodiment regularly find this reality challenging to maintain. Yet is a reality, and reality returns us to sanity. Whenever I feel ungrounded, I simply put my attention into my breath and feel where my body is touching a surface, be it floor or furniture.

Right there I encounter The Crust. It takes a a period of time to switch from wherever I was—caught in anxiety and disconnected from my embodiment, for instance—to being awake inside my body. When I am in my body, I can then go on to listening and being in my body, reading and being in my body, writing and being in my body, thinking and being in my body. The Crust is that rim of surface tension, like water just before it boils. Pop, and we’re through.

Being awake inside the body entails getting through The Crust. It is easy, but it takes a little patience. I remind myself of this. I give it a chance to happen.