DANCEMEDITATION

A salient aspect of Dancemeditation is learning to be receptive inside our bodies. We have to do not doing in order to undo overdoing. We make an effort to let go. Michael Sells in his beautiful introduction, in Early Islamic Mysticism,  to Qushayri’s essay on Tawajad (Making Ecstatic),  Wajad (Ecstasy), and Wujud (Ecstatic Existentiality),  gives us the poetic frame of this experience and of our path of effort. It is a complex discussion that penetrates as far into the heart of Sufi mysticism as one can reach.

He writes:
“The native Arabic speaker would immediately recognize the w/j/d radical within the words wajd (ecstasy), wujud (existence), wajad (to find) and tawajud (making-ecstatic), and would immediately comprehend the arc using the underlying radical to place these meanings in relationship to one another and at times fuse them into a single term.
We immediately note the difference in metaphor between the Latinate term ecstasy (ek stasis) as in “standing outside of oneself” or “rapture” (from raptus), as “being taken”  or “seized up” out of oneself, and the Arabic term, wajd. Wajd combines the meaning of “intense feeling” with the notion of “finding.” Though we might translate the term as ecstasy or rapture, as Qushayri shows here explicitly and Junayd implies continually…the Sufis always kept in mind the term’s specific meanings of finding and intensity of feeling carried within the terms triconsonantal root w/j/d.”

I am drawn to the definition of wajd—ecstasy—the term used widely now for movement experience. Any sort of movement goes quickly into a wordlessness, followed by an easy quelling of thought, and the ensuing state can deliver us to a state of being loosely termed ‘ecstasy’ because we so commonly identify with our thoughts, or at any rate, use thought forms to identity ourselves. Movement takes us away from that identity.
I love the emphasis here on the idea of ‘finding and intense feeling.’ This characterizes my experience in Dancemeditation. Certainly, in practice, my sense of personal identity softens and, when I am graced, dissolves, but this happens through a sense of ‘going in’ rather than stepping or flying out. I feel more embodied. More present. What dissolves is not the body but the sense of ego identity. Body becomes a sort of feeler—a place, a space, a shape of energy. The ‘my-ness’ is what sifts out of this frame. So it is not that I leave, but that ‘I’ leaves. Wajd and wujud together is this experience.

About wujud Sells continues:
“In addition to intense experience and finding, the lexical field of wajd also includes “existence” (wujud)…The Sufi notion of existence is experiential. To exist is not simply to have being or phenomenal reality. On the contrary…many [Sufis] saw existence as achieved only insofar as one’s ego-self, one’s normal identity and center of being, is annihilated. Existence occurs in the ecstasy and in the discovery  that occurs through “passing away.” The full lexical field of w/j/d—ecstasy, finding, existence—corresponds as closely as any Sufi term to what is currently called the mystical experience…
Tawajud [making ecstatic]…can take on several senses: attempting to so something, affecting to do something, doing something in a studious, deliberate manner. One who makes ecstatic is attempting to achieve ecstasy through his own initiative or, more negatively, affecting ecstasy…
The states occur during the process of a life devotion and are, in some sense, the consequence of acts of devotion and practices of contemplation. On the other hand, the Sufis emphasized continually the fact that states are bestowed freely, come spontaneously, and are not earned or gained through any particular effort.”

Finding comes from reaching, but if we reach too much or too hard, we force it happen—tawajud. Instead, we it is better to do our practice without forcing,with attention, with trust and patience, and without expectation of a result. Big quiet work.

Tags: Qushayri/Sells

In its beauty and integrity, the Dunyati Alembic had the deserved honor of being the Wednesday evening event in the Main Hall at Kripalu Center for Yoga in the Berkshires.  The Main Hall is a high vaulted temple, dramatically lit, with soft carpeted floors, and Wednesday evening is usually a community kirtan with many attendees. February 10th, the Alembic conducted the meditation by leading the observing community of 75–80 people into a deepening interior world with our Dancemeditation.

Our program was an hour in length with all nine members remaining in the Witnessed Arena the entire time. The dancers, wearing pale, flowing clothing, sometimes moved in a specific practice and sometimes watched in witness practice. The goal was to stay relaxed and connected to breath during the sequence of practices and transitions while being observed — simple, but difficult.

The tone and stability was set by a long Opening Sequence. The Walking Meditation was particularly arresting in the pale silks, some dancers dragging veils or holding them bunched but quiet. It had a sense of women across many times and generations. The variety of ages and body types contributed to the sculptural beauty and was refreshing in meaning. The final line of dancers standing along the front of the space shimmying for a period of time gazing straight at the audience, then standing still  facing the audience, eyes closed in a minute of silent meditation was exquisite. There was no coercion, only a pure intimacy. Viewers eyes had time to breathe and see. To rest their eyes on each quiet face.

The responses were many and touching. One woman said she felt she was dreaming, and after only had to go to bed to sleep. Several people said after they couldn’t speak they were so moved and in a deep personal space; later they talked at length. Those of us who stayed for the remainder of the week were stopped in hallways with reflections from those who attended. As a life-long performer, I’ve never had such a warm and thoughtful response from an audience, which speaks to both the content of the Alembic’s work and the nature of the audience Kripalu attracts — a perfect location for this marriage of Art and Mysticism.

As choreographer for the evening, I have been wondering if observation of the practices arranged and carefully designed so the dancers could stay inside their focus would actually work within a theatrical context. To see that it does is thrilling for me. It inspires me to once again delve deeply into Art, a realm that had become dry, empty, ego-based, which I found uninteresting.  The Alembic evening was healing and beautiful. The dancers were very human, very spacious, and very sincere. Their beauty came from this and gave these qualities back to the audience.

The ensemble for this evening was:  Dunya McPherson with Elizabeth Abbene, Carleen Bevans, Anastasia Blaisdelle, Nisaa Christie, Ann Galkowski, Annabelle Keil, Gayla Reilly, Kate Russel, and Kate Temple-West.

The Dunyati Alembic is the performance wing of the Dervish Society of America, under the direction of Dunya Dianne McPherson. The performers share Dancemeditation™ as a dominant influence in their self-understanding. Performative presentations are a framing of group and personal practices, with a vision of absorption into Beauty and Mystery.

Its next evening is February 22, 2010, 7pm at the Metropolitan Building in NYC, a continuing working series made possible by Eleanor Ambos’ generous gift of space.

Tags: witness dance

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