There’s a new post on notes.lucid24.org that anyone who practices qigong or taiji will recognize.
Around the turn of the millennium I spent more than a year taking every yoga class I could find,
many with credentialed teachers who had trained for months under respected gurus in India.
The deepest experience of all came from an aerobics instructor teaching yoga at an ordinary American gym,
the one the lineage teachers rolled their eyes at.
Her secret was the same thing qigong and taiji teachers mean by sōng (鬆): relax,
loosen, let go.
No gaze points, no breath counting, no micromanaging.
She swayed gently in a forward bend, stayed in poses as long as they felt good,
and let the body sink on its own.
A two-hour workshop with her left me in strong physical and mental bliss that lasted for hours after the class was over.
Decades later, I can finally explain why it worked,
and why pacifying the body is the step right before the jhānas.
10 min. read · 2 illustrations
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