The Principles of an Effortlessly Effective Body-Being

The human body is designed in a particular way. Given this basic design certain capacities and limitations in movement and function are inherent. Some ways of movement are more effortless, more powerful, and more in harmony with the basic or original body design than others. Most of us have gotten out of alignment with that original design through various processes — injury, trauma, ignorance, or bad habits.

The purpose of the Principles Course is to introduce the student to the functional design of both the mechanics and energy of the human body. A simple example of this is found in recognizing the difference it makes to keep our knees pointing in the same direction as our toes. The knee is designed to be a hinge and is not designed to rotate. We can rotate it, but by doing so we lose power and hurt ourselves in the long run. In this example we can see that the possibility of having more power in our movement does not exist as some abstract event available to us somewhere else or in the future. Already, right now, our knees are designed to be hinges and we can align ourselves to using them in this way. Thus “effortless power” is realized in the re-alignment of our actions and habits with the design of the body.

In the field of Being we make distinctions. One major distinction we make is the distinction called objects. On some level objects are always part of our experience. For most of us, our body is an object existing among other objects. Our “being” is distinguished as an object via our body. To be inclusive, Peter uses the term “body-being” instead of simply “body.”

Whenever we are pressed to the wall about how we know we are alive, how we know we “are,” the bottom line for us is often that we have bodies. Or we say that it is because we are aware, that we have awareness, feeling, and sensation. It is not so difficult for us to consider that sensation, maybe even awareness, is a body experience. When we think about it, it appears that all feelings may be bodily experiences. The Principles Course begins with an investigation of our bodies. Generally, we tend to be abstracted from a powerful body experience, and so also from our feeling and our sensations. As such, we don’t enter into possibilities such as feeling our hearing, feeling our seeing, feeling our tasting, feeling our smelling, or even feeling our feeling.

The whole feeling realm or dimension referred to as “energy” or “life force” is brought out in the Principles Course. We take on an exploration of the principles in which our “feeling” relationship to the body occurs. The body itself is an occurrence that is, for the most part, a feeling.

The feeling realm is not just emotion and sensation, although it includes emotion and sensation. We could say it is the possibility or principle in which emotion and sensation appear. Our entire relationship with the body occurs in the feeling realm; that’s how we move it, how we relate to it and, aside from looking at it, the only way we know it’s there. Our sensory, feeling experience is the experience of the life force, which is simply the force of being alive. Since we are investigating the event of Being at Cheng Hsin, the event of being a body and the feeling relationship to the body is a fundamental part of our experience and so requires our attention.

The Principles
The human body has a specific design that functions most powerfully and effortlessly through principles that are studied in this course. We discover that there is a lot we ignore in our bodies; by acknowledging that we ignore things, we immediately become more open to possibilities outside of our habits. Through experiential exercises we have an opportunity to take a look at the assumptions we have about movement and about our bodies. If we are able to create for ourselves the experiences that are suggested in the various exercises, then we are creating a grounded opening into questioning the nature of body-being.

It is difficult to talk about principles. On the one hand, we could simply say that the principles of an effective body-being are: being calm, centered, grounded, relaxed, and moving in a whole and total way. But the actual principles are essentially unspeakable. They are the governors of our experience, not the state of experience itself. So when we experience relaxation, we could say that our experience is occurring inside the principle of relaxation. Or we might say that we create the experience of relaxation out of the principle which allows for that state.

One way to speak of relaxing is “the letting go of the activity we call tension.” Tension is a constant “doing.” In relaxing we stop “doing” that. At first we get floppy and limp to give us an idea of how our bodies can be without tension. It is useful for us to go through this stage; however, relaxation is not a particular form or way of appearing. It is a way of being that does not require any extra “doing” on our part.

We need continuous questioning, such as: “What is the principle that gives rise to relaxation?” and “What is the principle that allows me to create relaxation?” and “Why relax at all?” so that we remain open to questioning the nature of the different principles.

Have you ever noticed that things fall down and that your feet are on the ground? Obvious, right? But have you ever really noticed this? What is going on? Gravity you say? What is gravity? We all “know” about gravity but for the most part we take it for granted. We don’t feel the pull of it, and we unconsciously fight the pull. Because we don’t feel it, we can’t consciously align to or blend with it and so can’t make full use of it in functional situations (like shifting under the ground and uprooting someone in T’ui Shou). In the Principles Course we notice distinctions like gravity and we do exercises to enhance alignment to principles such as grounding.

In physics we learn that any mass has a center of gravity and this center of gravity is the balance point for the mass. Our bodies are a mass and they have a center of gravity that is located in the middle of the body just below the navel. It is valuable to put our attention on this center and move from this place, because moving from our center automatically and efficiently moves our whole body.

True grace always has a wholistic quality-consider how graceful a master dancer is, or a T’ai Chi master. Their bodies always seem to be one fluid event where no piece moves on its own. There is more power in everything we do if our whole body is behind our actions. For this to be the case, we need to be aware of every part of our body.

Calm mind enables us to bring our whole being to an event or interaction so that we are only doing what we are doing. Calm can also be called presence. Calm mind means that we have the capacity to keep turning whatever arises into what we are doing rather than be distracted or removed from what we are doing. In this way we are always present with what is occurring.

Since we are working with our bodies, we must make a distinction between the body and what we think about the body. The power of transforming the body lies in the experience of the body, not in our thoughts, opinions, and beliefs. If we make a distinction between these two activities, we can progress towards mastery in any endeavor. Discovering principles of body-being and studying psycho-physical interactions must move beyond mere remembering (which is an abstract, conceptual event) and into the ability to be present with the entire process unfolding in each moment.

The Training
Really taking on the Principles Course changes many aspects of our body-being experience. It changes the way we move our bodies, the way we relate to the ground, the way we stand in our feet, how we turn, what we feel, and the way we feel and hold our awareness of objectified reality.

To make the considerations we take on in the Principles Course effective, we move beyond abstract conceptualization. For example, alignment with the principle of grounding appears in part as a heaviness below, which brings into our experience a giving “weight” or preference to what is below over what is above. All the exercises are like this. They all give us a conceptual image that points towards the possibility of a new experience, but only if we create them as real in our body-being. This, however, takes training.

Because of the experiential nature of the course, the results of the exercises do not disappear as soon as we leave. In addition, Peter facilitates us in actually taking charge of the investigation and throwing ourselves into it so that we have greater access to questioning our experience and investigating the event of body-being on our own. We are constantly encouraged to discover for ourselves the truth of the matter. We are not asked merely to believe what is offered — we are asked to try it out, to find out what is so. Through our participation in this course we begin to create for ourselves the communication of the nature of being a body.

The Principles Course is the most basic course and is appropriate for beginners, yet the material addressed greatly serves advanced students. This course is a must, and is the first step in mastering all of the Cheng Hsin body awareness and skills.