“Everybody has a plan ‘till they get punched in the face.” -Mike Tyson
 Sometimes, after too much reading, thinking, watching the internet, analysing, studiying and meditating, I find myself having more a vision ON reality than having a vision OF reality.
Luckyly, being a student of martial arts whole my life (when I was younger more the fighting aspect, now more the ‘what it means to deal with resistance on any level’ aspect) I have always had some kind of physical discipline. This for me is a great and easy way getting out of being stuck in one kind of space. Although the TSKÂ really encourages to not leave the body out of the inquiry and vision, it takes sometimes a little more effort to find how to do this.
 
One very short way to find unity of body and mind, physical and mental emotions, maybe even ‘a different way of knowing’ is the following. Try it out, it will take only a minute;
stand up, lift one leg from the ground, close your eyes. After some time , change legs.
For me, when I do this, the comment on ex 2 of DTS : “… (the exercise is) based on the premise that we can afford to let go of our dependence on thoughts; that a different way of knowing is available. Without some willingness to engage this possibility directly, the exercise will probably not prove fruitful.†(DTS 251), and even the whole exercise, makes more sense. Even the expression making sense makes more sense.
Hi Everyone,
Enjoying this exchange. Remco’s exercise reminds me of the ‘Going Without Going’ exercise Jack had us do at the TSK retreat after every lunch. Definitely reenergized the body after a meal. I had trouble balancing on one leg, no doubt because I was out of shape and not as steady on my feet as I once was. And when we returned to our seats to meditate the dominate quality was alertness, not torpor. So I could more easily open to deeper spaces, as it were.
Hayward, I loved your question/comment, because that seems to be what I intuit in my experience. Not the same self, not the same moment, not the same constellation of influences, references and presuppositions, although memory supplies some threads of continuity. I can sometimes feel the back and forth referrals structuring, as if behind the scenes, too fast for discursive thought to assess, too fast for a new ‘surface’ self-perspective. But the readings tell us the self-activities or aspects go deep, right down to the Witness. If so, it would seem each arising witnessed is a new self-structuring happening.
David
Morning Remco
What if it is not the self that changes position?
Perhaps every position contains a different self. It may not be that the self needs to “let go” in order to know another way. Perhaps another way contains another experience with or without a self that knows it that way.
Hayward
Very nice way of connecting body and mind. Being able to do it tell us that the energy is flowing throughout your body and the mental emotions and private thoughts are not ruling the experience.
I did this exercise before and would like to give a tip: try focusing in the belly just below the navel and relaxing it.
It looks like the exercise is the ladder that allows us to see higher spaces.