Clouds Move in Silence

Body The body is not only a collection of bones, muscles, organs etc, but much more than that, it is also a set of functional ideas. In the body we have a coherent system held together functionally and supported, through an unimaginably complex system of forces, that move and act directionally in opposition to one another (opposing forces); all of this is the crystallisation of a vast set of functional ideas. We may have a tendency to view the everyday gross physical field as the ground of all of our choices & motives, but we could also consider all of these to be emanations from or crystallisations of an abstract or ethereal field.

The Interzone

There is a space where intention meets action, where intention to move meets movement, an intermediate zone of pure potential; this is the interzone. We can fine tune our awareness of the interzone and abide in it; there is power and energy in this infinitely subtle space, where doing meets non-doing.

Once we have learned to sense this space, we can then amplify our connection to the interzone, by using nothing but pure intent to generate a subtle wave that moves throughout that internal space, all without any discernible physical effort, and then following that wave to see what it becomes and what we become.

Approaching Stillness

Why consciously explore movement? One of many reasons could be that It can move us towards stillness, since stillness can be approached effectively through movement. What is stillness? As movement becomes smaller and slower it approaches stillness, but can an ultimate point in stillness ever be theoretically reached? It could be more productive to think of it as an idea, which although perhaps lacking any ultimate substantiality, if pursued, can lead to profound discoveries about the nature of self; we may even find something there that is deeply impersonal, or even other.

Letting Go into Tension

To consciously experience the interplay of tension and release with complete devotion and surrender, leads to a deep kind of listening, and takes us to our centre.

Support & Opposing Forces

Sensing into our opposing internal forces brings profound balance and support. No knowledge of anatomy or of any esoteric systems are needed, just the willingness and patience to focus, sense and listen deep inside of ourselves.

Push Down to Move Up

Where does movement begin? Does it begin with intent?

Another way of looking at it is that it all starts on the ground; gravity in combination with our relationship to the ground forms the medium through which all impetus finds form. We push down to move up and feel the force of the ground move through us, and this force, which originates mysteriously in the ground, is the raw material of action; it moves us and we shape that movement with our intent, so movement arises out of our connection with the ground, and is shaped by intent.

When we practise connecting with this idea in our movement, we learn to know ourselves less as an end, and more in terms of connection and relationship.

Convergence

Purity of Purpose There is purity of purpose in the body; chemical and kinetic chains do not deliberate.

Stillness of Tree & Beating of Heart How can we express intelligence in its purest form? It is everywhere always. Its expression is a listening and an allowing, not a thinking or a doing. There is infinitely more intelligence contained in the stillness of a tree or in the beating of a heart than there is contained in the most sophisticated critique, and it can always be recognised as purity of purpose.

Watching a Bird Maneuver in the Wind Have you ever spent time watching a bird maneuver in the wind? It is pure intelligence & it is beauty. When we spend time watching one or more birds in this way, through a kind of sympathetic resonance in our body, we understand & tune into the very same intelligence & beauty that is present in us.

Waves Dance Just as when we watch one or more birds meandering in the wind, there is a sympathetic resonance when watching ocean waves; if done with the right attitude, we can sense the bidirectional nature of their trajectories, not so much as an intellectual fact, but in our body as a felt knowing. Their movement and interactions seem full of contradiction, as opposing forces work together in a joyful intelligent dance. By taking the time to understand this in our body on a felt level, it can inform and educate how we move and we can learn to reconcile and even appreciate the contradictions at every level of our being.

I am the one that has no form;

for as far as your eyes can see, that is me.

You have noticed me briefly from time to time, but usually dismissed me as a trick of the mind.

You sensed me in the noisy murmur of your childhood school assembly hall, before the bell rang to usher in whispery silence.

Then many years on, we met again through hours of manic dancing, and amplified, I shifted something deep inside; you paid attention this time, but lost your way among a multitude of distractions, never forgetting, but always needing to be somewhere else.

In middle age, you glimpsed me in the shadowy outline of a tree at dusk, a mysterious familiarity so fleeting, that you hardly noticed and just moved on.

In old age I seemed closer somehow, though elusive yet, like a vague shadow in peripheral view, where every time you turned your head to see, I was rendered invisible again.

I am here right now, as sure as you;

I am the one that has no form.

Where is Here, & When is Now? - an audiovisual piece by Clouds Move in Silence