Posted by thistle on June 08, 2002 at 20:55:03:
In Reply to: reaquanting with enchantment posted by jonvon on June 08, 2002 at 15:25:04:
The eye to see the wonder or magic in life is a wonderful gift. A lot us are so quick to point out everything that is wrong, but who needs that? I can give you an itemized list of everything that is wrong. I need to learn to see what is good.
: this conversation reminds me of a quandry i was trying to think through some time ago while in a kung fu class back in boulder. we were learning how to pull chi up through the earth into our bodies. now this is an interesting thing. i remember reading about a particular martial artist. i don't remember now what book it was in, i read a bunch of them when we were going to that school. but anyway, i remember that the mother of this fellow would tell him as a child to go out into the grass and run around so you can get some chi. boy, i want to run around on some bunny trails, but i'm going to stay on point. ennnneeway, so there we were in class, standing on the ground with our feet planted a certain way, in a certain stance, concentrating on pulling up energy into our bodies from the ground, through our feet.
: later i was thinking about it. the school was in this strip mall. there was this ugly supermarket there, and a nasty little chinese place next door (that of course we ate at once in a while, they had decent moo shu pork) and a framing shop and around the corner a laundramat. etc. and there was a big parking lot there as well. so here we have this nasty old strip mall. the earth beneath us is covered in layers of concrete and who knows what else. we were standing on top of a carpet that had a pad beneath it as well. we were probably 6 inches to a foot at least from any sort of real earth. and the earth that was there was buried under the crushing weight of the strip mall, buried in darkness and pressed down flat. i used to feel sorry for that earth under there. i sort of know why, but then again i sort of don't.
: well anyway, i remember feeling that energy coming up and into me. and we'd move it around while doing tai chi exercises. we'd make energy balls and whatnot. i remember our instructor saying that you kind of had to imagine it, that it was partially something you access through a kind of faith. not really too different from other kinds of spiritual things that people do from time to time.
: so why did this work? why were we able to feel it? why, when the energy we were pulling was supposed to be coming from the earth? i'm sure the martial artists all want to raise their hands and say stuff. yeah, you can pull it from the air. you might simply become aware of your own energy. you can generate it via breathing techniques, etc. but there was something to the earth thing too.
: but sometimes i wished we were doing some of that stuff in the grass, down in the park across the street. i thought about the little boy running around outside (instead of in the house) getting some chi. i thought, why are we doing this inside this awful place? why would it work in here?
: i suppose in the end it didn't matter that much where we were standing, we could have been on the top floor of a 30 story building and we could have still done it. energy is everywhere. magic is everywhere. maybe that is the point. even in these unhealthy structures we have built, the carpets we stand on that contain all the hazardous chemicals and so forth, locked up in even these unnatural products of the industrial age we are still able to experience the joy that is locked up in all things. there is wonder everywhere. there is energy locked inside of everything. in skyscrapers, in parking lots, in underground tunnels, everywhere.
: ...bill, i really like what you have to say along these lines. very cool.
: : You are hitting the nail on the head w your observations. The idyllic, mythological world is a far cry more noble looking than the world we have here and now, the world with oil spills, with litter, with nudie bars on every corner, etc. This is not the same. No, the vast expanses have been carved and served to the multitudes of uncaring, unknowing people who have forgotten how to walk on mother earth with each step being a prayer of gratitude, etc. But still, here is the world into which the Light enters and mysteriously communes. Here is the dwelling place of Emmanuel. The only way we can see it transformed is by committing to it on some level. It might be the very death of us. I still don't know how it all will work out. But your viewpoint is terribly important to those who for whatever reason have been lulled to sleep. You are more like John the Baptist or Elijah. You are the one pointing one finger at Heaven and one at Earth. Seeing that they don't match up you express that reality in a very strong way. Then there are others, whose strengths can blend w yours who see it redemptively. They see incredible hope where it seems that all hope has already vanished. I remember once driving by USF and suddenly it was like a veil was lifted and I could see a huge vast wilderness, and althought my eyes were convincing me that there was nothing there but concrete and glass, I knew that on some level of reality there was a huge wildness sitting right on the same spot. It was almost like the feeling I would imagine upon seeing a leprechaun. Infact, I do believe in leprechauns and faeries somehow. I think that we need to retrain our eyes and hearts to see nature and myth all around us. It might take time to reenchant the world, or to simply reacquaint ourselves w its ongoing enchantment. I think the main thing is to allow ourselves that time. Also, I think the more we encourage that type of reflection and then encourage community action based on that, we will see changes.