On Struggle and Suffering

It’s an error in translation to interpret the feeling of failure as a sign of actual failure. The learning process by definition is characterized by this feeling. This is something Ido seemed to suggest in the recent interview with Vika, that WE DO NOT GET RID OF SUFFERING.

Even as we say that, behind our words, there is this optimistic hope that saying this enough times will make the process easy, “by accepting this truth, the suffering will be gone, and everything will be made easy”. It’s a hidden expectation in so many of our actions.…

As if strength work ever feels like anything but what strength work feels like… which is like weakness! Lifting a thing you can only barely lift. The arbitrary numbers indicating the weight might change, but the raw feeling NEVER changes.

Only your relationship to it does; and how can the relationship to a feeling change, if the feeling itself doesn’t? WE have to change.

Maybe you’re fine with strength work - it already feels good to you. But how do you feel when you’re asked to listen to an interview between a spiritual philosopher and a theoretical physicist? You start tuning out…

IT’S THE SAME STRUGGLE.

We need to be less busy wanting our work to feel easy, and more busy finding the right challenges for us. Not a “close your eyes till flames pass through me” kind of thing, but what is the challenge that will demand from me effort, but not crush me beneath?

Workout: Touching The Floor And Low Bridging

Here are some tasks we’re using lately in the classes. Below is a workout you can follow.

1. Exploratory Quadrupedal Drills

This is a more open-ended task for warming up the wrists. It targets different angles, avoiding the trap of overly repetitive warmup tasks.

Variation 1: Hands fixed on the floor

Start in a pushup position. You will keep the hands fixed in place. Shifting the weight out of a foot, send it somewhere, being attentive to the tension around the arms. Then take another step with the feet

Variation 2: Changing hand orientation

In this one, you can occasionally change the hand orientation (where the fingers point), but not the position - they always stay in the same spot. It will allow you to explore new areas.

Variation 3: Changing hand position

Finally, we allow the hands to step around as well. But we avoid lifting them when the feet are lifted, and we pay special attention to the weight shifting quality.

Some things to consider when working with these 3 variations

• Let the ranges open up; don’t force them open. Some days more, some days less

• mind the quality of the feet - notice how Aylin is stepping here. Not rushing.

• Look for the incoherent positions.

• Take long steps

2. Low Bridge Variations

basic hold - where all beginners should, well… begin. Make sure the heels come up, and to keep the butt supported, not collapsing on the heels

one arm shifts - it requires creating a new connection across the body, to prevent collapsing. Build it up gradually, removing one finger at a time, and try to notice what the body requires to prevent the collapse.

fingertip - requires and develops the ability to shift the weight to the legs. Shift your knees forward to release weight from the fingers. Similarly make sure to gradually remove one finger at a time (and don't just add more pressure to the remaining fingers, but make sure it goes towards the feet).

briefly shifting weight out of hands - very useful for other transitions out of the bridge. We use this in the carnerinho, for example.

3. Putting them together: Sample Warm-up For Locomotion

Beginner

• A1. Exploratory warmup drill #1 - 2 minutes of work

• B1. Low bridge slide - 3 second hold x 6-10 reps

• C1. Exploratory warmup drill #2 - 2 minutes of work

• D1. Low bridge slide - 3 second hold x 6-10 reps

• E1. Exploratory warmup drill #3 - 2m of work

• F1. Low bridge slide - 3 second hold x 6-10 reps

Intermediate

• A1. Exploratory warmup drill #1 - 2 minutes of work

• B1. Low bridge slide on fingertips - 3 second hold x 6-10 reps

• C1. Exploratory warmup drill #2 - 2 minutes of work

• D1. Low bridge slide to 1 finger or no hand - 3 second hold x 6-10 reps x 2 rounds / 1m rest

• E1. Exploratory warmup drill #3 - 2m of work x 2 rounds / 1m rest

• F1. One arm low bridge hold - 15-30s per side x 2 rounds / 1m rest

The movement cloud and movement projects

We work with movement projects in our classes - you can see some recent ones here.

But… what do we even mean by a “project”?

Our practice is centered around developing movement. But can this even be done? Movement is inherently nebulous. So there is the need to work with ever-evolving material. But if we just work on things in a disorganized fashion, we cannot produce enough friction to generate the catalyzing heat of transformation.

This is where the usage of projects comes in. From this amorphous cloud that is “movement”, we impose a temporary order in the form of a project. We briefly condense the cloud into a fixed form, so that we can work with it. And in that process of working with it, we work on ourselves, and our own movement becomes transformed.

Once the project is concluded, WE have changed, and we can move on to the next project. Because that temporary project, that form, that condensation of the cloud is NOT the cloud - it is only an instantiated substantiation of it.

The cloud is neither the abstraction that it exists as in the formless state, nor the totality of its materializations across time. It is simultaneously both the platonic ideal AND the goethian multiplicity.

Movement is a Life Practice: Using Obstacles

So much in our lives pulls us away from practice.

So it’s important to keep revisiting how practice is changing us, appreciating how it makes us more connected with our body and emotions and intellect. I remind myself often how this starts to affect how I connect with other people, even affecting my ability to be a father.

Somewhere along the way, this practice moves from an idiosyncratic hobby to a true life practice.

For example, when the “formal” practice is blocked. A screaming baby, a broken AC unit in the gym, being stuck in traffic…

A lot of sessions will be missed. But should I go and make it worse by getting angry? Now I lost the session, but I also lost the opportunity to practice my patience! Two losses!

The frustration itself becomes grist for the mill, an opportunity to practice our patience.

And what is this, lip service to patience? Managing frustration and cultivating patience is a HUGE part of practice, especially when you’re engaged in a practice that fundamentally addresses your weaknesses.

Yes, dealing with weaknesses is frustrating at times. But the practice of patience allows you to see it, without identifying with it. This becomes a critical skill for when you are in the session.

If this practice is to be something really valuable, really transformational, then it can’t be only about the specific tasks, improving our strength, etc. It has to give us tools and opportunities to become more.

“We can only make things worse”

Any act of creation should involve a recognition - there is already an essence/nature pre-existing your intention. Your work is to take this essence which exists in some form, and cultivate it towards some direction. The true skill of the craftsman is in setting the intention, and not letting the intention destroy the process.

Someone who prepares coffee described this in the context of his craft: he can only make the coffee worse.

It’s not just him - every step of the way from cultivation of bean to preparation of cup, where an act of “creation”, of reforming the energy… the essence can only be degraded. Not improved upon. In fact, even HOW the coffee is drank, mindlessly or with intention, will destroy or sustain this essence. What you do with the energy the coffee gives you, etc…

So the craftsman can only worsen the creation. But without the craftsman, there is no creation at all. His presence/intention introduces an active force, which necessitates the response from the universe - resistance comes into being.

This gives a succinct definition of quality - creating without destroying the essence.

And this applies to the role of the teacher: recognizing that you cannot take people to an end-point, but only facilitate their own unfolding. A teacher can never improve another - they can only help clear certain things so the “natural” essence of the individual can blossom.

And these two, the intentional creation and the essence… they are best served by appreciating the other. Creation is always better executed in the context of understanding the essence of the energy; and the nature of a thing to grow will always be able to move further, will be given more room, when something external to it helps it.

And why is that? Because only something external to the object is knowledgeable of the outside conditions, in a way the object can never be. It can never be subject to itself. Hence, relationship becomes pivotal.