Presence communicates in all that we teach

There are many points raised in Colin's message. (Posted in a previous blog post here)
One that is close to my heart is that whatever we are teaching (or apparently communicating) at the level of form - we are also communicating our presence.

A clear, open and relaxed presence communicates effortlessly,  because it is not self-consciously inhibited by doubt or division. Nor is it seeking to validate or become something more or less than serves the shared purpose of the situation. Such congruency of being will serve towards a mastery of the subject involved, not as a perfection of some personal state of achievement, but as a fluency and an at-oneness with all dimensions present. For we are always growing in our capacity to discern and embody the qualities of Life. In fact a willingness to learn and to receive, is the basis of inspired teaching because it listens, connects with and learns from those it serves, rather than identifying itself as a personal status that presumes others are there to validate.

A conflicted mind gives conflicting messages and communicates an energetic in which even simple things seem difficult to communicate - and attempt to control a fear of conflict rather than listen or feel a way through to a unified act or response sets up a culture of establishing unspoken rules by which to operate. Following such rules is fundamentally a strategic and defensive gesture and unconsciously communicates a dissonance regardless of what the outer forms teach. This can easily become  an energetic where the 'teacher' is unconsciously making emotional demand for support of their students - so as to avoid upset. Which is very different from a clearly communicated trust - or even an overt request for support amidst a potential difficulty or indeed willingness to take a risk together!

The idea of support is often targeted at (and also taken advantage by) those who present a sense of lack. But a true presence of support reaches through such appearances and communicates a sense of faith and worth that inspire more from the student than they knew they had in them to bring forth. This is transformational.
But only by embracing such a transformational process in ourselves  - as students of Life - can we serve as the extension of such an opportunity, to others.

To open to glimpses of an egolessness of being is the stirring of the desire to abide in it without the interference by which we 'lose' the connection.  To honour this desire is to accept a calling in life.

But if we make our identity upon the apparent fragility of our connection to such joy, then we perpetuate an unconscious passivity to a mentality of division - and our experience reflects this back to us ... and we believe it.

Joy is full-feeling; a direct abiding in Soul. The experience of anything wholly felt is an experience of our being because its meaning is directly discerned and not filtered through a mind of interpretation. And abiding in wholeness of being transmutes the perception of loss into true presence - as we are willing to accept.

For me these things have always been in the dance because my life had been previously touched by the glimpse of egolessness in a way that I haven't been able to successfully ignore. Indeed the dance came to me as a way of integrating and aligning with such direct experience, that brought it out from any personal sense of specialness into the willingness to share and to serve. As a culture for uncovering and expressing an already present truth rather than as a means of getting or becoming something in our own right.

Trying to articulate these matters in terms of ideas can seem very complex, particularly if meeting a vocabulary one is not accustomed to. Yet the nature of the experiential realisation and practice is simple and easily shared. But I have found that it is not enough simply to share an energetic presence amidst a culture of expectation and demand that identifies with the forms of things without embracing the aliveness that communicates its meaning through all of it.

But nor do I feel for spirituality - (for want of a better word) to be lost to a self-serious problem solving mentality. The ego-sense is a problem solving mentality that will extend its employment indefinitely, because it perpetuates an imposition upon life that renders it problematic. The more you feed it, the more it needs to eat. There is no fulfilment in it beyond a passing show, lost even as it is gotten. When is seems to come up is when a noticing allows a pause from reaction that allows a more honest movement of our being to register a shared integrity in place of a perception of lack of integrity in ourself or others.

There is an innocence in sharing music and dance that extends an invitation to be moved and to know oneself more fully in the movement itself. It is wordless and intimate to the dancer's own willingness and trust - and in the context of the qualities of the whole group. And yet whenever we allow ourselves to be undefended to the movement of our being we automatically communicate that presence into our world, because the armour falls away that also obscured our perception.

I am not indifferent to the forms and styles and background contexts for they are part of a sense of honouring a conscious intent - not as authorities in themselves but as they serve the expression of a living culture; wherever two or more join in a willingness to share or receive in an extension of trust. For our true authority in life is in the gift of our true presence, without intervention or constraint of dogma, but as an honouring and in gratitude for a gift of welcome extended.

The withholding of our presence - and the witholding of the extension of trust in a genuine attention, begets a poverty of Spirit (of unified conscious purpose).  Into the lack of which every kind of mask and presentation asserts for its own private or group advantage and resists anything but heavily managed change by which to maintain and adapt itself unchanged.

I feel the dance serves as a way of reclaiming a living inheritance in which we are moved as one rather than just being one moving among many. Such is transformative, because we see each other and the world in a new light, but to be more than a glimpse that is quickly lost to self protective reaction, we have to grow a culture of abiding in such being and letting it become in us. Holding connected silence can serve this - but only as it serves a true willingness to be joined - and not if it becomes merely the required thing or an empty ritual. So often do the forms that once expressed life become the forms that inhibit its expression.

It is also so, that when forms of expression fade or are diluted, become devoid of truly shared passion or presence and then even pass from serving as a currency of respectability or conformity, that they can be reclaimed or redeemed in an energetic sense of expression felt and known as truly shared. Whenever there is a perfection experienced, there is a tendency to want to hold on to it - and this is the shift from presence to form. that introduces a separation into an indivisibility. Noticing this in our own mind is the opportunity to become weaned from an identification of thought that deprives by trying to get, because unless we can also let it go, we cannot let it in. Gratitude is neither loss nor isolation and a sense of our life as a gift is a context in which to discern through even the most difficult, to a rejoining of the dance. I would not pretend that we do not meet the difficult, but that in opening to our presence, we uncover a practical wisdom in which we find something moving us and through us that we had forgot or thought lost.

Thankyou for your attention - even if you just skipped to the end!

In Peace

Brian

A gift of renewal to the roots. (A message from Colin Harrison to the Dance network)

While thus far I have used this blog for my own writing I felt to put Colin's message here because I was very glad to receive it in the context of the Circle Dancing community.  I include Colin's introduction and publish it here with his permission. Colin Harrison was one of the founder movers in the early Sacred Circle Dance Network. His site is www.beingmoved.com
Brian

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Dear Dancers
Following a very moving couple of days dancing with you all at Back to our Roots, I intended to leave before the New Visions process began. But I found myself wide awake at 5:30 in the morning with a very strong sense that I might have something to offer to the gathering. So I got up and wrote, trying to express with clarity what was in my heart. I’d so loved being in the turning circle again; it was a fresh re-membering of why I’d been so passionate about it, and poured so much of my life force and creativity into it for a decade or more. Somehow this remembered love gave me a ground to stand on in offering a perspective on what seems important to me in your work as dance teachers. It’s a point of view looking freshly at the dance from a place outside the circle; yet informed both by my love of what you are offering here, and by all the explorations and the deep spiritual work I’ve done since those days.
So here is what I wrote, somewhat revised and re-considered since originally reading it to you that morning.
(...and although I’m not currently teaching the dances, I’ve included myself as one of ‘us’ because my days of teaching the dance feel so close to me right now!)
With much love and respect Colin

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Transmission of A Dance / Transmission of Being
Anyone who teaches will not only convey the subject they're teaching; with every word and gesture they'll also transmit the truth of their being and their consciousness. I’m not saying anything particularly mystical here; most of us have probably experienced this in some way – the English teacher who inspires us not only with her love of poetry, but her love of life, for example.
For us as Sacred / Circle Dance teachers this is particularly important precisely because the dances have touched us so deeply. They speak of the precious mystery of being alive, of love and community, of our connection to the earth and sky, and of the possibility to express every quality of human feeling through our dance. The question is how to convey all this when teaching.

In my view, there are two main aspects involved. Firstly we’re transmitting the form of the dance itself, and as we know, there’s a lot involved here – the steps, the feel, the subtleties, the energy, the cultural context in which the dance arose, the intention of the original dancers or choreographer, the meaning of the gestures, etc. It can be a lot, yet personally, I have no concern in this area.
The second aspect (and in my view the more important one) is the transmission of being through us as teachers – the way that we embody and convey qualities such as love, inspiration, respect, compassion, creativity and a sense of wonder. This may be effortless at times, and yet it can also be much more demanding for us personally. My sense is that this aspect may sometimes be under-valued in this network.
I also think that there may be ways in which the energetic and transformative qualities of these dances may be confused with the commitment needed to live that energy, or to actually be transformed. (...as an example, June’s dance where we make the gesture of removing a mask, and take the shape of being exposed. This dance may genuinely touch us, open the heart and even give an insight into the way we personally hide behind a mask at times. But it is not the same thing as daring to actually lower the mask in the world and expose ourselves as we are. This would require another big step, outside of the circle and away from the dance.)
In my view, as teachers, we need to keep being willing to take these extra steps.
(Please note that I’m not saying that anyone in particular is not already doing so – I have no way of knowing that. I just want to emphasise and value the importance of this willingness in the transmission of being.)
We transmit the mystery of life by being open to this mystery, touched by wonder, humbled by the ongoing realisation that we are but a passing wave in a vast ocean. And yet every movement, every action will ripple outwards through this ocean and we have no way of knowing where it will end.
We transmit love when we do actually love; which includes loving ourselves in all our different facets, both our strengths and our weaknesses. This deep self acceptance fills the heart from the inside until love overflows to all and everything. We can't give love if our own cup is empty.
We transmit a sense of community through the sense of welcome we convey in our teaching; by listening to those who are often excluded or marginalised, through speaking the truth, through living our values, through caring.
We transmit a love of the earth we dance upon, through our capacity and willingness to actually love and value them.

We express every quality of human feeling through our dance when we can let ourselves really experience every quality of feeling in ourselves.
We can't fake it at this level.
This isn’t intended to deter beginners or to put off those who are moved to share a few dances with friends. When I asked Bernard about qualifications to teach this dance, he replied that the call in the heart is the only real qualification needed. I agree! There’s often an innocence when someone dares to follow their heart that can carry them through all kinds of pitfalls and difficulties. To all who are touched and want to carry the dances onwards I would always say, ‘Trust yourself. Trust the movement of your aliveness and the inspiration that makes you want to take this step. But do keep growing, keep learning, keep being willing to let go of what you think you know, so that a fresher, deeper understanding can reveal itself.’
Because the innocence of the beginner will inevitably pass. On a good day we can wing it; we can be carried by grace and good fortune; everything can seem rosy. But when things aren’t going our way, when we meet the inevitable difficulties, when we’re confronted by our own limitations (as a teacher or as a person)... how do we cope then? This is when it’s vital to face into the difficulties, to ask the uncomfortable questions, to be willing to be humbled. Not to do so is to switch (in an instant) into the opposite of what we may be trying so passionately to create in offering these dances, for example:-
To the degree that we're afraid of our own feelings we will transmit fear rather than acceptance.
To the degree that we take the earth for granted, we will transmit casualness.
To the degree that we avoid the truth, or don't live our values, we will transmit a lie.
To the degree that we don't (or won't) listen to the other voices, particularly of the ones outside the circle of love, we will transmit the imperviousness of the privileged.
To the degree that we don't truly love - ourselves, others, life itself - we will transmit the hardness of a closed heart.
In order to keep growing in an ongoing way, one piece at a time our own shadow will need to be met and embraced; self-importance, competitiveness, narcissism, self-righteousness, hostility, hard-heartedness.... To the degree that we avoid knowing these aspects of ourselves, that we continue not to own them or avoid feeling the impact on others when we act (consciously or unconsciously) from these aspects.... we will transmit our own shadow.

We can't fake it.
Please don't mistake a simple love of the dance with a true willingness to keep growing as a human being. Please let’s not delude ourselves that because the dances have temporarily transported us beyond the confines of our little egos, this means we're now beyond ego. No, the ego will keep doing what it does - ie attempting to annex the divine for its own small purpose; to ring-fence infinity and say ‘Mine!’
This offering comes from my heart. My hope is that it is both inspiring and sobering. This way of dancing has been, for me and for many of us, a true initiation. It opens a doorway into what is possible. But please, let’s not stop at the doorway. Let’s not get complacent or kid ourselves that being touched by the energy of the circle, or the deep symbolism in the moment we do a dance is the same thing as finding the courage and commitment to live what we have tasted.
It is possible to live what we deeply know to be true. Please don't settle for less.