The Beauty & Spaciousness of the Sky

Copyright 2011 by Dennis Lewis

Out of Touch with the Earth, with Never a Glance Toward the Sky

So many of us today live unconscious, fragmentary, disharmonious lives driven by fear, guilt, anger, anxiety, and tension. “Out of touch with the earth, with never a glance toward the sky,”* we rush away from the past and into the future in pursuit of progress and “a better life” with little appreciation of the miraculous gift of now, the only time and place we can truly live.

This anxiety-filled rush into the future, fueled as it is by our belief in our habitual thoughts, concepts, judgments, and reactive emotions, creates a myriad of so-called problems that we think we can solve with the very same mind that created them in the first place. And as we search for solutions, spiritual or otherwise, our lives become increasingly narrow and constricted–unable to manifest the mystery and miracle of our innermost being, unable to manifest the intelligence, kindness, love, and compassion that lie at the heart of the breath of life being breathed into us at every moment.

Going Beyond the Boundaries of the Conditioned Mind

My work and the work of The Center for Harmonious Awakening is to help us see and go beyond the boundaries of the conditioned mind–the habitual constellation of thoughts, emotions, sensations, beliefs, and judgments that each of us calls “myself”–and to help open us to the vast breadth of the life force as it manifests through us at this very moment. My work is to help us explore and awaken, in a harmonious way, to who and what we really are in our essence, to the freedom of real presence and consciousness–the freedom to see and say “yes” to the miracle of what is.

Whatever noble aims we may have, paths we may be on, or necessary efforts we may make, our only real freedom is to awaken now, this very instant, to the mystery and miracle of being, to the spacious awareness that we are. It is only this immediate awakening to the deepest levels of ourselves, to the conscious source that connects us all, that will enable us to experience and manifest real harmony, intelligence, kindness, love, and compassion in our lives and bring about the transformation in the world that we all wish for.

*From Kenneth Patchen

Copyright 2011 by Dennis Lewis. From the introduction to my website.

Our New Desert Home & Center

We have just purchased a wonderful desert home, located not too far from Dynamite Blvd and 136th St, that will also function as The Center for Harmonious Awakening. Though our address is a Scottsdale address, we are not in Scottsdale or any other city. The house is on about 2.5 acres and has its own well for water.

The Center for Harmonious Awakening
My aim–and the aim of The Center for Harmonious Awakening–is to help us see and go beyond the boundaries of the conditioned mind–the habitual constellation of thoughts, emotions, sensations, beliefs, and judgments that each of us calls “myself”–and to help open us to the vast breadth of the life force as it manifests through us at this very moment. The work we do at the Center is to help us awaken, in a harmonious way, to who and what we really are in our essence, to the freedom of real presence and consciousness–the freedom to see and say “yes” to the miracle of what is.

Whatever noble aims we may have, paths we may be on, or necessary efforts we may make, our only real freedom is to awaken now, this very instant, to the mystery and miracle of being, to the spacious awareness that we are. It is only this immediate awakening to the deepest levels of ourselves, to the conscious source that connects us all, that will enable us to experience and manifest real harmony, intelligence, kindness, love, and compassion in our lives and bring about the transformation in the world that we all wish for.

View from One of Our Decks

To help accomplish this, I plan to offer frequent day-long “intensives” at the Center, including satsangs, self-inquiry, meditation, special postures and movements, and work with self-sensing and breathing.

Humming Breath Qigong
I will also be regularly teaching my recently developed qigong form called Humming Breath Qigong, which I formally unveiled to qigong teachers and students at the National Qigong Conference at the Asilomar Conference Center in June, 2009.

Here’s something I wrote about the workshop elsewhere on this blog:

“At the workshop, I presented a very simple yet powerful qigong form that I had created and practiced over many months called ‘Humming Breath Qigong.’ … Having taught and taken workshops at many NQA conferences in the past, and having experienced the fact that many teachers give their students far more than they can learn and thus end up creating unnecessary tension and frustration, I felt that this new form would be perfect for the three hours we had together. And it was. Everyone loved the form and learned the postures and movements very quickly (the inner dimensions of the form can take many weeks or months to understand and appreciate). One of the participants, who teaches qigong, has since sent me a verbal description of the movements, along with drawings, which I am in the process of editing and will eventually make available to anyone who takes the class. She also asked for my permission to teach the form and disseminate the notes to her students. All in all, this was one of the best classes I have ever taught, especially so because all the students were serious, attentive, and open to having fun as we worked together. It was also a huge help that they had all worked in one way or another with body awareness.”

Desert Center Swimming Pool

And here are a few responses from people who attended the workshop (evaluations were requested from participants by the National Qigong Association):

–”Very beautiful and effective.”
–”Very knowledgeable – especially of what was happening physically and energetically.”
–”Was clearly able to share information from his extensive background with breathing.”
–”Good explanations and good use of examples and stories to illustrate the teachings.”
–”He took one practice and built on it so that we gained a depth of experience.”
–”Fabulous class!”
–”A thoughtful and methodical approach that made the material accessable and easy to learn.”
–”A lovely experience.”
–”What a surprise! Loved this qigong and will definitely take this home to practice.”
–”Very helpful in fundamental ways that will certainly enhance my life from here on out.”

I’ve also taught (and continue to teach) Humming Breath Qigong to those students who attend my Sunday and Wednesday meetings at my home in South Scottsdale.

Day-Long and Weekend Intensives
In addition to frequent day-long intensives at The Center for Harmonious Awakening, we will also offer weekend intensives. Though we will have only very limited private accommodations at the Center, there will be plenty of sleeping bag space available for weekend acitivities. There are also many motels, hotels, and resorts in North Scottsdale, only 20 minutes or so from us. On occasion, we will invite other teachers to take part in our activities at the Center.

A View from the Center

Since we have just purchased the property, it will likely take us a couple of months to get fully organized. if you would like to be on our email list so that we can notify you of upcoming activities, please click here to fill out our email form or click on the “Contact” link (on the top of the page). Be sure to include your name and email address. Of course, we will also announce all events on this blog and on our website for The Center for Harmonious Awakening, which I am still developing. Thank you!

Dennis at Esalen in 2009

“It’s as though you go out one day from your apartment to a drugstore to buy some toothpaste,” my teacher replied. “Of course, you know that your real motivation for going out is that you wish to meet the woman of your dreams, and you have the feeling that you might meet her today. Keeping your eyes open for the woman of your dreams, you head over to the toothpaste display and become engrossed in deciding which of the many brands you should buy—checking prices and so on, and deciding which one would be the best for your teeth. In the meantime, God has sent the woman of your dreams into the store and she is standing near the cash register at that very moment. But you are so engrossed in deciding which toothpaste to buy that you don’t even look up. By the time you’ve decided on which brand to buy, she’s left the store and you never even noticed.”

It is clear to me today how much of my life takes place like this–in narrow, unconscious identification with the contents of my awareness, however seemingly consequential or inconsequential they might be. And, yet, that too is part of waking up to what actually is. For in those moments of seeing this process of identification in action, I experience a new appreciation for the statement that “the truth shall set us free.” And this enables me to relax into the immense freedom of the unknown, where the direct experience of I Am is more real than the thought of I am this or that.

Copyright 2008-2010 by Dennis Lewis. Taken from “In-Sights” on my website The Center for Harmonious Awakening.

The Tao of Natural Breathing, by Dennis Lewis

Our Inability to Exhale Fully

According to Magda Proskauer, a psychiatrist and pioneer in breath therapy, one of the main obstacles “to discovering one’s genuine breathing pattern” is the inability that many of us have to exhale fully. Whereas inhalation requires a certain amount of tension, exhalation requires letting go of this tension.  Full inhalation without full exhalation is impossible. It is important, therefore, to see what stands in the way of full exhalation. For many of us, what stands in the way is often what is no longer necessary in our lives.  Proskauer points out that “Our incapacity to exhale naturally seems to parallel the psychological condition in which we are often filled with old concepts and long-since-consumed ideas, which, just like the air in our lungs, are stale and no longer of any use.”*  She makes it clear that in order to exhale fully we need to learn how to let go “of our burdens, of our cross which we carry on our shoulders.” By letting go of this unnecessary weight, we allow our shoulders and ribs to relax, to sink downward into their natural position instead of tensing upward.  Full exhalation follows quite naturally.

Our Inability to Inhale Fully

Those of us who are unable to exhale fully in the normal circumstances of our lives are obviously unable to inhale fully as well. In full inhalation, which originates in the lower breathing space and moves gradually upward through the other spaces, one’s abdomen, lower back, and rib cage must all expand. This, as we have seen in earlier chapters, helps the diaphragm, which is attached all around the bottom of the rib cage and anchored to the spine in the lumbar area, to achieve its full range of movement downward. For this to happen, the muscles and organs involved in breathing must be in a state of dynamic harmony, free from unnecessary tension. But this expansion is not just a physical phenomenon, it is also a psychological one. It depends on both the wish and the ability to engage fully with our lives, to take in new impressions of ourselves and the world.

Freedom To Embrace the Unknown

Full exhalation and inhalation are thus most possible when we are free enough to let go of the known and embrace the unknown. In full exhalation we empty ourselves—not just of carbon dioxide, but also of old tensions, concepts, and feelings. In full inhalation, we renew ourselves—not just with new oxygen, but also with new impressions of everything in and around us. Both movements of our breath depend on the “unoccupied, empty space” that lies at the center of our being. It is the sensation of this inner space (and silence)—which we can sometimes experience in the natural pause between exhalation and inhalation— that is our path into the unknown. It is the sensation of this space that can enliven us and make us whole.

Breathe Into Being: Awakening to Who You Really Are

When you check in on your breathing innocently, without any motive or effort to change it, you free yourself, at least momentarily, from your self-image, from those thoughts and reactive emotions that create so many of the problems in your life. As you check in on your breathing again and again you will begin to reside more often in the miraculous freedom of presence, the freedom underlying all the so-called problems and complexities of what you take to be yourself and your life.

Try it now while reading and pondering these words. Check in on your breathing. Simply sense what happens in your body as the breath of life moves through it. As you do so you may notice the arising of impatience and anticipation. Thoughts and emotions may arise saying you need or want to do something differently, see what will be said next, take care of some important issues, and so on. Invariably, no matter what words you use to describe them, these thoughts and emotions will generally be about changing what you are feeling right now, escaping discomfort or boredom, or doing something you believe will improve your life. You may also notice that you don’t always have to believe in your thoughts and emotions; indeed, being present to them frees you from any need to react at all.

Copyright 2009 by Dennis Lewis. Excerpt from Breathe Into Being: Awakening to Who You Really Are (pp. 19-20)

Dennis, Wide Awake, Watching TV

To those who still warn us about the evils of TV, I can only say that TV is not the enemy! Ah, yes, I am well aware of what Marshal McLuhan wrote about TV, especially about how it alters the brain. I was a big proponent of his views for many years. Since then a lot of research has been done. A Manchester University study found, for example, that watching television exercised both sides of the brain, making information easier to understand. The researchers pointed out that the brain assimilates information best through sound and vision, which is why TV has such a powerful influence. Other studies have shown when it comes to young children excessive TV viewing undermines the basic principles of how young children learn—through sensory involvement.

No, TV is not the enemy. The enemy is our own stupidity and laziness in using the TV as a means to pacify our children instead of getting them involved in actively using their bodies, minds, emotions and creative imagination. Passivity is the problem—not TV.

Some will tell us that that reading is better than watching TV. Well, might it not depend on what we read and what we watch? But the issue is deeper than that, of course. Reading abstract words (not ideograms or pictures) from left to right in our books conditions the brain to a certain way of thinking and perceiving. What’s more, think of all the garbage that is published and read today and that fills our minds and the minds of our kids. Think of the emphasis in our schools on memorizing what we read in order to pass tests and earn the respect of our educators. Learning how to read well certainly makes us more functional citizens of today’s world, yet few of our books really help us think, ponder, and explore. Interestingly, very few people complain about reading books, except those books that upset their so-called moral values. Very few people criticize those who sit for long hours on their butts reading, without any real sensory involvement. Don’t get me wrong; I’ve always loved books, especially those that challenge me, that make me think and look and listen and sense in new ways. But to offhandedly say, as many people do, that reading is better than watching TV skirts the real issues involved.

When I was a young boy there were few TVs around, and we didn’t get one till I was about eight or nine. I often listened to radio shows while I did whatever else I did. The shows were based on the various comic book characters, such as Superman, and one could write in (and send 35 cents or whatever it was) to a post office box to get secret decoder rings (to get an idea of what would happen on the show next week) that also had a secret compartment, a magnifying glass, and a tiny pen. For a kid, this was amazing stuff. It excited my imagination. And, of course, the ads (designed for kids) that went with the radio shows were very seductive.

I can remember when we got our first TV how our family and friends circled around it watching news and a football game. There weren’t many viewing choices in those days. And I can remember later on how my mother and I watched TV together at night before bed, occasionally making comments, until my mother fell asleep. It was always a funny moment when I would wake up my mom and tell her that she had fallen asleep, to which she invariably said: “No, I was watching.” A very touching moment for both of us, a moment that brought us closer by virtue of what we both knew to be true.

What should we do with our so-called free time, with or without others? Should we always be productive? Is there room for imagination and dreaming, as well as inner and outer work on ourselves? Are we whole human beings overflowing with the sometimes messy flow of the life force, or do we envision ourselves as though we were a literary (left to right) character in a book on the well-trodden path to some goal in the future? Our conditioning is so deep and unconscious that we don’t even realize how much reading from one word to the next, one sentence to the next (especially the kinds of sentences that are short and predigested for easy consumption) one page to the next, and so on shapes the way we look at ourselves and the world. And, for those who read a lot of fiction, it is perhaps even more pernicious, since so much of it is based on what is going to happen in the end. When you read great writers like Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, however, you are plunged into a multi-sensorial world in which linear time ceases to be as important as what is happening right now. One can have these experiences with Henry Miller and other great writers as well. Each of the pages of such writers are filled to overflowing with the mystery–the big questions–of life itself.

I raise these questions and issues because I believe that the dilema that many of us face is a lack of real meaning in our lives, and the resulting unconscious tendency toward identification with and addiction to whatever we do or experience, not just to alcohol, drugs, sex, TV, books, radio, and so on. In his book America Anonymous, my son, Benoit Denizet-Lewis, writes that “as we obsessively search for new and innovative ways to escape the reality of the present moment and make ourselves feel ‘better,’ we’ve created a schizophrenic culture where nothing is ever enough, where stillness is equated with boredom, and where we need increasingly intense experiences just to feel alive.”

We attempt to escape the present moment in many ways. That needs to be fully seen and felt, no matter what form it takes. At the same time, though, we have to remember that there is always something going on now, and it is our relationship to now (whether it includes TV, sex, radio, discussions, having a drink, thinking, dreaming, bitching, laughing, meditating, traveling to exotic places, posting on Facebook, and so on) that determines whether or not we become identified with it or addicted to it. One could accurately say that each of us is addicted to our self-image, and the habitual thoughts, beliefs, and emotions that support it, yet that is taken as somehow being normal, even though this addiction probably ruins as many relationships and lives as alcoholism, drugs, and the other text-book addictions, although in more subtle ways.

This question is enormous. And G. I. Gurdjieff was obviously correct when he says that one cannot change one thing in oneself without knowing the whole “machine.” Throwing out TVs (as some of my friends did back in the 60s and 70s) or telling kids they cannot watch TV will not help with identification and addiction. There is always something else to become identified with or addicted to. Get rid of one and another one pops up. That is a law of unconscious living. We have to see, feel, and sense this law in action if we are to discover real freedom.

Copyright 2009 by Dennis Lewis

The Tower of Babel by Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1563)

To be sure, some of us take great pride in calling our unnecessary tension “intensity,” which the Webster dictionary defines as an “extreme degree of strength, energy, or feeling,” but I know from my own life that real strength and feeling do not require unnecessary tension. Quite the contrary, they require dynamic relaxation–a harmonious interplay of our own inner energies, of yin and yang, of relaxation and tension, of exhalation and inhalation.

As I said in my audio program Natural Breathing: “There are many obvious reasons for learning how to relax unnecessary tension, but one that is often overlooked is that such relaxation frees the brain to notice and respond to a broader, more-subtle spectrum of data and impressions, of what is actually happening at any moment. It is this increase in ‘perceptual freedom’ that can be one of our major contributions to promoting vitality and good health in ourselves. Perceptual freedom allows the brain and other systems of the body to make maximum use of their powers in discerning problems and responding appropriately. The hormones, enzymes, endorphins, T-cells, and neuropeptides being produced by the brain and body change dramatically in relation to our ability to perceive in new ways. To be able to perceive in new ways means that our energies are not locked into old patterns, but are free to respond to the actual needs and possibilities of the moment.

Anyone who has studied martial arts, tai chi, dance, and so on knows that the body is capable of remarkable intelligence, sensitivity, and action when we are able to rid ourselves of unnecessary tension. It is the ability to be inwardly sensitive in the midst of action, to be relaxed and free enough to experience subtle variations in our sensations and feelings, which lies at the heart of our health and well-being.”

And further, in my essay Relaxation & Letting Go, I wrote: “The great spiritual traditions … teach that relaxation–including the special, inner action called ‘letting go’–lies at the heart of inner work and awakening. The principle is a simple one, at least on the surface: unnecessary physical or nervous tension clouds our perceptive faculties. It cuts us off from the light of consciousness and from the direct inner and outer impressions of reality it can bring. Deep, conscious relaxation is what can ‘open’ us in a harmonious way–body, mind, and feelings–to new levels and frequencies of perception. It can help us reclaim the miraculous sense of aliveness and awakeness that is our birthright.”

In the same essay, I explored the need for relaxation and “letting go” not just in the body but also in the mind and heart. The excess tension in our body often simply reflects (and supports) the deep mental and emotional conflicts that we experience. And these conflicts are often the result of our inability to “let go” of the thoughts, beliefs, assumptions and expectations that no longer serve us.

No one, for example, really knows exactly what is going to happen to our economy over the coming years–with or without Obama’s recovery legislation. Yet we live and speak and act as if we knew–and this belief that we know makes any real exchange with others mostly impossible. The fact is, we seldom listen impartially, with a genuine interest in learning, either to ourselves or others (which I discuss further in my essay The Lost Art of Listening).

If you look and listen honestly within right now you will quickly see at least one thing–perhaps an idea or assumption or expectation or belief or frown or tension–that no longer serves you, one thing that captures your attention, dulls your perception, and buffers you from the unknown. Can you let it go? Can you drop it right now? And if not now, when?

See also The Breath of Life.

Copyright 2009 by Dennis Lewis

When I returned from my walk, I looked up one of my favorite Einstein quotes, which reminds us that “A human being is a part of the whole, called by us, ‘Universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest–a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.”

As I have pondered this passage over the years, I’ve realized that the practice of compassion begins at home, in our own hearts and minds and bodies. Before we can truly widen our circle of compassion to sincerely embrace others with our full presence, we need to widen the circle to embrace the whole of ourselves, to see and include all those aspects of ourselves that we have difficulty with, or don’t like, or even despise, along with the consciousness that makes everything possible.

When we are able to find this new, more-conscious way of embracing ourselves, when we wake up and realize that life itself is a miracle and a mystery, compassion toward others is a natural result. Fully present to the miracle of ourselves, how could we not feel great compassion toward “all living creatures” in the face of this beautiful mystery that we call life?

Copyright 2009 by Dennis Lewis