Note: you might like to have a pair of tights, stockings, or a long piece of fabric like a scarf or a towel rolled up to place around the foot… IF… you are prone to cramps or have issues connecting your foot to your leg. Simply do the lesson with your foot in the piece of fabric and hold it with your hand, this way could reduce any potential stress or reluctance to participate. Make it enjoyable so that you can learn!!
“In all Buddhist techniques, in particular in Mayana Buddhism —what deals with the small circle that is different from the other... in all of these — also in Zen, in Judo —this point under the navel is called in Japanese by all the peoples of the East, the Tanden (Dan Tian). It is one of the foundations of every faith, also in sitting, in Za-zen, in Eastern or Japanese sitting. It’s an important area in Tando, which means fencing with both hands, as it is in all arts that demand skill, ones that require exact, refined strength and distinctions, this point is the foundation of the faith.”
A nugget of gold from Moshe Feldenkrais in this lesson.
Ahhhh, the timing!
This week at the Secret Study Group somebody brought in a lesson from a workshop she had done, it was this one!
I found my Dan Tian which… completely changed how I walk, feeling like my pelvis has two hands gently holding a huge bowl of air expanding and contracting as I breathe. My “big” hips have come to life which has (again) completely changed my relationship to this area. My legs (still) feel longer, their connection in to the torso much deeper and rounded. Really wonderful.
There was also a section where it felt like I was pregnant, carrying the head of a fetus in my pelvis… which was a bit mind blowing considering I’ve never had children… then there was a point I was touching my head thinking of the pelvis moving around my head as the fetus which was quite mind blowing.
Having that background might have, I think very probably, shaped this lesson tonight, as you might hear:
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