The art and practice of freedom--as Participation.
> See Feedom in Wikipedia site 
or the frame at the end of this page.
What does participation mean? What does Ideal Participation mean? Moving with. Moving together. Aikido‘s “blending”. Things happen, we move with them, blend with them, allow them to run their course, not following, not forcing—rather sensing, revealing, participating. Not pretending. Not controlling.
What does freedom mean?
Moshe Feldenkrais, Aikido, Ti Chi, Judo all have something in common—all embody the Art of Freedom. In their art, the body and the mind are free to move in any direction at all times. They are never “committed”, meaning overcommitted, nor unbalanced. In these arts, over commitment is unhelpful. However, commitment may be essential. But we must learn how to be committed without getting ahead of ourselves, without tipping our bodies or our minds. This form of balancing-commitment is a skill that can be learned. It seems that our bodies and our minds are in fact only one entity. Only when they are deeply understood, felt, to be integrated—in this embodied-mind form of freedom-to-move-with-circumstances—can we be one with the world beyond our skin. If we live in the illusion of body mind separation, then we will inevitably be unbalanced in the world. And in our minds. And in our bodily movements.
Awkward.
My suspicion is that we can and must experiment the with 1) freedom and awareness in our movements and 2) freedom and awareness in our thoughts and intentions. We can become very sensitive to “both” until the illusion of separateness becomes humorous and holds no power.
The sensation of being even slightly off balance, off center, must become the sensation to be aware of. In doing that one ultimately becomes aware of every muscle and every thought.
Rather than focusing on imbalance or tension, perhaps the sensation of being in balance can become a sensation to be aware of. To be attracted to.
We will then be able to stop pushing ourselves—our bodies, our minds—around, as we learn the sensation of balance and adore it. Can one learn the sensations by slowing down. Sitting. Standing. Breathing. Practicing Moshe Feldenkrais' Awareness Through Movement. Meditating. Doing Barbara Fredrickson’s positivity practices qualify as Freedom Practices. Fight-flight-freeze may not be compatible with freedom and participation. Fight-flight-freeze may be the biological equivalent of imbalance—a last ditch effort to oppose or avoid or ignore what is happening.
Bert Bennett, my Aikido sensei, says that fear has only one positive function, that is to let us know that we are not organized for what is going on. Fear is a signal to us—to learn and reorganize. Fear is essential information allowing us the possibility of staying in balance and out of harm's way. Fear advises us to see all the choices and choose one with possibilities of freedom—now and into the future.
Our Thoughts are directly attached to our Muscles (and vice versa) and we can become aware of the sensations of muscles and therefore the sensations of our thoughts. Then we can use our mind the way we use our muscles to constantly adjust so our center of gravity is positioned for Omnidirectional Movement—choice—freedom. Freedom to change direction in any moment, even when running. Could an Aikido master, while running, take a step backward? What would such “running” look like. Maybe Aikido masters don’t run? I am sure that they don’t run the way I run.
The body does have a Center of Gravity.
Is the body’s center of gravity one and the same as the Center of the Mind? Is the mind ever disembodied and still balanced? Is the body’s center ever elsewhere? (That is a joke that Bert Bennett always ask us—because the answer is so obvious and our behavior denies our answer.) Is the mind’s center ever anywhere other than with the body’s center. When the mind wanders is it unbalanced or does the sphere of balance expand and the body’s center still remain the point of balance? Am I taking the idea of center and balance too literally or not literally enough. I suspect it is the latter.
Why does any of this matter? Our Social World is polarized and becoming more so. Participation is both needed and avoided. Freedom is sought and denied. Other ways of being are needed. A Way that feels right. A Way that feels natural. A Way that doesn’t tear us apart individually and collectively.
We are each primarily autonomous and attempts at external control are counterproductive. We need skill in Self-control through self-awareness and world awareness—as selves being in the world. As world being selves. We are in need of more appropriate Individual-Ways-of-Being-In-and-Of-the-World.
Sensing our Muscle Tension is sensing our way of being in the world and our way of being in ourselves—as selves, as individuals among other individuals, always interacting with others.
Sensing our intention (mind-body) and re-centering is the thing, The Way. At first we may have to fall down or run into things and into people and into ideas before we realize that we are unbalanced. With Practice we can notice earlier and earlier and maybe this is The Only Way. Practicing noticing balance and unbalance and re-balancing always—not compulsively (how funny, an unbalanced way of attempting balance) but happily just as one breaths. We never expect to live without breathing and we can learn never to expect to be in balance without rebalancing. Balance is in this sense a verb, it is dynamic, it admits to Metastability, and it is the metastability that provides the choice and freedom available to us. Aikido is mastering our possibilities through our metastability.
# I received this response from my Aikido sensei: Truly lovely inquiry but it’s much bigger than a text message reply. To me this is central to your questions: - Is there any intelligence in free-fall❓ - How would you explain free-fall and innate health as being one and the same❓ - When we take our hands off of the bucket of water that’s our personal psychology, the water swiftly calms. Is that then our innate psychological health being expressed❓ - If so, how does that experience relate to free-fall and balance❓ - I’m always eager to have a conversation in this area especially with someone who will apply it meaningfully in the world. :-)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom HEIGHT 400