The Energy Way

 Joining In

I want to say something to the new people here about what’s going on this weekend.

Everybody has a body. Everybody has a head, everybody has a heart, everybody has an identity, everybody is somebody; and that’s life. But to me, that is not life. That’s only a shadow of life. And behind all that obvious reality, there is something else, out of which the reality of the body and mind and heart comes. And as long as we don’t connect with that, then our life is not rooted in reality.

Now, if the body comes from there, and consciousness comes from there, and emotions and the heart come from there - all very different energies, different things - then that which they come from can’t be thought, can’t be physical cells, can’t be emotions, it has to be something which includes all of those things. If something or other can produce a physical body, and produce a mind, a consciousness that can think, and a heart and emotions that can be so powerful, what can that something be that it can express or manifest as body, mind, or heart?

Well, the scientists say that even the things that are very solid are made up, not of particles, but of waves of energy. Some basic energy can take one form and be a fist, can take another form and be anger, can take another form and be thoughts; and all these very different things, what is common about them is that they are all forms of energy. Everything - not only you and me and everybody else in the world, but everything - is a form of energy, different forms of energy. And whereas it is hard for this table and my leg to connect…

Of course, I can put my leg up against the table like this, and in a way they connect, but still, there’s the table and there’s my leg. And there’s my thought, and there’s your thought; there’s my feeling, and there’s your feeling. Sometimes we can come together, meet, become one physically in love-making, come together emotionally in various ways. On the level of mind you can agree with somebody, but mostly thoughts are always separate.

But energy is never separate. If you bring two energies together, they don’t stay as they are, they come together, they mix, and a new energy comes which is a combination or unity of the two different kinds of energy.

So if we can experience ourselves, and other things, not as things but as energy, then it unites us, gives us a feeling of oneness with everything. And if you can experience yourself as energy like that, then you will feel - or you do feel, those who know - no longer something that is separate from everything else: ‘me’ and what is ‘not me’.

Usually there is a big border or frontier between ‘me’ and what is ‘not me’. Sometimes you can go across the border and make contact with this or that, or this person or that person, but then the border comes back. But if you can feel yourself as energy, then all the borders will disappear, and you will have a sense of moving in an ocean of energy, a sea of energy.

A lot follows from that. A lot follows from what I’m saying, but I don’t want to say anything more now about that. So that’s what we’re going to be exploring this weekend: an experience of oneself without borders. A feeling of being able to connect, not only with other people here, but with the whole universe in a kind of sea of energy which includes all things.

So I’d like you all to stand up now. And I want you to just find somewhere in the room to stand. Somewhere that feels as if it suits you, somewhere you feel drawn to.

And I want you to close your eyes now, and feel yourselves standing there. The actual reality of that. Your feet are on the ground, you can feel your breathing. Your breathing is going on. That’s now, here, present, this moment. You’re just standing there in a space. Now, the first thing is, with your eyes closed, I want you to get a feeling of your borders - of where your body ends and what’s outside your body, as you think - space - begins.

When you open your eyes and you look down, then you can see your body - your legs, feet, hands, a bit of your head. You say, “That’s my body.” And around that body there’s space. But when I ask you to close your eyes, and you do that, then maybe that’s not so clear for you. It’s not at all clear to me - in fact, I don’t feel any borders at all. But that’s because I’ve been working with energy for a long time.

So I don’t know how it is for you, but if you close your eyes, I want you to see if you can really feel the outside, the periphery, the edge of your body - where your body ends, and where what is outside your body begins. How far can you feel that?

(silence)

And if you can feel that, if you’re aware that you feel that… Maybe you don’t feel it in your head, maybe you don’t feel it very much where your head is, or maybe in your body or your legs it’s not quite so clear, maybe the border is dissolving there, but where you feel a border, see if you can begin to just open up to that and take the borders down, and get a feeling of a connection with what is outside you.

(silence)

As far as you can, get a feeling of being part of what is all around you.

Maybe you can’t - if you can’t, it’s okay - but as far as you can, get a feeling, where you can, of being part of what is around, just dissolving into the space around you - a bit like when you go to bed at night, and you lie down in bed, and you’ve had a busy day, and you go, “Ah!” You sort of relax into the bed, you fall into the mattress. You let go and you feel supported by the mattress. A little like that, see if you can let go into the space all around you.

You’re not lying down, I know, but still, in a sideways direction, it’s as if you’re just letting go of holding on to your energy. You’re holding a separateness, and you let that go. Let all the tension go and see if you can, as far as you can, just surrender into the space around you. Just like you let go into the bed when you lie down after a busy day, you fall into the mattress, you fall into the bed, now I’m asking you to try the same thing with the space around you.

(silence)

Now, maybe when you do that, maybe the effect of that, the end effect of that is that as your body relaxes, lets go, connects with what is around you - maybe; I don’t want you to do this, but just to look to see if it’s true - maybe your arms or hands move into a new position. Maybe they do. But I don’t want you to do it.

Being in this space is a bit like floating on water. If you lie down on your back on the water, almost always you don’t lie stiff and straight - the hands come out sideways, not just to support you, but because that’s just what happens when you lie on the water. So maybe now something similar happens. When you let go into the space, then maybe the space is supporting you. Just like the bed supports you when you lie down, and the water supports you when you lie on it, then this space all around you where you’re standing supports you in another sort of way. And maybe when you can feel that happening, maybe - maybe - your hands and arms just come up or make some movements. If they do that, then allow it, but if it’s not true for you, then don’t do anything to make them.

Normally we have so many habits. We keep our hands to our sides - that’s how people normally stand - and even if we want to move them, we don’t. We think, “You can’t put them out like that - people will think you’re strange!” But now we’re exploring, so anything goes. Anything that’s there, we can say, “We can allow that.” We can allow anything to happen. So I just want you to check and see if there’s a natural buoyancy, a feeling of buoyancy in your hands as your body falls more and more into the space, and whether that buoyancy causes some movement in your hands and your arms.

(silence)

And now I want you very slowly and gently - nothing sudden, nothing sharp - to allow your eyes to open. But when they open, don’t look at anything. Don’t look. Just have your eyes open so that things come to you, so you receive.

You’re in a receiving state. You just open and let in whatever is there when your eyes open, but you don’t focus. You don’t focus on anything, you don’t look around at anything, you’re just with whatever is there. And get a feeling of being with it. Not so much subject/object, like you are looking at a pair of trousers, or you’re looking at the floor, or you’re looking at somebody’s foot there, but more a feeling of being in the same space as what is there in front of you - like one piece of wood floating on the river might see another piece of wood floating on the river or a leaf floating on the river. They’re both in the same thing together, and they see that they’re both in the same thing together, they don’t see that, “I am here and you are over there.” The piece of wood and the leaf are floating down the river together.

So that’s the kind of feeling I’m wanting you to look for. Get a feeling of being open… You’re not really focusing, looking at whatever is there as the centre of the world, you’re not focusing on it, you’re with whatever you’re seeing in a kind of united way. You’re there with whatever else is in the sea, your body’s somehow dissolving into the sea, and there’s a sense of oneness coming.

And then, with your eyes half open, not looking, not directly looking, just let your eyes move around and see who else is in this ocean. And see if you can get a feeling that everything that you are aware of - these people, the floor, the sounds - everything is together in this ocean. It’s all together in this ocean, including you. You’re not outside the ocean.

(Michael plays some music)

A lot of energy is being released in the room already. So see if you can tune in to yourself and everything around you, get a feeling not only of yourself but of what is around in the room. All these energies of the other people are now on the move, active, mixing together in the room, making waves in the sea. And maybe you can feel that those waves and currents and energy flows are moving you, so be open to feeling that you want to move with the currents physically. You may want to move your feet… In a way, allow yourself to be taken. Get a feeling that you’re not swimming, you’re just letting go into what is already there.

It might not take you in one particular direction, it might take you this way and that way, or it might go in one direction and then stop. So you’re not really deciding anything, you’re not choosing, you’re not aiming for anything. There’s no goal. You may find yourself being pulled towards somebody, you may make a connection of some sort and then maybe move on to somebody else.

(long silence, followed by music)

And now you can choose to be wherever you want - with somebody, or on your own; lying down or sitting down. Whatever you want to do to finish the evening.

Talk given during a weekend seminar in Zürich, Switzerland, 27.08 2004.