| The first time that I saw Jet Li's film Crouching Tiger, | | | | airflow increases (past a certain point, however, an |
| Hidden Dragon (in a little theatre in Boulder, Colorado) I | | | | increased angle will cause the wing to suddenly lose its |
| wept, fairly continuously, for about the first thirty | | | | lifting ability). |
| minutes, and after that sat enraptured, amazed & | | | | So how, in the context of a physical practice such as |
| deeply grateful for the beauty, power & truth that | | | | yoga asana or qigong, might we emulate the qualities |
| I felt being emanated from the film. Two days later I | | | | that give lift to an airplane? Let's explore ... Creating or |
| returned, for my second viewing. By the third time (all | | | | energizing physical structures which have the same |
| week-day matinees: cheaper & less crowded), | | | | shape as an airplane wing is something we certainly |
| the theatre clerks & I exchanged amused glances | | | | can play with: If I extend my arms out from my |
| of recognition. By about the fifth time I was definitely | | | | shoulders, like wings, I can cup my palms slightly, away |
| feeling sheepish, if not downright embarrassed, by | | | | from the floor, and at the same time deepen my |
| what I imagined was being perceived as | | | | armpits, while allowing my shoulders, biceps & the |
| clearly-addictive behavior. But I didn't care! I saw the | | | | top part of my hands to feel "puffed" upward. In this |
| film, over the course of about a month, no fewer than | | | | way I've created a shape similar to the shape of an |
| seven times. Each viewing revealed some new | | | | airplane wing. And as it turns out, there are many other |
| wonder, some previously-unnoticed level of meaning, | | | | places in my body where I'm able to create |
| or just an exquisite detail, that my eyes, ears & | | | | suction-cup-like structures, which will act to generate lift |
| heart hungrily consumed. | | | | in this same way, when met with flow: the soles of my |
| And what was the cause, in this film (and later also in | | | | feet; my pelvic floor, my thoracic diaphragm, & the |
| the re-made Hero) for my tears & rapture? For | | | | roof of my mouth, to name just a few. |
| drawing someone who doesn't even really watch | | | | Now that I've created these structures which have the |
| many movies, back like this, again & again, almost | | | | potential to give me "lift" when met with a flow of air, |
| magnetically? It's a bit hard to articulate, though what I | | | | the next question becomes: how do I create a flow of |
| can say is that there was something being portrayed | | | | air? I could, of course, go outside in a high wind, and |
| ~ in both of these films ~ with which I resonated so | | | | see what happens ... But as yoga practitioners we like |
| deeply, that at a soul- & cell-level I recognized, | | | | at least at times to practice indoors, and at all times for |
| which so rarely, in this culture, is portrayed. It felt like | | | | the practice to be moving in the direction of being |
| coming home. Particularly powerful for me were the | | | | "internal," of being something that doesn't depend too |
| fight scenes: not for the conflict that was being | | | | heavily on external conditions. Luckily, our pranic bodies, |
| enacted (I actually have an aversion to violence, per | | | | like air and water, operate in many ways like fluids. |
| se), but rather for the fluidity & lightness ~ the | | | | What's even more fortunate is that we can utilize the |
| Mastery of physical movement ~ that was being so | | | | basic yoga/qigong principle "prana follows citta" (qi |
| beautifully demonstrated. Some who I spoke to about | | | | follows mind/intention) to create the "high wind" (high |
| the film considered these scenes merely fanciful, a kind | | | | vibration) conditions that will ~ in combination with our |
| of science fiction that perhaps had been taken to an | | | | wing-like structures ~ give us "lift" (transform matter |
| extreme ... but for me those scenes were ~ at long | | | | into "light," structure into flow). To do this, I simply |
| last ~ portraying a reality, something the very fibers of | | | | imagine that I'm facing a high wind (or standing |
| my being understood to be not only a possible, but also | | | | waist-high in a fast-moving creek, facing up-stream) ... |
| in many ways a preferable way of | | | | It's as simple as that. Then tilt your wings (and all those |
| being-in-a-human-body. There was and is a knowing | | | | little suction-cups) slightly upward (into the on-coming |
| that: Yes ~ Flying is possible! | | | | wind or water), feel the upper surfaces of your body |
| Now this love affair with movement-as-flight, with | | | | being drawn into the low-pressure areas above you, |
| enlightenment expressed as human form & | | | | and feel yourself becoming lighter: little by little (or |
| movement, has been with me for a while: As a child I | | | | perhaps all at once) taking flight! (At this level of |
| adored the graceful connections between Terry | | | | practice, what you'll also discover is that remaining |
| Bradshaw & Lynn Swann; Later, Michael Jordan | | | | "heavy" in your heels, sitting-bones & coccyx |
| became my all-time hero. Then it was Bruce Lee. On a | | | | actually supports the feeling of lightness of the body |
| number of occasions I've felt my life to be | | | | as a whole, particularly along its central axis ... It's kind |
| transformed by the performance of dancers: Mikhail | | | | of a paradox!) |
| Baryshnikov (who I saw in person for the first time | | | | So that's a way of working in the direction of "flying" |
| when he was in his fifties, and stunning!), David | | | | which takes as starting-points: (1) our |
| Parsons (whose magical piece "Caught" still resonates | | | | conventionally-perceived bodies (a collection of |
| inside of me), Diego Pinon (a Butoh Master, whose | | | | muscles, bones, organs, etc.); as well as (2) our habitual |
| sensual & organic explorations of human | | | | identification with our bodies (I am my body so what it |
| movement opened within me whole new realms of | | | | means for "me" to fly is for this physical body to do |
| possibility re: intimacy & empowered vulnerability). | | | | more-or-less what an airplane does). And this can be |
| Each year that I've lived in Boulder I've watched the | | | | an interesting and useful exploration. |
| world-class runners in the "Bolder Boulder" 10k race, | | | | What can also be interesting is to begin by challenging |
| and noticed how the winners (in recent years, | | | | these basic assumptions, for instance by thinking: To |
| Kenyans) most often have broken through their | | | | the extent that I'm currently perceiving my body as |
| intense effort into a level of ease, of rapture, of | | | | something solid, to this extent I'm still caught in wrong |
| something clearly beyond the physical ... In the realm of | | | | views, in delusion. (And creating my yoga practice on |
| yoga asana, Richard Freeman has expressed this | | | | the foundation of these wrong views is the equivalent, |
| same level of power, grace & fluidity. Among the | | | | say, of building a philosophical argument upon a set of |
| Tibetan Lamas that I've encountered, it has been | | | | faulty axioms/assumptions.) What might happen if I |
| Mingyur Rinpoche whose light-filled physical presence | | | | begin instead with the assumption (adopt the view) |
| has inspired this same level of appreciation for the kind | | | | that my body is of the nature of light, color & |
| of intelligence (genius, really) that can be manifest | | | | sound (like a rainbow)? Or that my body is of the |
| through & as a human body. To all of these | | | | nature of space, like the sky itself (am I then always |
| beings (and countless others who've accomplished | | | | already flying)? That instead of being continuous |
| something similar): a deep bow of gratitude. | | | | through time, my body is being created anew in each |
| So how does this happen? This appearance and/or | | | | second (pulsing in & out of "existence")? Or |
| experience of "flight"? This transformation of a | | | | wondering: If the belief that "I am this body" is the basis |
| seemingly-dense human body into something capable | | | | of all suffering, and I somehow now let go of or at |
| of such magical displays? | | | | least soften around that belief ... If "I" am no longer |
| As a starting-point for this exploration, it might be useful | | | | identified with this physical body, then what might it |
| to learn a bit about the principles of fluid mechanics | | | | mean for "me" to fly? (Who or what is it that's flying, if |
| which create the aerodynamic force of "lift" in an | | | | not this physical body?) I don't have the answers to |
| airplane ... for perhaps the key to our own "flight" as | | | | any of these questions, but do feel very curious ... |
| yoga or qigong practitioners lies in the emulation of | | | | What I do know is that many of us have had dreams |
| these physical characteristics. First, know that air, just | | | | of flying. In my own dreams of this sort, I'm almost |
| like water, is ~ in terms of the (Newtonian) physical | | | | always "flying" in/as a body which looks "just like" my |
| & mathematical principles to which it adheres ~ | | | | waking-state body. (There are Tibetan dream yoga |
| considered to be a "fluid." Know also that "lift" can only | | | | practices in which we train in transforming our body |
| be generated when a fluid is in motion. So, for instance, | | | | into many different shapes ... so, for instance, we might |
| a wing must be passing through the air or the air must | | | | choose to assume the form of a bird, or an airplane, to |
| be moving around a stationary wing (or both) in order | | | | do our flying ... or might transform our body into the |
| for lift to happen. | | | | body of a particular deity, and simply hover in space in |
| Most of the lift in an airplane is generated by its wings, | | | | that form, or fly around with our consorts ...) What I |
| and specifically by the way air flows around wings of | | | | notice in these flying dreams is that it is my intention |
| a particular shape. What we notice about most | | | | (mind, will) that is the "pilot," i.e. it's via my thoughts (or |
| airplane wings is that, when viewed edge-on, their | | | | mental body) that I choose the course of my flight. |
| upper surfaces are curved (convex) and their lower | | | | And how this takes a certain relaxed focus, which at |
| surfaces are flatter. As air moves around a wing of | | | | times is quite precise & effective, and at other |
| this shape, the air that goes over the curved upper | | | | times less so. (Sometimes I crash-land.) And then I |
| surface undergoes two important changes: (1) it is | | | | wake, and think: I've just been dreaming of flying! |
| reduced in pressure (by the centrifugal force of | | | | Now there is the story ~ perhaps you've heard it |
| flowing across the curved surface); and (2) it is | | | | already ~ of the Taoist sage Chuang Tzu, who |
| accelerated downward (as it leaves the trailing edge | | | | dreamed he was a butterfly, but then woke to |
| of the wing). The wing is then forced into the region of | | | | discover again that he was a man. But then he |
| reduced air pressure above the upper surface of the | | | | wondered: now is it true that I'm a man who has just |
| wing by the higher air pressure beneath the wing; and | | | | dreamt that he was a butterfly, or am I really a |
| the downward acceleration of the air at the trailing | | | | butterfly who is now dreaming that I'm a man? |
| edge also forces the wing upward. Since lift is | | | | Just something to consider, as you continue your |
| dependant on the motion of the air, it increases as the | | | | research & practice of (yogic and/or mechanical) |
| speed of the air increases. Lift also increases, to a | | | | flying ... Om Shanti. |
| point, as the angle that the wing makes with the | | | | |