“What I try to tell young people is that if you come together with a mission, and its grounded with love and a sense of community, you can make the impossible possible.”
“Yoga is the settling of the mind into silence. When the mind has settled, we are established in our essential nature, which is unbounded Consciousness. Our essential nature is usually overshadowed by the activity of the mind.”
I’ve always admired people who could capture baffling complexities with elegant simplicity. As I have mentioned in several posts, George Gurdjieff has been one of those people in my life. Since he died in 1949, I never had a chance to meet him, but I spent many hours reading his books and books about him.
Gurdjieff described humans as three-brained beings reproducing on the planet earth who engage in reciprocal destruction. He also said that most of our problems stem from over-identification, hyper-imagination (about who we are) and negative emotions. Gurdjieff’s purpose was to destroy the illusions we have about ourselves and see what’s possible given our realities. Perhaps most importantly, and most simply, he said, “Don’t say I and think it is you.” I’d say that fairly well summarizes the complexities of all human history and our existential challenges in a couple of simple, but elegant, sentences.
Hundreds of books have been written by and about Gurdjieff, but I keep returning to his simple but profound truths. In this post, in the spirit of trying to simplify complex ideas, I am going to make an attempt to summarize the Evolution of Consciousness, Chinese Medicine, and the benefits of meditation into a simple pair of constructs—grounded and unbounded. Wish me luck.
We have been evolving physically and chemically for the past 1 billion years—from one celled organisms to multi-celled creatures right through the first human beings a few hundred thousand years ago. As we have evolved chemically, we have also evolved functionally. Due to continuous adaptations we have learned to do more and more things each year. We have no idea what the limits are to our functional evolution. As we have evolved chemically and functionally, some have also evolved spiritually—but, as you will see in the discussion that follows, we still have abundant possibilities for evolution and growth in that dimension.
As the chemical complexities emerge and evolve materially, our bodies organize these physical changes to adapt to changing requirements and opportunities. As we confront new functional complexities, our minds and brains organize our cellular networks and evolve to meet the challenges. As we live longer and the world becomes more complex, our memories and cognitive processing skills adapt to organize our experiences into multi-dimensional frameworks. Not only has our life experience evolved from a one dimensional, survival orientation, it has also evolved to a multi-dimensional, growth orientation. And we have learned to be conscious of the shifts. In short, we have evolved from surviving the low probabilities for physical survival to the high possibilities for spiritual growth. We are grounded in our chemical constitutions AND unbounded in our spiritual being and consciousness possibilities.
About 5,000 years ago, Eastern philosophy began to emerge and evolve. In China, for example, three terms are commonly used in Daoism to refer to processes that govern spiritual and physical health: Jing, Qi, and Shen. These three terms are often referred to as the three treasures. Jing means primal essence; qi means vital energy; and Shen means divine spirit. These three “treasures” form the theoretical cornerstones of traditional Chinese medicine, QiGong, and Tai Chi. They are believed to be originally composed and conceptualized around 2,500 BCE.
Jing represents the material basis of the body. Passed to the child at conception, Jing governs physical growth and development. Jing is eroded by stress, illness, poor nutrition, and substance abuse. Jing is associated with the body’s ability to adapt to change.
Qi constitutes the invisible life force and vital energy of the body. It circulates in channels throughout the body and constitutes our cosmic energy. When these channels are blocked, illness results. When the channels are open, we experience a powerful energy and life force surging through our bodies.
Shen manifests as spirit and is augmented through the interaction with Jing and Qi. When developed, Shen presides over emotions and expresses itself as wisdom, love, compassion, gratitude, kindness, generosity, acceptance, and forgiveness. Shen is nurtured by music, dancing, and participation in creative activities. It enables consciousness or, as my friend Artie Vipperla would say, “you newing you.” For more on that perspective, go to: https://artievipperla.medium.com/realize-we-are-the-cosmos-she-is-alive-2f200bae308a
A strong Shen exists on the foundation of a sound Jing and a strong Qi; the three must be developed together. Healthy Jing keeps us grounded; healthy Qi and Shen free us to be unbounded.
Several years ago, I studied QiGong with Master Luke Chan in China for a month. He talked a great deal about Jing, Qi, and Shen as the cornerstones of Chinese Medicine. Luke taught our small group that one purpose of meditation is to transform Jing (primal essence) into Qi (vital life force) into Shen (spiritual energy). As a result of that experience and what I have learned from other sources, I have developed a fusion practice that incorporates Qi Gong, Energy’s Way, Kundalini Yoga, etc. The basic idea of this practice is to move energy from the base of our spine to the crown of our head which creates an experience of spiritual liberation. The process starts with a feeling of being centered, rooted and grounded and ends with a feeling of being totally unbounded or boundless.
To be clear, there is a difference between feeling grounded and bounded. Grounded describes a person who is realistic—who does not fill their head with fantasies and illusions about life. A grounded person is practical, down-to-earth, and scientifically oriented—a person who is firmly rooted in reality. A bounded person is one who operates within defined boundaries or norms, sees the limits in everything, is confined to clear “boundaries,” lives rigidly within what is “allowed,” only functions within acceptable rules, standards, and norms, and never goes to “forbidden” or “unauthorized” places. To me, it is possible to be grounded in scientific research and realities AND be unbounded by spiritual possibilities.
Part of the challenge we face every day in our numbing culture is that scientific reductionism and mindless materialism impose rigid boundaries on how we see ourselves and experience life. Breaking through the boundaries of these cultural impositions requires great courage. To do so means we have to see ourselves as more than a bunch of independent parts and break out of the prisons of our bodies and minds.
Developing a full life means breaking free of the bounds we have created by our habits, norms, and beliefs while staying grounded in what’s real.
The “simple” point is that we can be grounded in our chemical complexities AND unbounded by our cosmic consciousness. We can be grounded in Jing AND unbounded by Shen. We can be grounded and rooted from the base of our spine AND unbounded by our spiritual possibilities. In short, we can be grounded in science AND unbounded in spirit. And yes, for the highly evolved, It is possible for You to say “I” and actually be You.
To be grounded and bounded means feeling trapped with the risk of shriveling. To be ungrounded and unbounded means feeling unhinged with the risk of disassociating. Either/or is limiting and dangerous. We need to be both. While, at first glance, it would appear that these notions of being grounded and unbounded are diametrically opposed, I prefer to see them as paradoxically interdependent.
It is not enough to hold onto our illusions about who we are, we need to confront reality AND embrace our possibilities. It is not enough to evolve physically and functionally, we also need to evolve spiritually.
As John Lewis said, we need to come together with a mission that is grounded in love and a sense of community. And as the Yoga master says, we need to settle our minds and establish our essential nature so that we can experience unbounded Consciousness. May it be so.
Also published on Medium.
Well done Ricky! Thank you!