by Monshin Kathy Mitchell
Wind and Water Zen
Woodruff, Wisconsin
As I reflect on Jun Po as a teacher, one of the things I am most grateful for was his emphasis on physical practice as a core part of Hollow Bones Zen. Not just walking meditation but qigong and yoga, connecting with the body.
He often spoke of being in a monastery in Japan and finding himself doing yoga outside of the zendo to balance the hours of physical stillness. He was inspired to create Mondo, noticing that the austerity of just sitting left a lot of room for imbalance and confusion once on our feet, off the cushion, both in Eastern and Western cultures.
The Buddha himself said, “There is one thing that when cultivated and regularly practiced, leads to deep spiritual intention, to peace, to mindfulness and clear comprehension, to vision and knowledge, to a happy life here and now, and to the culmination of wisdom and awakening. And what is that one thing? It is mindfulness centered on the body.”
I carry this inspiration in my own practice and teaching, constantly referencing the body as container, teacher, and truth teller. This body is much more direct than the shenanigans of my complicated mind. The mental feedback that I am trying too hard, lost in emotion, in some trance pattern, can be immediately disarmed by a physical check in or gesture that embodies a more present, awakened place.
Not just our attention, our position.
We are so enamored with our minds, the architecture of our egos. I think; therefore I am. Even much of our physical movement can be paired with the rhythm of thought and resonance of feeling. If the body quits functioning, so goes the mind. If the mind quits functioning, the body can carry on with its own intelligence. What does that tell you?
Body can lead the mind, just as the mind leads the body. With truly embodied awareness, we find that the body can be the most efficient and honest feedback. The mirror for all of our supposed awakened insights, inviting us to inquire: Are we really where we claim to be in a genuine and organic way?
In Mondo we experience the Awakened state through koans that are both insight and movement – gestures that demonstrate the relief of an open body as well as an open heart/mind. We are encouraged to note the expansiveness and joy when our whole being has a taste of liberation from the habitual ways of engaging with life. We are invited to feel anchored, embodied, expressive.
What a gift to be fully alive! So many pathways to help us find our way back.
Living in a country that can feel fractured and frayed, in bodies that are aging and dying, it is easy to internalize all that we fear, grieve, and resist. Narrowing our responses to these conditions reduces our adaptation, creativity, gratitude for whatever is still within all experience.
Breathe, move, flow … if you were Jun Po, dance. Not competitively but joyfully and gratefully for what still is possible within what is not. Be kind and careful with what your body allows.
As the Lao Tzu teaching reminds us in the Mondo Manual,” kindhearted as a grandmother.”
Sit and move with the grace, attunement, support, and humility that your current body requires. Move intimately with your body, as your friend along the path, not as its taskmaster.
“I am larger, better than I thought; I did not know I held so much goodness.”
– Walt Whitman
“There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”
– Rumi
Awake to all of it.
