Greetings Friends!

One of the things I hear most often from students is how liberating it is to know that there is no right or wrong way to practice, especially when it comes to discovering the subtle body. Here’s a great example:

“The subtle body work was new to me, and I never felt I was quite getting it. I believe I shared I often got caught in the words and the effort of following the where and how’s. Today really helped to loosen up the concept of doing it right and wrong. I didn’t understand (conceptional and otherwise) that the subtle body is preverbal, pre-words, pre-concepts, pre-cognition. Pre-whatever right and wrong can be. That is truly liberating, and I sense a softening towards the practice, a softening of where there before where edges which I sensed but didn’t quite realize as clearly. Thank you for the story of the tree and for saying it is a way to do it, and for giving full permission to get the essence and not the exactness.”

I find it helpful to remember that knowing something isn’t always with words, sometimes knowing comes in the form of visuals, ineffable feelings, or even pleasant sensations. And each of us has unique expressions of a practice, especially in the subtle body.

I received an important teaching from my first Tibetan teacher, Tsoknyi Rinpoche during a retreat about 29 years ago. He was guiding us into a visualization practice. – if you know about Tibetan visualization practices, they’re often very detailed and very symbolic. We are to picture a scene or an enlightened being, a pattern or all of this at once to become one with the practice, in other words, internalize and embody it.

This particular practice involved a scene we that was outside and beneath a large tree. The tree was described in detail as were the beings under the tree. But no matter how I tried to picture the scene as described, the tree never appeared like Rinpoche was describing it.

After diligently trying for a few days, I finally went to Rinpoche and admitted that I just couldn’t get the tree right. He asked me to describe what my tree looked like which I did – my tree was sparkly, had wild looking fruits and unusual birds in it, a lot more colorful and whimsical than he described. He instantly and gleefully said “that’s great! You got the essence of the practice”. He explained that some of the reason for such exacting instructions were given was to help those whom didn’t visualize easily. And that the essence of the practice can manifest in a variety of visual representations, but the main idea was to understand what the practice was all about.

I was relieved, delighted and empowered. This simple example taught me how there can be variations on a theme, and no right or wrong way to experience a practice. I love to emphasize this because it can offer confidence in our own direct experiences, our inner goodness and in the beautiful expressions of how things manifest a little differently in each of us.

I have a many stories and examples of these profound teachings I’ve been fortunate to receive from the Monastics I have practiced with. All of it informs how I practice and how I teach. And I’ve witnessed how this empowerment uplifts, re-arranges and personalizes what we practice and how we practice. It can open us to want to practice, make choices about which practice we are doing each day. Especially when we have contact with a teacher, we can be steered back to center if we stray too far and feel the confidence again to continue on.

There is great generosity in this wisdom that I hope to share with you in the upcoming series I’m doing online with Spirit Rock called A Path of Healing: The Wisdom of the Somatic and Subtle Body starting September 5, and in the Tuesday, Thursday and Friday (for clinicians)  mentoring groups that will be starting in September and October

We all have immense freedom to be as we are if we are reminded and guided and especially in a supportive community. So, I hope you’ll join me somewhere sometime to discover for yourself.

In kindness, Jill

Jill

The image above is from a fantastic Nick Cave concert a few months ago. The image in the last post was the inside of a white beet that reminded me of not knowing what’s inside (anything) I forgot to tell you that (was reminded by a friend)