Shapeshifting

by: Dages Juvelier Keats

I invited a friend to come to my class the other day. She hesitated, saying she’d like to, but was out of “yoga shape, not feeling too flexible.” A few days later, someone else asked me: “How do teachers feel about students being good at yoga?”

I am reevaluating the way I think about “levels” of a practice with no end. What is a beginner? Who is advanced? I can say with absolute certainty that I am a beginner every time I try to get real, be present with Change, that other name of Life. 

Whatever physical practices we do: lifting weights, carrying a tote bag, gazing into the almighty blinkless blue eye of the screen— these become our physicality. what we do over and over becomes a posture. We find ourselves feeling bent out of shape, put in the same positions over and over again (hello repetition compulsions.) those of us who have spent hundreds (thousands?) of hours on “yoga” rehearse shapes we can call by names, like ballet dancers or martial artists. Being able to put oneself in a position builds mastery of the form, but has nothing to do with the subjectivity that occupies that form.

What is the purpose of a shape? No one owes anything to a physical pose. You can’t do anything for it. The only value in a form is its function for the organism which is in the doing of it, in the being of. What can a form offer you?

When I was in seminary in Jerusalem, one of my teachers suggested that “love is what you give to.” I reflexively thought of something I heard growing up in Jackson Hole, Wyoming: many people said “the mountains are my church.” What can you give to a mountain? What can you give to a pose? nothing. it doesn’t need anything from you, but perhaps, in some metaphorical way, the pose could love you. A pose can give you an experience, an Other to relate to, to try on, to take off. And anyone who loves you sees and holds you exactly as you are.

Along with “levels,” I have been reconsidering the names of shapes. What if I have no idea what a thing is, or should look like? In releasing the names of things, I feel an opening to explore the verb-ing, or practice, over the thing-ing of it. In my mind, I never call myself by my name. An organism exceeds an identity: a person, a plant, a piranha, is a miracle of the universe- what the fuck do you call that? As I move my limbs in directions that open up my desire for breathing, for life, I find ongoing portals to presence. Every moment is an opportunity to forget, and then remember, that somehow this experience of consciousness is mysteriously, totally alive.

Every body is in the ideal shape for practice. Practice is direct experience of what is real. Practice is planting seeds of attention. The most important aspect is the 30 seconds you decide to start. This is the effort. And after the effort is a whole lot of letting go. Seeds will sprout and grow to be just as they are. We can cultivate conditions but do not control outcomes when it comes to life, not even our own.

Practice is not performance. Anyone who wants to spend time in these potentially revelatory acts of “informance,”— from a professional gymnast to a person in a wheelchair— can get insight from the concentrated and direct experience of imagination, movement, and breath. The question is what is suitable for that person? What will empower the curiosity to dive into the awesome reality of a body? Your body. My body. The most essential real estate on the planet. And it’s free.

BY: Dages Juvelier Keates

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