Can a technique that starts out to be practical, end up opening doors to a spiritual life? For some people the answer is an emphatic "Yes."

I was teaching a master class in the Alexander Technique to vocal students at the Berkeley College of Music. It was a class of young pop singers, one more outrageous than the next. Hair that was purple, sticky, and stood up, made it an adventure to find the neck and head. The class went well, and at the end one woman came up and asked to come for private work. I said yes, and told her that although she had a beautiful voice, the tightness in her back prevented her from experiencing her full voice. The lessons could help this. She said, "Yes, but what I really need it for is my spiritual life."

I gulped and nodded. I was astonished. I had given what I thought of as a standard straight 'vocal master class,' never mentioning meditation or God. Where did she get the idea that the Alexander Technique would help her spiritual life?

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There are certain components of any spiritual seeker's journey&emdash;they have been around as long as Scriptures have been recorded. They are concepts of awareness, such as being in the present moment, non-doing (of some sort) and turning within, as well as behaviours, such as discipline, understanding, use/posture and breath. We address many of these ideas as an integral part of teaching Alexander's discoveries, so how can we not bump into some aspects of a spiritual journey?

Looking Within: One major step as we begin our work is to look within, to pay close attention to our own inner experience. How am I using myself while I am moving through the world? What am I up to? In the Bible, Christ says, "The kingdom of Heaven is within." In The Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna says, "He who finds his happiness within, his delight within, and his light within, this yogi attains the bliss of Brahman, becomes Brahman (the Absolute)."1

Some people think that this act of looking within is itself unusual. I asked a new student to stop before she sat in the chair and observe what happened to the angle between her head and back as she sat. After observing what she was doing while sitting and standing for just a moment, she observed, "I am an atheist, but this work feels kind of spiritual."

We begin to look inside with attention, or awareness. As Siddha Yoga Meditation Master, Swami Chidvilasananda, says "When you have inner attention, you have grace… you have a relationship with this universe. Everything on the outside is transitory… The only thing that will stay with you is your inner attention."2

The Present Moment: This inner awareness brings us to the present moment. Once we become aware of this moment, we have the freedom to change. As FM said, "We can throw away the habit of a lifetime in a few minutes if we use our brains."3 In his book The Sacrament of the Present Moment, Jean-Pierre De Caussade says, "Precious moment, how small in the eyes of my head and how great in those of my heart, the means whereby I receive small things from the Father who reigns in heaven.''4

Non-doing: In the present moment we can also recognise the need for letting go or non-doing. Richard Rohr, a Franciscan friar, who is known for his stimulating talks about man's relationship with God, says, "The spiritualities of all great world religions teach us letting go: how to step aside."5 Let go and let God. Patrick Macdonald, master Alexander Technique teacher, often said "You must learn to get out of the teacher's way, learn to get out of your own way, then learn to get out of its way."6 FM was most direct when he exclaimed "Throw it away."7 After fifteen minutes of chairwork one of my students, a professional ice skater, said "I've never tried so hard to do nothing."

Discipline: All of this begins to depend on some form of discipline of practice. I do not intend the word discipline to be at all negative&emdash;I am referring to constructive conscious control. The Crest Jewel of Discrimination, a classic Vedanta text that describes the necessary attributes of a spiritual seeker, cites 'renunciation,' 'discrimination,' and 'self control' as its watchwords. In the text, the disciple asks, "How is a man set free?" The master answers, "No other person can free a man from his bondage; he must do it himself."8 This is so similar to FM's quote "If you will do what I did, you will be able to do what I do."9 Don't we as students of the technique recognise this discipline of practice?

Use and Posture: What we call 'use' and 'posture' have long been associated with spiritual or contemplative life and cannot be separated from it. One long-standing component of meditation is a lengthened spine&emdash;as one spiritual master describes it, "upright like a lotus stalk." Hindu Scriptures for thousands of years have spoken of the Goddess Kundalini, who is said to lie dormant in one's lower spine until she is awakened, and begins her journey upward, along one's spine. Having taught the Alexander Technique in meditation centres, I know that long-time meditators welcome its wisdom for improving their meditation practice. In the Old Testament, in the Book of Exodus, when people break the covenant with the Lord, they are called stiff-necked. The implications of this epithet are great. FM saw what happens when we stop obeying the laws of nature and wrote about it in Man's Supreme Inheritance.

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Then we can look at the obstacles to the spiritual path, or the 'misuse' as we call it in the Alexander community: fear, desire, delusion, laziness, and self-importance or ego (fixed idea of self).

Fear and Desire: FM said, "Apprehensive fear that he may be wrong and his intense desire to do it right are the secrets of his failure." Fear and desire are two sides of the same coin. I desire something, then I fear I will lose it. Or I fear this, but I desire that. Patanjali, author of the Yoga Sutras, defines contentment as the absence of desire and fear. Because every attachment (desire) has a corresponding fear and a corresponding aversion to its loss. Attachment is that which follows remembrance of pleasure, and aversion is that which follows the remembrance of pain. We are certainly dealing with these issues on many levels as we teach Alexander lessons and begin to observe habits. Is there one of us who isn't trying to do it right? Thomas Merton, the contemporary Trappist monk who wrote so clearly of the soul's inner journey, calls habit 'the false self.' He writes, "We recover possession of our true selves by liberation from anxiety and fear and inordinate desire."10 In the Bible, the directive 'Do not fear' appears more than three hundred times.

Delusion: So often students tell me that they do not have time to do the lying down work, or to pay attention to their use. There is a wonderful story of Thomas Merton rushing to help put out a brush forest fire near the monastery, when he heard the bells announce that it was time to pray. He shouted the order "Stop!" and the monks bowed down and prayed. Our first response is "how foolish." But aren't we all like that… rushing to a fire or some activity and not taking the time to pay attention to ourselves in a way that would truly benefit us? Although the other, the fire, seems more important, it is only a faulty sensory perception, a delusion. How often have I said: "Next time I bend over, I will use the position of mechanical advantage, as I crouch over to pick something up."

There is a story of Sheikh Nasruddin, a comical Sufi character whom we all in some way resemble. Nasruddin had lost a gold coin and was fervently praying to God to help him find it. When he opened his eyes the coin was there. He closed his eyes quickly and said, "Never mind, God. I found it." We are doing the same thing when we give direction or pay attention to our use, only at those times when we are in pain… and then forget and live very unconsciously the rest of the time.

Pride: All forms of taking pride in ourselves have a dangerous potential to impede our spiritual life. The monk wrote, "If I make anything out of the fact that I am Thomas Merton, I am dead. The moment you make anything out of anything you are dead; quit keeping score altogether and surrender."11 David Gorman in a recent workshop said, "Don't fight with yourself, because you always lose. Give up." How can we change and still hold onto our habits? We need to surrender our doing.

This is similar to what FM said in the Bedford Lecture: "When they come to learn something, they have nothing to do to learn. We are trying to impose a doing when all we need is to give consent."12 Meister Eckhart, the German mystic, puts it this way, "For God to be is to give being, for man to be is to receive being."13 At each moment we exist to the extent we receive existence. Mystical union is a reality. It is grace. It is not the ego, but a void of the 'I am doing' in which the light of God and love are manifest. In our society a monk is supposed to be useless because his mission is not to do this or that job but to be a person of God.

"The spiritual is that which is ordered toward God."14 If we are created in the image of God, and we use ourselves by functioning in accord with the created design, how do we not bump into God?

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What happens in a lesson that often causes students to feel so wonderful, almost blissful? Is it from the kinaesthetic lightness? The integrity?

A professional doctor in his mid forties told me after the fifth lesson that he felt better than he ever had in his life. He was more at peace with himself and the world, better integrated in his humanity, etc. We have all heard these comments. What is it? Just the absence of the pain and the habit? Or is it more? Patanjali in his yoga philosophy says that moksha, or liberation, consists in the complete and permanent cessation of all sufferings. The mind goes back to its original cause. Does the primary control bring us back to this?

Chapter one, page one, in Man's Supreme Inheritance: "I should like in passing to point out that the theory and practice of my system are influenced by no particular religion nor school of philosophy, but in one sense may be said to embrace them all. For whatever name we give to the great origin of the universe, in the words of a friend of mine 'We can all of us agree…that we mean the same thing, namely, that high power within the soul of man which enables him to will or act or to speak not loosely or wildly, but in subjection to an all-wise and invisible Authority.' The name that we give to that Authority will in no way affect the principles which I am about to state."15 So FM begins his first book acknowledging the invisible Authority.

Religious and spiritual teachings from all over the world have recognised this invisible Authority or oneness that manifests as a gift freely given. In Zen in the Art of Archery, the author writes that a conscious archer does not shoot the arrow, he lets 'it' shoot. Muslims call this the 'uncaused cause of all being,' the oneness that is present no matter what. FM says, "This is what we are going to do during the time the activity is taking place."16

As Saint Teresa of Avila wrote (speaking of herself in the third person) "In everything she found herself improved, and it seemed to her, despite the trials she underwent and the business affairs she had to attend to, that the essential part of her never moved from that room (in which it dwells with the Lord)."17 Like the Zen monk, who when asked how he could come to town after staying on the mountain so long, replied, "When I go to town the mountain is under my robe." Rumi, the Sufi poet, says "Everyone who is left far from his source wishes back the time when he was united to it."18

And FM puts it this way: "Give directions in the form of a wish as it were, and keep that wish going all through the activity."19

There is a place we never leave no matter what is going on…

The primary control is to Alexander teachers as seeing God in everything is to spiritual seekers: the place we never leave.

- Betsy Polatin

ENDNOTES

1. Sargeant,Winthropta, Shri Bhagavad Gita; State University of New York Press: New York (1993) 5:24
2. Bendet, Peggy, in Darshan Magazine, #38; SYDA Foundation: New York (1994) p.30 (Reprinted with permission of the SYDA Foundation.)
3. Alexander, FM, The Alexander Technique: The Essential Writings of FM Alexander, Edited by Edward Maisel; Carol Communications: New York (1967) p.6
4. De Caussade, Jean-Pierre, The Sacrament of The Present Moment; Harper & Row: New York (1966) p.xix
5. Rohr, Richard, Simplicity; Crossroad: New York (1992) p.23
6. Kaminitz, Shoshana, "Obituary Mr Macdonald", The Alexander Journal, No. 12; STAT: London (1994) p.42
7. Alexander, FM, Op. Cit. p.xxxv (E. Maisel Introduction)
8. Shankara, Crest Jewel of Discrimination; Vedanta Press: California (1947) p.39
9. Brennan, Richard, The Alexander Technique Workbook; Element: Ma, USA (1992) p.5
10. Finley, James, Merton's Palace of Nowhere; Ave Maria Press: Indiana (1978) p.37
11. Ibid., p.53
12. Alexander, FM, Articles & Lectures of FM Alexander, "Bedford Lecture"; Mouritz: London (1995) p.32
13. Finley, James, Op. Cit., p.72
14. Ibid., p.40
15. Alexander, FM, Man's Supreme Inheritance, Dutton: New York (1918) p.3
16. Alexander, FM, "Bedford Lecture"; Op. cit., p.9
17. Bendet, Peggy, Op. Cit., p.6
18. Armstrong, Karen, History of God; Knopf: New York (1993) p.241
19. Alexander, FM, "Bedford Lecture"; Op. cit., p.9

ABOUT THE WRITER

Betsy Polatin has had extensive training in the Alexander Technique for the past twenty years and is currently a student of Rika Cohen. Her background includes Dance and Movement Education, and Performance&emdash;as well as spiritual practices. She has taught in Universities, Hospitals, Monasteries, Meditation Centres, and Dance & Music Schools in USA and abroad. She is on the faculty at the Opera Institute and Boston University and also in private practice.

54 Harvard Avenue, Brookline MA 02146
USA. Tel: 1-617-277.220
Email:bpolatin1@aol.com