Spirituality Part 5 - Bishop Roger
For ages it has been known that the body and its actions affect the way the mind works, and vice versa, (Think of how the breathing changes when you are angry, or how the bowel feels when you are frightened). So spiritual teachers have often used exercise to develop the health and a suitable attitude for the spiritual aspirant. These are not exercises to develop muscularity or great physical powers (though they may do that) but to maintain reasonably good health and the physical stamina needed to follow a spiritual regime.
Some of them involve special ways of breathing and we may touch on this when we come to consider meditation, but many of the breathing exercises have profound effects on the body, and can be harmful if not properly supervised. I do not recommend that anyone undertakes such exercises unless they have a competent closely supervising teacher. For such exercises book or even video teaching will not do.
However that is not the case for the exercises I am about to suggest. In the Orthodox Eastern Churches. especially in the monasteries, a regular regime of prayer with obeisance is used. Obeisance may be simple; (a deep bow from the waist with the back of the right hand touching the ground) profound ( a bend of the waist to head touching the knees and both hands on the ground) or a full prostration ( whole body prone on the ground, with hands and arms either at the side or stretched in front of the head) . After each move there is a return to the upright position, and then again into the obeisance. Maybe several thousand such obeisances are performed daily.
Similar exercises are found in Tibetan Buddhism and used to be performed in Dominican and Franciscan friaries, and, it is thought, in Celtic Christian establishments. If you wish to take up this practice start gently, do not strain – vigorous movement is not required, smooth gentle movement is the way, and do not attempt numerous repetitions at the beginning, work up gently.
Designed and developed for spirituality, and easily learned from a book, dvd or one of the many sites on the internet (google them) are Surya Namaskars sometimes called Salute (or prayers) to the Sun. Derived from Hatha Yoga they are not in themselves religious and many Christians perform them daily. Again, if you do them, be gentle, and develop repetition slowly – up to fifty rounds is quite sufficient and many less worth doing.
Finally I recommend Tai Chi (taiji). For the martial art, which is a superb though gentle exercise developed originally to restore the health of Chinese monks whose long hours of meditation debilitated them, and also as a means of self defence. you need a teacher, though it is possible to learn, with some difficulty, from a dvd ( I recommend those of Earle Montaigue).
There is an easier version WuJi Tai Chi which can be learned quickly from a dvd. There are two available: Wu Ji Gong from 4th Millennium Publishing, demonstrated by a Chinese master with English commentary, and Tai Chi for Enlightenment from Healing Tao Home Study Video, presented in a wordy and ’mystical’ way but very clearly. Both are available on the internet. This exercise I recommend to the stiff and more aged among us! But with regular practice the results are remarkable.
We now have sleep, sex and entertainment to consider before we leave the body, figuratively speaking, so we’ll deal with those next time. Remember this is not a course in healthy living though it may have seemed so, so far, But the spiritual life for us can only be lived in the body - while we are alive - which must be honed to support the very considerable demands that spirituality makes.
Those who undertake such an endeavor will find that the demands made on them, the powers that they may develop or have to deal with, and the spiritual effects will need all this physical business to underpin them. A false impression that such things don’t matter, or that ‘spiritual’ people are in some way protected from physical problems has been the downfall of many. As has the idea that the spiritual life necessarily means a physically painful or restricted life. Jesus importantly said ‘I am come that you may have life and have it more abundantly’