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The application – the actual method I am offering (as described in the practical exercises) – is in practice extremely simple, and works best when it is kept simple.
On the other hand, the theory underlying it (described in Parts 1 to 3 and the appendices) is a little less simple. Which should not be surprising because we are dealing with the workings of Life. Living a Life is not straightforward, and the processes that create and sustain Life are so varied and complex that we will never really plumb their depths. So something with a very simple theory would inevitable be (mostly) wrong.
The "trick" is to simplify in such a way that the errors are not too great and the bulk of the simplification will lead in the right direction. I know this very well from one of my previous jobs as a mathematician – where the complexities of the real world are discarded one by one until we are left with something that is simple enough it can be described by maths, and not so offensively different from reality as to be utterly unrecognisable. Hence "assume a penguin is a cylinder" might get us into the right ballpark for calculating the heat loss from a penguin swimming in an ice-cold sea. Nobody in their right mind would then translate the simplification the other way and declare that the penguin IS a cylinder or that cylinders are penguins; and would not use the same simplification to understand its child-rearing behaviour or how it navigates the ocean, or how it swims, or keeps its feet warm. But those mistakes have been made - such as watercourses engineered according to the mathematics of laminar flow - forgetting that rivers are alive.
You will today find an increasing amount of talk about "Stewardship" of the land - a process of respecting, nurturing, protecting and working directly with the innate intelligence of living ecosystems. Contrast this to conventional modern mechanised high-input farming, and you have already a powerful analogy for how we could treat and relate to our bodies vs. how we actually think of our relationship to our bodies in a modern Western techno-industrial society. Consider the shift in mindset that is required for a farmer to move from engineered high input farming to a biosystems approach. This gives an indication of the magnitude of a similar shift of mindset reqiured to move from being a user and/or a proponent of modern techno-pharmalogical pathology-oriented medicine - to a relationship with our body of "Stewardship". I call this simple because we are in effect returning to how our bodies and nervous systems evolved to be lived in. But it is definitely non-trivial. Simple but non-trivial. It is better to focus on the simplicity (by applying - perhaps in the practical ways I will describe here) rather than on the non-triviality.
I believe quite strongly that there is what might be called "right action" – something expressed in many different traditions. In a Christian context one might talk of living in Divine Order and Grace. Or in the Daoism of Lao Tzu one might talk of being wholly in the flow of the Dao. Maybe someone from an indigenous tradition might say that they are living in harmony with the land, their ancestors and all their relations.
These ways of thinking all have common threads. They are all based on the idea that there is an ordering intelligence that – if we align with it - brings health and many other benefits, whilst still requiring that we do our bit (this is definitely not a free meal ticket). They may occasionally lead to experiential phenomena that are symbolic of invisible realities – such as described in (e.g.) the works of Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung. They all often present as a quality of effortless flow and an unusual number of synchronistic and serendipitous events. And that ineffable intelligence works best when it is allowed to have effect in its own way in its own time, with no interference or manipulation or anxiety or disdain. It brings reciprocity, treating friendship with friendship, love with Grace, but is not a slave or servant and does not respond well to attempts to force its presence – since the mere act of force (human self-interested will) is antipathetic to its very nature. It is still there even when we cannot see it, and begins to rise when we choose to give attention to its presence instead of being distracted by chaos and noise. Since the human being is so complex and is imbued with this innate self-ordering intelligence as salt might be found in seawater, it is an act of particular hubris to glimpse one part of the whole and then assume it can be made "better" by being poked, prodded and reorganised according to the whims of the intellect. Nevertheless the conscious, cognitive mind is a part of the whole organism, so has an important part to play.
So here I present one very simplified, condensed way of making that connection from within the body, with the express purpose of clearing accumulated layers - years, decades, possibly generations - of trauma/overwhelm. The application and context determine the form and details of the method. But the principles are universal. I have always thought it is right to provide the universal principles (despite the risk of it appearing too complex) because – if you understand these, you will be able to apply the form more effectively, and perhaps also find your own applications. My work and experience are very somatically oriented so the approach here is primarily somatic – i.e. based on the body. It is, of course, also equally reasonable to take psychotherapeutic, sociological, spiritual or cultural approaches.
