Spin the wheels of the body at the same time as the mind?

May 31, 2008 10:03 AM

What different traditions and practices are there which combine meditation and active motion?

I've developed a personal practice in both - I meditate a few times a week, having learnt over the past 2 years using binaural beat tapes to provide some focus / structure.

I've also been spinning poi and staff twirling for around 5 years. Since reaching the point where I can effectively spin without thinking about "moves" I've noticed that once in a while I slip into a mindless, timeless state where I stop thinking about the spinning, or anything else for that matter, very similar to that reached in stationary meditation.

I'm interested both in ways to "train" this state and in general background / history on common and less well-known traditions of meditative movement.

I've looked into Tai-Chi as a first step but unfortunately live in a fairly isolated area and have no chance of attending any classes, so any pointers towards self study resources would be a greatly appreciated bonus.

posted by protorp to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (11 answers total)

Running. Cycling. Both work for me.
posted by fixedgear at 10:34 AM on May 31, 2008

i used to get into that groove when i swam regularly. once you develop a good stroke (and i presume this would apply to any repetitive activity) i could let my body go on autopilot and let my mind wander. sometimes i would compose poetry. other times i would just go blank. it was wonderful.
posted by thinkingwoman at 11:44 AM on May 31, 2008

Ditto running. I didn't get to that place until I ran at least 6 miles at a stretch though. Running on forested trails helps too (easy to say in Portland). it occurs to me that forests are pretty oxygen rich environments.
posted by msalt at 12:28 PM on May 31, 2008

Yeah, I answered kind of quickly but as msalt and thinkingwoman both said, it sure doesn't happen in the first five minutes. I need to get past the 'my shoelace is too tight' or 'is my chain squeaking?' before the mind quiets and I can just breathe and go.
posted by fixedgear at 12:50 PM on May 31, 2008

Anything I do that is repetitive tends to allow me to fall into a "meditative" state of mind. So there really is a wide variety of activity that you could look into for this. I know people like to think Tai Chi or Chi-Kung fall into this category. Personally I've found when I've tried activities like these they require a certain focus that does not allow mindlessness.
posted by P.o.B. at 2:54 PM on May 31, 2008

I had an uncle who called this sort of thing "[Ralph Waldo] Emersonian Prayer"; to work the body in such a way that the mind was not just free, but transcendent. (Aunt compared it to zazen, the meditative practice of "just sitting".) Apparently Ralph used to get this feeling rowing his boat - of not being in the act of crossing the lake, getting to the other side for a purpose, etc - but of for a rare moment in life when doing nothing but the thing you're doing - "just rowing" - allows one to transcend the usual burdens of existence. I'm told there's a section in the works of Vietnamese Zen master Nhat Hanh where he talks about "just doing the dishes" in the same way; so it seems that it's a fairly common phenomenon/practice in different disciplines (sufi dervishes are doing the same, no?). Presumably any sustained activity that can be done without needing to pay attention to the process (both implying simple repetitive tasks) could get you in this groove if you can quiet your mind.

I believe that on the other hand, Tai Chi, Qi Gong, Vipassana and associated practices have you concentrate on the body, its organs and its energy flows as you manipulate them through movement and mindfulness. It's another meditative practice, but it's different from your "I stop thinking about the moves" idea. But I am not a practitioner. Sounds like you already can get there, though. Perhaps if you can reach that state through another activity (got a hula hoop?) you can get in closer contact with the transcendence by finding what the mental states have in common apart from the various physical movements of poi spinning, staff twirling, or hooping.
posted by bartleby at 4:39 PM on May 31, 2008

Speedbag.
posted by paulsc at 5:30 PM on May 31, 2008

A Tibetan Buddhist practice is to make a hundred thousand prostrations while saying a mantra (not all at one time of course!) and that's certainly both meditative and active, though you may not want such repetitive motion. Howe intense the activity is depends entirely on how fast you want to go - some people go flat out for hours at a time, others do a few a day.

There's also a walking meditation in the Burmese Buddhist tradition. The walking is fairly slow, so again it may not be what you want.

Neither of those need you to be at a class; prostrations are normally done alone, and the walking can be alone or with others.
posted by anadem at 8:51 PM on May 31, 2008

general background / history on common and less well-known traditions of meditative movement.

These may be obvious, but the Sufi whirling dervishes come to mind, as do other trance-inducing dance traditions around the world, and there's a long tradition in Buddhism of "walking meditation." In general, "movement meditation" is a good search term for more info about various traditions that combine active motion and meditation.
posted by mediareport at 7:01 AM on June 1, 2008

Response by poster: Thank you all for taking the time to answer :)
posted by protorp at 7:11 AM on June 2, 2008

Running on rocky trails. It requires both rhythm and a sort of meta-concentration. It's much more meditative for me than just running on smooth surfaces.
posted by OmieWise at 6:24 AM on June 5, 2008