The Principle of Alignment

The Principle of Alignment
Awakening of Conscience
"Not to be content of a little"

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This principle is connected mostly with a physical sensation: the sensation of holding ourselves right, but also with our vertical alignment. In the center of the body and in the center of the practice we recover the spine. It is composed of vertebras that we are going to try to stack like in a game of cubes: if not done correctly, one will have the stack lean toward the right or left, toward the front or back. On the energy level, the idea of holding a straight back permits the correct alignment with the celestial energy in relation to the terrestrial energy. This Taoist teaching continues to say that if the mind affects the body, one would also consider that the body influences the mind. That is why while starting to work on the physical alignment and while thinking as well about the energetic alignment, we will help our mind find its center.

This first stage corresponds to our desire to be better, to change our daily life and no longer be puzzled by our "deep being". Therefore, when searching for our center it is obvious that we must look at ourselves that we really are. The method of "centering" also helps us concentrate and focus attention. During this process, we realize the work is to be done by us alone and no one can do it for us. We also realize at this moment that to observe any change and to submit to a fully conscious daily practice - it is necessary that we integrate the practice within our way of living.

The awareness that corresponds to this stage is so simple and so difficult: all must become conscious. We look for the attention to our manner of breathing, position, manner of walking but also watching how we take a shower, to what moment we are stretched, to what moment we are relaxed, what our sensations at every instant are. Once again, it is a stage where we will learn not to believe anything of what is established, to put everything to a test because only our own experience would permit evolution.

The practice of Chi Kung that corresponds to this stage is called The Stance of the Tree. It is our favorite static position; it is the first and the last of the Chi Kung exercises. For a guide to this practice, you can go see this website's chapter "Chi Kung". It is also in the practice of the static positions that one recovers the concept of tree stance but one is going to go farther through bringing dissociation between the right and left, refining the sensations and beginning to see the body as a block under seal, constituted of several controllable sections.

In the next stage, one will begin to use simple pictures to amplify energy generation. These pictures permit to "live" in the stances. It is also the beginning work on the intention.

The meditative practice is also one of the most important: it is the conscious breathing. One of the acts we are most unconscious in life is the breathing. It is obvious that most of the time one pays no attention to this. The idea of becoming conscious of our breathing, the important and vital action, allows us to be more in contact with our body. Often, the people who begin this kind of conscious meditation can feel a sensation of suffocation, anguish or light-headedness: it says much about the unhealthy report that we can develop with our body if we do not pay attention!

Indeed, this uneasiness is only the refusal of our mental side to feel the body, the fear to see us as we really are. It is a primordial work.

In order to understand the principle of alignment, developing the respect of the structure is necessary: understanding that all comes to the center, the spine, back. One will see well later that all this comes down to Earth in relation to Heaven. Of course, at this level of practice one will try simply to feel his body, this is already an enormous task! An important stage and the backbone of the body-awareness is the simple exercise of holding our space: we try to occupy the maximum space possible with our back, chest and shoulders, instead of remaining shrunken like a scared or injured animal!

All these practices will be detailed later; the goal here is to explain what we do and where we are going. Physically, we will try (by the immobility of the static stance) to feel and get in touch with our body, also try to fully occupy the space that is ours. Mentally, the work will be in looking at our actions and daily movements, in order to become present and conscious, as much as possible, of the daily events. On the energetic level, we will try merely to open up and experiment with the vital energy sensation, this breath of life that resides in us.

As for this first principle, just like in all the Taoist teachings: we find a revelation but also a sensation of inability and helplessness facing our problems. It is not at all a theoretical teaching but a teaching of daily practice: because the only way to understand the theory is to practice without cessation.