Subtle Bodies In a Not-So-Subtle World
Coming Home Meditation today at 12-1pm on Zoom and MORE
Dear Friends,
I invite you to stop what you’re doing and take three deep breaths. I’ll do it now, too…
* * *
The news headlines every day are an assault— on the senses, yes, but also common decency, justice, and sanity.
THE ASSAULT IS NOT SUBTLE. Pick a passion—the environment, education, community, equity and inclusion, queerness in all its forms, the arts, the promise of America (anyone else feel depressed on the 4th of July?), the safety of our children—and there’s likely been an attack on that passion in recent weeks.
It’s rough out there.
My head isn’t in the sand. I’m paying attention AND I’m calling on my discernment and deepest grounding to stay centered and sane.
Some of you know, I’ve written a novel/ featuring one of my teachers, G.I. Gurdjieff as a character. Gurdjieff, who lived through a revolution and two world wars said:
“The worse the conditions of life, the more productive the work, provided you remember the work.”
My contemplation at this moment is about being a sensitive being in a desensitized world—the gifts and the challenges of this state; how to take care of one’s nervous system in a time of chaos; and how to cultivate even more refined sensitivity—which paradoxically is the ultimate fix for feeling “too sensitive.”
This is something I’m really expert at. I don’t often toot my own horn, but I think it’s time for those of us who have developed actual expertise, to step forward.
I’m working on several offerings at the moment that are birthed from my experience refining my subtle body and capacity for deep and precise sensing. This is a process that has involved my whole body and mind in practices—specifically from Buddhist Tantra, but also from psychology, trauma work, shadow work, feminine and indigenous wisdom traditions, my intuition, and Western esoteric Christianity—that reawaken the senses and balance of the elements and energies in the subtle body.
You could call it magic. You could call it alchemy. You could call it ensoulment. I call it the future.
The age of individual enlightenment is over. The time for personal, egoic seeking is coming to an end. In its place there is a call to the collective. Where we’re going, we can only go together. The future that’s waiting for us on the other side of this chaos , is one that can only be reached (or can only be reach us because it IS reaching out for us) together.
We need all hands on deck.
Coordination and coherence are key. In order to achieve these complex states within groups (larger and larger groups) we need each node in the network, each being, to be attuned to themselves and the whole. This requires us to wake up and take care of ourselves, to honor and hone our relationship to our own sensitivty and intuition. It takes extraordinary communication and trust. It takes telepathy and other skills and gifts that are currently seen as extraordinary in the human condition.
They’re not. They can be practiced, learned, and refined IN SERVICE to humanity and all life.
The subtle body of the individual, the Bliss Body, or Vajra (indestructible body) Body, is the vehicle for our enlightenment. It prefigures the gross/material body and is believed to be causal to it—so the health and vitality of the subtle body determines the health and vitality of the physical systems of the body. They are interpenetrating sheaths. The subtle body is also the home to emotional experience and the activity of karma—which is also what we call, “trauma.” Clearing, balancing, harmonizing, purifying, transforming—these are all actions we can perform on and through the subtle body that transform our perception, experience, and ultimately enable us to attain enlightenment.
I hope you’ll join me for some of these extraordinary offerings. We will practice and learn TOGETHER. I will be a guide, but the wisdom we access is collective and OURS.
» Today at 12-1pm EST, I am offering my usual COMING HOME mediation practice. This is an excellent spot to drop into deep peace and healing with other good folks. We share for 30 minutes and then sit for 30 min.
This is a pay-what-you-feel experience. Suggested donation is $10-20 for drop ins. Whatever you feel called to give is appreciated. Contributions can be made here: Paypal: schuyler@artofemergence.com or Venmo: ElizabethSchuyler-Brown. Paid subscribers, you are already covered. Thank you.
» Thursdays from 12-1pm EST, I will be offering a live “Bliss Body Yoga” class in Germantown, NY at the fabulous shala of Jai Sugrim. It’s going to be a regular, weekly class so come if you live in the Hudson Valley or you’re upstate this summer or fall!
» Last, but not least! My beloved partner in life and art, , and I will be offering a weekly online meetup/practice group this fall called AI EMBODIMENT. It will be a practicum on staying human in the age of AI and on making alchemical art with these potent tools without succumbing to their pull. Stay tuned for more information for this 8-week course starting in the fall. It will be a combo of his storytelling and AI genius and my embodiment magic.
If you’re interested in specific information on this course, email me at schuyler@artofemergence.com or watch this space for more details soon.
Be bold! Be embodied! Just BE.
With love,
Schuyler
Amen to all of this, Schuyler.