Motionless sitting is probably the easiest way of learning to be centered. Being centered, however, does not require that you be physically motionless. You learn to be centered, and you become increasingly familiar with the energetic feeling-tone of stillness through the practice of motionless sitting, and you immerse yourself in it as fully as you can when you can, but you then carry that feeling-tone with you into the motion of your life.
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In actor training the focus of the work on the craft of acting begins with relaxation. The quiet allows studentsto listen to themselves and their bodjes. This marks the beginning of learning, of self awareness. Actors mustcome to know the life-force that moves within them and as with the spiritual student this awareness leads directlyto the breath. The goal for both is the same. With focused concentration on the breath recognition occurs of "theliving current" moving through the body (Chaikin, 66). Whether we call this meditation, relaxation, or creativevisualization, it forms the basis of most first year acting classes. It also provides the clearest evidence of a link tospiritual practices by placing the focus on the breath.
Another instance where spiritual ideas help actors is in the rejection of a zealous striving for success. Thisfacilitates a maximization of intuitive creativity because it allows the actors' talent to surprise them in a waythat could possibly exceed the rational mind's conception of the character. This faith in the possibility ofsurprise contends that creativity and talent are more than the sum of the brain's cognitive powers. The paradoxis that often the desire for inspiration is the guarantee of its nonappearance. Spiritual training allows the actorto create the circumstances under which intuition or talent is allowed to work repeatedly. A mode isconstructed in which what is manifested inside can be directly manifested outside without interference.Choices regarding what is appropriate for the character can be made after the fact; to do otherwise is tocensor oneself. The elimination of this prior self-censorship is the primary benefit of a firm connection to acentral core of stillness.The National Voice Intensive is, as its name suggests, a rigorous five week workshop bringing together fortyperformers and a dozen of Canada's premiere voice teachers. The central focus of the instruction is the teaching of breathing. From the very beginning sessions David Smukler and his staff instill the verbal and physicalvocabulary necessary for the student to understand viscerally the philosophy being discussed. Through a seriesof exercises the Sacral Chakra (the area at the base of the spine between your coccyx and peritoneum) isidentified as the pivotal source of all vocal work. He refers to it as "The Swamp." That area of the body issensitized by the employment of creative visualization while the muscles of the abdomen and lower back arestretched and strengthened allowing the breath to descend into the belly and back ribs. A connection is thenestablished first with sound and then with words, using Shakespearean text as source material, between "TheSwamp," breathing, and speaking. At first I found this to be disconcerting if not frightening because it removedmy ability to engage my mind and my judgement in the process of creating a performance. But with practice Isurprised myself by contacting a depth of emotion that I had previously been able to engage only by chance.My observation of the progress of myself and others convinced me that this freedom from prior control left thework more honest and more human. It was as if the words presented themselves to the speaker for the firsttime, the instant before they were spoken, all because the impulse was removed from your mind to your lowerabdomen.
The strength of will needed to portray human emotions using yourself as the raw material is precisely the samestrength the young monk in training is seeking in his quest for the place of quiet stillness. For the actor thesetechniques are sufficiently alien to engender enough discipline in their acquisition that old habits can be overcomeand forgotten. By placing a unified philosophy of teaching combined with an absolute faith in their methodologyof approaching the voice, the teachers of the National Voice Intensive allow their students to make deep personaldiscoveries about themselves. The ability of the actor to hide behind the mask of the character is removed.Forcing them to use themselves in this emotionally baring way allows the students to realize that there is noexcuse not to be free in their work. Once a commitment is made to allowing the truth of the moment to be yourguide, everything else becomes a cheat. Whatever spiritual borrowings have taken place all advance this goal byproviding a structure upon which a new journey is possible.
In this way, Tai Chi becomes a barometer and a guidepost for the journey into greater self awareness that thestudents must take as they embark on a career of becoming other characters. The spiritual or "quiet" place isachieved through the discipline, the practice of practical techniques, the constant repetition of physical and mentaltasks until they become second nature. When the mind is free from concentrating on the task, it becomes able tocreate. 2ff7e9595c
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