Standing Like A Pillar - A Basic Standing Chinese Meditation

The Chinese definitely have some masters of stillness. I first heard about "standing still" from a book called "The Way of Energy" which talks about "Zhan Zhang." You can Google Zhan Zhang for more information. More recently a discussion of "standing still" appeared in a small paperback book on training for Chinese grappling. I thought it was interesting that this somewhat esoteric practice should appear in a book on a very exoteric and physical art like wrestling.

When I used to practice kung fu (choi li fut), after my warmup exercises I would often practice "standing still" in one of the postures from the Way of Energy for several minutes, and was surprised how deeply affecting the stillness coupled with the postures could be. I never experienced the same depth of stillness or transformed awareness in sitting meditation. If I did several rounds of standing, I pretty much "blew out my mind" for the rest of the afternoon and felt quite different all day; on those days I never got around to practicing the actual choi li fut forms. Sometimes the Zhan Zhang would leave me stupefied, not mentally, but craving sleep, like a deep physical exhaustion although all I'd done was stand still. If I went home and slept, my sleep would be a little strange - on the border of a projection experience.

It is hard to explain, but I highly recommend exploration of Zhan Zhang. No equipment is needed, the postures are all "still" so there are no complicated moves to make (or to try to figure out from confusing diagrams).

Carlos Castaneda and the Theater of the Real

Once you realize what Carlos was up to, all the clues are right there in his writings and talks. For example, very early on Don Juan is somewhat upset that Carlos's "power animal" is an unreliable coyote instead of a stupendous power animal like a snake. Is Carlos not simply telling us to take what he recounts with a grain of salt?

Likewise he introduces the concept of "tales of power" - of stories that may or may not be true, but carry power.

Later, in his public talks, he introduces "theater of the real." Is this theater not his everyday life, the man (and his group) behind the meme?

But does this mean a Carlos as fraud is also a Carlos without substance? I don't think so. Despite spending the past five years coming out of denial that Carlos was quite the big liar, his writings still amaze me, and never cease to instruct. Not to mention that his system of body work, Tensegrity, produces some pretty potent shifts in awareness.

Unlike the Wizard of Oz, where a carnival huckster devoid of all substance is finally revealed behind the curtain, when the curtain is pulled aside on Carlos Castaneda we are left Charlie Coyote. Not Charlie Spider, his birth name, but the inventive, and true, wizard of odd.

Senseless Internal Chatter

I think it would be a very interesting experiment to record all of one's thoughts, for an hour, on tape, or in a notebook, then read them back later and wonder how we ever get anything done.

Something other than our "deep self" must be doing all that senseless internal chatter. Other than an occasional "I need to pick up Pampers for the baby" not a lot seems to be going on at the surface level of consciousness, in my internal dialog.

On the other hand, sometimes I feel that the real "me" is looming silently over the chatterbox me, and that's the parent in charge of the kid.