The Fourteen Methods of Synchronizing with Primary Respiration – Metaphors of Interrelatedness – Post #1

Homage to Shantideva who wrote the greatest book ever on compassion:
“As long as space remains, as long as sentient beings remain, until then, may I too remain and dispel the miseries of the world.” – Shantideva

Homage to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the King of Compassion. Please guide us in this time of need:
“May I become at all times, both now and forever: a protector for those without protection; a guide for those who have lost their way; a ship for those with oceans to cross; a bridge for those with rivers to cross; a sanctuary for those in danger; a lamp for those without light; a place of refuge for those who lack shelter; and a servant to all in need.” – Shantideva

Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy is a compassion-based practice.
“Compassion – our ability to feel the pain that we share with others.”
– Pema Chodron

There is no embodiment of order without dynamic stillness,
There is no movement in the universe without Primary Respiration.

 

  1. Primary Respiration (PR)
    1. PR is a multidimensional experience of embodiment – the feeling of normal and natural inside and out. Embodiment is phenomenologically based upon each individual’s unique experience of their body-mind-spirit continuum.
    2. PR is the constant automatic fluctuation, the coalescing and dissolution of the total substance of the inner and outer space of the body in a slow tempo.
    3. PR is the interconnecting movement of wholeness extending beyond the horizon which also governs the metabolism of the body. It is potent. It is vital. It is life.
    4. Principle: PR has multiple levels and dimensions occurring simultaneously. Biodynamics is a training in the embodiment and perception of PR.

     2. Rates and States

  1. PR has three types of rates and states in clinical practice. They are all associated with involuntary motion and the laws of nature and spirit:
    1. Reciprocal or biphasic. PR has variable rates usually perceived starting around 6 cycles per 10 minutes (two 50 second phases per cycle) up to 20-minute cycles and more. Different teachers give different names to longer rates. It is more desirable to have students name their own experience.
    2. Uniphasic (one direction only). Here PR is woven together with intermittent states of stillness (a pause) expanding in all directions three dimensionally. A continual reverse direction or phase is also possible. PR does not stop but rather fades to the background of perception for the dynamic stillness to come forward. Thus, at this level PR and stillness are the same thing, just two sides of one coin. It’s the gold standard of biodynamics.
    3. Non-phasic. States associated with the feeling, sense, perception or subtle emotion of: loving kindness and compassion, humility and patience, equanimity and joy. These are called The Four Immeasurables in Buddhism.
    4. The Four Immeasurables
      May all beings enjoy happiness and the root of happiness.
      May they be free from suffering and the root of suffering.
      May they not be separated from the great happiness devoid of suffering.
      May they dwell in the great equanimity free from passion, aggression and ignorance.
  2. Principle: PR has no beginning point, source or cause nor does it have an end point. This is not mystical. It is a waste of time looking for causation. In life there is only movement and stillness. Trusting the tide (Sutherland quote) includes the capacity to ride the tide and its various currents. We are being moved by the tide rather than the practitioner observing the tide from the shoreline. This is the essence of embodiment.
  3. Principle: Ultimately PR is about healing since it is timeless. Thus, a practitioner cannot know the timing of the client’s healing. Yes, there is a therapeutic process that is time dependent and much of this document attempts to describe that relative reality from the beginning of a session to the end of a session. Relatively speaking then, the practitioner must manage the clock and his or her perception to be paid for the quality of their attention.