巴西女孩婕娜的静修心得
按:5月30日到6月1日三天时间里,正在辛庄附近的上苑艺术馆做驻馆艺术家的两位巴西女孩玛丽娜和婕娜以及两位中国的学员参加了三和静修中心的静修工作坊。以下是婕娜的静修体验及心得。经她许可译成中文发于此处(附原文)。玛丽娜的心得见本公众号7月1日文章。
当金振豹博士向我们介绍三和静修中心的静修工作坊时,我非常感兴趣,也很好奇。这看起来值得一试,因为我是一个容易焦虑的人,工作和学习都匆匆忙忙。而且,这可以帮助我对中国文化有所了解。而这是我来中国旅行的目标之一。
我们第一天来中心是在下午。一起用过晚饭之后,金振豹博士建议我们先体验二十分钟的静坐。于是我们就有了第一次静坐的经验。他教给我们呼吸的基本方法,说我们应把注意力放在呼气上面。一开始,我感到有点不安和恐惧,尤其是因为我有点神经兮兮,总是同时担心好几件事情。对我来说,安静下来,把注意力放在自己身上,放在自己的内心很困难。随着时间一分分过去,我开始安静一些。很难描述我在第一次静坐的二十分钟里所体验到的东西。一开始,我感到非常热。手开始大量出汗。后来,我忘记了这些感受,感到更加舒适和自信。我身体的最初反应是嘴里比平时有更多的唾液,而这个现象到现在(静坐时)仍然会出现。另外,我有嘴自己在拉伸的感觉,尤其是下巴。好象我的身体在发生一些变化。我无法用言语描述这种感受,但我能肯定的是,这种感觉不错。
经过第一次静坐之后,我们一起做了些拉伸练习。这些练习让我意识到我身体方面的问题。有些拉伸动作我做不好,而且很难保持某种姿势达一定时间。去年我过得很紧张,几乎没有做什么锻炼。
第二天上午,我们以二十分钟的静坐开始。第二次静坐的感受比(前一天晚上)第一次的感受更为强烈。渐渐地,我开始感到能量在身体里流动。有意思的是,当我和大家分享能量是如何在自己身体里流动的时候,金博士告诉我他第一次发现象我这样的情况:能量是从后颈部开始沿着脊柱流到腿部,然后又上升到腹部、胸和手臂。静坐之后,我们又开始拉伸。我慢慢感到自己的身体变得更加灵活。一天练习下来,最初让我感到很难的那些练习变得更容易了。对我来说最有意思的是,在这一天结束之时,我发现我的姿势比原来好多了,很容易挺直身体。过去几年,我在姿势上很有问题。我因为这个做理疗已经有几年了,但对我来说保持一个良好的姿势总是很成问题。现在,我意识到静修是能够帮助我改善身体姿势的唯一有效的练习。这让我开始对自己在成长过程中所接受的“西方”文化有所反思。在那些年里,我只是关注背部肌肉的练习,让它们强壮,因为人们告诉我,这样我就可以改善自己的姿势。这次工作坊之后,我开始从不同的角度看问题,并且我开始相信,对能量的关注能够让我更好地理解自己的身体,以及它是如何工作的。对我来说,在工作坊当中体验到不同文化之间的差异很有意思。这次经历让我对自己所受教育的某些方面有更为清晰的认识,而我以前对此毫无觉察。
经过几天的练习,我开始对能量的流动有不同的感受,并且我的专注力有实质性的改善。我感到生活的压力没有那么大了。这的确是非常棒的体验,是我在中国印象最深的经历之一。通过它我学会如何更好地管理自己的身心。另外,我也接触到中国的文化、宗教和哲学。我希望我能够更多地了解这个国家和她的文化。它很伟大,而又丰富多元。我很感激有机会参与到这个工作坊。这个经历让我终生难忘。
J.N.O. (巴西圣保罗),视觉艺术家,2016年5月30日-6月1日
金博士评注:
静修的意义在于,它以非常简单而有效的方法帮助人们认识自己的形、气、心、神的身心结构及其彼此之间的关联,以直接可感知的方式认识生命的精神本质。生命的精神本质简单来讲即体现在,形受制于气,气受制于心,心受制于神。通过适当的静修训练,我们在短时间内体验到气的流动,由此而开始理解能量与情感、意识和肉体之间的关联并掌握使之保持平衡的方法。
不同的成长经历,不同的文化背景,会让人形成不同的身心结构和意识状态。这种身心结构和意识状态好比我们的“操作系统”。每个人都向往自由,希望人生越来越自由。但是当我们对自己的“操作系统”一无所知,只是凭着本能去行动的时候,我们只会离自由越来越远。静修其实只是帮助我们停下来,回过头来审视一下自己的“操作系统”,看看自己的喜怒哀乐都是如何发生的,而这是一切自由的前提。同时,这种“内省”也是最有效地转化和更新我们的“操作系统”的方式之一。最近带领几位外国朋友静修的经历,则让我对不同文化背景下的人的身心结构和意识状态有了更多的认识,也确信静修作为一种以体验为基础,而不是从理论和教条出发的身心训练和精神成长之路,具有跨文化的意义。
When Leo (Dr. Zhenbao Jin) told us about a meditation workshop in Zanhe Meditation Center, I got really interested and curious about how it would be. It seemed like a good idea, as I am a very anxious person, always in a hurry with my work and studies. Furthermore, it would be a great opportunity to know a little bit more about Chinese culture, one of my main goals in my trip to the country.
When we first came to the center, it was afternoon and we were supposed to have dinner together. After the dinner, Leo suggested us to have a small training of meditation for twenty minutes, just so we would have a first contact with it. He taught us the basic rule of breathing, explaining us that we had to focus on the breathing out. At the beginning, I felt really insecure and apprehensive, especially because I am a worrywart, always concerned about several things at once. For me, it is hard to be calm and to concentrate in myself, in my interior, in my own body and mind. As the minutes passed, I started to get calmer. It is really difficult to explain what I felt in these first twenty minutes of meditation. Initially, I felt really hot and my hands started to sweat a lot. Later, I forgot these sensations, and I felt much more comfortable and self-confident. An immediate response of my body was to salivate more than usual, and this symptom persists until now. Also, I felt my mouth stretched, specially my jaws. It seemed like something was happening with my body, but I couldn’t explain in words what it was. I can assure, however, it was a good sensation. After this first session, we have made some stretching together. In this moment, I realized my body was absolutely out of shape. There were some stretching positions I couldn’t do very well, and it was
hard to maintain in the same way for long time. Last year was so hectic, I let all physical activities aside.
On the day that followed, we started in the morning with a twenty-minute session of meditation. This second time was much stronger than the first and little by little I started to feel the energy flowing in my body. It was curious that when I told the group how I felt the flow of energy, Leo said it was the first time he found someone like me: the energy starts to flow from my neck, going down my spine to my legs, and after it goes up to my belly and to chest and arms. After this session, we have made the same stretching again, and step by step I felt my body more flexible. With practice, as time passed, it was much easier to achieve and maintain the stretching positions I found hard in the beginning.
The most interesting thing for me was that in the end of the day, I felt my posture much better and it was very easy to get straight. In the past years, I had problems of bad posture. I’d done many years of physiotherapy but keeping a good posture has always been a trouble for me. Now, I realize meditation is the only practice that really helps me to maintain a good body posture. This made me think much about the “western” culture, in which I had been educated: in all of those years, I had been concerned with strengthening the muscles of my back, as I was taught that by doing so I could improve my posture. After the workshop, I learned to see things under another perspective, and now I see that focusing on energy helps me to understand better my own body and how it works. For me, it was very interesting to see the difference of cultures during the workshop. This experience made me more conscious about aspects of my education I had never realized before.
As the days passed, I started to feel different sensations about floating energy and my capacity of concentration improved substantially. I felt less and less stressful with life in general. It was a really good experience, one of the most remarkable I had in China. I could learn to deal better with my own body and mind. Besides, I could get in
touch with Chinese cultures, religions and philosophies. I wish I can learn more and more about this country and its culture, which is so great and rich in all its diversity. I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in this workshop and I am sure I will take this experience for the rest of my life.
J. N. O. (São Paulo, SP Brazil) – Visual Artist, May 30-June 1, 2016