The Fourteen Methods of Synchronizing with Primary Respiration – Metaphors of Interrelatedness – Post #6

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.

8. Cycle of Attunement: Part 2 – Natural World

  1. The Union of the Natural World of Inner Space and Outer Space
    1. The natural world is the fifth synchronizing.
    2. The natural world is presynchronized with PR and its potency.
    3. The natural world is also a metaphor for the fluid body as mentioned.
    4. Use all the senses in a session to relate with the natural world especially feeling (kinesthesia), hearing, smelling, taste, mind and vision.
    5. Make an umbilical connection with nature whenever possible as described above.
    6. Periodically rest attention in the space outside the treatment room. This requires a window to look out or a picture of nature on the wall or a memory of one’s favorite place in nature.
    7. Allow the natural world to participate in the session. This is indicated by the natural world synchronizing your attention with the change of phase of PR through birdsong, a sun beam, the wind blowing and so forth. Even street noise that is seemingly an interruption is synchronizing.
    8. Principle: Any aspect of nature can bring the one’s attention back to the present moment for synchronizing with PR. Sparks are everywhere not just in the practitioner and client.
    9. Principle: As said, biodynamic sessions employ all of the senses for synchronizing with PR. Train by meditating outside in nature. Thus, the whole sensorium is required to synchronize with the nature of PR.

9. Cycle of Attunement Part 3 – The Client

  1. The Client
    1. The sixth synchronizing is with the five elements of the client.
    2. Principle: Hands are afferent. Sensing not doing. All other senses including the mind sense are involved in contacting the client. The whole body senses the client.
    3. Contemplating the client’s pain and suffering is important. Compassion then is bearing witness with an extrasensory heart capable of expanding infinitely. Then the practitioner can make a nonverbal wish that the client’s pain and suffering be eliminated. It is the biodynamic mantra.
    4. Hands remain at the surface of the client’s fluid body until they feel wet.
    5. Principle: Every practitioner has different training and different skills (aptitude) for sensing below the surface. Therefore, each practitioner is unique in their own approach to watching the priorities of PR unfold in a session and in life. The surface however is equally important. Of course, other skills and methods can be integrated into a session and usually with brevity in the middle of a session. Own this work. It is yours to play with.
    6. Bring attention to one’s hands when directed by the client’s fluid body. Wait for a signal to be given by the client rather than letting the mind energize the hands. The practitioner’s will power and desire to add force must be suspended.
    7. Principle: Another way of saying the foregoing is: Bring attention to one’s hands when directed by PR. Then the practitioner is synchronizing with the client’s instinct for healing.
    8. Principle: Observe moments of the client’s body synchronizing with PR at any level. The practitioner is not the leader of the orchestra. He or she is the stage manager of a three-act play – it has a beginning, a middle and an end.
    9. Principle: A biodynamic session has three overlapping phases:

A. The cycle of attunement associated with the perception of a neutral;

B. The Ignition of a therapeutic or healing process. Therapeutic processes are time dependent. Healing processes are timeless;

C. An endpoint that is open. The session is finished when the client’s clock time is finished and the next client is in the waiting room. If it is the end of the day, go home and work in the garden.

10.  Principle: The cycle of attunement is partially based on the infant-mother attachment establishing stability in the ANS. Such stability is the basis for states of stress to transform into joy or at least stability and resilience after a therapeutic neutral occurs. Sympathetic nervous system tone rises with approach behaviors and parasympathetic nervous system tone raises with withdrawal behaviors based on safety. This rhythm exists on a spectrum of normal and joyful to stressful and traumatic when safety is not present. The client’s neutral does not usually happen overnight or in every session. The cycle of attunement is paced with the rhythm of PR to repair early attachment complications (as one of numerous possibilities not under the control of the practitioner). Consider such repair as a normal side effect.