In a moving vehicle, by rhythmically swaying, experience. Or in a still vehicle, by letting yourself swing in slowing invisible circles.
- In a moving vehicle — drop resistance: We habitually fight the vehicle’s sway (leaning opposite to the lurch), which is why we arrive exhausted having ‘done nothing.’ Children do not yet know how to resist and arrive fresh. A drunkard cannot resist and also arrives fresh. Drop resistance entirely; move WITH the cart, sway WITH it, become part of it.
- Create a rhythm: Beyond non-resistance, actively make the movement musical — a dance. The sutra says ‘experience’ will come on its own.
- In a still vehicle or just sitting — begin with large circles: Sitting, close the eyes, swing the whole body in large circles. Then gradually make the circles smaller and smaller, slower and slower, until the body is visibly still — but inside you still feel a subtle movement continuing.
- Follow the interior whirl inward: Once the body stops, the inner movement persists (just as after a long train journey you still feel the motion when you close your eyes at home). Follow that inner movement; keep reducing it. When it narrows to a point — centering happens.
- Gurdjieff’s dances: He trained 100 white-robed dancers to whirl in circles; at his sudden ‘stop’ command, bodies halted but inner movement continued inward. The audience’s thoughts stopped simultaneously at the sudden stillness. Once, dancing toward the stage edge, the whole group fell onto a bare stone floor and not one was injured — they were genuinely not in their bodies. Absent identification with the body means absent resistance; a bone breaks only from resistance, from fighting gravity, so there was nothing to break.
- Children’s whirling — the lost gap: Children love to whirl because it gives them a bodiless feeling. Newborns see with one eye at a time; the soul is still loosely attached, not yet fully fixed. Meditation is deliberately recreating this gap. You can simply whirl like a child; when dizziness comes and you feel you will fall — do not stop. When the body falls, close the eyes and feel: the whirling continues inside. Follow it as it slows and shrinks inward.