Olympic Proportions: Flow
A vast human sea of 2,008 martial artists clad in white move in graceful precision at the opening ceremony of the Bejing Olympics. It is difficult to believe it isn’t CGI. It isn’t. One figure’s perfected skill is reflected in the other, and the next, as they form a breathtaking cloud of Chinese martial arts merging both slow motion Tai Ji and fast Wu Shu with a staggering scale. It is immediately apparent to the viewer that something incredible is happening, and the original combative intent of martial arts is transcended. This is more….
Perhaps after centuries of absorbing Zen and Daoist thoughts and culture, the Chinese hold the martial arts more as an expression of aesthetic movement in service to art and philosophy. Up close in the Olympic ceremony, each individual martial artist is kicking and punching, but from a bird’s eye view, these 2008 separate bodies merge as one. It is a single flow of living energy as the circular patterns change from moment to moment. One may immediately understand this liberation and beauty beyond Asian thought — as many of us from everywhere in the world reacted with a universal nod.
On another level, this can be seen as a visual metaphor for Daoism, which holds all of life as an infinite rhythmic flow of of things forever in transformation. The magic is in consciously being a part of its movement. We often become so focused on ourselves and our own rhythms that forget that we are all part of something much bigger. Maybe when we stop, even for a moment and step back, we may glimpse the big picture….and flow in consonance to its pulse. Ours is a shared experience. Remember what you saw in that Olympic martial art moment. Find your tempo.
When you use mindful movement to align yourself in thought, action & emotion as one moving part of the whole, you are moving closer to the source. And in that deeper connection there lies the power and beauty of life.
Lawrence and Toni
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1 comment August 16th, 2008