Embryonic Regeneration
Embryonic regeneration is the way our bodies renew vital functioning. I call it “embryonic” because it echoes the original generation of our bodies in the womb, where cells form and migrate where they are needed to build a human form. We all still have that capacity to renew and heal even after significant damage to our body-mind. Water plays an integral part of this process, both in aquatic bodywork and immersion therapy. When the body is floated in a womb-like environment, embryonic regeneration emerges in a big way and provides the necessary healing and re-patterning.
Water is life and life is Water
Water is life, and life is water, they are inextricable and interchangeable. This is why I worship water as my creator and creator of all that is alive on this planet. Why pray to a god in the sky, or follow a religion based on some miracles that supposedly happened in the distant past? What is most sacred is written into our watery cells from millions of years of the evolution of life with the elemental creator, Water!
Dive into the fluid universe
Let’s stand at the edge of the shore
and dive into the fluid universe
The plunge and immersion
will welcome us home
back into the watery world,
the primordial pool
where our bodies dissolve
and magically become renewed
Embody a Universe
Don’t just inhabit a body, embody a universe! It is too easy to limit our embodiment process, which is actually a continual process of creation and incarnation, with beliefs about what we are and who we should be. These are called ‘limiting beliefs” and never take in to account the vastness and depth of who we are, galaxies of cells and bacteria spinning with the larger universe.
Body of Water
We are all bodies of water with millions of fluid cells, dancing and constantly shape-shifting. Wear your dress of water to the Dance of Life and spin your cells into a new galaxy!
Inner Embryonic Bliss
Finding our inner embryonic bliss is an act of deep remembrance. As the fetal photo shows, there is a timeless connection that pre-exists and underlays all of our post-birth pursuits and learning. This is a state of non-duality and non-thinking that I like to call the “unborn mind”. Being immersed in warm water naturally elicits this re-collection of embryonic bliss, deep relaxation, and a feeling of deep connection and oneness with all of life.
Dancing Water
My new name for myself is “Dancing Water”. The name represents a commitment to a manifestation of myself that is much deeper than my history, my family, my profession, my culture, my successes and failures. For at least two-thirds of my life I have been very identified with water - no matter what art/landscape commission or life situation I was involved in at the time - my essence has always been tied to water and its movements. Many spiritual traditions refer to the dropping of identity and ego and the realization of our oneness with all life as “enlightenment”. I am going to refer to this process as “enwaterment”, the liquid version of enlightenment. So, I invite you to join me in this wonderful dance of water!
Immersion
If we understand the universe as a Vast Wave Medium, then we can realize our own bodies as condensed or congealed aspects of this pool of wave energy. Our immersion in this ever present creative wave medium is a given. Our own resonate "body of water" is the receiver and sender of wave energy, and in this view everything in the universe is alive with waves; electromagnetic, gravity, sound, light, breath, emotion, and movement, all are integral to the vast pool of wave energy. So the truth of our bodies, as Emilie Conrad says, is "we don't have to move, we are movement".
This deep allowing to be enveloped and penetrated by the waves of life-as-it-is, to be moved, to be dissolved, and to be continually re-created, is for me the essence of the creative life. I think we should all follow the advice of my dissolved-into-love friend Jeannie Zandi, who says simply, "Let it have you".
Water Zen
Water Zen is my name for the practice of using the element of water for meditation practice. The raw and direct experience of moment-to-moment reality is the foundation of Zen meditation practice. The word "Zen" comes from the Sanskrit word "dhyana", which means "absorption". We all know that absorption has everything to do with water! The other well-known fact is that our bodies are mostly water, and on our planet Earth water is the carrier of life. So, when we turn our inner attention to water, the great dissolver and creator of all forms, we have direct communication to the source of life.
The True Face of Water
Look at your reflection in a still pool
and see the true face of water.
The Body of Water
When we enter water, we are entering a small portion of the vast body of water. This large body of water is a cohesive and intelligent, living, functioning being.
When we enter water, we are entering a small portion of the vast body of water. This large body of water is a cohesive and intelligent, living, functioning being. It is the matrix of life for human beings as well as for the whole planet. Not only that, water is universal, found on distant planets, gas clouds, and other structures throughout the universe. So, water is our biocosmic body, existing both outside and inside the permeable border of our skin.
The Water of the Unborn
It all begins with an idea.
Water is the element of the Unborn, the pre-formal and pre-existent state. Immersion in warm water, above the surface and even more below the surface, is a direct experience of the unborn state. Absorption in this state dissolves the form making mind and allows the unborn mind to emerge. This is the territory of undifferentiated love, bliss, and true potency. Unforming the mind/body is the necessary first step for any transformation to occur. How easy it is to forget this and keep "working" at transformation. What a giant cosmic joke! So, I say let's abide in the unformed moment and get into "no shape".
The Thought Eraser
It all begins with an idea.
My thoughts form and dissolve
Like snowflakes landing on lake water
Schwenk on Water and Renunciation
It all begins with an idea.
"What enables water to accomplish this? By renouncing every self-quality it becomes the creative substance for the generation of all forms. By renouncing every life of its own it becomes the primal substance of all life. By renouncing every fixed substance it becomes the carrier of all substance transformation. By renouncing every rhythm of its own it becomes the carrier of each and every rhythm."
Theodor Schwenk