Five Wisdom Energies (eBook)

FromChapter One: Discovering Energy My Story Onesummer day in 1976, I was sitting in a friend's apartment in Boulder, Colorado,where we were both assistant teaching at Naropa University, a school thatfocuses on training in thearts,Buddhism, and contemplative psychotherapy. Naropa's founder, the Tibetanmeditation master Chgyam Trungpa, had written a book called CuttingThrough Spiritual Materialism, whichI was reading. The following passage caught my eye: 'In the Tantrictradition energy is categorized in five basic qualities or Buddha Families:Vajra, Ratna, Padma, Karma and Buddha. Each Buddha family has an emotionassociated with it which is transmuted into a particular 'wisdom' or aspect ofthe awakened state of mind. The Buddha families are also associated withcolors, elements, landscapes, directions, seasons, with any aspect of thephenomenal world.' Readingthose words aligned me with my world. It confirmed many feelings andexperiences that I had had in my life. Though I had not yet begun to practicesitting meditation and knew almost nothing about contemplative traditions,somehow I instinctively knew about the energies of which he wrote. Myimmediate connection came from my life as a dancer, choreographer, and teacher.I was passionately interested in examining the dynamic qualities of expressivemovement. For example, I had choreographed a piece about animals called'In Wildness,' which explored how a prairie dog moves in contrast toa deer, how the energy of a flock of birds contrasts with the feeling of a lioncoming in for the kill. In other dances I explored human emotions—,the heat oflove, the strength of anger, the stiffness of pride, the sparkle of joy. ReadingChgyam Trungpa's words that day changed my life. It led me to acontemplative tradition with an understanding of energy at its core thatacknowledged the inherent sanity and richness of my art discipline—,andlife—,while allowing me to step onto a meditative path. For the next few years,the five Buddha families increasingly became part of my dance work. As theydid, my awareness of these energies began to color my perspective in otheraspects of my life, particularly my relationships with people. Why was it thatone man brought out my intellectual curiosity and another my physical desire?Why did I feel at ease with one person and anxious with another? Why would Ifeel powerful in one situation but inhibited and frustrated in another? Whatwas the energetic relationship between myself, these people, and thesesituations? Sevenyears later I was able to begin working with the practice associated with thefive energies—,that of taking postures in colored environments to heightentheir qualities. (See appendix B, 'Maitri Programs.') At that time Istaffed a three-month program in which people practiced like this in depth.Meanwhile, I had become the director of undergraduate dance and dance therapyat Naropa. I was seeing dance students become extremely self-conscious abouttheir creative work when they began to practice meditation. It dawned on methat to hear the message 'Be who you are,' which the five wisdomenergies work had brought home for me, might also be helpful for them.Gradually I introduced energies work into the dance curriculum. WhenI realized that I had become more interested in my students as people than asartists, I took a degree in contemplative psychotherapy and worked as atherapist. As my work with the five energies evolved, I became more interestedin group dynamics and moved into organizational development work and education.Today I train, consult,...