Continue observing and you will soon verify that inside you there is a place of calm and tranquility where nothing can disturb you, what is difficult is to get there.
But if you manage to be there on repeated occasions, you will be able to remember some of the steps that led you there, that allowed you to return again to that inner place.
This place of tranquility is not a metaphor, it is very real.
P.S.OUSPENSKY
I recently came across this quote from Ouspensky with which I have decided to open this article dedicated to stillness and silence. That undisturbed inner peace, of which so much is said, is in truth the human longing and yearning.
The depth of space and the immensity of silence, that treasure, dwells in each one of us. That place where opposites occur in total harmony: fullness in the void, luminosity in the night, the answer when there are no questions. Imagine observing the universe from the universe itself.
It is in that place where true rest takes place, where the deepest understandings occur and where vitality is renewed.
The first time I had contact with this inner space was while studying Californian Massage, in that continuous give and take that ends up becoming the same open and participate, since then I believe that the opportunity to find this experience through the body makes it something sacred.
From this understanding this massage is born, inside each person is the place where trust in the magnitude of Life rests and where true Love is born.
When a person takes their first session of Californian Massage, it is likely that the first “realization” will be the great need for a real break. There are few moments when we allow ourselves to stop and even when we do, it is difficult to achieve a deeper “disconnection” to clear the mind and soothe the body. The rhythm and the “burdens” that we sustain daily make us find ourselves with a Nervous System that is stressed to say the least, from this state it is not easy for us to give ourselves completely to a sudden pause.
The Californian Massage works deeply on the Nervous System while allowing the release of all kinds of tensions, from those that could be more common and usual at a physical level to those of a more subtle nature of greater emotional content. During the session, the body is treated with confidence as it feels the presence in the stillness of the hands. In this restraint, the breath gradually deepens as the murmur of the mind dissolves.
By transmitting from Nervous System to Nervous System we can promote that calm state. Feeling the presence of the other is already an act that induces us to relax. The massage is in turn an invitation to walk together along this path that starts from movement to reach the stillness of meditation.
In this way, at the end of the massage and even being part of the session, an “integration” time is dedicated as important as all the previous ones, since in many occasions this is the space for blossoming.
It is in the stillness where it is felt with the clarity of the attentive listener.
I want to end this month’s article by recalling those first words that emerged from my experiences receiving:
Massage shows you,
teaches you to observe, to accept and to release.
It shows you what you can see and how far you can see at that moment.
It reflects the blockages and closed spaces as well as the open and arranged spaces,
Tension and pain as well as pleasure,
Noise and daze like stillness, silence and emptiness….
It shows you the present.
And it shows you that beyond the layers that are present in the present
one can return to that place, where nothing is and where everything is, where there are no more words or explanation. One finds oneself in that space of meditation.
And the wonderful thing is, that’s the one thing that’s always there,
and therefore we always have the opportunity to dive to it.
This is what it shows you in Californiano,
shows you the route… until you reach the depth.
And this is why only once one has consciously inhabited this place,
the change took place.
Maria Lucas
Esalen Californian Massage Therapist and collaborator of the Spazio Massage School.
Contact Calithai Massage Space
www.masajeterapia.net
