The Incarnation of Fluid Nebulosity
Continued explorations of a pattern language of energy: sources.
In an earlier post, I discussed Dimensions of Energy. Here, I’ll touch upon sources of energy.
The three aspects: Incarnation, Nebulosity, and the Fluidity of Nebulosity
Nebulous patterning can be considered on a spectrum of incarnation. When we encounter a pattern, it is always incarnate in a particular form: “that fish is squirmy”. Squirmy is the nebulous pattern, the fish is where the pattern is incarnated.
If we try to pin down precisely what it means to be “squirmy”, we find that squirmy is not only nebulous patterning, but fluidly so: vague, ambiguous, undefined in a way that can’t be pinned down.
“The fish is squirmy”: the incarnation of a fluidly nebulous pattern. We can emphasize three aspects of this patterning: the location of incarnation, the nebulosity of the incarnated pattern, and the fluidity of the nebulosity. And this can either be an analytical or a phenomenological realization.
Sources of Energy
“Energy” is nebulous patterning. The traditions present us with a huge variety of sources of nebulous patterns. One distinction is “inside”, or of the body-mind, “outside”, or of nature, and “spiritual”, or “beyond”, experienced as from “somewhere outside the natural realm”.
Some traditional types of psychophysical energy are:
physical: experienced as sensation in the body associated with movement, as in basic qigong
sexual: a particular intense family of sensations experienced in the body, explored in varieties of sexual yoga.
emotional: the spectrum of emotions, including all the endless varieties of moods and dispositions
subtle body: all sensations that are appear as physical sensations but are not easily specifically locatable.
vibe: the complex mixture of these and other energies brought to a situation.
Each of these energies is endlessly subdividable. For example, one qigong school explores five subdivisions of physical energy: Monkey, Tiger, Bear, Deer, Crane.
Varieties of natural energy are traditionally divided elementally, for example, the energy of each of earth, water, fire, air, and space.
Again, each of these is endlessly subdividable: water energy includes the energy of snow, ice, rivers, oceans, rain, more…
These natural patterns can be incarnated metaphorically or synesthetically. Any five year-old can “be like a bear” or “be like the wind”. We can apply these patterns in any context, whether “be like a bear in physical movement” or “be like a bear in a business meeting”; we will incarnate the energy very differently in these two circumstances.
Now briefly touching upon varieties of spiritual energy, that is, tangible energy that phenomenally appears as if from “somewhere else” or “outside the natural realm”. The difference between psychophysical, natural, and spiritual energies are often conflated, as they can appear quite similar. Some common varieties in the traditions are:
Descending, or energy that descends from above, as found in spirit-baptism in Christianity. Note, that energy that descends in the frontal line can be psychophysical, as in some varieties of the Microcosmic Orbit in Taoism, and this is not the same as descending spiritual energy.
Ascending, or energy that ascends from below, as found in kundalini yoga. Note that energy in the spinal line can be either psychophysical in nature, apparently arising from the body’s potentials, or spiritual in nature, apparently arising from outside the body’s potentials. These are related but dissimilar experiences that might be called “psychophysical kundalini” vs. “spiritual kundalini”.
Heart, or energy that arises in the heart. Again, distinguish between the psychophysical heart-energy of touching emotions, and spiritual heart-energy, which has an apparent non-psychophysical source.
Pervasive, or energy that surrounds and pervades all. In this case, natural pervasive energies, such as generated by breathing practices, can be distinguished from spiritual pervasive energies, which do not have an apparent natural or psychophysical source.
The Feeling of Being, or the most subtle energy experienced that is not apparently of either body, mind, or nature.
Expanding Discrimination of Energy
There are endless families of energy, or nebulous patterning, and exploring how the various traditions have focused on particular families can help discriminate the amorphous slush-pile of energy into more distinct flavors. This both supports skillful means of working with energy, and illuminates rewarding portals for incarnating fluidly nebulous patterns.