It started today January 14, like a whole city went from Kansas to the Yellow Brick Road one Friday afternoon
It wasn't Kansas, it was San Francisco and not everybody went.
But it is the day I count as a birth: it was the day I became aware of what it is to live.
When I was younger, I became part of a great social experiment.
We were
reinventing culture in a new and better form.
We looked about to see
what was worthwhile and adopted it.
We discarded that which was not
worthy.
Not all of us agreed on the same things.
Some believed in simple
things.
Some believed in hard work.
Some believed in changing ourselves
...
dance is a type of meditation:
Focus on the dance, not the ego or any of the ego's elements: vanity, shyness, etc.). When we are not distracted by a need to impress people who are watching us, or to dance in accordance with our self-image (as a "talented dancer" or a "klutz"), or to set standards for any qualities such as gracefulness or spirituality we become immersed in our moment-to-moment expression of the feelings and revelations which emerge. We might say that we "become the dance," or we lose ourselves in the dancing or we let the dance happen through us. We allow ourselves to be. In order to achieve this un-self-consciousness, we either dance alone or in a group in which the people are accepting and non-judgmental, so that we can improvise, put aside the persona, and express the intimate aspects our selves -- our spiritual devotion, our unconscious impulses, and the feelings which seem to be too tender to be expressed in our daily life. Allow yourself this freedom, and allow it in the other dancers, too.
Find the energy within yourself. Your body is filled with life, and it is constantly generating energy. While dancing, part of the meditation is to perceive the subtle energies and feelings which emerge from inside of us. We notice the movement of energy throughout our body -- flowing upward from our feet, outward to our hands, etc. These energies propel our body in dance meditation.
Express those energies. Our meditation is to find a balanced point at which we are the intermediary between the music and the body which expresses those impulses. We are an interpreter -- but we are not translating via our mind's analytical function, because neither the impulses nor the body can be fully perceived, understood, or expressed if they are viewed from an analytical perspective. Instead, appreciate the phenomena and movement on their own terms, and make a game of being a precise communicator of our feelings into action. We allow the body to improvise its own movements -- and then we are surprised and perhaps thrilled by the mysterious vitality which moves in ways which we never would have imagined. As we gradually diminish our conscious intrusion, our body asserts its own life. The life is somehow coming directly from the soul and filtering through us until the entire body is such a perfect expression of the energy that the body becomes a light, vibrant entity which is virtually indistinguishable from the soul itself.
Allow ecstasy. When we permit the body to express itself and to move in its own way, we are likely to feel a profound and exciting sensation streaming throughout us. This is the body coming to life. This is the state in which the ego's dysfunctional elements no longer control us; they cannot demand that the body conform to any mental image, nor can they convince us that the body is nothing but a stupid machine which has meaning and direction only if guided by the analytical function of mind. This ecstasy -- wild, beautiful, bold -- is perhaps the body's natural state.
Choose music that you feel. A simple rhythm and at least two melody strains. At first just stand, half close your eyes and sway. You will first follow the rhythm, but as you become practiced follow the rhythm with your feet and legs while the melodic parts are followed with your hands. Try to stay balanced and smooth. You are trying for a direct experience not a fall. After you begin to feel the music, start turning while moving in circles. Twirl first one way, then the other so you don't become dizzy. As you practice this becomes easier.
Find your own music. Do not choose "dance music" which is in the West too rhythmically simple. I learned to Spare Chaynge which lasts just under 10 minutes about all you can do.
When you feel relaxed and happy afterward you are doing it right. Use this as a preparation for study or social interaction.
What happened after that day? Has it all gone away?
No, there is the music.
Non-commercial, improvised explorations which bring out the beauty and talent of the performers lasts.
Great example, John Cipollina (note the "Hippies" aren't often wearing "hippie clothes". That part is a fiction of the movies and TV.
A lot of what you heard about that era, is fictional.
There is still the gathering
I decided to go.
It was good, it let me talk about the important things without fear. To care without boundaries.
As far as I'm concerned the stuff is everybody's
So now I remember the peace in a time of war
Six years, a good run while it lasted
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