The way I use these two terms has layers of understanding. At a crude level opening is simply the act of spreading out physical tissue and releasing is an act of allowing tension to melt out of these structures. We can remember the cardinal rules of these qualities too:
- Opening without its opposite releasing leads to excessive force and tension
- Releasing without its opposite opening leads to collapse of structure
However as these process are understood in a more refined way they can be seen to have deeper implications.
Opening in its nature can be related to the opening of awareness: becoming aware of something that you weren’t previously. In this act of opening a connection is formed between “me” and that which I am aware of. When I spread out my physical body I find the new sensations of stretching tissues appear in awareness, and at that moment I am connected to them already, and the new sensations also become connected to everything else in the field of awareness. This interconnectedness creates a structure through which forces can act. It is enough to simply be aware of something to be connected to it, and as this becomes more apparent for the practitioner, opening becomes something more like spreading awareness. There are always possibilities of opening to new experiences, whether it is in the deepening of ones craft or in the engagement with a new activity. Even a simple cue from someone with experience can open your awareness to some new aspect of your being. In the physical sense, as the awareness is spread throughout the body, every bodily sensation that appears can recognize itself as being part of a greater whole and begin reorganizing itself in relation to its new found context, should it not be restricted.
This is where the refined version of releasing appears. A modern mind has a habit of attempting to control and therefore restrict whatever is in awareness. If it cannot control it, it basically doesn’t want to know about it. We of the modern world are kind of ‘mystery-allergic’ from this habit. It is not possible to fully release control while still referring to what you are aware of from the conventional mind. The conventional mind by its nature is controlling to some degree, as its function is to know things and this knowing places a restriction on that which is apparently known.
Releasing in its refined version is to unbind oneself from the knowing, to release the movements of the conventional mind, so that instead of occupying the “where I am aware from” position of our being, they are returned to be part of “what I am aware of”, and where I am aware from becomes a mystery. When a perception in awareness is recognized from the mystery, the potential for this perception to change at any moment, or remain the same for as long as it likes, becomes apparent. The agency is returned to the perception to play out in whatever way is appropriate to it.
In this level of things, opening connects all of the perceptions into a united context, and releasing allows the perceptions a self-agency to remain the same or change as they prefer. In this sense, although they are perceived, perceptions also remain mysterious. Knowledge in its conventional sense becomes something so fleeting as to not really exist and all that is left is unfolding mystery.
It’s important to understand that this does not make one all knowing. On the contrary, perhaps it makes one all un-knowing. But from a relative perspective it can become clear that the conscious awareness can spread into new territory, both within the being (as in becoming aware of deeper structures in the body mind previously not noticed), and within the scope of time (as in new events occurring that have never been perceived before). If force is applied to the awareness in an attempt to spread it somewhere it isn’t seeing yet, then this invites back a knowing from the conventional mind (I know I’m meant to be aware of xyz) and inherently brings back restriction. It may be more pertinent for the awareness not to spread to that area just yet, or to spread somewhere else first. Releasing of the conventional mind frees awareness to open and spread at its own pace, in its own time, returning agency to awareness and the mysterious source of things (where it really was the whole time anyways). If releasing is continuous, anything the awareness spreads to is immediately recognized – not as something known, but as something full of mysterious spacious potential to become the next thing.
At this level, the releasing factor inherently generates more awareness spread, and the spread of awareness inherently releases whatever it contacts. These words are a description of two sides of the same process, and can’t actually be separated at all.
The even deeper refinement is to notice that this is already and always going on as the nature of reality, and that one needs only recognize what is already the case to be harmonized with it. This brings the duality of the practices into alignment with the principles of non duality, and comes about by a full release of knowing while simultaneously remaining open to and connected to that which is appearing.
This process can be vigilantly noticed continuously as one moves through whatever relative stage of practice they are at, and in fact it helps the processes of learning occur in a very free way. Once there is access to this recognition, it’s necessary to work on keeping it alive while engaging with any other practices.
Feature Image by Peggy Choucair on Pixabay.