“I’m sure you’re aware that energy is an important part of some Asian approaches, but let’s dig into that topic a bit in order to be sure we’re all on the same page…. Science tells us that our bodies are solid objects made of tissues, fluids, and other biological material. But phenomenologically, it’s a completely different story, isn’t it?
“If you pay close attention to your experience of what it feels like to have a body, sometimes it does feel like a physical mass…. But when you feel a hunger pang, for example, it doesn’t seem like your abdomen is a solid mass of flesh. If you ignore what you know theoretically and just close your eyes and focus on the actual phenomenology of your bodily experience, doesn’t it feel more like a little prickly, bubbly sensation floating within empty space? Likewise, the feeling of being startled doesn’t feel solid either. Isn’t it more like a sudden electric shock, followed by an ice cloud of tingles?
“Body-centered Asian practices like yoga, tai chi, qigong, and others … are ways of moving beyond thinking about your body in terms of a big solid block of flesh and instead experiencing it as a boundless field pulsating with sensory phenomena…. [Y]our body is vibrant, expansive, and spacious.”
