Alternative Seijaku Teaching

At the annual conference, Dan Pienciak asked, “Who teaches Seijaku?” Only five teachers raised their hands. Why? I began an informal survey of teachers who were accredited to teach it but did not. The reasons given were repetitive: “I don’t understand it. It’s beyond me. I’m not ready for it. It makes me angry.” One of our most senior and active TCC teachers said, “Maybe some day I’ll understand it enough to practice and teach it.”

I am so grateful to live in Justin’s town where I can ask him questions about the movements he has created. Several years ago, I made an appointment with him to share my method of practicing and teaching it. He listened, nodded, and said, “Of course, dear, Seijaku is a Heightened Awareness discipline.”

Justin’s Heightened Awareness book is a handbook for the practice of Vipassana, “a meditation which takes a very strong effort on the part of those practicing it, some of whom have experienced real insights from the practice.” (Heightened Awareness, p 79). In the book, Justin asks the reader to become aware of but not attached to all sensory experiences, including thought. Thinking is the strongest sense, which we often confuse with permanence. Our thoughts often freeze us into responding a certain negative way. So doesn’t it make sense to become aware of them so we can pass through them?

How do I weave Vipassana into Seijaku teaching? A student with the habit pattern of anger selects anger as her resistance wall. She starts flowing softly, approaching and opening to anger, and passes through the dense energy wall into the openness and freedom of TCC. Others who have a habit pattern of suffering will stay in the resistance so long that they are in agony. For those students, I suggest that they initially create a soft Jello-like wall through which they pass so they can feel what it’s like to pass through impermanence. Once they develop the realization that form is emptiness, they then start hardening the density of their wall to strengthen this awareness.

The results of this method are shockingly wonderful. The students become joyful and liberated. Their awareness of their stuck energy is heightened. After all, we have to be aware of our fixations before we can choose to pass through them. Seijaku done with introspected Heightened Awareness is for those who want to work on their “stuff” and thereby deepen their gratitude and compassion towards themselves and others. Every student I’ve had, including myself, leaves class with a true experience of Justin’s song: Joy, Joy, Healing thru Joy. Joy in the Heart, Joy in the Mind, Joy in the Soul.”