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Hanging Loose

(From: ‘Earth People’ Volume 3 Number 4)

This is Sitting Owl's Dad showing how to 'Hang Loose'
in a Victorian Rally Championship event.

Now Playing: 'Take It Easy'
By: The Eagles

I would like to give readers another example of the connectedness of all things.  I say another because for those who may not remember Volume 1 Number 4, where I wrote an article about 'Money and the Economic System’.  In it I mentioned how my experience and understanding of basic accounting has given me the insight to know that the only solution to the social problems of today, is to go back to the beginning of man’s consciousness, which was with the first shamans.  And that is where we must turn our ears and eyes, to hear, see, listen and learn about the truth of the entire reality of both pairs of opposites, at all levels of existence, and to create a harmonious future for All Our Relations, and therefore also for the Self.

Here, I would like to show, through another one of my past experiences, that an experience of oneness is not limited to meditation and spiritual practices, although there is a difference in the character of the two experiences.

I began my car rallying experience as a child passenger, strapped into a special seat and harness that my father had made by some clever improvisations.  In that experience, I found that no matter how exciting an experience is, it is possible to become tired and fall asleep in the middle.

Later I tried navigating for my father, and found that no matter how strong your constitution and stomach, the conditions of concentrating on maps, and the rough movement of the car, can cause anyone to empty their stomach out the window and decorate the side of the car.  Nervousness of course can add to this phenomenon.

Then I began my driving experience when dad offered me the use of his rally car to enter rallies that didn’t clash with the ones he was entering.  And later I built and entered my own car, sometimes competing in the same rallies as my father.

Some of the things I learnt about rallying,

that I now realise are also relevant to living a spiritual life are:

1. When one allows time to gradually raise one’s adrenalins, one has much more control.

2. As a result of this control and concentration, one may experience a type of tunnel vision, where the subconscious or body conscious is simply going through the motions fluidly, to fulfil the decisions made by the conscious mind a split second earlier.  This is what Joseph Campbell calls the centre of stillness out of which all action must come.  I had an experience once, where my conscious mind temporally came back from the tunnel and thought we were not going to make the bend.  I thought that at least there were not too many big trees on the outside of the bend to hit.  Then I temporally became unconscious, waking up to find that my higher conscious and body conscious had executed the bend perfectly.

3. Success and all best performances always come half way between trying too hard and not trying hard enough.

4 In rallying, as with life, it is important to have your vehicle (body, including the brain and other organs, directing consciousness of the body or vehicle) hanging loose, flexible, fluid, and able to change direction with a quick jerk of the steering wheel, a heavier foot on the accelerator, or a tap on the brake.  In rallying there is a technique called ‘The Fin Flick’ (Invented or perfected by the Finish rally drivers), which deliberately unstablizes the car prior to a corner.  But in spiritual terms it is ‘The Shaman’s Way’ (see Shaman Principle PONO – Effectiveness is the measure of truth, flexibility and wisdom, there is always another way of doing anything, shamanic healing, etc.).

My own successes in rallying really came as a result of absolute teamwork between myself as the driver, my navigator, and the car.  If any one of these did not work properly or made a mistake, there was no hope for any success.  Of course, I was the mechanic as well as the driver, so I can take two thirds of the credit.  But I must say that I don’t remember any time that my navigator let us down, so I can only blame myself for any rallies in which we either didn’t finish, or went poorly.

In equating this to spirituality I can only say that we must all work together, sharing our experiences and knowledge as a team, a family, and a humanity, for the sake of All Our Relations, because if one fails or falls down, we all fail and fall down.

Here is a link to a YouTube of Ken Block giving an excellent example of Hanging Loose in San Francisco:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuDN2bCIyus

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