“That’s it,” my teacher said. “Every physical movement can be traced back to one or a combination of these five energies.” Seriously? I wondered if he was presenting me with a koan to help me remember to pay attention. Whether it was intended as a koan or not, it definitely has helped me pay attention.

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Here are the five core energies and a few examples to go with each:

1. back and forth / in and out / push and pull
breathing, making love, competition, conflict, the dog that wants in when out and out when in, migration, tides, a deep conversation, galaxies colliding

2. rocking / arcing
in a chair, on a boat, in the womb, a mother swaying a child while standing, swinging, dancing, trees in a breeze, twirling, curving, rotating, revolving

3. drop / forward
an elevator, an airplane taking off, our construct of time, driving on a freeway, progress, cheetahs running, a river, learning to walk, rain, an avalanche

4. squeeze
a hug, a handshake, what we do to a toothpaste tube, being in a bind, bite the bullet, gravity, pressure of the ocean felt when scuba diving, gases solidifying into stars, condensation, contraction

5. surprise
something from apparent nothing, creativity, insight, explosion, expansion, invention, a supernova, all life and especially the miracle of every newborn, every hatched egg, every new bud and sprout – so common and repeatable that we sometimes hardly notice

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In the years since I received this teaching, I have not identified any other core energies. However, what I have come to see is that they combine and interact with each other, bringing in complexity. For example, let’s begin with rocking. Add the energy of push and, rather than rocking, the arc becomes a circle. However, if before the circle closes, we add drop, the result is a spiral.

In this short video (click on the image below), with quite a different view of the solar system than the one we learned in school, the sun moves forward through space like a comet pulling the planets because of the squeeze of gravity as they arc around it. And, as for surprise, there is the miracle-of-life-as-we-define-it on at least one of the planets. 

Top: Photo by Barbara
Bottom: Screenshot from video