Introduction.
Walt Whitman is often described as the quintessential American Romantic poet. Almost effortlessly, his voice conveys the ideals of the Romantic: innocence, Nature, and Universal transcendence. His very essence appears as a lurking, transcendent presence among his predecessors, Americans, and even reaching into foreign lands to inspire peoples of the world. Regardless of their opinion, most writers seem to be affected by this unshakable presence. I too find myself enraptured by Whitman’s transcendent, Universal and cosmic powers. My own experience reading Whitman has been one of spiritual awakening, directing my interests toward eastern mysticism and the power of shamanic healing. In a passage from Leaves of Grass, Whitman places himself in the role of this transcendent shaman:
The time straying toward infidelity and confections and persiflage he withholds by his steady faith…and he spreads out his dishes…he offers the sweet fimfibred meat that grows men and women. His brain is the ultimate brain. He is no arguer…he is judgement. He judges not as the judge judges but as the sun falling around a helpless thing. As he sees the farthest he has the most faith. His thoughts are the hymns of the praise of things. In the talk on the soul and eternity and God off his equal plane he is silent. He sees eternity less like a play with a prologue and denouement…he sees eternity in men and woman…he does not see men and women as dreams or dots. Faith is the antiseptic of the soul…it pervades the common people and preserves them…they never give up believing and expecting and trusting.
In this passage, Whitman encourages his readers to trust and surrender to his power as this transcendent shaman. As described in Dharma: The Way of Transcendence, this passage from Leaves of Grass depicts Whitman as a figure of spiritual existence, or brahma-bhuta existence, where life is eternal, blissful, and full of knowledge.
As a follower of a transcendent lifestyle, Whitman practices renunciation of the material existence. Renunciation, or abnegation for ultimate good, is certainly a better occupation than enjoyment in the diseased condition of life (Prabhupada). Because of this divine spirituality, Whitman is able to present himself as an unbiased leader for the masses. His purpose is to “preserve” his followers by showing them this eternal bliss. With faith in him, there is no need to anticipate life’s denouement (death) or rely on a prologue (intended material purpose) for guidance. This preservation Whitman speaks of encourages a more present way of living: experiencing the moment and the power of simply being. He is a leader in which we can endow our complete trust, for he is the very essence of detachment from a material existence. The transcendent voice of Whitman seeks to lead us to a life of renunciation, for “material existence is temporary, illusory, and full of miseries. There is no happiness at all. There is just the futile attempt to get rid of the miseries, and temporary cessation of misery is falsely called happiness. Therefore, the path of progressive material enjoyment, which is temporary, miserable, and illusory, is inferior” (Prabhupada).
I find this project to be timely, because as Prabhupada describes:
In the latter part of the twentieth century, we’ve experimented with the abandonment of a sense of duty and responsibility in favor of an ethic of self-gratification- “If it feels good, do it.” People are feeling that they’ve lost their moral bearings amidst a chaotic sea of hedonism. Duty is once again in favor.
I believe that this project will speak to a generation who lives in this unfulfilled existence of hedonism and material living. An over-reliance on technology and the necessity of expression through the exterior has pushed people further from Universal human experience, emotional availability, and a present lifestyle. In a Whitmanian fashion, I hope to encourage my project’s audience to adopt a deeper connection with spirituality and a renunciation of material existence.
Intent.
This project will capture Whitmanian Romantic Trancendentalism through a combination of modern dance improvisation (emphasis on contact improvisation) and spoken word. Together, the expression of movement and poetics will act as a story telling medium that emphasizes the Romantic idealization of innocence, Nature, and honest human contact. The performance piece will be captured on video in a series of chapters, each of which correspond to a particular moment in life congruent with the cyclical points of life expressed in Romantic ideals (Childhood Innocence, Contamination, The Return to Innocence). Altogether, the aim of the video project will be to capture the beauty of human contact and a Universal experience between peoples that transcends time, place, background, and the materialism of societal constructs.
Conversation.
The conversation that the project hopes to bring to light is what contemporary Romanticism might look like today; how the millennial generation, specifically, experiences this Childhood Innocence, Contamination, and how we might seek to rectify this Contamination with a Return to Innocence.
The main focus will rely on yogic methodology to contextualize what Julianna Spahr describes in “Gentle Now, Don’t Add to Heartache” as the “stream.” Spahr identifies this stream as a life force in which everyone has a Universal experience with. The stream is a necessity that provides us with life and vitality, notably in our early life. Later as the poem progresses, she notes that this stream is susceptible to material contamination that can “add to heartache”. I believe what she is describing here is what Dharma has already laid out as the material/ diseased existence; a disregard for the spiritual. I will explore how this life force manifests itself as not only an astral projection of energy, but also as a physical experience. The body and breath are conduits for the life stream, thus there is a lack of binary between the body and the soul. The body and soul share experience. Using contact improvisational dance and poetics, I hope to reveal this non-binary relationship that people Universally experience. I am hoping that this combination will capture a yogic methodology of the importance of breath and of detachment, in which we can cleanse ourselves of contamination.
In yoga, this stream can be contextualized as prana: vital energy taken in through yogic breathing (pranayama). Prana is taken in through our breath and spreads through our body via the olfactory nerves at the back of our nasal passages. Thus this life stream that Spahr describes is directly related to oxygen and breath. Prana is in matter, but is not matter. Thus, it has qualities of the physical and the ephemeral. Breathing and the mind are interdependent, therefore controlling breath is directly related to controlling the mind. For example, shortened and static breath is often associated with fear and anger, sustained breath with concentration, etc. Regulating breath helps to regulate the amount of oxygen and prana taken in. Through the practice of asanas and pranayama, more prana is taken in and stored in the body bringing vitality and strength. These practices are used to purify the nadis (nerve channels/ tubes in the astral body), for when these are blocked poor health results and prana cannot freely flow. The principal nadi is the Sushumna (spinal chord); on either side of the spinal chord rest other nadis called Ida and Pingala (sympathetic ganglia of the spinal chord). Kundalini is a dormant or static cosmic energy located at the base of the Sushumna in the Muladhara Charkra (sacral chakra). This energy is accessed and activated by pranayama and other yogic practices by unlocking the kundalini that rests within each chakra (reservoir of astral energy). As this energy travels up the sushumana, we experience spiritual awakening and superconsciousness as it reaches the Crown Chakra.
Chakras
-centers of energy in the astral body
-6 located along that Sushumana, the seventh at the crown of the head
-each is depicted with a certain number of petals, corresponding to the number of nadis emanating from them
-each petal represents a sound vibration produced when the Kundalini energy passes through the chakra
-each charka has a corresponding color, element, bija mantra
Muladhara Chakra (Sacral)
-yellow, four petals, earth, Lam
Swadhisthana Chakra (Prostatic)
-white, six petals, water, Vam
Manipura Chakra (Solar Plexus)
-red, ten petals, fire, Ram
Anahata Chakra (Heart)
-smoke colored (sometimes green), twelve petals, air, Yam
Vishuddha Charka (Throat)
-sea blue, sixteen petals, ether, Ham
Anja Chakra (Third Eye)
-snow white, two petals, psychic, OM
Sahasrara (Crown)
-clear, thousand petals, Absolute, samandhi (superconsciousness)
The conversation that this project seeks to follow is how a lack of attention to breath and the simplicity of being manifest itself from a physical experience to an ephemeral one. The stream/ prana is not only a conduit for oxygen and vitality, but also spirituality and astral health. As people become distracted with a material existence, anticipation of death, and hedonism, the stream/ prana is susceptible to Contamination. This leads to unhappiness and a jaded existence. By encouraging my audience to maintain a present lifestyle and a detachment from material experience, I believe that the conversation will then manifest itself to a Return to Childhood Innocence. This non-binary relationship of body and soul will be expressed through a combination of narrative dance and poetics, for verbal and non-verbal communication manifest themselves as a strong comparison to the non-binary relationship of body and soul. The project will focus on using modern dance in particular, as is often explores pedestrian movement and phrases; this will be essential to engaging the audience as it invites them into a familiar experience.
Schedule.
4/6. Project Proposal Due
4/9-10. Work on Formal Review/ Script.
4/11. Literature Review Presentation
4/12. Write Annotated Bibliograpy
4/13. Annotated Bibliography
4/13-17. Filming and Film Editing.
4/17. Final Draft Due
4/18 or 4/20. Individual Conference
4/21. Peer Review Session
4/21-4/24. Finalize Edits and Write Reflection
4/25. Whitman Conference
Works Cited
Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, A. C. Bhadavad Gita As It Is. Los Angeles: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, n.d. Print.
Bohan, Ruth L. “”I Sing the Body Electric”; Isadora Duncan, Whitman, and the Dance.” The Cambridge Companion to Walt Whitman. By Ezra Greenspan. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995. 166-94. Print.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Selected Essays. Comp. Larzer Ziff. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1982. Print.
Frankfurt, Harry G. On Bullshit. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2005. Print.
Kaplan, Justin. Walt Whitman. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, 1982. Print.
Prabhupāda, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami. Dharma: The Way of Transcendence. Los Angeles: Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, 1998. Print.
Preston, Nathaniel. “Walt Whitman’s Use of Indian Sources: A Reconsideration.” (n.d.): n. pag. Web. <http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/acd/cg/lt/rb/627/627PDF/Preston.pdf>.
Sivananda Yoga Center, and Vishnu Devananda. The Sivananda Companion to Yoga: A Complete Guide to the Physical Postures, Breathing Exercises, Diet, Relaxation, and Meditation Techniques of Yoga. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000. Print.
Skinner, B. F. Walden Two. New York: Macmillan, 1976. Print.
Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. Lexington, KY: Createspace, 2010. Print.
Wolf, Susan R., and John Koethe. Meaning in Life and Why It Matters. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2010. Print.
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