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Spacious Body: Explorations in Somatic Ontology
In Spacious Body , Jeffrey Maitland brings his knowledge and personal experience of Buddhism, phenomenology, alchemy, psychoanalysis, and the bodywork system of Rolfing to bear in forging concepts adequate to an understanding of embodied experience.
272 pages, Paperback
First published October 25, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 12, 2025
Bit repetitive, some parts feel like an ad for Rolfing. But it has some cool discussion relating fields of somatics, zen buddhism and phenomenology. Heavy on the abstract philosophical/spiritual language.
Maitland asserts that as human beings, we are defined by our limitation in form. Form provides the construct in which we orient ourselves in space (psychospatially) and in time (psychotemporally). Without form we cease to be. Our living form is the embodiment of our way of life. All our experience is grounded in our bodies, including all our suffering.
Freedom is found within limitation, rather than a striving to transcend our form and limitation - an impossibility, and one that pulls us from presence in the present 'now'.
The Rolfing method is aimed at finding the optimal functional economy for the individuals body in relation to gravity. A structured, but not rigid form. The ideal is for an open and allowing presence, a grounding in the 'spacious body' - used synonymously with flow, being absorbed in the present etc. We want to be in 'pre-reflective' lived time; not in 'objective' clock time, or in our subjective judgements of our place in time (dwelling on past, anticipating future, wishing to be somewhere else).
Transformation: "trans" which means across, and form.
"So transformation does not imply the idea of changing form, but rather a taking up of a special kind of relationship with form'.
"With respect to human beings, transformation means 'allowing-formation' or 'allowing presence'...Allowing the way , style, or manner in which a person becomes or is who he/she completely, freely and truly is. Transformation is not the attempt to change yourself so that you measure up to some moral,bodily, or spiritual ideal; it is the art of allowing who you are to manifest completely and freely without conflict and fixation".
Sounds very similar to Maslows description of Self Actualisation, who no doubt has similar influences
He talks about time in a cool way - time doesn't pass; rather, what is in time passes and creates the illusion of time passing. "Since we are fundamentally in time and of time, we are at this very moment lapsing and not lapsing, passing and not passing, aging and not aging'. Hmm, something to mull over.
Our past and future are tangible things in the present:
"By means of your lived present, you live your past and future. Your lived present opens out toward your lived future on the basis of how your lived past opens into your lived present." And our future "provide a field of possibility in terms of which you can orient and direct your life".
Maitland asserts that as human beings, we are defined by our limitation in form. Form provides the construct in which we orient ourselves in space (psychospatially) and in time (psychotemporally). Without form we cease to be. Our living form is the embodiment of our way of life. All our experience is grounded in our bodies, including all our suffering.
Freedom is found within limitation, rather than a striving to transcend our form and limitation - an impossibility, and one that pulls us from presence in the present 'now'.
The Rolfing method is aimed at finding the optimal functional economy for the individuals body in relation to gravity. A structured, but not rigid form. The ideal is for an open and allowing presence, a grounding in the 'spacious body' - used synonymously with flow, being absorbed in the present etc. We want to be in 'pre-reflective' lived time; not in 'objective' clock time, or in our subjective judgements of our place in time (dwelling on past, anticipating future, wishing to be somewhere else).
Transformation: "trans" which means across, and form.
"So transformation does not imply the idea of changing form, but rather a taking up of a special kind of relationship with form'.
"With respect to human beings, transformation means 'allowing-formation' or 'allowing presence'...Allowing the way , style, or manner in which a person becomes or is who he/she completely, freely and truly is. Transformation is not the attempt to change yourself so that you measure up to some moral,bodily, or spiritual ideal; it is the art of allowing who you are to manifest completely and freely without conflict and fixation".
Sounds very similar to Maslows description of Self Actualisation, who no doubt has similar influences
He talks about time in a cool way - time doesn't pass; rather, what is in time passes and creates the illusion of time passing. "Since we are fundamentally in time and of time, we are at this very moment lapsing and not lapsing, passing and not passing, aging and not aging'. Hmm, something to mull over.
Our past and future are tangible things in the present:
"By means of your lived present, you live your past and future. Your lived present opens out toward your lived future on the basis of how your lived past opens into your lived present." And our future "provide a field of possibility in terms of which you can orient and direct your life".
February 17, 2012
This book is currently changing the world as I believe I know it. Regularly mind-blowing, downright epiphantic, genuinely thoughtful, I have rarely so enjoyed deep, dense philosophy on such a visceral level.
The book eplores bodily perceptions of reality--how our bodies orient to reality, how trauma, patterns of growth, psychological issues, etc. change the way a body relates to the world around it. Your body reflects and is your perception of the world. It pays to know what it's saying.
Highly recommended, requires motivation to get started reading.
The author is an ex-Philosophy professor turned Zen Buddhist/Rolfer. All those looking for normalcy need not apply.
The book eplores bodily perceptions of reality--how our bodies orient to reality, how trauma, patterns of growth, psychological issues, etc. change the way a body relates to the world around it. Your body reflects and is your perception of the world. It pays to know what it's saying.
Highly recommended, requires motivation to get started reading.
The author is an ex-Philosophy professor turned Zen Buddhist/Rolfer. All those looking for normalcy need not apply.
April 12, 2024
Jeff Maitland is a singular thinker and person. He recently passed, and the world is a poorer place for his loss. Spacious Body and his other works combine a true philosophical approach (vs a pedantic academic philosophical approach) tempered by his experiential Zen path. I met Dr. Maitland many years after he wrote this book and delved into this book more than a decade later. He has a talent for describing the indescribable through a repetitive spiraling process that, if one is patient, may eventually lead the reader to whispers of understanding. Words cannot convey indescribable experiences, but Maitland comes close enough that your own body/mind/spirit may have a chance to fill in the gaps. I have used Dr. Maitland's writings to spur personal growth and healing rather than in application as a manual therapist. Anyone experiencing reality from the perspective of an embodied being can find value in his thoughts. This book's content is holistic in a way that few things are, deeply respectful of the body, of consciousness, of spirit, and of the mysteries inherent in exploring the relationship of body and lived experience.
April 9, 2016
Rolfers, please forgive, but I substituted the word "rolf" and inserted "yoga." Maitland does not fully understand Yoga. In Sanskrit the word "dukha" means compressed or bad space. I recommend this book for Yoga teachers although he does in one brief statement describes Yoga in a common and inadequate way. get over that and the book will be of help.
May 27, 2008
Great - especially the first 5 or so chapters (the last few chapters get repetitive). Not nearly as impenetrable as the title makes it sound. Combines so many topics I've been interested in for a long time - the body, structures, emotions, psychologies in space and time, conflict, etc...
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews