How to wake up in the jungle

Releasing resistance is a single river that pours into the deepest caverns of the Circling practice.

Taken altogether, Circling is a holistic system of building connection through truth—which is in large part the way of finding and releasing our resistance to what is. When we simply allow what is to be, we can speak directly from truth. When we build connection from truth, strange and beautiful things become possible. Most importantly, we wake up to being radically and totally present in the unfolding gush of being that is the jungle that flourishes on our little rock temple coasting through a sea of stars.

This way of looking at Circling reveals why we do what we do in the space. It’s why we speak about our physical sensations and emotions, why we label our interpretations as interpretations (“stories”), why we name desires. It explains why we take time to be quiet, to gaze in each other’s eyes. It proves to be the wisdom that informs why we let go of trying to fix, change, or heal what people bring into the space.

When we take all of these individual parts as so many guidelines, they seem like rules in an elaborate conversation game. And many practitioners begin their Circling journeying engaging with it as a kind of conversation game where we try to say things in the “right” way.

Over time, though, we can gradually synthesize all these little moves into one big move that we continuously rediscover as the infinitely versatile yoga that it is—relaxing our resistance to what is here.

Note that we can also let go of the game that the truth is simply too complicated, too big to be knowable. Actually, when we let go of our resistance to it, the truth is very obvious. We are beings made to know and converse in the truth. In some ways, this can be the most radical part of the Circling practice: to let yourself know what you know.

Hearing the Call of the Wild

With the practice of Circling, we get better at grasping what the truth is and placing it into the We-space. We often do that with words, but we might just as easily do that with a physical gesture. Sometimes the truth of the moment wants to be articulated by naming the presence of, say, elation. And sometimes it wants to be articulated in a series of bird sounds.

But how do we know what to say or move or sing or play in the first place?

The more you let go of resistance, the more you’ll simply know what wants to be called forth and how to birth it into the collective field.

Realistically, we will not always be 100% sure, especially as we are first developing our practice. But if we don’t know what wants to be expressed or how, then we are aware that resistance is afoot. Somewhere deep in the wilderness, past the campfire’s light, you can hear it calling you toward the most powerful content for you in the present moment. Once you get a handle on where the resistance is, you can release it and reveal the truth.

As we can see by this rhythm of the practice, discovering resistance is not a bad thing at all. Resistance is the tell-tale sign that gold is underneath. Its presence announces the gold like a banner or the heralding of trumpets. The discovery of resistance is the celebratory act that opens the royal feast.

Just as our ancestors once knew the ways a forest tells you that fresh water or berries or prey is close by, so the circler learns to see the signs of inner gold to feed into the Circle.

Welcome to the Jungle

What comes up inside the Circle, once we are sufficiently in collective release and fully present with what is true, is a range of experiences with a profound depth and span. The full register of our being can open up, and we often find ourselves in novel states. It can be raw, bottomless, scary, erotic, pulsing, hilarious, on and on. We effortless break into ancient shapes of rituals stored in our blood. We effortlessly conduct big magic and the tender moments of togetherness that once formed the basis of the clan. Without realizing it, we look around and see that together, just by being here with the truth, we have built a pyramid leading as stairs to the angels.

But what happens when we first feel the shock of relating in the truth? What happens when we first let go, even a little bit, of a long held resistance? All of sudden, the creature comforts of civilization have vanished, and we are once again back in the wild.

That is because we are released from the learned patterns of resistance that so often structure and bind our “normal” day-to-day life. That’s why we are so often feeling weirded out when the circling gets going. The world built out of resistance is not the kingdom of heaven but a country of big box stores, vinyl siding, fast food, and McMansions.

Just as modern-day conveniences like AC and screens dissociate us from the true local conditions around us, so do our patterns of inner resistance dissociate us from the true spirit conditions inside us.

Once Circling sends us back in the jungle, we might feel afraid to allow the content to flow freely. That’s because we have almost no experience living together in a collective openness to the truth, the same way we’ve forgotten how to live in a tribe with no shield from the reality of the forest.

Rather than being together in life as it is, we are accustomed to living in our own private cells created out of our patterned truth-management systems. Living this way, relating has been like prisoners sending secret messages to each other, no one ever quite getting down the codes—sometimes our messaging works out, but it often leads to tragic and hilarious miscommunications.

These truth-management systems were created to address threats to our safety and our connection to others. They have accumulated over our lifetime and continue to grow, going back to our birth and probably thousands of years before.

What exactly are they built out of? These truth-management systems use resistance to stand upright and be the hard surfaces that can contain and channel the liquid-like flow of life force through us and the present moment. They are poses, shaped through flexed resistance. And just like any pose that you try and hold for any length of time, we begin to burn and cry out to relax and break free from it.

These structures so often fit the metaphor of a prison because we end up buying into how they present reality to us as “real” and “true”—locked into the idea that life really is the way our truth-management system has shaped it to appear. In that way, we can’t break out of the illusory version of reality they present to us. And yes, they are illusory. Of course, they are part of what is real, and they contain truth. But they are only part.

The fact that they have reality and truth in them makes them easy to validate in our lives. If we think people are always untrustworthy, we’ll find plenty of instances that back up this hypothesis with cold, hard facts.

But it’s their reality and truth that also makes them so useful in our practice—once we relax our resistance to their being constructs.

How do we do this? It’s actually quite simple.

We can notice that they are hard at work constructing our reality. We can name them and what they are doing. We can allow our bodies to physically take on the pose that they are taking in our souls, and then begin relaxing and moving from there.

After all, our truth-management systems are valid parts to be added into the field of the Circle. But that can only happen when we stop resisting their nature as truth-management systems.

Now, we are circling the truth-management systems, rather than being locked into them.

The Unfolding Continues…

Here we see where this all gets rather paradoxical sounding. Releasing resistance doesn’t mean trying to live without these truth-management systems or pretending they aren’t there in us. It means simply being together in the acknowledged truth that they are there.

If we take “releasing resistance” to mean designating such truth-management systems as “bad” and trying to speak in a way that avoids them, we are still in resistance! We find ourselves in the trap of anticipating the fruits—where we play-act being enlightened instead of simply being with what is really happening. Over time, Circling does dissolve our truth-management systems, but only when we fully embrace them for being there when they are there.

When we stop resisting their presence, we turn them from prisons that lock us into a certain structuring of reality into prisms that produce beautiful colors out of the infinite white light of truth. We are now able to name and enjoy those colors, not by ignoring the fact that they are a limited part of the light spectrum but by fully embracing them as they are.

Do this together, and you will not only survive together in the jungle, you will raise great monuments high above the trees. You will befriend the forces at play while holding appropriate awe and respect for your non-human neighbors. You will live every moment in total contact with what is sacred. And this will all be delicious just as it is.

Come release your resistance with us at our next event. Here is a link to the MeetUp. And here are the details:

A Talk with John Thompson

John Thompson stands as a great teacher who brought Surrendered Leadership into the world. On our latest episode, we spoke with him about the practice, and this opened up into a living master sharing some of the greatest keys to the path.