The Meaning of Alexander Work
What is the meaning of referring to Alexander Work with a capital ‘W’? This capital letter hints that the activity transcends the ideas we might have about it. It is a way to try to disrupt the dichotomous mind. We always make distinctions, and we hold many of them subconsciously. These distinctions form part of the impulse and structure of our doings and our doing way of being. Our language reflects this. When you come to meet with me, I can ask what you would like to do, or what you would like to work on. While we can acknowledge these grammatical necessities, we have to look and see if they correlate with an unfulfilling way of being. We don’t want to work on anything at all, just to Work.
You might be tempted to see this as an Alexander lens. It is actually an eschewal of lenses altogether. While we can legitimately ask, “How would one look at this from the perspective of the Alexander Work?” we have to understand this as partly intellectual. The real answer comes down to Working, not pigeonholing.
What does “Work” mean, then? We can phrase it in many ways. If you were a Christian I might follow Kierkegaard and say that “Work” means being a Knight of Faith. That in turn means putting yourself fully in the Hands of the Divine, following the Divine Will no matter how irrational it would seem to your dichotomous mind. In the Zen tradition we might say “Working” refers to Ordinary Mind, or no-mind, or Big Mind, or doing what you're doing when you're doing it. In Buddhism generally we might call it Buddha Nature or even Dharma. In Taoism we might say “Work” means actualizing your Te and letting the Tao Work through you. Another way to say it: it means being what you are, away from the ideas you have about what you are or how you should be. We could also call it “being in a state of inspiration.” Or we might say “Work” means Living your Life, having an Intimate Connection to Life from moment to moment, actualizing the wisdom and compassion that infuses every moment, living Life from our center, letting the energies of Life or of Love Work through us, nurturing the seeds planted in us by Divine fingers, embodying our Myths and Religions, Living Life as Art, or myriad other hintings, pointings, and approximations.
Why use “Work” at all? Why not use some other term? I ask this seemingly rhetorical question because I haven’t considered it well enough. Maybe I should pick another word. Yet there are some nice things about “Work.” For one, we can understand that we need to Work on ourselves, and we can say that without falling too far into the trap of grammar. “Practice” offers itself as a viable replacement here. And, truth be told, we WILL have lots of ideas about the Work. The term “practice” can remind us that, until we experience very deep insight, we are still at great risk, we still have barriers between ourselves and our lives, we still rationalize and dichotomize and react in all sorts of ways. Indeed, even after some pretty significant insights, we still need a lot of practice in order to fully embody them. On the other hand, the universe isn’t practicing. It’s just Working, functioning, doing its thing. And we are part of that Work. We can see there is Work to be done. Humanity is in crisis, beings are suffering, people are trapped under thick wet blankets of ignorance. If we work on these problems, we won’t get very far. Better to Work. To Work on ourselves, to be what we are, and to Connect to the suffering of the world in a non-doing way. I don’t know that this settles the question. For now, I’ll continue to use Work while considering other options. “Alexander Just Living Your Life.” “Alexander Joining with the Universe.” “Alexander Being a Knight of Faith.” “Alexander Letting the Divine Will Work Through You.” A bit awkward, eh?
These formulations do reflect the notion of an “Alexander Perspective.” Are we going in circles? No. Spirals. Understand that the confusion of “Alexander Technique” and “Alexander Work” lies not only in the issue of having to clarify “Work” and “Technique.” I often make the analogy that this kind of naming would have us call Buddhism the Siddhartha Technique. Taken at face value, Buddhism is supposed to be just the way things are. Skillful means are used to help people access it, but what they are accessing is not meant to be just another way of looking at things. This is why people from other traditions find Buddhism helpful. Many Christians and Jews study some form of Buddhism and find it helpful for embodying the teachings of their own traditions. The Alexander Work is meant to be the same. The Work is just about what we are. It relies on a specific set of skillful means, largely kinesthetic, for helping people access it, but what they are accessing is not supposed to be just another way of looking at things. They are accessing a way of being that is in harmony with Life and with their own unique place in Life.
In practical terms, the notion of Work should, among other things, act to inform the way we cultivate this way of being. No matter what we seem to be “working on,” the real Work has several layers. One of these is Working on what matters most to you: your passion, your highest values, your job, your relationships, your hobbies, your political causes. We have ideas about all of these things, and Working means letting go of the ideas and instead bodying forth the mystery behind all those ideas. You can come and work on sitting and standing. Or you can come and Work. When you do the latter, you are Working on your Life, learning to live in an Intimate and vitalizing way. Everything we “do” in the meeting thus transcends itself. We become part of the functioning of the universe, and the suffering of the planet is reduced that much more.
You might be tempted to see this as an Alexander lens. It is actually an eschewal of lenses altogether. While we can legitimately ask, “How would one look at this from the perspective of the Alexander Work?” we have to understand this as partly intellectual. The real answer comes down to Working, not pigeonholing.
What does “Work” mean, then? We can phrase it in many ways. If you were a Christian I might follow Kierkegaard and say that “Work” means being a Knight of Faith. That in turn means putting yourself fully in the Hands of the Divine, following the Divine Will no matter how irrational it would seem to your dichotomous mind. In the Zen tradition we might say “Working” refers to Ordinary Mind, or no-mind, or Big Mind, or doing what you're doing when you're doing it. In Buddhism generally we might call it Buddha Nature or even Dharma. In Taoism we might say “Work” means actualizing your Te and letting the Tao Work through you. Another way to say it: it means being what you are, away from the ideas you have about what you are or how you should be. We could also call it “being in a state of inspiration.” Or we might say “Work” means Living your Life, having an Intimate Connection to Life from moment to moment, actualizing the wisdom and compassion that infuses every moment, living Life from our center, letting the energies of Life or of Love Work through us, nurturing the seeds planted in us by Divine fingers, embodying our Myths and Religions, Living Life as Art, or myriad other hintings, pointings, and approximations.
Why use “Work” at all? Why not use some other term? I ask this seemingly rhetorical question because I haven’t considered it well enough. Maybe I should pick another word. Yet there are some nice things about “Work.” For one, we can understand that we need to Work on ourselves, and we can say that without falling too far into the trap of grammar. “Practice” offers itself as a viable replacement here. And, truth be told, we WILL have lots of ideas about the Work. The term “practice” can remind us that, until we experience very deep insight, we are still at great risk, we still have barriers between ourselves and our lives, we still rationalize and dichotomize and react in all sorts of ways. Indeed, even after some pretty significant insights, we still need a lot of practice in order to fully embody them. On the other hand, the universe isn’t practicing. It’s just Working, functioning, doing its thing. And we are part of that Work. We can see there is Work to be done. Humanity is in crisis, beings are suffering, people are trapped under thick wet blankets of ignorance. If we work on these problems, we won’t get very far. Better to Work. To Work on ourselves, to be what we are, and to Connect to the suffering of the world in a non-doing way. I don’t know that this settles the question. For now, I’ll continue to use Work while considering other options. “Alexander Just Living Your Life.” “Alexander Joining with the Universe.” “Alexander Being a Knight of Faith.” “Alexander Letting the Divine Will Work Through You.” A bit awkward, eh?
These formulations do reflect the notion of an “Alexander Perspective.” Are we going in circles? No. Spirals. Understand that the confusion of “Alexander Technique” and “Alexander Work” lies not only in the issue of having to clarify “Work” and “Technique.” I often make the analogy that this kind of naming would have us call Buddhism the Siddhartha Technique. Taken at face value, Buddhism is supposed to be just the way things are. Skillful means are used to help people access it, but what they are accessing is not meant to be just another way of looking at things. This is why people from other traditions find Buddhism helpful. Many Christians and Jews study some form of Buddhism and find it helpful for embodying the teachings of their own traditions. The Alexander Work is meant to be the same. The Work is just about what we are. It relies on a specific set of skillful means, largely kinesthetic, for helping people access it, but what they are accessing is not supposed to be just another way of looking at things. They are accessing a way of being that is in harmony with Life and with their own unique place in Life.
In practical terms, the notion of Work should, among other things, act to inform the way we cultivate this way of being. No matter what we seem to be “working on,” the real Work has several layers. One of these is Working on what matters most to you: your passion, your highest values, your job, your relationships, your hobbies, your political causes. We have ideas about all of these things, and Working means letting go of the ideas and instead bodying forth the mystery behind all those ideas. You can come and work on sitting and standing. Or you can come and Work. When you do the latter, you are Working on your Life, learning to live in an Intimate and vitalizing way. Everything we “do” in the meeting thus transcends itself. We become part of the functioning of the universe, and the suffering of the planet is reduced that much more.