NO-FORM
The Crux Technique of Paratheatre
© 2010 Antero Alli
True initiation does not require ritual to occur; it is a spiritual event.
At best a ritual can act as a device or a tool to assist the expression
and integration of genuine initiation -- that which has never occurred
to one before and for which one can never truly be prepared.
The first initiation is Self-initiation -- the exposure of oneself to oneself.
This means to leave the self-conscious watcher behind and enter the
circle of participation. Words...images...explanations all belong to
the watcher. To the participant -- experience is everything.
No-Form refers to the crux technique in this paratheatre medium, without which no effective work in this process is possible. Borrowed from ZaZen, this technique links awareness to potential energy, the fertile void within and around us, as a means to cultivate a state of internal receptivity. We first become aware of this potential state and then with practice, we eventually realize we are not separate from it but an expression of this potential state. There is nothing to avoid; we are the void. The fertile void as true nature, where all forms and things emerge and return.
This technique can be first learned in any standing posture that supports vertical rest, as in standing with minimal effort or simply standing at rest. Certain physical adjustments can be made to increase support and balance while standing. These include: 1) unlocking the knees 2) widening the stance 3) dropping the pelvis 4) letting the spine drop relaxed and suspended and 5) focusing on the exhale and allowing the inhale to come as a reflex. 6) eyes are either shut or open as a slit to minimize external stimuli.
Once the physical mechanics of the No-Form stance are established, the following internal adjustments can support No-Form: 1) the attention is withdrawn from identifying with the external environment and reconnected within onself 2) by relaxing the desire to control the outcome of the experience 3) by relaxing the desire to control 4) by relaxing desire 5) by relaxing into the process of becoming nothing and 6) being nothing.
Though this technique is borrowed from traditional sitting ZaZen meditation practice, in paratheatre it is not done for its own sake nor for any type of spiritual attainment; no samadhi or enlightenment is sought here. No-Form is used as a tool or a bridge to a more direct experience of living currents, energies, and forces embedded in the physical itself and the energetic body. From the internal receptivity afforded by No-Form, we can begin to detect, access, be impressed, and finally moved by the innate forces, resistances, and impulses of these interconnected bodies.
The first function of No-Form is to “charge” the ritual. With practice, we can approach a state of profound receptivity and begin attuning to autonomous forces within us. From here, we learn to allow their presence within us to act on us towards our eventual surrender to their effects through us in physical gesture, movement, action, and vocalizations. This can occur by relaxing the desire to control the outcomes of these expressions and allowing them instead to express through us. This immersion and surrender process marks the initiatic stage of this paratheatre work.
The second function of No-Form allows us to discharge the ritual by releasing our attachment and identification with whatever forces, energies, or states of being we merged with during the immersion phase. By disidentifying with these energies, our consciousness returns to our true nature -- of being nothing, of being nobody but ourselves -- and free of the delusionary tendencies common to ego identification with the psyche's unconscious contents. Once we can begin to extract our identification from these internal sources and energies, we are left with our integrity intact. In this second function, No-Form acts as a trance-dispersion device.
These two functions of No-Form -- to charge and to discharge the ritual -- occurs when we set apart time before and after each ritual immersion to stand in No-Form. As a consistent guideline, this technique supports a scrupulous approach to any ritual of true Self-initiation, of accessing any state of being or force in the physical and energetic bodies towards their authentic expression in movement, sound, gesture, and action. Without the consistent application of the No-Form technique -- before and after every ritual immersion -- our work can easily corrupt into rote forms of play-acting, spectacle and forced improvisation.
The practice of No-Form remains an ongoing commitment for anyone pursuing actual development in this paratheatre medium. Once access to No-Form is established through the standing position, the technique can be extended into the movement forms of walking and jogging, as in the 'No-Form walk' and the 'No-Form jog'. With extended practice of No-Form, it can be applied in any situation regardless of external form or action.
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