More Guest Reflections on Balancing

"Balancing rocks is my symbol that it is all going to work." - learner Pam Mack

What seems impossible is possible.

Uncertainty and impermanence are definite, eternal, and beautiful.

Rocks have a lot to say.

I am standing close to a precariously balanced rock sculpture, trying to add one new rock. I am constantly feeling, looking, and listening for signs of a collapse. At the first sign of a fall, I would jump back, to try to avoid being hurt. I am not feeling safe. If I were to stand farther away while adding this rock, I would be even less safe: my hands would be less steady, and I could not feel, see, or hear as well.

Balancing myself, I touch the new rock to its place, and gradually allow its weight to rest. I can feel through my hands that it would topple if I let go. I need to lift it a bit, wiggle it, march it edge by tiny edge around on its base. All the while, I am holding my body and my hands as still as I can, breathing gently. Releasing some pressure on my grip, I can feel that I am near a balancing place. My hands, and the rock, move with each shallow breath. So, I hold my breath, and feel my hands moving slightly with each heartbeat. Release a bit, feel, grip, move the rock, release again, feel, and finally release until I am barely touching the rock. I feel it will stand. Let go, step back, breathe. - balancer Zach Pine

Each unrest or mental diverson, each desire, to want to build the most beautiful or highest tower destroys the concentration and brings inevitably the tower to the wanken. At the end even the smallest stone can bring everything to collapsing. - balancer Clemens Baumgartner (machine translation - see full text in original German)

I'm not a person given over to any kind of mysticism, and certainly don't think that there was any kind of bizarre energy emanating from myself, or from that particular spot on the beach. Neither do I have any special manual dexterity. But there stood the stones, and there they still were when I brought my two daughters down to see them later that evening.

Choosing 'little-girl sized' stones, rather than the larger ones that I had used, they too had almost instant success, and soon surrounded my sculptures with a collection of small 'escorts'. - balancer David Bull