ENVIRONMENTAL EMBODIMENT
The path of Embodyssey® begins with embodied experiences, involving internal and external awareness of environment and potential purposeful application within it. For example information may be obtained, knowledge is to be grasped, wisdom is applied. Embodiment experiences are more often the product of autodidactic submission, yielding humbling moments of Presence. Of course, training embodiment is a bit of a paradox, as it is an attempt at mastering skills of "intention with no intention". Many forms of martial arts offer this framework, but most unavoidably muster martial intent given their origins. Cowley developed Embodyssey® as a non-martial approach to embodiment. Instead it employs an emphasis on subtlety and a relationship with open space rather than a target. The result is a mindful integrative path that adaptively embraces the "bigger picture". Therefore an equal amount of training is attributed to environmental connection and awareness.
The long-term path of Embodyssey® training is a submission to the odyssey of life. This means that in a dichotomous world where at least in the physical plane choice motivates our actions, we choose to embrace adaptation. In practice we tend to remind ourselves that we get what we need, not always what we want. We train subtlety so that we are always only what is necessary. We are not better, nor lesser, rather as needed. This includes reflections for the equal needs of our fellow species, elements and environments, even when they project unequally. We are likened to conduits, filters for the projections of others, not for gain but for necessity. To train such a path, one must submit the self to the natural order (or chaos) of all things. Refinement begins when the embodiment of this submission is detectable equally internally and externally, in direct application by way of mind/body/environment. Cycles of Nature are reflected in the practice and embraced through environmental connection.
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The Embodyssey® symbol, designed by Cowley, features a variation on the ouroboros (originating from the Greek (oura/uro) "tail" and (boros) "eating", the serpent that "bites it's own tail"), an ancient symbol that implies infinite transition, transformation and cyclical natural processes. With a focus on the eye, representing awareness, the Embodyssey® symbol implies that our innate tendency toward dichotomous experience (due to our biology) results in a constant tangent, which we are always refining as a means to return to the circle. To Be the Tangent suggests embracing the process of awareness and its dualistic propositions, to be involved in the conversation of refinement while always seeking center. The tangent marks our path in time, constant benchmark posturing for genuine reflection by others who share the environment.