Anne Battye is one of the UK’s leading exponents of the Alexander Technique and each week I have a lesson with her. Recently we talked about ‘belief’ and she said:
‘I have always had a problem with belief, which is why I felt such relief coming to the Alexander work, where I was simply expected to practise and see what could happen next. For me, its practise includes scientific, philosophic and intuitive knowledge, all blending together in a holistic way. But it doesn’t negate the sense of mystery – which is to me one of the most vital elements of our being.
‘One of my pupils said that, while he was sitting in a cave in the Himalayas meditating, he heard a couple walk past discussing the Alexander Technique. One said to the other, “Don’t you have to believe in it for it to work?” and the other replied, “I don’t believe in it – I simply practise!”’
Belief is an intellectual process, whereas practise leads one into true knowledge of the heart. We no longer have to believe because we know. We don’t have to recite creeds because we live them.
Brilliant. This reminds me of Jesus’ example where two sons are asked by their father to do a piece of work for him; one talks about it with assurance while the other says nothing, but goes out and gets on with the work. Intellectualised belief can also be way of avoidance. The place of prayer is not most truly in the head but in the heart and embedded in the whole of our ‘normal’ lives – and it does not have to have the label ‘I believe’ written on it in order to exist.