Distilling is beautiful. First of all, because it is a slow, philosophic, and silent occupation, which keeps you busy but gives you time to think of other things, somewhat like riding a bike.
Primo Levi, The Periodic Table
Should you desire the great tranquillity, be prepared to sweat white beads. Hakuin
Sweating is under-rated. It is a form of distillation, of purification, and of removing the impurities from the system. Anyone with a basic knowledge of distilling spirits or fermenting wine will be aware of the similarities between purifying a liquid and purifying a bodymind. The key is movement, moving liquid, moving bodymind.
When I lived in Warsaw, I wrote an essay about it, this sweating and distilling... this dripping. Here is the crux of it. I called it Vodka Nirvana, the vodka here referring not to the alcoholic spirit but to the literal translation from the Polish as 'little water':
The brain (untreated) is energised until it reaches its boiling point and begins to vaporize. Once all of the thought in the brain has vaporized, the vapour is led into the cerebral cortex whereupon the cooling thought reverts to the thinking form in a clear state. It can then be poured directly from the brain.
Because the distillation process can never ensure a complete separation between thought and other materials, the process is often repeated one or more times with the treated thought. Many ‘draughts’ (the penultimate of which is sometimes referred to as ‘art’) have been vaporized and distilled (re-draughted) many times over.
Only at the point of the last refinement will one notice that there is no ‘draught’ as such any longer, only pure essence, pure spirit. This we refer to as ‘vodka nirvana’, or ‘embodying the draught’.
The brain (untreated) is energised until it reaches its boiling point and begins to vaporize. Once all of the thought in the brain has vaporized, the vapour is led into the cerebral cortex whereupon the cooling thought reverts to the thinking form in a clear state. It can then be poured directly from the brain.
Because the distillation process can never ensure a complete separation between thought and other materials, the process is often repeated one or more times with the treated thought. Many ‘draughts’ (the penultimate of which is sometimes referred to as ‘art’) have been vaporized and distilled (re-draughted) many times over.
Only at the point of the last refinement will one notice that there is no ‘draught’ as such any longer, only pure essence, pure spirit. This we refer to as ‘vodka nirvana’, or ‘embodying the draught’.
and a few short poems...
100% PROOF
It's a form of spiritual practice
the distillation of the bodymind
cycling from the centre of the city,
up and out...
into...
the hills,
dripping, distilling, exuding,
removing the heads and tails,
en-spacing and aereating self
under your own steam, and, at your own pace,
creating the infinitely distilled spirit.
MY SWEAT
my sweat
dripping from the bodymind
dripping from the world
triple-distilled Being
44 years old.
MY DISTILLERY
Up there,
far beyond the chaotic city
lies my distillery
and a few barrels
of a 35 year old single malt
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