Fly Eye Sensitivty Toward Enhanced Awareness

Flies have two eyes, each with thousands of eyes within them. Their extraordinary sight and rapid flight makes most movements to swat at or grab them futile. Your fastest swat is a slow fumble to them.

Can we develop our reaction time so that we essentially see with the fly eye? Yes, in a manner that might be contrary to your thinking.

Developing The Fly Eye

Citrus is acidic and yet when we consume it, it actually makes our systems more alkaline. It is one of many contradictions in form where things are not always what they seem. Most acidic food is causation for acidic systems, but being that citrus is so good, it benefits us even becoming more alkaline.

This attribute of citrus fruits mirrors  the fruits of Tai Chi Chuan too. It is a contradiction in form to think that the slow, attentive and specific movements of Tai Chi Chuan would lead to increased speed and perception, but they do. The specific slow articulations originating in the feet, powered by the legs, controlled by the dantien (energy point below navel) and expressed through the fingers activate the less dominant side of the body and connect mind and body in a very tangible way, spurring healthy balance.

This mind body link is a dendrite forest, connecting what was once deserted and disconnect, and grounding us in the present. Slow movements enhance attention to self and surroundings;  enhanced attention leads to enhanced reaction time to the point of having the fly eye, and even an intuitive understanding (a negative reaction time). That is to say, not only can one detect movements of those around you just like a fly, as if things are moving in fine detailed slow motion, but one also gains sensitivity to the surroundings of any  situation which  can help one avoid, figuratively or literally, walking down the wrong street.

The citrus of Tai Chi –  the fly eye – can be applied to all of our situations, whether one practices Tai Chi or not. If we move slowly, pay attention, and remain grounded in the present,  it is easy to be in the right place at the right time.  With intuition as our guide,  one doesn’t have to move quickly to get out of the way of falling tree, so to speak, but can  avoid the tree in the first place.

Levels of Awareness

When we are stressed, we are not grounded. We lose our awareness, becoming increasingly unconscious of ourselves, our surroundings and how we interact with our surroundings. We focus on the past, or the future. Essentially we get into tangles with literal and figurative falling trees.

Tai chi and meditative movements activate all aspects of awareness, physical awareness and metaphysical awareness.

The first level of awareness multiplied through practicing meditative movement is interoception, the understanding of the one’s material self, how you feel and move. The second level of understanding is exteroception, the understanding of the material world outside oneself. Thirdly is proprioception, the understanding of how much strength, speed and from what position one can best manipulate or deal with the material world outside oneself. The fourth aspect of this set of four forms of perception is preprioception, the utilization of intuitive understanding and sensitivity for metaphysical observation.

Tai chi and all meditative movements enhance these four forms of perception, expanding one’s perimeter awareness metaphysically.  It is this  that gives those  practicing slow, stylized, specific movements the ability to react quicker and often in a more appropriate fashion – because of enhanced observation ability due to calm mind state.

Being attentive can help you develop a fly eye in enhanced reaction time as well as technique, so that one knows where the fly will be as you swipe by at any rate of speed.

About Ethan Indigo Smith:

Activist, author and Tai Chi teacher Ethan Indigo Smith was born on a farm in Maine and lived in Manhattan for a number of years before migrating west to Mendocino, California. Guided by a keen sense of integrity, humanity and justice, Ethan’s work is both deeply connected and extremely insightful, blending philosophy, politics, activism, spirituality, meditation and a unique sense of humour.

You can connect with Ethan on Facebook, check out his author page on Amazon, or visit his new websites, Geometry Of Energy and Meditation 108.