Here’s another installment in a series of emails that took place between Michael and one of his senior students beginning in August of 2009. May you find the exchange interesting and enriching.
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June 2, 2010
Student: Do you think that contraction, as an experience, is a necessary movement in consciousness in order to birth something new?
Michael: Yes. It’s the natural ebb and flow of the Universe.
Student: It seems like this cycle of contraction and expansion is never-ending. But I’ve also noticed as my practice has matured that the cycle of contraction, when seen and relaxed into, lasts far shorter than it used to. Is there a point where contraction does not occur at all?
Michael: It’s what I’ve noticed. Once stillness begins to become a deeper more authentic orientation for us, we see again and again that awareness of the contraction experience opens into an expansion. And yes, contraction can become the exception rather than the rule as we begin to live the expanse with deeper integrity. As this way of living settles, the contraction becomes utterly optional.