64

GESTALT AWARENESS: A WAY OF BEING AS A

YOGA FOR THE WEST
"To suffer one’s death and be re-born is not easy"-Fritz Perls
PENELOPE BALOGH
Penelope Balogh did not suffer facing death but accepted it courageously and
we trust that to "be re-born" will be easy for her, who has done so much to help

people to be "re-born"-The Editor

’GESTALT is
probably familiar of you as a German word most often
to most
t,J translated
most used
&dquo;configuration&dquo;
as

by perceptual
&dquo;whole&dquo;. As a psychological term it has been
or
researchers like Kohler, Koffka and Wertheimer referring to
the tendency of the organism to form meaningful Gestalten in perceptually
organising the world and in problem solving. Many principles of human gestalt
formation were derived from these early researches.
More recently, Fritz Perls and his colleagues applied these same principles to the
development and nature of human personality, and named his approach GESTALT
THERAPY.
Although Perls was born in Berlin, Gestalt Therapy is relatively little known in
Germany, and is only now becoming well known in Perls’ adopted country, the
United States.
The term &dquo;YOGA&dquo; is Sanskrit and is roughly translated as UNION. While j
Yoga practice has been known in the West for thousands of years, it is usually
associated with physical exercises and meditation, and its deeper meaning of
bringing about the union between body and mind, and between man and the
universe is less well known.
In fact, in this paper, it is my thesis that both Yoga and Gestalt have much in
common, and that both are relatively unknown to the profession of Psychology.
Fortunately, Humanistic Psychology provides a framework under which both
systems are becoming better known as the Third Force encompasses both new and
old methods for creating the &dquo;whole man&dquo; who actualises all his potential instead of
its fragments.
Gestalt and Yoga have much in common. Both are grounded in a tradition
that is more Eastern than Western : More monistic than dualistic. Both spring from
a sense of unity in the Universe, a sense that is once again
growing ... a sense of
man as a part of the universe and not apart from it !
I found beautiful expression of these ideas in the words of the poet, Robinson
Jeffers :
&dquo;INTEGRITY IS WHOLENESS,
THE GREATEST BEAUTY IS ORGANIC WHOLENESS,
THE WHOLENESS OF LIFE AND THINGS, THE DIVINE
BEAUTY OF THE UNIVERSE.
LOVE THAT, NOT MAN APART FROM THAT,
OR ELSE YOU WILL SHARE ’MAN’S PITIFUL CONFUSIONS,
OR DROWN IN DISPAIR WHEN HIS DAYS DARKEN&dquo;.
Similar notions are found in much of the writing about Yoga. Christopher
Isherwood, in introducing &dquo;Vendanta for the Western World&dquo;, writes :
&dquo;EVERY LIVING CREATURE AND EVERY OBJECT ARE
INTERRELATED, BIOLOGICALLY, PSYCHOLOGICALLY,
POLITICALLY AND ECONOMICALLY. THEY ARE ALL
OF A PIECE&dquo;.

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 65

I’whichThe basic
can
principles of Gestalt Therapy
be considered the mantrum
be expressed in
can simple phrase,
of Gestalt: I AND THOU : HERE AND
a

NOW. In &dquo;I and Thou&dquo;the mantra referes to the relationship between people’s
souls; the connection of the Atman in each of us; rather than the relationship of the
masks of Maya that people often wear.
In &dquo;Here and Now&dquo; the mantra reminds us of the profound importance and
I the experiential reality of the present moment. By staying in contact with the Here
and Now, we lose our intellectual minds and come to our experiential sense, freed
of regrets and ruminations about the past; freed of the imaginings and expectations
about the future. If all of Gestalt’s meaning were condensed to one word, that word
would be NOW; As Perls says : &dquo;In my lectures in Gestalt Therapy, I have one aim
only; To impart a fraction of the meaning of the word now. To me, nothing exists
except the now. Now=experience=awareness=reality. The past is no more and the
future not yet. Only the now exists.&dquo; (Fagan & Sheperd, Eds., Gestalt Therapy Now,
Science and Behaviour Books, Palo Alto, California).
Gestalt, like Yoga can also be understood as a system of integration, with
emphasis on the essential unity of all the systems involved in the person and per-
sonality. One way this is manifested is in the emphasis that Gestalt places on the
different languages, both verbal and non-verbal, with which a person speaks : For
example, one language concerns the content of what I am saying; a second language
concerns the music and rhythms of my voice and breath; a third language concerns
the postures and gestures of my body.
Thus, if I stand with my arms folded, speak harshly and say &dquo; I really love you&dquo;;
or smilingly say : &dquo;You really make me angry&dquo; an incongruity is evident. I am
...

not speaking with one voice, and in the American jargon it could be said that I was
not &dquo;TOGETHER&dquo;! WHEN MY WORDS, MY MUSIC AND MY DANCE ALL
FLOW AS IF FEEDING FROM THE SAME SOURCE, THEN I AM TO-
GETHER, I AM WHOLE, I AM A UNIT IN TOUCH WITH MYSELF AND
WITH THE FORCES ACTING ON ME AND THROUGH ME. When that
all my potential is actualised at a given moment in time, all my energy is
available to me and I can move forward and change. Paradoxically, then the more
I want to change, and the less satisfied I am with myself, the less I am able to change.
In Vedanta for the Western World, an article called &dquo;The Gita and War&dquo; by
I
I, Isherwood, says : &dquo;At any moment in time, we are what we are; and our actions,
express that condition. We cannot run away from our actions, because we carry the
condition with us. On the highest mountain, in the darkest cave, we must turn at
last and accept the consequences of being ourselves. Only through this acceptance
,can we begin to evolve further.&dquo;
In Gestalt, one of Perls’ dictums is to remember that you cannot be anything
other than what you are right now.
To my mind, when I fully experience the NOW, when I totally accept myself
at the present moment, I stop holding myself back with thinking about my thoughts
or actions, I minimise my attachment to those thoughts and actions, and I begin to
approach the selfless action that is one of the hallmarks of the enlightened being.
Gestalt differs from Yoga in many aspects of its practice but it is inappropriate
here to detail the variey of techniques that have sprung up utilising the basic Gestalt
principles. Sufhce it to say that they in no way resemble Pranayam, or Hatha Yoga.
(One exception, however, might be a kind of meditation known as a Gestalt Aware-
ness Continuum, in which I pay attention to the messages of my senses and report
from moment to moment that of which I am aware; that which is figure against the
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 66

ground.)
Differences in technique, however great they appear, remain merely differences
in paths towards a common goal. I believe, in fact, that Yoga and Gestalt share a
common goal although there are differences in emphasis. Much of Gestalt seems
to emphasise getting into the self, while Yoga empasises getting out of the Self.
Gestalt, in part, seems egocentric with an emphasis on a separateness between You
and I while Yoga seems more universal with an emphasis on the identity of You and
I.
Yoga means UNION. If union is to occur, then a separateness of You and I
is unacceptable. For example, the Gestalt Prayer, as Fritz Perls called it, goes like
this :
&dquo;I do my thing and you do your thing. I am not in
this world to live up to your expectations, and
you are not in this world to live up to mine. You
_
are you and I am I. And if by chance we get together
it’s beautiful. If not it can’t be helped.&dquo;
As I understand Yoga, the goal is to be beyond the boundaries of Ego; to find
the Atman within the self and to realise ultimately the oneness of the Atman and
Brahma. But this is what Gestalt talks about when it asks for each of us to be fully
aware of the natural forces of our bodies; at the atomic and sub-atomic and energy
level, my body and your body are made of the same stuff; your body and my body
are one and the same matter ... and for that matter are the same as all matter.
The newest-labelled branch of Psychology in the West ... let us say the
leading edge of Humanistic Psychology is called Transpersonal Psychology. In keep-
ing with this new direction I should like to offer a next step in the evolution of
Gestalt which at its core replaces the &dquo;YOU ARE YOU AND I AM I&dquo; with &dquo;YOU
ARE ME AND I AM YOU&dquo;. I therefore offer a Transpersonal Gestalt Prayer which
I dedicate to my two Gurus : Fritz Perls and Baba Ram Dass.
I DO YOUR THING AND YOU DO MY THING. I AM IN
THIS WORLD TO HELP YOU GIVE UP YOUR EXPECTATIONS
AND YOU ARE IN THIS WORLD TO HELP ME GIVE UP
MINE. FOR YOU ARE ME AND I AM YOU. AND IF BY
CHANCE WE GET TOGETHER, ALL IS BEAUTIFUL. IF
NOT, ALL IS STILL BEAUTIFUL.
OM SHANTI

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