In an interview with Robert Rickover, Alexander Technique teacher Michael Ostrow says: “Both Zen and Alexander are difficult to pin down.”
“Alexander Technique is a way to free oneself from habitual ways of reacting, thinking and behaving that we don’t always notice. This happens at every level – physical, emotional and spiritual.”
“Zen helps you to experience reality directly, as it is happening in the moment. Zen helps you to become alert to what’s happening rather than to your concepts about what’s happening.”
Robert: “That sounds similar to the Alexander Technique.”
Michael: “Zen is difficult for westerners to get a handle on. That’s what led me to study the Alexander Technique.”
Robert: “The Alexander Technique came out of F.M. Alexander’s practical voice issue. If someone told him that his Technique was a Western Zen, he would’ve been bemused.”
Michael: “What he had heard of Eastern methods like yoga he didn’t like. He thought yoga was the attempt to control directly all the processes of the body such as the heart beat.”
“When I tried to do tai chi or yoga before I studied the Technique, I just hurt myself. The Technique isn’t about a specific movement. It’s about what you do before you do anything else.”
“Some people naturally do well with tai chi and yoga and they may not understand why other people get stiff and messed up.”
