Sherry Ackerman just published the second edition of her book “Dressage in the Fourth Dimension”. I’m sure most of my readers are familiar with Dr. Ackerman and the first edition of her book. She is a professor of Philosophy at the College of the Siskiyous in Northern California as well as a renowned international clinician and author. You can find more information about her on her website www.sherryackerman.com . She writes a blog on philosophy and dressage at http://sherryackerman.blogspot.com/. You can order the new edition of Dressage in the Fourth Dimension at www.dressageinthefourth.com.
This blog entry is an interview with Sherry Ackerman in which she answers questions about the new edition of her book, her approach to training and teaching, and the interface between dressage, philosophy, and spirituality. Dr. Ackerman has agreed to answer follow-up questions from blog readers and to turn this interview into a conversation between the two of us and you, the readers. So, please feel free to e-mail me with questions and comments on the interview, and we will answer the most interesting ones here on the artisticdressage blog.
TR: Did you make any changes in the 2nd edition of the book?
SA: I went through the book and changed a lot of the language so that it would be more understandable to non-dressage people as well as to dressage people. As dressage riders, we tend to be a little jargon-y. I worked closely with a non-equestrian editor and she helped me broaden the scope of the language so that the message would also be accessible to those outside of the discipline. I feel like it worked, as I have heard from artists, martial arts practitioners, musicians and so forth who have told me that they feel the message is as pertinent to them as it is to equestrians. Art is art! And, this is the key to the Fourth Dimension—seeing dressage as art. We see things differently through the lens of art, so if we recognize dressage as an art, we begin to view it differently. It becomes aesthetic and has certain potentiality that rightfully belongs to art—such as personal transformation.
TR: I find that I am continuously learning in my own riding, making new observations, and gaining new insights into the nature of riding and training. As a result, my views evolve over time, so that I want to rewrite some of my earlier articles after 5 or 10 years, because I think I can explain the subject better, or because I understand certain aspects of the subject better. Did you find that in the 10 years since the publication of the first edition of Dressage in the 4th Dimension your views or your understanding of certain aspects of riding had changed or evolved to the point where you wanted to rewrite parts of the book?
SA: I agree with you. A day doesn’t go by without my feeling that I have gone deeper into my understanding of dressage. Dressage is like a best friend….we just keep growing closer and closer. And, I love it more and more. So, yes, all of that was there when I began working on this second edition. I felt, though, as if the book was incredibly ahead of its time when I first published it in 1997. It almost seems as if the paradigm had finally caught up to the book when I published the second edition. So, I left many of the ideas intact. Sometimes that was hard to do, but I wanted to preserve the integrity of the volume by letting ideas whose time had finally come to fall on fertile soil. I am downloading the new observations, insights and structures through my clinics where I can be right there, in person, with the material and share my evolutionary trajectory openly.
My love affair with dressage has to do with the fact that we never really “get it”. “It” just keeps moving which means that I have to keep moving, changing, revisioning. Dogma kills dressage. Experience enlivens and informs it!
TR: Riding can be a vehicle to self realization and offers the rider the opportunity to become a better human being. Why do you think it is that in so many cases it actually seems to do the opposite? It often seems to bring out the worst in people: hate, envy, jealousy, vindictiveness, dishonesty, backstabbing. These negative qualities seem to occur more in the horseworld than in any other area of life.
SA: When I had finished this second edition of the book, I shared it with a very dear friend of mine who is a Zen Master, Reverand Master Eko Little. Eko was the first male student accepted to Vassar “back in the day” and had studied dressage a bit when he had been in Poughkeepse. After he read over the manuscript, he threw back his head and laughed. He told me that I was “walking into the bowels of hell”, meaning that I was taking a very vulnerable position among a segment of society that was known for its materialism and reductionism. He had experienced the envy, vindictiveness and corruption of the horseworld—he knew that this was a segment of society that could have some very dark moments. But, he’s a Zen Master so he also knew that consciousness cuts through the dark if its clear and authentic. So, he wished the book well and we sent it off into the night. I have had letters from people for whom the book has been life-changing. Because it’s a small, attractive, non-threatening package, they picked it up and read it. And, somewhere, between those two covers, a chord was struck. Those moments when we confront our own shadow are powerful. Clarity lives in that collision between ego and truth.
I think that there are two dressages—and inner and an outer dressage. So many people only get introduced to the outer dressage and this dressage is competitive, egoistic, dualistic and attached to results. The outer dressage, because of its nature, can breed hate, envy, jealousy, vindictiveness, dishonesty and backstabbing. The inner dressage is subjective, cooperative, solitary, integrated and process oriented. It is a vehicle to self realization and offers the rider the opportunity for transformation. I think, though, that many people are never properly introduced to the inner dressage. It is incumbent upon us, as teachers, to teach holistically, offering instruction in both the outer and inner dressage. This is very much what I am doing with my new "Fourth Dimension" dressage clinics. I am intent upon teaching an integrated dressage that brings the outer and the inner aspects together.
TR: What do you tell your students when they become overwhelmed with the length of the journey, and the realization of how much they don't know, how much farther they still have to go before they reach a point that they would consider a satisfactory level of competence?
SA: This is a very sticky point. It is absolutely bound to happen. I call it "the dressage crisis". As I say in the book, when one gets to this point, s/he can either stick his/her head in the sand and try to ignore the angst or they can begin, like Bodhidharma, to take one step at a time---carefully placing one foot after the next---toward that long journey into the unknown. I have tremendous compassion for the student who arrives at this realization. It is painful---and it is also magnificent. It is so authentic--so real! There is real humility available when one realizes how much they don't know. I generally tell my students about my first trip to Herr von Neindorff's. It was there that I realized how little I knew and how long it was going to be before I even had a glimmer. I was very young and ambitious and I thought that I was a hot-shot. It only took a few days under the Master's eye to realize that I didn't even know what I didn't know. I share this story with my students and we laugh poignantly together. Then, we get to work, in full realization that there is really nothing except the journey---that there is no real destination. Small accomplishments become meaningful and, without them even knowing it, one day they arrive at a new level of competence.
TR: Why do you think horses seem to attract so many people who are emotionally and psychologically unwell?
SA: The word "animal" comes from the Latin root "anima" which means "soul". Animals connect people to their souls. When one is emotionally and/or psychologically unwell, it is the soul that needs medicine. And, that medicine very, very often comes on four legs. Of all animals, horses have some of the most mystique. They demonstrate a lot of qualities of a good therapist. They are Present--so Present that they have the ability to literally jolt someone back into The Moment. Most emotional and psychological distress is caused by what I call "noise in the head". If one wants to get along well with horses, that "noise" needs to quiet down. Horses don't like monkey-mind. Horses appreciate Stillness that is the product of a quiet, centered mind. As horses teach one to relax and quiet their mind, the person heals. So, I think that at some deep level, the person who is suffering emotionally and/or psychologically, is unconsciously drawn to horses. There is something there in the unconscious mind that knows that the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a human!
TR: How do you help your students with the plateaus where the student is not making any visible progress and may be starting to question whether s/he is on the right path or whether s/he is ever going to learn to ride?
SA: I learned some years ago to let go of any attachment to my students' progress. So, they don't get any pressure from me. If they, however, put pressure on themselves and, thus, begin to question their abilities, I just listen. I don't think that riding is for everyone. I'm open to the idea that maybe it isn't really their path. If there isn't passion there, it's a red flag for me. Passion carries riders beyond plateaus and blocks. It makes up for perceived inabilities. If the passion is evident, the person will, with time, learn to ride. If their pursuit, though, is without passion, it really may not be their path. I look to see if their heart is on fire with love for riding. If it is, they're, in their own time, going to learn to ride.
TR: A comment, rather than a question: I found your comparison between dressage and alchemy very interesting. It reminded me of a description that I read in a book on Zen, in which the author described the path of the student as a circle that starts with a white belt as the sign of the beginner. Over the years of continuous practice, the belt gradually becomes darkened by sweat and dirt until it is black. As the student, who has now achieved a certain degree of mastery, continues to practice, the black belt becomes frayed and faded and turns white again. It's interesting that different cultures seem to have made very similar observations that studying anything seriously for a long time changes the student's personality, as much as his or her understanding and outlook on the subject matter, the world, life, and himself or herself, regardless of whether the subject is alchemy, flower arranging, sword fighting, aikido, or dressage. Would you like to add any thoughts to the cross cultural universality of these experiences and observations?
SA: Alchemy, of course, comes from the Western esoteric tradition. But, as you have so keenly noted, the Eastern esoteric tradition is also full of these references. What we are essentially talking about is that which Joseph Campbell called The Hero's Journey. This always involves a departure, an initiation and a return. This powerful archetypal story is at the heart of every one of the world's spiritual traditions. It's such an important theme that it also comes down to us through fairy tales and the oral traditions, as well. The Hero---that is you and I!---leaves his/her natal home to go out into the world. It is in the wilds of the world that one practices. Lessons are learned, mastery is offered. Allies appear and help us along our Way. In our case, those allies often have manes and tails. One day, we notice that we are, as Lex Hixon would say, Coming Home. Like an orobourus, we nibble at our own tail. And, the beauty of this is that the symbol of the orobourus really drives home the point that there is no destination. There is only the path, only the Way.
TR: Another interesting thing you mention in the context of alchemy is the vision of the "peacock's tail", which you compare to a superficial accomplishment like a great flying change. This phenomenon is called makyo in Zen. Makyo are often visions and psychic experiences that occur during meditation. They can mislead the student into believing that s/he has achieved some great level of enlightenment, when in reality they are really just passing phenomena that have very little intrinsic meaning. But they present a danger to the student, because it is easy to get caught up in them, to get attached to them. Along the same lines, the riding student may think s/he is a great master after having ridden an advanced movement or after having won a test at a competition. If the student gets attached to that notion, all further progress is stalled until the attachment is severed and the beginner's mind is restored. If the student can't shake the attachment, the journey is basically over. Would you like to add any further insight from the point of view of the 4th Dimension?
SA: Beginner's Mind is the key! I remember, in my own process, the day that I realized this. In terms of my "outer dressage", I was well along my way--riding complex movements and challenging the limits of balance, suppleness and strength. Then, it was like a lightning bolt struck...."Ohhh, I see. This "upper level" work is nothing more than the ripe cherries that drop naturally from a well nourished tree. If we put our efforts into keeping the tree healthy and stable, the fruits ripen naturally and fall into our laps. Our eye has to be, always, on "chopping wood and carrying water". And, as we keep our focus there---on, as Herr Neindorff called them, "the basics"--everything else ripens in its own time, quite naturally. Weed, water and work....only then do the true blossoms appear!
TR: How do you change a student's attitude who is caught in one-dimensional, superficial "form-instead-of-function" thought patterns, so that s/he starts to see the gymnastic and psychological complexities of riding and training?
SA: I tell them that they are going to do yoga and meditation with me during the lunch break. I take a two hour lunch break, when teaching, during which I practice yoga and meditation. I invite students to join me--especially those who are struggling in one-dimesionality. I liken the yoga to dressage--comparing each asana to a dressage movement. I liken the meditation to riding in balance. As their muscles begin to ache from bending in the asanas, their compassion for their horse's struggle to do half-pass, travers, etc. grows. They begin to experience the rigor of collection when they stand in tree pose. Suddenly, the whole reason for gymnastics becomes evident. And, of course, when we sit for 30 minutes in zazen, they feel as if they are confronted with Eternity. They are certain that they have been sitting there for hours! And, the psychological complexities of riding and training are seen in their impatience, anxiety and frustration. And, following Nietzsche, I "do philosophy with a hammer" and drive the point home, connecting, with no uncertainty, the yoga and meditation to their riding experience!
TR: How do you help your students put exceptionally good and bad rides into perspective, so that they neither overestimate themselves after a great success, nor despair after a really bad ride?
SA: This is so important. I talk a lot about the Tao and point to the I Ching as a map of "the way things are". Things are always changing into their opposite. This is the Way of the Tao. The moment that something comes into existence, it begins to be its opposite. Dawn is the beginning of dusk, birth is the beginning of death. There is that little "dot of yin" in the yang and that little "dot of yang" in the yin. And, so it is with our rides. The good ones have a seed of a bad one and vice-versa. This is the ebb and flow of Life and riding gives us a chance to really experience this concept. If we really examine our good ride, we can find the kernel of the bad ride in it...and, conversely, if we really examine our bad ride, we can find the kernel of a good ride in it.
Sherry L. Ackerman, Ph.D.
College of the Siskiyous
Philosophy & Psychology
www.dressageinthefourth.com
www.lewiscarrollmyth.com
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Thomas Ritter
