Jeanne de Salzmann repeatedly says that any kind of tension will block an effort at inner work. While this question can be understood through direct experience, it can also be examined from a technical point of view. This sheds some light on why tension is so much of an issue.
First of all, take note that tension arises in all three centers. Moving Center tension expresses itself as muscular tension; and most people think that this is the tension that needs to be dealt with, which is why yoga, massage therapy, and so on are so popular. But it only scratches the surface of the tension that we have.
Emotional tension expresses itself as reaction. Intellectual tension expresses itself as argument.
The reason for this is that tension always arises first and foremost in the moving part of the center. It is a physical issue, a physical blockage. it prevents the energy from moving through the center properly because it arises at the beginning of the process, at the note
re. While it can be well understood through immediate experience that moving center attention is muscular, the tensions of the other two centers are almost invariably ignored, because the manifestations are not understood as tension.
The tensions arise and prevent the higher energy necessary for inwardly forming — informing — the center through the progression of its parts. That is to say, the tension blocks the shock that ought to take place to unify the moving and intellectual part of the center with the emotional part. That shock is provided, as has been explained in other essays, through the action of Grace, which penetrates everything.
The
diagram at this link will give some indications of how both Grace and Mercy affect the progression of energy in the octave. Grace is
given; Mercy is
earned. Grace is given because, as soon as the divine exits the transcendent Reality as an emanation that forms the material world (the note
re) God immediately recognizes the separation and the objectively difficult circumstances that His creation has been thrust into, and immediately, because of His infinitely Merciful nature, sends help — that is, Grace, or, the conscious force that helps with work —
on the very heels of the manifestation itself. That is to say, Grace has the opportunity to enter naturally from the beginning and support the development of the octave. But it is physically blocked at the note
re by this resistance of tension.
This tension is caused, among other things, because of the loss of identity with the Godhead. In the instant of manifestation and material existence, all of creation has already forgotten where it originated, and has to begin a search for it; Grace is actually resisted, even though it is offered so freely. It's perceived as
other; and in the initial establishment of identity,
other is always to be rejected. It is overcoming this rejection that the passage around the diagram is all about. The rejection of the other in favor of one's own unique identity,
even when that other is God, is where ego begins and ends.
The important point to understand here is that every center blocks the entry of Grace, of conscious motive force, that could assist in its internal completion as a three centered enterprise. The centers block the entry of Grace through their tension, which is why Mme. stressed this so much.
I've heard others assert that some tension is necessary; but those who speak in this way don't understand what kind of tension and what kind of relaxation we are seeking here. For Grace to penetrate the action of a particular center, a very deep relaxation, one that isn't ordinarily available in any way, must arrive. And one of the deep mysteries is that Grace itself can provide this help, if we let it.
More on this tomorrow.