Fully embrace every moment with the practices of accepting and activating. Fully accept what is, all feelings and experiences accumulated from the past, being very present in your body. Activate what is becoming. Activate your desires creating and unfolding your future, from the inside out.
Here is a very valuable resource list for those of us interested in diving deeper into the Taolst teachings.
This Feb 8, 2012 post on Into Mountains, Over Streams, the blog of the International Journal of Qigong and Taiji Culture, online SOURCES FOR FREE TAOIST E-BOOKS ON THE WEB provides links to downloadable Tao Te Ching, The I-Ching, The Zhuang zi, and other profound texts, audio books, and translations.
Many of us will also be interested in the blog post from Jan 17, 2012 Physician as Placebo, by Cheryl Lynne Rubbio of San Rafeal.
Enjoy! and share any resources you feel we might all enjoy!
Here is a very valuable resource list for those of us interested in diving deeper into the Taolst teachings.
This Feb 8, 2012 post on Into Mountains, Over Streams, the blog of the International Journal of Qigong and Taiji Culture, online SOURCES FOR FREE TAOIST E-BOOKS ON THE WEB provides links to downloadable Tao Te Ching, The I-Ching, The Zhuang zi, and other profound texts, audio books, and translations.
Many of us will also be interested in the blog post from Jan 17, 2012 Physician as Placebo, by Cheryl Lynne Rubbio of San Rafeal.
Enjoy! and share any resources you feel we might all enjoy!
Having our precious new baby Lotus has made me so aware of how big is the presence of the spirit, the energy field of even the smallest of bodies. The smallness of baby Lotus’s body, with its limited functioning and limited emotions, is such a contrast to the presence of love, profound sense of wholeness, and pure consciousness that has she brought with her into our lives.
In the baby, the gap between how much learning and capacity is yet to be developed and the big presence her wholeness brings me again to the insight that we know and often forget - this process of filling in the gap between the bigness of our presence and the smallness, the fragile nature, of our bodies.
We are all continually learning how to use the body to its fullest capability, bringing the big presence of wholeness into the physical body to expand our healing capacity and bring recovery to any physical situation. Our practice is to go into the wholeness, the pure consciousness, spiritually and physically, always recognizing that our presence is whole, intact, and unconditionally perfect, just like our baby Lotus.
And from that wholeness we bring that pure chi, pure spirit, back into the cellular body, into this relative dimension of the world. No matter what the physical dimension, we are starting with the wholeness. No matter what our condition, or the condition of someone we love, we can all connect with the profound presence of perfection that we are all born with, and I so deeply recognize, in our baby Lotus.
Watching a three month old learn about her hands and discover their potential to bring satisfaction has been an amazing gift of learning. At first a newborn's hands flail around, their face gets scratched and they wake them selves up with the random jerky movements. Then the hands start to make contact with the mouth and the rewards build the capacity, and eventually this act can be managed deliberately. What is most amazing is when the ability to focus on a toy comes, and the keen interest motivates wild swinging of the arms so random at first. The desire is so obvious yet the brain and the muscles still have a ways to go to "get their act together." She is making her best effort and is making daily progress, and we all know the day will come. The skill that is so challenging today is going to be second nature in due time.
I recognize that it is like this for me with my earnest desire to learn how to engage fully with the energy of healing and to learn how to direct energy and transform energy. When I see my fumbling and struggling attempts through the lens of her earnest efforts, I too know that it will be second nature in due time. I can visualize for myself, just as I can visualize for her that it is in my future, I just need to keep making the effort and eventually the brain connection will be formed and the skill will be mine.
We all have them. You can't heal without them. Sharing our insights puts our story into the collective story where we we can all benefit. Share yours please. If you need help getting the words organized, ask for help. Thanks. Hear from you soon! Here's one of mine to kick off the series:
I was getting quieter and quieter with each relapse, each rebound. Each cycle drew me inward another loop of the sprial. Would I find the black hole in the center? I wasn't sure who I really was anymore. Certainly not the handle-everything-Guma from the July Teacher's retreat. I struggled to discern if I could find the energy to drive down for a day of healing at the November Retreat, would I even know who to be? Did I have the energy to be a authentic and current me, with folks who knew a different me? Another relapse confirmed my ego's dilemma that it wasn't worth the struggle.
With more cycles, and more practice with the view off this shady side of the mountain, I'm drifting down into a different sense of the spaciousness within myself. My personality is learning how to synchronize with this frequency and resonate the harmony within each unfolding relationship. So when I went to LinLings shower I could flow with this newer version of me. Yet quiet a few folks, looked at me and pondered out loud, "You don't look sick." Well what could I say? I was so alive in the formless 96% of me, that the form 4%, that was coping with the illness story, just didn't show up that loudly.
So each time I show up at Wisdom Healing Qigong events, I hope to be the fresh and new me, fully alive with the integration of the most recent transformation generated by the gifts of the practice. You can help me stay honest by not expecting me (or any of us) to be who we were six months ago, one month ago, or even last week. The truth of this practice is that it is transformative, so let us hold ourselves and each other loosely, tenderly and curiously and see who we become with the next upgrade.
Sharon McCarthy, San Rafael CA, January 16, 2012 at 8:13 PM
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Welcome Lotus! May Joy, Love and Peace embrace your family. Your countenance reflects your beauty, emanating from within. I am holding you all in my heart and looking ahead to share in your radiance. Chi Blessings!
Here are two short You Tubes of Dr. Pang teaching La Chi and Chen Chi I thought you might enjoy.
In this teaching video, Dr, pang explains the details of Chen Chi:
1. arms in 25 degree and straight; fingers extended, finger tips moving up while shoulders joints thrust up and base of the palms pushes down in the open and down movement;
2. Shoulder joints moving both back and up slightly;
3. Eventually torso's chi is activated and move up from the dantian to up body when you practice long enough.
Enjoy, Mingtong.
In this video, Dr. Pang guides and explains Lachi as a direct way to work with chi for healing. The key is to move slowly and relaxed manner so you can feel more chi. You can recieve his energy transmission in this intro teaching. More detailed teaching will be covered in the next Adancing workshops on Jan. 28-29.
Two on-going Skype Group opportunities to help you sustain your practice:
Teacher Training Qigong: Shared leading of organizing the chi field, leading supplemental practices, and/or practicing the LCUPCD script. Weekdays. 7-8 am. Primarily for teachers in training. Organized by Rhandee Lipp: info@qigongwithgrace.com
Qigong Pajama Party: Daily practice of Wall squats, Hip Rotations, Cranes Neck, Chen Chi, Spine Bending, SBM. Weekdays. 7-8 am. For all practitioners who know the forms. Lead by Denise Minter: minter_denise@yahoo.com
Healing our Organs with Sound opportunity Mondays in January:
Starting this Monday, January 2nd and throughout the month of January on Mondays,Matthew Anziani (becoming a WHQ teacher) will be offering live sound healing for the 5 organ systems streaming on the internet. From 7-8 PM PST you can join him as he tones all of the sounds for the organs from the practice of Wisdom Healing Qi Gong. If you are new to this, you can easily follow along to learn the sounds and experience the power of awakening the energy inside each of your organs. This is also a wonderful practice for emotional healing. To connect to this webcast, go here at 7PM PST on Mondays: www.justin.tv/madhusahu2012
Inbal and her sister were active participants in the 2010 Teacher Retreats and help compost the english version of the chi field song. Their gifts still echo in my heart. Today I found Inbal's story written up in the Healing Journey's newsletter. Use the Link for the full story and to subscribe or contribute to this great organization.The story was called Holding Hope Lightly here is the last part.
Over a year ago, after we got some particularly sad news about my health, I asked my son how he was doing. He said he was sad but okay. I persisted, gently—was he worried? “Ima [mother],” he reminded me, equally gently, “I’m not a worrier.”
“So what do you do instead of worrying?” I asked.
“When there is bad news, I’m sad. And then, as long as there are things to try, I’m hopeful again. It’s not an expectation, I just hold the hope lightly.”
I have learned so much from my son; this lesson has been especially powerful. I used to be afraid to hope, terrified of disappointment. Dashed hopes produced a sense of humiliation, like “I should have known better.” Witnessing my son’s example—his authentic capacity to live fully in the face of uncertainty by being open to both hope (held lightly) and sorrow—helped me form a vision of what’s possible for me.
Slowly, I have learned to let myself hope. I let myself hope for things that are likely, and even for things that are unlikely. Just a few days ago, I got some bad news again. Hopes dashed—yes. But no humiliation. It’s odd to remember that I used to feel humiliated about hoping—now I find such beauty in hope, such strength. So we—my family, our community—are grieving together, pouring out our love to one another, and yes, hoping together. Along with others, I have my son to thank for this gift of hope.
Bio: Inbal Kashtan, who lives in Oakland, California, is co-founder of Bay Area Nonviolent Communication and author of Parenting from Your Heart: Sharing the Gifts of Compassion, Connection, and Choice, and a CD, Connected Parenting.
B.C. (Before Cancer), she taught, wrote, and inspired people about creating a world where everyone matters and people have the skills for making peace. Now she heals, loves, tells stories, and tries to live her dreams for as long as she can. Her family is an ongoing dream come true.
Feel the catapillar's struggle.Last leaves eaten, flesh constricting, innards liquify. She moors herself with a gossamer hook under a sheltering leaf. Turning, twisting, she spins her shroud. With one last breath she tucks herself into her silken ship, and dissolves, dissolves. Eons, kalpas, Akashic time. Then it comes, sensed not felt felt not thought thought not seen A pulsation growing KAI HUI KAI HUI Feeding on old richness, Breathing new light he is impelled forward, Shoulders heave against the stiff sheath. Now breathing HUN YUAN LING TONG HUN YUAN LING TONG Faith alone guides him. He only knows to keep pulsing TONG Suddenly a new dream, now of flight, Unknown dimensions of joy. Now, look, high in the temple Amid the shafts of scarlet light and the dust motes Wings Donna Whitmarsh is an active participant in our Teacher Training Program
While doing some emergency babysitting for our three month old granddaughter, I was rocking her to sleep when I chose to sing her the Five Organ Sounds. With the first vibrations off my heart and through my voice, her eyes flew open wide and stared right into mine. “Oh! what’s this lovely feeling?” she seemed to say.
Her eyes danced with light. Small squirms and wiggles seemed to come out of her core. She had been tightly swaddled, but by the time I was back to the heart, her little hands were free. Although still quiet, her whole being was radiant and she hadn’t taken her eyes off mine. What a deep and beautiful time of bonding. A re-swaddling, and a little quiet walking and she headed easily for her nap.
I was tired too and I came home to my husband's office holiday party at our house. The kitchen was full of other people so I shoved aside the internal warnings and grabbed a few goodies off the buffet table, which normally wouldn’t have bothered me in the least. My diet has been very healthy since the gallstone passing in late September, and my whole digestive track tender from the reoccurring c-diff infection.
Bonding with suffering and pain
I headed to bed early, listened to some audio teachings, opened to the chi field of the visioning session going on at IONs and went to sleep with a small tummy ache. By midnight it was so much more than that, I moved to the couch to be more upright. My stomach dealing with the fatty, sweet food, and my gallbladder having serious trouble coping. I was very miserable, as I had been with the first gallbladder drama.
I started running through all the Qigong practices that usually work. My healing session that usually puts me to sleep was grating on my nerves. Some gentle music was more soothing. I tried to pay attention to the places that weren’t hurting, I attempted my Inner Smile, Lachi, womb breathing, sending light and smiles and many apologies to the painfull tummy and gallbladder. Everything seem futile I was swallowed up in the suffering. The Haola’s were empty and the HYLT’s hitting the brick wall of pain.
When I got up to get warmer clothes and a blanket, I noticed while moving my body, that there was so much more of me that was holding the tummy pain very tightly. Moving I had greater access to the rest of by being on many dimensions. Yet the pain was too much to keep moving. Curling back up on the couch, I started to do Five Organ Integreative Sound Healing. It was so satisfying to sing to my pain, my heart loving to send tenderness and possibility that the cletching might open. The kidneys offered their strength and courage. Guided by my organs we were coming into a healing relationship with these traumatized parts of my being. My guilty, worried mind could let go of its need to do something to fix things, and my organs could sing to and caress each other.
The sounds became instruments of healing
The stomach and liver sounds were activating the pain in what seemed a healthy way. Exploring it with their vibrations, seeing what it all might be about, and looking for a way to provide support or bring some freedom to the energy. Making the sounds also helped me locate the source of the pain more specifically within my belly. Experimenting with the Ling Ling of the HY Palace, I knew the Palace was behind the pain. The Gong of the stomach seemed to search out the trouble, the FU was like a soft vibrating massage and the Dzong felt like a lighthouse in the fog, circling, guiding me forward, untangling the cramping. The TU sound of the Liver I could use as a investigating tool, I could direct it along my diaphragm and around my belly like some kind of sonar depth finding devise exploring vastness of my belly. The Gew was gently carressing, and the Ling felt like a rising and releasing. The lung sounds released my guilty and sorrow for having caused myself so much suffering with my automated behavior. The sounds bringing alive my potential as an atonomous participant in the greater chi field.
After several rounds my soundings were holding the pain and carrying for it in a profoundly nurturing way. Earlier it had felt like the pain was leading me off into the wilderness of uncertainty. After three rounds initiating with my own voice, I put on the recording of the Inner Smile/Sound Healing practice I lead in the July retreat. Comforted by my own guidance, the smiles came easily and all the parts of me felt like a tight knit family supporting each other throw it all.
Eventually propped up on all my pillows I could sleep. By morning my gut was quiet. Haola!
Many of you asked what is the source of the beautiful Hari Om chant I have played at retreats, especially after Inner Smile practice. It has taken a year, but/and we have finally tracked down the artist. Information below, and thanks for Edie Hartshorne for discovering the source! I am sending this out now, in case any of you wants to get it for yourself or others.
Many blessings at this Winter Solstice time, much love, Hallie
This holiday season, many of us are gathering around – Tsitsi Mutseta – on her healing journey with cancer. A group of teachers and chi friends have created a new website and are seeking donations to 1) support Tistisi as she heals, and 2) support her village in Africa.
Tsitsi’s homeland is Zimbabwe, her village is Rundogo. Her beloved family and people are suffering with epidemic proportions of HIV AIDS, which has decimated her community. From 150 graduates of Tsitsi’s high school, only 3 are alive today. Tsitsi’s 2 sisters and her 2 brothers have also died from AIDS.
Tsitsi is an amazing angel. Since 2005 she has been financially and emotionally supporting 350 children (200 are orphans) and 8 school teachers. Even though the school is in disrepair, the kids love going. Tsitsi provides the children with uniforms, school supplies and she has been paying the teacher’s salaries too.
While studying to become a nurse in San Diego, California, Tsitsi was diagnosed with cancer. It was Tsitsi’s commitment to graduate and to return to Rundogo to help her people. She created a community garden in San Diego to raise awareness and money for Rundogo. Michelle Obama heard about Tsitsi’s work and visited her in San Diego.
At this time Tsitsi cannot attend school or work. Every day Tsitsi carries the burden of worrying about raising money for her village and how she will pay her own bills while going through cancer treatment. Tsitsi cannot relax and heal while her people are in such desperate need. So this gift is very important: ‘Feed an Angel – Save a Village!
Lindy sends her deepest love and gratitude to all of you. She is so grateful to have you in her life and would like you know she has never felt so much love ever and that she loves you all so very much. She has appreciated all the support given to her and Steve.
xoxoxox
Thank you one and all of letting us know of Lindy's great spirit, big heart and recovery!!! And to all of you angels who have been taking food--many,many blessings on you. It makes me want to shoutHallelujah for our caring and supportive community. sending love to all of you and Lindy and STeve. ....... jude
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I dropped off organic chicken, etc. yesterday afternoon and talked to Steve for a little bit. Lindy was resting. She called me in the evening and sounded wonderful. The power of Qi is awesome and she is a fabulous role model for all of us. Chifilled holiday greetings to all. .........xoPamela
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I wanted to let you know I took a meal to Lindy today (Asian Japonica Rice Salad) and not only was she up and about, she had already done 3 hours of qigong by noon or so! She looked great, was in great spirits, and we were able to visit a bit before she tired out. She is feeling all the love and chi from everyone and is deeply grateful. She could even raise her arm for SBM!
Now there is a miracle for the season!
Wishing all of you blessings and chi filled days,
Love, Rhandee Lip
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Our lovely and courageious LIndy Bianchi requests our prayers and Fachi as she supports her healing path through surgery this Thursday 1 pm PST Lets collectively envision Lindy and her medical team as consciously embodied and graced by a highly coherent healing field. Our community is strengthened by the matrix of our mutual loving care and healing intentions
Giving and Receivingare reciprocal waveforms that are essential for life itself. Our ability to act in both capacities shapes our physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual well being.
The art of giving and receiving reveals the simple joy of the universe loving itself. This dynamic continuum of ebb and flow is visible at both the cellular level as well as in the cosmological realms. This creative equilibrium encourages natural systems to thrive while the exclusion of either stream will lead to a system’s disintegration. Our own sense of wholeness can be found at that liminal place where our desire to give is matched by our willingness to receive. Let’s explore how the elements can help us to participate in this sacred dance as we enhance our personal commitment to love and accept our own life.
For the full text of Sharons beautiful essay: CLICK HERE
When we are willing to give what we are willing to receive and we are willing to receive what we are willing to give - then we know Love. (Chinese proverb)
Sharon McCarthy, Wisewoman Healer, WHQ practitioner and Teacher Training co-coordinator
Initially, it was not my intention to become a WHQ teacher. I began doing WHQ seeking relief from Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, a debilitating chronic pain syndrome with no effective treatment or cure. After attending the Healer Within workshop at the JCC in San Rafael, I set my intention to do a 100-day gong for LCUPCD. I’d been doing the practice every day at home with the DVD and once a week, I attended a local class. I believe now that my local instructor saw something in me that I could not see in myself at that time; I AM A NATURAL BORN TEACHER!!! She had to be gone for several weeks and in her absence, she entrusted me to lead her students. I had Mingtong’s CD’s and DVD, I knew the practice, I loved the practice and so I agreed although, I wasn’t at all sure I could measure up to the task.
That mini introduction to teaching was so inspiring to me that I knew immediately I wanted to become a teacher. I attended a Healing Intensive in the fall and Teacher Training Retreat in the summer. The next hurdle was learning the script for LCUPCD. I had to work through lots and lots of resistance.
“Why did we have to learn a script, anyway?”
“Did Mingtong want to create little robots of himself and squash all our own creativity?”
“How could learning the script word for word possibly make us better teachers?”
“I already knew how to lead the practice from my days as an ‘accidental teacher’ so what was the point? I mean really?”
“How could I, a board certified speech and language pathologist, licensed to practice in the state of CA, recite a script with grammatical errors?”
Finally, I had to say to myself, “Where I feel resistance, I am moving forward.” I really thought that once I decided to put my mind to it, learning the script would be very easy and probably take a couple of weeks. Boy howdy, was I wrong about that!
I began learning it a section at a time. Just when I thought I had learned a section, I would leave something out. I decided to approach it the way Kim Rosen approaches learning a poem by heart. If there is a passage that proves difficult to remember, evaluate what is in that passage for greater learning and explore why it is difficult.
I remembered Mingtong encouraging us not to worry about the grammar and instead focus on learning the energetics. That helped me overcome my blockage regarding the grammar, in spite of the fact that my husband wondered why I was speaking with a Chinese accent!
I also remembered Dove sharing how she learned the script as a long meditation that she read before going to sleep and upon waking up. This was tremendously helpful. Learning a beautiful meditation like LCUPCD by heart was truly powerful medicine. I believe it is virtually impossible to take this meditation deeply into your heart and not be transformed. Whichever sequence I was currently learning became my mantra throughout the day. I recited it in the car going to and from work. I recited it between clients as I worked and I recited it at home every morning and every night.
To support my efforts, I made several recordings of myself reading the script. By the time I got to LCUPCD Take 4, I had ironed out most of the wrinkles. I will share what I learned to make it easier for the next batch of teachers. Record the Intro, each of the 3 sequences, and the ending as separate songs. Then you can replay each sequence without having to restart at the beginning every time. I also jotted on note cards certain phrases that weren’t sticking and carried them with me everywhere. I burned CDs of the script and listened in my car before and after reciting it myself.
In the end, I am totally and completely in love with the script and I don’t care a hoot if someone thinks I have a Chinese accent. LCUPCD method has become a beautiful, sacred ritual with even deeper meaning.
After learning the script, I wanted to double-check my form and asked Guma to Skype with me. The feedback I got was incredibly valuable. She assured me she loves to do this and encourages us to seek her as a resource.
Sitting in the light I reflect on all that is happening in the world I breathe it in I breathe it out I just have to let it all go in this moment I hear crows cawing to each other outside the window as they enjoy the abundance of nature this Thanksgiving Day I feel a oneness with that enjoyment as I sit here now fully immersed in the beauty of Life
Be well, be happy, be yourself, Live in Balance and Harmony
--- Peter Stickney is in the process of becoming a certified teacher
This from a recent post: That's my suggestion for the month. Break it up. Shake it up. I retrained my brain through hours of daily qigong practice. Now I notice how the changes ripple outside my body and into my life. Challenge your comfort zone, but make the challenge itself a pleasurable reward. Have breakfast for dinner, but make it Eggs Benedict, not toast. Go paintballing, try a new recipe or cooking style, rearrange a desktop, a room, a schedule. In the process you may help re-arrange your brain. Enhance the internal process with some external inertia.
So your embodied presence invites new wisdom into your heart and mind.
~*~*~*~*~*~ Sending Loving Kindness your way ~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sharon
Sharon McCarthy, visual artiist, photographer, healer and a support at many Chi Center Retreats and Events, is in the process of becoming a WHQ Teacher and helps co-ordinate the Teacher Training Program.
Here is a bit from Vivienne's recent note to her students, for the full letter there is a link below the excerpts. Haola Vivienne.
This summer I got a call from my brother letting me know that my mother -- already blind and crippled -- wasn't doing well. She lived alone as a hermit in the foothills of the Pyrennes in a one-room house she'd built of stone. ... It was perhaps the most amazing experience of my life. ... Something opened up between us, and our time together became moment-to-moment precious. I wrote in my journal, "Caring for my mother is the best thing that's ever happened to me. Life has become meditation, a crash-course in being present." ... I did little formal practice. I did informal practice all day long. Constantly organizing the chi field, chanting the organ sounds and the essence mantra as I washed up and cleaned up and went shopping. I practiced with the intention of "opening my heart as big as infinity, dissolving all karma between us." ... Every afternoon I'd organize the qi field with my mother ... I kept postponing my flight home. ... Every day, my prayer was, "May it all turn out for everyone's highest good." ... Two weeks after I'd arrived, my mother was having a good day. She wanted me to visit a church nearby ... I stood at the pulpit and sang the 8 verses in Chinese at the top of my lungs, organizing the chi field. It felt so good, I did it three times. ... I lit a long white candle for my mother and placed it in front of the madonna and I prayed as I never have before. "May my mother have a quick and easy passage and may I be present."
Three days later, my mother died. It was quick, easy and I was with her. ... I could feel my mother leaving. ... And I began silently singing the 8 verses, feeling the expansion of our physical bodies into our energy bodies, expanding into openness, into spaciousness, feeling the expansion continuing all the way out into the universe, into infinity, all old conditioning, all karma dissolving, all contractions of the heart and mind melting into the bright light, connecting with all existence, feeling the freedom, true liberation, as we expanded into Oneness. While I sang, I watched my mother's breathing slowing as we progressed further and further out. On the last line, "Zhou Shen Rong Rong", she breathed out her final breath.
The room filled with her consciousness. The room became a cathedral filled with peace beyond all understanding. A profound silence. I sat holding my mother's hand for an hour or so, my mind completely still. And then the thought arose. "She's gone."
I immediately heard, "You silly goose, where do you think I've gone? I'm everywhere." My mother hadn't called me "silly goose" since I was a young girl.
A while later, I heard, "Don't do what I did -- live in the head. It IS about the heart. Only it needs to be embodied. It has to be lived." I felt the energy of my heart moving down into my dantien, filling my womb. A delicious feeling. ... Love, Vivienne
For the full text of this beautiful experience: LINK
There are certain audio files that I (GUMA) come across that I wish all of us teachers could hear, even if we weren't present at that particular lecture, practice or retreat.
The first explains the energetics of SBM in a manner easily repeated to our own students, a engaging QnA with the other teachers present and a nice practice with the Dig.
The second was recorded at Esalen and discusses energetic gates and points in more detail than we often receive.
I just watched MTs teaching of Hip Rotations on the new DVD where he says to make the circles as large as possible, like Hula Hoop!!!
To me, the instructions in the Supplemental write-ups saying, to NOT make circles like Hula hoops was more helpful, as I feel my tailbone initiates the movement more. Oh my, I'm not sure what to tell my students now. Hmmmm? Any thoughts?
Mingtong:
both large circle of hip and initiate by the tailbone while keep the up body centered and stable.
JudyGuma: To make a Hula Hoop go you usually have to move your whole central axis. With my clumsy efforts it seems very much initiated from the hips rather than the spine. I think the key is to have the body awareness (helped by the hands holding the waist) that your central column is aligned and steady between heaven and earth. Whether the pivot point for the movement is Mingmen or the sacrum will vary with how open that area has become. Ideally we will be initiating from lowest vertebrea of the spine and the consequence is that the hips rotate. All of these lower vertebrea can become free practicing this movement. Investigate and see.
You can always skip the Hula Hoop analogy and find one that fits your understanding.
I stand. From inside, I find myself, humble, ready,desiring communion, desiring wholeness, desiring a dance with and within vitality itself.
(palms turning and pressing forward and back)
My desire, spiraling out from a simple turn of the wrist, senses, from a place way below me, that I am of the earth and all the earth beneath me supports me. Drawing back into me, I sense my place, one, two, three times greater than ever before. This place here, this planet here, this galaxy here, all swirling with me through space, space within me, space around me.
(arms lifting, fingers pointing to Dantien, then around to the back)
From the swirling galaxies within the deep, dark depths of my being, my desires rise to know myself, to offer myself. From the vast reaches of the cosmos, I turn and look at the radiant glow of my singular Dantien. There can be no doubting the sun itself is within me. Adjusting perspectives with a turn of my fingertips outward I become bonded with the infinite expanse, horizons of potential that surround me in this special moment of practice. Indeed in every moment — to the right and to the left extending beyond, beyond beyond. This glow inside me circles until it circles back in on itself — knows its own radiance, knowing all radiance from the outside in, from the inside out, centered in the dantien, grounded, embodied home for the twinkling of my life.
(hands move up to under armpits, circling of fingers)
Lifting up to the heart of my own story I shutter as the explosion of grace shatters my latest layer of defense. Pay attention! I challenge myself: Dissolve the walls around your heart. Accept the vastness of this love. You don't need to hide behind this personality any longer. Shatter the story. My fingers become flame throwers quickening, igniting the engine of my true presence. Spiraling the truth of love's welcome deep into the tentacles of doubt still hiding in my heart, then the swirl reverses and draws out all fears of leading a truly compassionate life. (from under arms, hands reach forward) Grateful for the unending grace, I offer myself once again to the cosmos swirling around my feeble gestures from the center of my center, I reach out. From the center of my loves' love, I reach out.
(middle fingers point toward head)
Then in the simple curving of a fingertip I know. I know I am all that I pray towards. There in the middle of my head, the sun's own radiance, burning out all doubt, removing all fears, resetting all systems in brilliant balance. Stunned, my mind stops. Stops even its prayers, and simply glows in grace. Receiving and releasing have disappeared canceling each other out in their coming and going becoming simple brilliance.
(hands and arms moving to sides and then lifting)
In expressing this glow I discover its boundlessness. The me that was encased in grace is now grace. The inside and outside have lost all distinction. The up and the down have lost all distinction. The heavens surround me. The earth is within me. All manner of things are well.
(arms reaching heaven-ward, stretching up)
I have plugged myself into the great stream of God's grace, the Tao where nothing is needed and all comes without asking. Every cell, every fluid space in my body sparkles shimmering with the glee of a giggling infant alive and made new, eager to know itself, alive in the story of it's life.
(arms pointing up, pull down into prayer hands in front of heart)
A current flowing from a vision for my life from beyond my ability to know, to sense or to feel draws down into me piercing every cell. Aligning my head, my heart, my belly and through into my feet's love of the earth. My core essence has come alive in its uniqueness, alive in its union with all that is.
(turning of the prayer hands)
Then spiraling out like a galaxy of grace generated from within my very heart, my limitlessness radiates out on my singular song of love. Then the universe's boundless symphony of love returns along these very same pathways spiraling into the infinite potential of all life, and my life recognizes the sound of its own song in harmony with the vitality of all life.
--- Judy Tretheway, WHQ Certified Teacher
This was written in 2008 on a crowded airplane. It came to me to pass some of the time practicing. I began visualizing the opening sequence of Lift Chi Up Pour Chi Down, and the images that came to me were so vivid I pulled out some paper and it became a poem. After the opening sequence I simply dissolved, I could not even visualize the next movements, all was Qi. Other poems on Judy's blogs: Qigong Prison Ministry and Rubicon Ramblings
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