Arnold Tayam
by Alisa Joaquin
A personal account of the Tai Chi, Qi Gung, & Taoist Meditation Workshop held at the Omega Institute with David Carradine from October 6-8, 2000
As Helen and I entered the main hall, there weren't very many people to start with, but soon the crowd gathered for the orientation. After that was completed a lot of people left, but those who were here for David's workshop stayed. I did notice there weren't that many to begin with. Helen and I suspect it was because David would not be arriving until tomorrow and the fact that many planes were delayed. We realized later that the delays were probably caused by the Columbus Day weekend.
Arnold Tayam came in. I suspected he would be back for this. He is really good. The first thing he pointed out was that he was not David Carradine and there was a light chuckle at that. He then went onto explain that the plane was delayed and that David and the rest of his instructors would be arriving on later. He would be leading the session for that evening.
Arnold Tayam
Arnold Tayam then welcomed everyone back who came last year and welcomed those that were new. He then asked who did Tai Chi, and which form people did, Yang, Chen, or Wu. There are actually four. There is another Wu style-no relation to the other Wu. I raised my hand on the Yang form for the moment. I had not practiced the Chen form for some time. Then he asked who did Qi Gong. He then introduced the title of the workshop, "Wisdom of the Sages," and then stated that we would be looking at two perspectives, the Tao and Buddhism. Basically, the lecture in the beginning was called "The Search-finding the art, the inner search, internal/external-the differences between Buddhism and Taoism."
Arnold then introduced the other instructors, even though they were not present. The first instructor he introduced was Heidi Singh, a buddhist minister.
Heidi Singh
She would be providing the buddhist perspective. She was listed as doing a still meditation for Friday evening session, but since she was also late, that meditation was changed to Saturday. I will introduce more of Heidi later. Her "life story" is very interesting, but I do not wish to give too much away. Much of what she talked about has relevance elsewhere.
The second instructor Arnold introduced was Rob Moses. The name sounded familiar to me, but it did not dawn on me who Rob Moses was until I saw him enter the main hall later that evening near the end of the session. I will tell you more about Heidi Singh and Rob Moses later.
Getting back to the lecture, Arnold first asked how many people were familiar with the Taoist teachings. He went on to say that the Taoist teachings are the only teachings that are indigenous to China. He mentioned that Buddhism was brought in as an import from India. He then mentioned that Taoism is not even an "ism' and that it found its roots before recorded history. It is a self-perpetuating or self-existing way of life rather than an actual religion. Tao, the way Arnold uses it, is actually "the way of nature." He stated that everything that is related back to the Tao and connects through Chinese culture is a reflection of this kind of naturalness or way of being. In fact, the original culture of China is really Taoist culture. If you think back to the time of the Yellow Emperor, which was the first emperor of China, he sought out wisdom from the sages that lived in the mountains. These sages followed a deep spiritual path which was the Taoist path. He stated that it really isn't even called Tao per se, but something that is reluctantly called the Tao. He referenced The Book of Tao Te Ching and the first chapter.
The Tao that can be told of
Is not the Absolute Tao;
The Names that can be given
Are not Absolute Names.
The Nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth;
The Named is the Mother of All Things.
Therefore:
Oftentimes, one strips oneself of passion,
In order to see the Secret of Life;
Oftentimes, one regards life with passion,
In order to see its manifested forms.
These two (the Secret and its manifestations)
Are (in their nature) the same;
They are given different names
When they become manifest.
They may both be called the Cosmic Mystery:
Reaching from the Mystery into the Deeper Mystery
Is the Gate to the Secret of All Life.
Translation by Lin Yutang
Arnold then referred to Lau Tzu writing 81 chapters and then said in reference, "Those who know do not speak, those who speak do not know."
Arnold then explained, "Lau Tzu did not invent Tao, but it was the way the universe manifested itself. It gives a way to talk about the concepts of healing, of meditation, of spirituality, and from there we can more readily experience because Tao is not limited to just mental concepts or intellectualization. It involves all aspects of your being, your body, your mind, your emotions, and your spirit. You can say we're a physical body that houses our emotional and spiritual capacities. So, that everything hooked together according to the ancient Chinese, is that they looked out and they saw the universe, they saw this nature, and what they realized is that there was a type of energy that manifested throughout nature. This is something they called the Qi (Chi). This just means energy."
Arnold went on to say, "The Ancient Chinese looked out into the universe and they saw that this macrocosm was reflected in the microcosm, not only in our souls, but around us, in everything. In fact there's nothing that isn't chi. Air is chi. The ground that you stand upon or sit upon is chi. Our emotions, thoughts, feelings, all of that is chi. And from this a number of different arts were developed. The classic, the I Ching, actually is a master template for connecting with these processes of energy and how it manifests not only in ourselves, but working with our essence, our chi, and our spirit. And also how we connect with the cosmos; the Sun, the Moon, and the stars, the Earth, our environment around us, and how we inter-relate with each other. To the ancient Taoists, they viewed that there are three realms: the heavenly realm which is above us, the earthly realm beneath us, and in between we have a connecting point where heavenly influences and earthly influences come together. In the human realm, we look out and we learn to become aware of these connections. We do this to embody Tao through these energetic practices, and what comes about is a rising of our natural virtue or internal knowingness and this is where our connection and our development begins and keeps on going. So, when these Taoists looked out into the world and they looked into their bodies they saw, as I said, a microcosm of the macrocosm."
Arnold continued and said that in our bodies we have three major centers. One center resides in the head area that relates to our spiritual aspect. Another one is in the middle of the chest area, our emotions and thought. And the third one is in the center of our abdomen that relates to our physical aspects of being. With this connection of body, mind, and spirit taking place, we would integrate ourselves, integrate our chi, our energy. And in this process of transcendent integration we come to know the Tao.
Arnold hoped to not concentrate on Taoism so much but to help us look at the nature of
our being. He then went over how the weekend was divided up, what the sessions were. One
was on how Taoism and Buddhism relate to the physical body. The next session was on how
Taoism and Buddhism relate to emotions, the mind, and then the spirit, and how that
integrates into your every day living. There will also be several different practices such
as opening the energy gates or the joints of the body, gathering and circulating our
energy, not only doing stillness, but doing moving meditations as well. Arnold indicated
that all of this actually inter-related and what Arnold hoped to bring across to us was
the feeling of this connection within our own experience of how this chi was reflected in
our lives and that we could draw out own conclusions on Taoism and Buddhism. He indicated,
"There are many different paths, but what's important is that you are on the path
that is going to feed you or nurish you in the direction that you need to be going
in." He stated that the universe might give us things that we are uncomfortable with,
but that the universe will always give us lessons that we need and if we do not pay
attention to that lesson, it comes up again.
Alisa Joaquin Copyright@2000.
This personal account cannot be reprinted or sold in any other form without strict
permission from the author. It is being distributed here solely for your enjoyment.
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