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
Before we went onto the next thing Arnold asked us about our experiences and if there were any questions. He asked us if any of us felt heat. Then he asked how about release of some sort, such as emotional release, mental release. He then asked about whether any one felt a calming of their spirit. I felt all of those things. It was very powerful (I also felt pain in my left heal-due to heal spur syndrome, which I suffer from but was able to control it better).
He then told us that when you start doing these exercises what happens is that you awaken your chi (energy). ". . .In the process you begin to feel different sensations, things start to happen and sometimes they are uncomfortable because that's part of the retracing or cleansing process that you go through. He said it was funny because in China you have the different major schools. You have acupuncture where they needle you. You have herbs, great tasting tea right? (Some of the people in the group made faces at this. Chinese herbs are not always great tasting. They can be quite bitter.) There is Tui Nah (not certain of the spelling). If you have had this from a traditional Chinese doctor, it is not a soft massage, but rough and gruff and they don't really care whether you scream very loud. Also in bodywork, in the Tui Nah, it will also include adjusting which in the states (referring to the U.S.) usually osteopaths or chiropractors will do the adjusting, but in China, those who do the massage and bodywork its all thrown in there. In Chinese medicine you have all these aspects. In order for healing to come about, there's some kind of exchange of some sort, like discipline with nutrition. Also besides acupuncture they have something called cupping. Cupping is when small round globes are placed on the back in strategic stops. What happens with the cupping is that it actually sucks the toxins out, the flesh is pulled up and a lot of times it leaves these round bruises. Even in Chinese medicine there is a yin and yang aspect to everything and what happens is in order for you to get to this more healing balance, you often times will have to go through some kind of retracing process. That's the healing transformative process that is necessary in order to bring about the necessary correctness or change." Arnold said that during our practice he wanted us to be aware of these different changes and sensations. He used heat as an example. He said that you want to pay attention to where that heat manifests itself. Sometimes its in a particular organ. He said if you do that, it might mean there is an imbalance in that particular organ. He said there would be some specific techniques that we would be doing during the weekend (perhaps tomorrow-Saturday) that would address specific issues having to do with internal organs.
Someone wanted to know if anyone felt coldness or coolness and Arnold asked the group. A few raised their hands. He said that was also part of it. He stated that when you awaken this awareness you not only become aware of the tenseness and tightness, but where the energy has a tendency to flow faster. You not only have areas of tenseness and tightness of what they call excesses and you also have sometimes areas called cold spots or energetic holes that manifest as deficiencies, and again you have a yin and yang interplay that's taking place.
Arnold then stated that what the ancient Chinese did is that they looked towards nature and they devised these different ways to talk about the energy that manifested in nature. One of the concepts of course is the Wu Qi or the creative nothingness. Another was the yin and yang, the complimentary opposites, such as night and day. If you look at night and day, it shifts and changes. It isn't just totally dark at night. Just like in the day, you have the rising sun, the afternoon sun and the setting sun. It's just like the seasons that flow into each other. You have winter, which is followed by spring. Then summer, which is followed by fall. Then back to winter. All of these things (referring to changes) also happen in our body. So when the Taoists saw all these interactions, they developed these different theories about how they could begin to understand how the universe operates. One of those theories was actually the five elements theory (which Arnold explains later). Another aspect of the yin and yang is the I Ching. All these philosophies are a means to start to talk about energy. Arnold stated, "As you become familiar with this language of energy, you can then have a way to talk about your energy experiences."
Arnold answered a few more questions another being about feeling heat in regards to blockages in the body. Arnold said that blockages manifest as either cold or hot. He then said that as you experience the energy, it would eventually balance itself out and you will have more of an even warmth throughout the body. He then addressed his next statement to the people who had been at Omega last year regarding noticing the energy flow. He stated that you might have felt an extreme hotness and that as it cooled down, you might have noticed the energy evening out. He said that everything goes in cycles and that it was a positive experience to have. He then related a story remembering when he and some friends of his started their studies. He stated that one of his teachers would give them these really deep meditations. They were advance meditations that his teacher called this breaking process or breakthrough process. He described the process in which what it was supposed to do was take your previous belief structure and through these practices, totally break it down from what you previously thought it was. The experience changes you . . . because you have another experience that is undeniably a part of you what happens is your belief structure breaks down and the more resistant you are then the bigger the breakthrough occurs. He stated that this is all energetic and it doesn't always have to happen only in meditation, but it usually does when you practice the Qi Gung. He said that he would get together with his friends after going through his other practices and they would say things like, "Oh yeah, I did really good." But when they would get together after a breakthrough process, they might say something, "Oh yeah, I did that meditation and I felt like throwing up afterward." and another friend would say, "Oh I did that meditation to and I was sick for a whole day," and the other would reply back, "You're doing good." Then Arnold went on to say that they would look at the sensations as a means to mark their progress then said to the group that you will pull threw these different experiences and that the energy will begin to flow more freely and naturally and more abundantly. He stated that after 20 years, he still goes through his transitions, but he stated that after that you become more acutely aware of different things. That's of course a tool for living your life.
He asked if there were any other sensations that people experiences. I stated that I felt a building and a releasing. And he then followed up with, "When you do the chi scattering exercises, you release as many of the blockages as possible. Now you are open towards gathering a larger volume of energy. So what happens when that volume of energy comes through, now all of a sudden your tissues are more open that energy will now flush through and open whatever area needs to open at that time. That's what you are experiencing there and that's again a positive thing. What will happen as time goes on, you will start to feel the energy open more and more and then eventually reach a point that you can feel the interconnection of the meridian channels, the pathways that run throughout the body. There are 12 regular meridians that hook into your organs and 8 extraordinary meridians that work like reservoirs for the 12. And these pathways flow throughout the legs, to the internal organs, out through the arms, and up into the head and so forth. When the energy is abundantly flowing through these channels, then you have good health and well being. One of the things that's unique about the Taoist system, is that it's a spiritual progression. They look at not only at development or cultivation of the spirit, but they are talking about a whole other energy that works with the body, the emotions, the mind, and the spirit. So what's happening is that you have one type of energy and you are working with that energy on all types of levels simultaneously.
"Sometimes people talk about spiritual development and they may become very upper Tan Tien oriented and these are the kind of people who always seem to float off the ground. Their lifestyles are very spiritually minded and their heart is in the right place, but they might have problems such as being able to pay their rent each month, hold down a job, and so forth. This also represents a certain type of imbalance, somebody not being able to regulate their finances. That's also a type of imbalance because money is another form of energy. A lot of times that's what we will look at, body, mind, emotions, spirit, it flows out into all aspects of your life."
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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