Omega II: Visiting with the Sages
Day 2 - Morning Session - Part 6

by Alisa Joaquin

At that point Rob took over and first started telling us about his movement exercises and he then gave us a couple of introductory things to do to make it easier for us to do his Nine Psalms exercises. He wanted us to be prepared. Rob had us maintain our wu ji posture (he called it boo ji). He was down on the floor with us and someone wanted him to be up on the stage, but he indicated that he was uncomfortable looking down on everyone. He likes to be on the same level as everyone. He first started out mentioning about Kung Fu and that most forms can be confusing because you learn one move at a time. He stated that he was going to break with tradition and use Einstein's theory that "Imagination is greater than knowledge."

He stated, "So, whatever we do here (Omega) is your own and it's an investment in yourself so take it with you and elaborate, expand and reduce. Be your own science project, as I said earlier. It's going to be a lot of fun. It doesn't have to be in a foreign language and it doesn't have to be something that someone pushes you through. That discipline is just the simple ability to enjoy yourself, an excuse to move. So, one thing first, there's approaches to motion and one is water weights. We're really 90 some odd percent water so if we move and we were to. . there's an old tai chi trick where all of your water weight is split within yourself and all of your water weight goes from your hand to your hand and you can feel, because when you swing your arms, the centrifugal force effect of your blood flow goes through your hand, and of course a feeling of heavier weight on one side. And the opposite side of your body will become light. And then turn the canister over; mix that elixir on the other side, you get a feeling of the effect as you rock to the other. Empty, full. This is being able to move with proper weight distribution. If you can feel that difference, you will not need that much evaluation. You will actually move very truthfully. So much of your alignments will come into line with that. Another way to move is with fixed positioning, which is always done gravitationally as far as bone structure. I'm a carpenter by trade. And if you are going to make a wall, you have make it 90 degrees and the floor has to be level and to brace something you always make it a 45. And the simple those directions are, our bodies are the same. To be balanced, our spine will be level. If you want to brace yourself from anyone striking from the side you need a 45-degree brace. And the way motions travel is on a horizontal plane. So those are the truths about the universe as far as directions of motion. I try to apply that in all of the lessons wherever I go to.

"Also back to the imagination thing, this is a really fun way to get yourself going. We'll do this with our eyes closed, but I'll explain it first. You've got, let's say a suspended watermelon in front of you. I know my analogies are kind of odd, but you can make up your own. Just go with it. It's doesn't have to be particularly what I say. It can be something else that works. You have a watermelon cut in half, flat side towards you. And you needed to dig with your eyes closed. You can scoop the meat out of that watermelon. And this creates a spherical shape. And also gives you an isometric imagery of resistance. You scoop it out with your fingers sliding backwards with both hands at the same time. Even feel that along the rhine, the resistance underneath your fingernails and between your skin. Scooping it out. Do it one hand at a time, one scoops before the other. Make that resistance real. This is miniature gathering of a spherical shape. You are really working the muscles in your hand. You can work as if you are digging a tunnel. That is a larger gathering, scraping, bring it in. (This is a visual thing so, if you can imagine doing this, you are doing very well.) Now acquire buoyancy to your stance. Be certain you're not standing rigidly. Make sure you're nice and comfortable. All of your body freely flows, the muscles in your hand must be very aware. That's what makes it real. Very good. That's the miniature version. We call this WASHING YOUR HANDS WITH IMAGINARY SOAP. If you missed last night, we had a conversation later last night about localizing; anchors, using anchors. This is a form of Tao. I have extensive bodywork training in my Kung Fu and before I'm going to heal somebody, before I'm going to work on somebody, I'm going to consciously start o get ahold of this. With Chi exercises you don't even need to touch. Touch the imaginary soap there and your hands can work off like reverse polarity magnets. The closer they get the more pressure and the more they want to separate themselves. You can keep that busy and alive instead of being stop frame like most traditions. There's no reason for that. And circular motion is so much of the key how our whole universe it put together. The spiral is the most valuable shape. It's from DNA and the Milky Way. Flush a toilet it's a spiral. It's very natural for us to move in spirals. Everytime we do a seashell, the analogy of that. Move like a seashell. You're protected by shape, by the roundness. Very good. (While he spoke, we were continuing to move. Afterward we started in on another exercise and he continued to talk as we moved.)

"With that, feet comfortably apart. The other thing is listening to your own rhythm. Whether that be breathing or your heart rhythms. They're your rhythms. To elaborate on those we can do with our hands, naturally when you stand your hands have a tendency to curl little bit. Nobody stands like that (demonstrating a very stiff posture) unless they are yelling at you. Comfortable position, your hands will curl slightly. So this exercise is getting that blood flow with that pulse. If you need to count it, you can do the one zippy thing or do it with your heart flow. But every time you do this, your hands expand slightly larger. Try to hold that size. (In this exercise, we are trying to gather energy with our hands.) The more energy you get toward your hands, the more lit you get with the chi, the more you'll be able to maintain this tangible element of chi. Okay? So, with that in mind now just your hands are more aware. So when you move you hands won't flip out to here (indicating this by having his hands wide and away from his body). It actually applies for grace, more emotion, regardless what your motion might be. So you link yourself, your spirit into your hands.

"Now this is a really fun exercise. Tai Chi, I'm sure you all are at least a little bit familiar with Tai Chi. And it takes so many years to learn. There are so many moves. And it's really quite a production to try to get through the whole thing. So, the values of it are just endless. It's just so great, so great. So let's try something. We're going to do a westernized miniature Tai Chi and what we will do is we'll start with our feet together and we're throwing a baseball. Everybody's thrown a rock, a baseball at one time in their life. Is there anyone who hasn't thrown anything? Everybody's thrown something. You don't need to be Sammy Koufax, the famous pitcher. You don't have to throw hard. You don't have to lift your knee all the way to the sky. You can do whatever you need to, but the more you put into it, the more you're going to get out of it. Again, you get this opportunity to work with this spiral shape. So you create this little heat, this little friction, and this little tangible chi ball that you've got. First we'll throw right-handed, but slow. Cause you can, you want to look down the pike, right? You want to know where you're going to throw this, right over the plate. Get a strike, right? So, You have an opportunity to work on your balance because you're stepping forward. Linkage comes into play. You still feel the weight of the ball. As your body mass travels forward, stay slow. As you start to slightly excelerate, as you throw the ball, follow it all the way to the plate. This is how you illuminate your being beyond yourself. WHAP! Strike! Now step up opposite side. Reason is, any time you train in the martial arts you need to at least train to be ambidextrous. We never quite make it, but never the less; it's a great training tool. So you always do opposite. So now we're going to throw left-handed. Make sure that you follow it through."

It was quite an experience to try to throw an imaginary baseball slowly and be totally aware of every move that you are making. We did this exercise a few times.

Rob Moses then mentioned that he liked to travel around and that was the reason why he did not like being up on the stage. In that instance, he reminded me of Peter Caine, always being on the move. Rob is really a graceful man in what he does. I wished at this point that I had a video camera, but video cameras were not allowed, unless the instructor allowed them. During the exercise, Rob used a lot of baseball terms in regards to how to interpret the moves. Though he was referring that when we did the throwing, that it was all up to us. It was our movement.

He stated, "It's your movement. I can't tell you how much your ball weighs, or if you're throwing a curve, or a change up, or a strike. Or if you're beaning the batter. That's all up to you."

Rob Moses mentioned the man who invented Aikido and he stated that it was very important that "you illuminate your being beyond yourself." He stated that there is a very simple technique to do that. You make it real because imagination is greater than knowledge. He then stated that a knowledgeable imagination is better yet. He said that we should apply ourselves accordingly. We then went into the exercise again. Letting our imagination take hold. Afterward Rob Moses stated, "Loving what you do and having fun with what you do is one of the great motivators of wanting to do it more often. And this translates to a frisbee (demonstrating the throwing of a frisbee), and you would still apply it the same way. This linkage effect, like it or not, it will have certain martial arts benefits, but fighting is not going to be your priority. It's something that's just a by-product."

He mentioned bowling and that it's still a way of translating your imagination, and if you follow it through, you'll feel it. He stated that you'll feel how those water weights effect you and how you can go beyond yourself. He noticed that someone in the group was playing imaginary basketball. He then shared a story with David Carradine about doing this and David had gone around playing football. He caught the ball, playing the whole thing, and Moses stated that it was just an excuse to move. He said that sometimes that's all you need to really be a celebration.

At this point he brought in his "Nine Psalms" exercises.

End of Day 2 - Morning Session - Part 6

Alisa Joaquin Copyright@2001.
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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