Omega II: Visiting with the Sages
Day 2 - Afternoon Session - Part 1

by Alisa Joaquin

In the beginning of the afternoon session we started out with Questions and Answers from the life-force meditation that we had done that morning. Some people shared their experiences. One person experienced heat and cold, almost to the extreme. I shared my experience at this point, of feeling connected to everything, of being aware of the energy force through my whole body. One guy related a story of going back to his childhood and about having a connection to dragonflies. He told of having a dragonfly landing on his chest, right over his heart, and as a child having dragonflies landing on his hand.

Arnold stated, "One of the things that happens with meditation practices is reconnecting to your child-likeness. That's a very big part in talking about the cultivation of Tao. Simplicity is a big aspect of that. You simplify your energy then you re able to reconnect back to this point of origin." He then asked if the Buddhists had anything particular regarding connecting back and meditation.

Heidi stated, "Well, I think it's simply the case that when you reconnect with yourself in meditation, you will be able to reconnect with many aspects of who you were as a child. You're true nature, going back to your true self. And I also thing there is a very strong connection with other beings. In Buddhism, when you do more Buddhist practice and you try to become more aware of the suffering of all sentient beings; you also become aware of their joyfulness and their life force too. And they in turn connect more with you. Just as your experience was, they've been around all the time, looking for you. A lot of times what I have noticed is that there are so many things going on in the natural world. They're just happening all the time and there are things that I'm noticing now that I never noticed or I have forgotten to look for and it's been there all along, as was your experience (referring to the man who experienced part of his childhood memories). And I'm thinking this is not only true in Buddhism, I think in Tao too. And in Native American traditions, because I've learned a lot about that through my adopted brother (she mentioned his tribe, but I did not get the exact pronunciation or spelling). That's the idea of coming back to this simplicity, this place where you are available. It's almost as though you don't have to really do anything. Those beings kind of seek you out if you're receptive."

Arnold asked if there were any other questions or experiences. This woman spoke as we were expanding out, she was pulling away in increments and she mentioned it was a little like that poster where you go across the bridge and all of a sudden you are out in California. She said she had gone out to the Midwest, then southwest, then out to California, and then she heard the speaker saying expand into the room. Then Arnold asked her how the weather was in California and she replied it's sunny.

Arnold then stated, "That a certain part of this life force breathing introduces you to the energy outside of your body. Because it's not just the meridian flow, the centers that we were talking about. Instead we have an energy field that is projected off and out through us. That's part of the reason why you feel another person's emotions, thoughts, and so forth. It's very real, tangible aspect of a person. So this energy is projected off. Also, too, you might have heard of people doing distance healing, whether it's just a few feet from a person or many miles away. In China they did one experiment where a Qi Gong Master had a petri dish and they had a strain of bacteria. And the Qi Gong Doctor emitted his qi. He could either speed up or slow down the growth rate of the bacteria. So he did this first in the laboratory and of course they had two petri dishes, one that he emitted his qi and another that he didn't do anything with. Then the next part was very simple. They took him in and plane and they brought him thousands of miles away and then he projected the same thing and he was able to actually exactly mimic what he did the first time around. So, part of this feeling of distance actually starts to disappear. I was talking to someone over the break, how I like standing for a couple of hours, one day I would be a sifu and now I'm a sifu. Well what happens sometimes when I would stand, I would be afraid if I had an appointment, like two and half, three hours away, I had to do something like put a clock or something like that because I didn't want to miss the appointment. And what happens is that when you get into a certain energetic state, your feeling or your sense of space disappears and also time. So time and space actually become very illusionary. And you really connect with this from doing the energy work. Other questions?"

I could not hear very well on the tape the man's experience, but I am certain it had to relate to connecting with nature because Arnold Tayam's reply was also in regards to that.

Arnold stated, "At a certain level of energetic development, as you connect with nature, nature begins to connect with you and there is an actual communication that takes place."

Arnold mentioned his favorite cartoon character, Aquaman and how he would contact the whales for help. He also mentioned that it was mentioned by some of the old masters with the practice of Tai Chi. He stated that at a certain level when you are doing your Tai Chi, the birds and nature might come around and move right up to you. They recognize your energetic presence as being one with them. What happens is they feel non-threatened. It's this connection, we're all part of nature. It's all about connecting back with the Tao.

Another participant mentioned about dolphins and how they seemed to connect with humans and Arnold also agreed on this. He stated that they seem to be very much in tuned with nature. And at that moment, Arnold joked around a bit and said that somebody had arrived, that he sensed the presence. Everyone laughed at that. Arnold then mentioned what we would be working on that afternoon. For this afternoon we would be doing a workshop on emotions and in the evening we would be doing a workshop on five element theory and sounds for healing. He also said that we would check back in with Rob and do more of his Nine Psalms exercises. At this time David Carradine was putting on his Mike. He said Hi to everyone. He joked with Arnie about being late and Arnie stated that it was going around. And David said that he had him beat because he did 16 hours of work jut before that. David said that he was told once that the rhythm of mastery was the rhythm of exhaustion. He more or less asked about if some of us were here last year and several of us raised our hands, and then he said, "So it wasn't that bad." I shouted out that it was great. It was hard to hear his reply until his microphone was properly on. He stated he did not mean to interrupt, but he thought that it was silly for him to stand back there and not at least say hello. He had them turn down his microphone a bit. He then mentioned they had a few surprised in store for us and he was going to stand back and let Arnie do his thing after saying hello. Everyone burst into applause.

Arnie then got back on track talking again about the life force breathing meditation (don't worry, David will be back) and that it's away to interconnect back into the organs and into the cells, so it's a very good capstone meditation to do. He stated that it came as a very good contrast from all the movement that we had from Rob. He said that it was a very easy meditation for anyone who has not done much energy work. The posture is every easy since it's just laying back. He then asked if there were any more questions. At this point I again spoke up and mentioned about being aware of my blood pulsing through my whole body.

Arnold then replied and said, "One of the things that happens is you go through your energy cultivation and there are different stages and levels of the qi. Usually in the beginning, people will start to feel the energy, tingling sensation and forth on the skin surface and then from there, it moves in, inside of the tissues, tendons, the ligaments, the nerves, the flesh. Then eventually it goes down to the level of the bone. And when it goes down to the level of the bone, what happens is that all the tissues from the bone outward are actually being cleansed. So one of the things you can do is pay attention as to how you are connecting to these different tissues and you can get some kind of feedback as to your development with the different meditations. So, feeling right into the bone is a very important aspect."

David holding remote microphone

Arnold turned to David and asked him if he had anything to add and David said, "I once, I had a spiral fracture of this shoulder (rubbing his left shoulder as he talked) here. I went head first down a flight of stairs. Kind of bounced off a wall and stuff like that. And I ended up on the floor in a perfect yoga plow position like this (he actually got into that position as he talked) and I got up and tried to roll over and I went uh, there's something really wrong here. They took me down to the doctor and they did the x-ray thing and this shoulder was just shattered. But they didn't put, you know, you would had to have like a body cast and everything. And the doctor didn't do anything because the thing that had happened was a ligament, which is like a sheath that's over your bone. And from my kung fu and tai chi concentration because I was doing it just all day, every day. The sheath was so strong that it held the bones together just as though they had been set. That's how deep this work gets to you. The doctor was amazed. He couldn't believe it. He gave me some kind of a shot, a terrible ohot that stopped the pain. And then two days, their orthopedic surgeon told me that the bone had actually healed at this point. He said that all the pain that I was still feeling was simply fear. That my body didn't want me to move it, because it was afraid that it would take another accident just like that to break it at that point. Because it had already knitted and it does that. Like you said (talking directly at me) the blood flowing, the blood, and also the electrical, the actual qi itself, that flow, because of the physical aspects are really not a prime thing. They are not a cause they are a symptom. It's the qi that's real. And it produces that kind of illusery effect of the material universe. Our material bodies are a result really of our minds. It's not just the mind and body working together, the mind is really in charge of it all. And uh, I could go on like this forever. I will but not right now. I'm sorry Arnie, go ahead."

And Arnie said, "Oh no, please do."

And David chuckled at that. The one thing I immediately noticed about David this time around was that he had a great deal more energy than the last time. He just seemed so much more alive.

End of Day 2 - Afternoon Session - Part 1

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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