Omega II: Visiting with the Sages
Day 2 - Afternoon Session - Part 5

by Alisa Joaquin

The same woman made the comment, "We're all energy so we're all spiritual beings and we're trying to have a good experience . . ."

"You need to work on your sense of humor," David interject.

Rob Moses added in the background, "May we all hold out for the punch line."

And David said, "Yeah and if we don't, if we miss the punch line . . . if you think about it, a joke until you get to the punch line, it could be very terrible, you know. And the humor, you know those slapstick comedies like Laurel and Hardy and the Three Stooges and things when you think the fact that we can be made to laugh. You know, people hitting each other over the head, slipping on banana peels, and particularly, I think Laurel and Hardy I get more fun out of them than anybody, but they had nothing but problems. And somehow or another we can, I mean if we can laugh at their problems, why can't we laugh at our own. And I think that's probably, you know, the big answer. It's not just the witch that frustrations hexes you, but the witch inside that's hexing us. The that we experience, the endless depravation, maybe. Life is a lot like your door-to-door salesman, you're constantly getting doors slammed in your face. If you can laugh through that, because it's not the events that happen to you, because they happen to us all. Life is a vale of tears. It's all painful. Old age is this dirty trick. It's not the aging bones, it's the way you feel about it. That's the whole thing. If you can just feel good, it doesn't matter. I worked with people who had cerebal palsy and multiple sclerosis. I was a swimming coach for the Special Olympics. Which mainly consists of, well that's pretty much, make sure they don't drown. And also to make sure you don't drown 'cause they can get pretty wild. But the thing that impressed me was the cheerfulness. These people have a debilitating disease which is progressive. Every day is going to be a little worse than the day before. And they're going to die young. Their abilities to move or communicate even, is just slowly disappearing. And yet, these people are just full of lightness and humor and cheerfulness. I've noticed that's true of every blind person. Maybe every blind person I have ever met they're always smiling. How do they do that? If they can do that then why can't I? I mean, how can I be disturbed at these little things compared to that stuff? Little tiny things, that are bothering me. I'm not saying I'm totally successful in that, you know. I yell at my dog for doing something that he done just out of total joy. I come home and he jumps on me, and gets mud on me or knocks something out of my hand and I'm mad at him. And all he was doing was going, "HEY BUDDY! I'M SO GLAD TO SEE YOU!' And then there I am getting mad. With all this wisdom that I'm supposed to have, and all this training and everything, I can still (*snaps his fingers*) that spark that (*snap*) that bad thing EEEUUUGGHH out of nowhere."

Then a woman from the group said to him jokingly, "Maybe you need to work on your sense of humor."

And David replied, "Yeah, there you go. There you go."

Then that same woman asked David if she could share a story and he said, "You may." She went on to say that Candyman had taught her dog how to bark. David was impressed with that. She went on to say that her dog didn't bark, but made squeaky little noises. She had done an hour session with that person and he taught the dog how to bark. She said it's not a mean bark, it's just to express himself.

Then David noticed that everyone was smiling.

Then a gentleman spoke up and asked about emotions, what you would do with them. He agreed that you had a choice and also agreed that negative emotions you certainly did not want to act upon them, but he came to believe that they sometimes were not to be trusted. He then wanted to know the opinion of just watching your emotions and not letting them take control.

David replied with, "Well I think that "taking a breath" thing to get you half way there, I think when you are about to act on a negative emotion it's always an immediate thing. It's happening before you're thinking about it. And I think if you take that breath. if that actually becomes a part of your, I know it did for me. Even in the working out and the fight scenes that I was doing in the show. I would always (*deeply inhales then exhales*) Okay. You know what I mean? And that's how you start the fight or that's how you . . ."

Rob stated, "Settle your nerves."

And David went on to say, "It just takes the space this big (holding up his fingers) to slide in there, paper thin moment to be the difference between pushing ahead to where you've jumped off a cliff and you can't go back. That (*deeply inhales then exhales*) is enough to define the, you know. If you think about it. In non-emotional situations, totally physical situations it's what you're always doing. You're about to go off the high dive. Let's use that as a metaphor. Just think of anything else that's like that. I'm up here at the high dive, I'm (*deeply inhales then exhales phhoooooo*). All right, there's always that moment. And I think you can use that moment. See I just have to make this up because I don't have to have answers for stuff like what you just asked me."

Another woman then said, "But doesn't that also validate, if you take that deep breath, and you're still angry, you have to let your emotions out. It's not healthy for you not to do some sort of confrontation if you believe that needs to be done."

David replied, "Well, even just vocal anger, you know what I mean. When the talk about domestic abuse, you know, verbal abuse, it's abuse. I mean you do have to moniter, modulate that stuff. And you know what happens when you, what did you say, you didn't say confront."

The same woman clarified, "But if you have a situation you take a step back. And he's confrontational, say it's a work situation or it's an argument over a battle point with somebody. And you walk away, you're holding your thoughts and your energy in your body, and you're not releasing it."

And David's response was, "Well, I think we have the tools to release stuff out of our own body, the question is should we actually be taking the bad energy and using it on somebody else. Cause you can get rid of it without touching anybody. But you know, what you said. Every moment is it's own moment. It's goona be special. Well, you know, I mean, the second World War was a good war. The Vietnam War was a bad war. If Jesus were here talking to us, wouldn't he be, or Ghandi, would be finding some other way to deal with those years in our history., you know. A good war and a bad war, are you kidding? I mean wouldn't those people be saying, 'You can't be serious.' I, you know, these are answers, these are questions I don't have answers for. I'm not sure anybody does. I sort of distrust people who say that they do. You know, the military, the political forces in the world, the police actions that we're doing and that we were doing in Yugoslavia or in the Middle East and all. We're getting emotional about it and thinking well, God you know, I don't know if this is the right stuff we're doing. People are dying. And whole cities are getting destroyed. Works of art and everything else. And It's . . . I don't know, I'm very human. It does seem to me there is injustice out there that has to be dealt with. But in dealing with it aren't we being unjust ourselves, I don't know. I mean, gee, you know, I mean . . .I think if I was sitting on a mountain top or if I was wearing white linen and sitting in the yoga position and never eating for the rest of my life, but I'm not. I'm living in the world. And that thing that you say, it's righteous, well it's righteous like road rage. Why don't I just take my car and just hit that guy. If I hit him, he's actually at fault. He'll have to buy my car from me and then I can sue him. Because it is his fault, right? I mean, it isn't really his fault because I can keep it from happening, but why don't I just LET HIM HAVE IT! You know? And well, I don't know."

Another woman spoke up in regards to last night's session on the topic of centers of energy. She wanted to know if any of the "panel" had experienced energetically of anything that informs them where they were coming from, when to take a breath and when not to . . .

At that moment, David spoke up and said, "Oh, I just realized that's me!" He was referring to where a lot of the noise from the microphone was coming from. He pointed across the room and said, "I mean it's over there." David then said, "Boy you know, beats me," in regards to the woman's question.

Rob Moses popped up and said, "It's a Jiminy Cricket answer sometimes, you know, with your conscience. Almost like cartoonish angel, you know with that sort of yin and yang elements of the positive and negative. At anytime that you choose love over fear, regardless of your answers I think you'll find it's better for everybody. It's not so always cut and dry as that. But if you do take that breath, then whatever feels right, chances are is right."

Heidi Singh then spoke up. She said, "I know when I, uh, you asked when do you experience energetically when your anger is wrong?"

The woman wanted to know when it was right.

And Heidi stated, "Well, I'll tell you I know when it's wrong. Because when I feel my heart pounding and I can feel this energy rising and heat rising. Now you men know what I'm talking about when you get real angry (David at that moment jokingly said, "Nah.") and you want to hit somebody and women have that too. I feel this anger coming up and my heart's pounding and I'm like shaking. And I have to come back and look at this. And I'm saying to myself, 'Geeze, you know it's only been 25 years of meditation practice and I'm trying to teach people how to be calm and here I am that angry.' Then I have to go back, you know it's like taking a breath. I gotta get away from that situation. Take a few minutes and look at what is going on. What is causing this, because the problem isn't the other person the problem is me. Why am I experiencing this. Why is it rising? Why do it . . . now we don't have . . . you mentioned skillful anger in Buddhism. We don't have skillful anger. We have skillfulness and means to deal with things. But what will happen to me is I have to go back and I have to take a few breaths. Maybe I have to take a lot of breaths. Maybe I have to take a couple hours. And then go back and take a look at what's happening here and what's going on with the other person. For me, this lady asked about the confrontation, it almost never works out good. I don't confront anybody when I'm angry. Because whatever I want to say it doesn't come out skillful."

David then added, "That is probably the best answer that I've heard about this question. It almost never comes out good. No matter what we might think about. Like what you said. But does it ever really come out good and it hardly ever does."

End of Day 2 - Afternoon Session - Part 5

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.

Omega II Contents / Next Part
David Carradine Home / Contact Alisa