Omega II: Visiting with the Sages
Day 2 - Afternoon Session - Part 8

by Alisa Joaquin

After we came back together, Rob mentioned that David had printed out his notes on his Nine Psalms. We had a quick warm-up since we were a bit stagnated (as Rob put it). We worked on a spiral rotating it in. He had us imagine that we had a glass of water in our hand, spiraling around without spilling a drop. He encouraged us to move around more with our legs.

He stated, "A lot of people who do kung fu, all of a sudden they feel like they're bolted to the floor. Terrible mistake. If you have to move around, adjust your sides, do that. If you have problems, think of it as nitro glycerin. Or possibly grape juice on a white carpet. Whatever analogy you need to make sure to keep that hand round."

We then did it in the opposite direction.

Rob said, "This is just an oblique exercise that helps to lubricate the soul, right. To keep all of your tension out of there."

We continued to do the exercise for a couple more minutes.

Then Rob stated, "So we talked earlier about reacting without reason. And so much of what we're going to try to do is to give you reason to your actions. It might not solve the world, but never the less, it will get you off your butt, and you can start some good positive energy. Now the velocity you choose to do this, doesn't matter. We'll feel free to experiment with it. You can do both at one time. This is a really good exercise. So incorporate this however you need to. It's a good excuse to move. And there is no right or wrong. The only wrong thing you can do is to be too shy, dishonest with yourself, or to lack enthusiasm."

Afterward, Rob introduced us to the next Nine Psalm that he called EMPTY MANTIS. He mostly derived this from Tai Chi and the more internal exercises. He also stated that this was developed from the dragon style. He stated that dragons are interesting creatures. They always seemed to be protecting a treasure. He reassured us that he wasn't trying to teach us to be greedy, but the fact that the dragon was housing a spherical shape. Their treasure always has a certain roundness. The truth is there really is nothing there, like the baseball only smaller. There is no set pattern. If it was clay, it would be round by the time you got done with it. Even a square would eventually become round if you work it from all sides. Once again, he stated that we should not be stagnant, that we should continue to move our feet. He used an odd phrase that I had not heard before.

He said, "Don't be polio water. You can move around. You'll feel your inner water tides. You'll feel life. That does not mean you can't apply this from a wheelchair. Or from a bed. Or from lying down. All these things can still work." As he talked he continued to demonstrate. "And you can go a little bit faster. And when you go faster, once again you start to acquire equilibrium through velocity. And you can block this with your whole arms. You can raise it up. Or raise it down, or turn. It's very similar to this gyro that we were working on earlier. Except this time, it's spherical instead of a flat plane like a wheel. But it will have a tendency to bring itself back to a center as long as you return where you began. You don't have to make a big production that you're going to gather energy. It can be that you make it tangible in your mind, this energy that you manifest in front of you. You can do this one fun exercise little bit different, but it incorporates the baseball thing. Years ago they had a comic book character called Aquaman. And Aquaman was cool. He could gather water and swirl it and then throw tat water and pitch it. So, that's a lot like kung fu and qi. And whether you illuminate light or whether you're throwing imaginary water, either way your body weight's distribution and transference of energy and weight becomes tangible for your own senses. How you apply yourself to that. The greater your imagination the greater the results that you're going to get. And you won't stagnate yourself as a person. You'll be more animated. So that's Empty Mantis."

Rob checked his notes for a moment so she could see which ones he did and in what order he did them. He then stated there was no set order that we had to do the exercises. He did find that the LINE MANTIS was a really good starting point. It's simple and we would not have to think much about it. The next one he introduced us to was SHADOW MANTIS. He came up with this one because everyone was thinking in one direction. He said it was similar to shadow boxing. He said that it works really well that way too. If you were back lit, you could apply this on walls. It's designed to make you aware of your sides and to incorporate your awareness of your peripheral vision. He had us outstretch out hands, having us look straight ahead then having our hands move toward our sides. He then asked us where we no longer saw our hands. That's a really good one for that. It may even help to strengthen that peripheral vision by forcing you to use it more.

He stated, "As soon as you can't see your hands, you want to come in just a hair from that. And now apply these same lessons in no set way, but make sure it gives your self of an awareness on the outsides of your being. Any type of spiral or circular motion or elliptical shapes, you can still use that drunken motions. You can go from one side to the other. You don't stick on one particular side. Don't stagnate. If you catch yourself being too redundant then you're lacking in imagination. Sometimes you'll use a shadow off of the floor. Sometimes you'll use it off of a wall. But the main thing is to use your peripheral vision and then you don't need to be relying on your shadow. But this is a really great way to loosen up and also where your head goes. You can also adjust your direction by turning your nose. You turn your nose, your feet will go there. You can still apply these other surfing lessons that we did. Remember when we swam earlier and I had you guys catch the wave up here; do the roller coaster? Feel free to do that. So walk around, and as you get tired of this one, you can swoop up. The main thing is, when you come into play working on a flat plane, a lot like you had to do kung fu on the outside of a building ledge. Spend a few minutes with that. Wonderful work. Small circles are every beneficial as large circles. The main thing is that you understand what you're doing and believe your imagination. It's there."

I could here Rob breathing for just a few seconds, taking breaths as he also worked on doing this particular exercise with us.

He then stated, "So, with any or all of these exercises you always want to expand and reduce. Even if you catch yourself getting redundant, make a larger circle. Then make a very small circle. This is what makes it a living system. And when you apply outer elements, your techniques will, as you'll see with the next one we're going to do, your techniques will change with the weather. All right, that's enough of that. Remember earlier when we got the qi lit, the posts of expanding the hands, that's a great thing to do every time before you do this. Just really puts you right into with your extremities. Keeps you from making sloppy motions, otherwise it will kind just fling out jibberish. If you are really in tuned with your hands, everything will come into play really well. Make sure you look up periodically. Let things go up and then fall into play. If you miss the benefit of gravity, it can really shorten you. So you want to lift and the freedom of the downhill or that natural inertia that you're going to get is really a great way to start things. And sometimes just getting the lift you don't even know where you're going. As soon as that comes down that will send you on a whole new track. It will give you a whole new roller coaster of events. Even if you run out, you can just fall into a whole new game. It's a very nice way to cleanse repetition that you find yourself in. All right. This one is really fun. I call this one HURRICANE MANTIS (continues in part 9). Everything is Mantis because I happen to be a professional praying mantis kung fu instructor. So I think that way. And like I say, it's because of the linkage, it's why I chose that. It doesn't necessarily have to be. Don't let the name Mantis keep you from being a human being. Don't think you have to be an insect through all of these exercises. Being a human is far more fun.

End of Day 2 - Afternoon Session - Part 8

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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