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

Arnold came back on and he told us that there would be another opportunity later to ask questions and then he introduced us tone one of his favorite practices, the Standing Meditation. Arnold explained that we would go through a dry run to begin with, then we would go through a whole routine. Arnold mentioned that it was kind of funny, we had discussed many things that weekend about the Tao, what's the Taoists approach, what's the Buddhist approach, what isn't, and what it really comes down to is our “beingness”. Going back to Friday, Arnold stated that you have this inner “beingness” that's a part of this nature and it's through your experience, your conscious aware experience of this "beingness” that's actually going to bring your further in your personal evolution. Arnold s stated that this whole concept of chi (and he stated that it was going to sound kind of funny in what he was going to say) really doesn't exist. It's just really a context that the Taoists practitioners used so we have something in which we can reference back into ourselves.

(I must digress here for a moment and argue against his point. The chi is real since I have felt it. It is the energy life force that flows through all of us. Some are more aware of it and have developed it further. You can feel it emanating from the hands of the Reiki Masters and anyone who works with energy healing. I have felt it in my own hands and have used that energy to heal the pain of others. I told Arnold about it and he was impressed. He gave me the title of a book to reference (get title of book and website location) and a website to check out. It was on Chi Gung Training. I would love to be able to do this, but right now, it is a little difficult with a small child as young as Lynne. (She is now 2 years old.) Some day I will be able to do more when she is older.)

He was stating that's why so many answers seem contradictory, questions like, what is chi, what isn't chi. How long will it take for me to reach such and such level. When you get there you'll know. Arnold had both western and eastern teachers for the time of his training. He said it was interesting because you get these funny answers. Arnold has a concept that it's a game that's developed, but they don't tell you that it's a game. Then at some point, you figure it's a game. Then when you start teaching, you play the game with your students. It just keeps going and going. He stated that there are always these arrows that are pointing back into yourself. And what it really is, is to experience your life through your inner being, being aware and conscious.

He began by saying that what we need to know from this practice (Standing Meditation), we already knew from the wu ji posture, feet about shoulder with apart and the knees slightly bent, and then the trunk area is tilted allowing for the spine to stretch. The chin is tucked back and the head level so the crown point is pressed upward. The shoulders are dropped to allow the back to spread. All these little adjustments in the posture help energy to flow through the body more easily and also to help breathing to be more comfortable. He then mentioned about that three Dan Tiens center of the head, center of the chest, center of the abdomen. He then stated that we were going to integrate the spiritual aspect in this practice. Arnold mentioned that there were eight different positions in this particular practice, but he said he usually practiced just the three that were in the videotape or just the one.

(I will use Arnold's own words from here.)

"So from here (referring to the wu ji posture we were in), what you want to do without moving the lower half of your body, you just want to turn to your left side, raise your hands and then turn back to the center. And what is going to happen here is you're going to allow your hand, your palms to open. So the center of the palms, the Lao Gung points, where we usually heal from, imagine like a beam of light (I did not have to imagine this - I felt it) connecting back to the upper center, right through the third eye. And going, not only on the surface, but inside, all the way through to the back of the head. So when you do this, it's important that you relax your shoulders and you allow the elbows to roll under. If you can't hold it up, it's okay to allow for your elbows to drop, but concentration should be the connection from the center of the palms into the third eye. So we'll hold this for a period of time (someone joked for about two hours), yeah for about two hours (Arnold laughed), not quite yet. So, this one is for the upper Dan Tien center. Of course the upper Dan Tien center connects with the spirit. Then after a period of time, I'll have you put your hands down so that they face towards the chest. So this is the middle Dan Tien, it reinforces the heart center, which relates to the emotions and thoughts. So again here, the center of the palms, like beams of light, pointing to the center of the sternum, the Shan Zang and actually goes through the heart and it connects to the center of the upper back they call the Shen Tao point or spirit path point. So again, it's not just the surface, but it connects all the way through. Now the important thing is to feel the connection, maintain your posture, breath, and the focus of your mind. So, the three regulations of Chi Gung posture, breath, and mind intent are always present. Then from there, the third center. So this center, the center of the palms emit this energy beam which actually projects itself slightly below the navel and then it goes through the center of your abdomen and it connects to the back point which is right on the spine opposite from the navel. That's called the ming meng point or the gate of life. This position reinforces the physical aspect of your being or lower energetic center. There's many things you can do.

"There's many ways you can play these postures. If you can make sure that your wrists aren't kinked up or bent though you're inhibiting energy flow. You want to make sure they're open. And also, allow for your fingertips to out stretch. If you do that, bring your feeling attention to your fingertips, feel what happens to the energy. You relax it, you make it softer. Fell the feeling. And then if you out stretch the fingertips, feel the difference. Okay, so when you hold all these postures, you want to out stretch the fingers, the fingertips. Now what's going to happen, after I have you hold these different postures, when we finish up we're going to go through, we'll do some of these Pulling Down the Heavens to center our energy back and cool our system. And then after a few of those, I'm going to have you connect with each center. So from here, I'm going to have you do this, and then we're going to do a few of these connecting in. (This is a little difficult to know what is going on because Arnold is doing the gestures while he is talking.) So, when you do this, you want to imagine this connection. Right now, what I want you to do is imagine these beams going into the third eye and going through the center of the head and connecting to the back of the head. It's important that your fingers don't touch each other. What I want you to do is close your eyes for a little bit and just feel. Feel the connection. This connects back into the spirit center. You may feel different sensations like maybe a string, or a band connecting through, or maybe a throbbing or pulsation in through the third eye. Do it a number of times there. Going to have you drop your hands. And then we're going to go to the middle Dan Tien and do the same thing. Feel the connection in the center of the palms all the way through inside the center of the chest all the way to the center of the upper back, the Shen Tao point. (Silence fell for a moment or two while we were doing this type of meditation/exercise.) So you are going to relax and feel from there. And then from there, push down (to the abdomen), and then from here, go through the same. Feel it go all the way in, beams of light meeting slightly below the navel and all the way to the center of the abdomen, all the way to the point right opposite the navel to the spine. You're reinforcing the three Dan Tiens, body, mind/emotion, and spirit. And then from there relax. Okay go ahead and sit down."

(This standing meditation/exercise-and I include the word because it is a form of exercise though it's focus is more inward-can be quite powerful. One good thing to note. You should be wearing comfortable shoes or you can do it in your bare feet. I was wishing I had some comfortable shoes because I was feeling pressure in one of my heels making it difficult to keep focus. If you have good shoes, you can avoid having heel pain. Another suggestion would be when you focus, try and relax and center your weight through the floor, as if you are a tree rooted to the spot. That helps to send energy downward. You can then stand there without being ridged. You want to be in the wu ji posture, but you want to be relaxed in that posture, not ridged. If you start to feel pain anywhere, it's because you may be too ridged.)

End of Day 3 - Morning Session - Part 2

Alisa Joaquin Copyright@2002.
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