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

We took a short break and I made certain that I had everything that I needed. Heidi Singh then talked again. She had asked Rob if she could take one or two minutes because there were a couple of things she wanted to explain a little more. Heidi Singh and Arnold Tayam were both leaving early because their schedules did not allow them to totally finish out the morning. They came on different flights from David and Rob so their planes were going to leave at an earlier time and they needed to get back to New York.

There were a couple of things Heidi had thought about after we finished the morning meditation and someone asked her to please say something about the idea of sovereignty. These were her two thoughts in her own words.

"In this practice, especially 'Eight Verses of Training the Mind,' which is very, very difficult, I was thinking too about Gandhi and how he always said, 'A seeker after truth must be humbler than the dust.' Okay. And when we think about it, we can't think about anyone stronger than Gandhi. I keep trying to think of somebody, but I just can't think of one. So you see, even though his attitude was to be humbler than the dust and be at everyone's service at every moment, he was extremely in his own sovereignty. Absolutely centered within himself and aware of the tremendous power that he had. And yet unafraid of anything. We all know how Gandhi was assassinated, and it's interesting to note that, you know he said, 'When it comes my time to go, I'd rather almost be, if I am taken by the hand of a brother, that's a good way to go.' He was prepared to meet a violent death and he said, 'Is my non-violence the non-violence of the brave. It would be true if, when I die, my last prayer, my last word is a prayer and a blessing for everyone, and I am killed for the person who kills me,' and of course, when he was assassinated, his last words were, 'Hay Rom, Oh God.' It was a blessing on that person. So that's one thing. The other thing is, please always remember that again, when we are dealing with these difficulties, we are the heroes of our own mythic journey. I know when I was young I used to read 'Lives of the Saints' and I'd read about heroes and heroines and I'd think, 'Oh, I wish I could do something wonderful.' But you know this is what we're dealt. Our life is our journey. Our life is our story. And it's here where we have to be heroic. And I always think that if you can keep this imagery . . . has anyone here seen the movie 'Little Buddha?' You know in the scene where Siddhartha's sitting under the tree? And it's the final right before his enlightenment experience and the armies of Marha are coming and they're shooting arrows at him and everything. And he just sits there. And that is where we are. It's I, it's you, individually. When you are dealing with your life issues on your path, when you are on your meditation cushion, you are Siddhartha. And your problems are all these armies that raid against you. We are all stronger than that. So, this 'Eight Verses of Training The Mind' is not to say we're not powerful, we don't have sovereignty over ourselves because in every moment we do. We have to remember that. And two more quick things, the Buddha himself said, 'Don't believe anything because you're teacher tells you, or the scripture tells you, or the tradition tells you, or society tells you, or anybody tells you. Find out from your own experience. Have your own experience and you find out what's wholesome for you, what works for you.' Finally, when my teacher, Venerable Balangoda Anandamaitreya was in his 90's when I studied with him, a very, very special being, and I would go to him and I would say, 'Buntay,' which is Venerable Sir, 'How will I be successful on the path, you know, how will I persevere?' And he would always say this, same thing, no matter what I asked him. He would fix my gaze and he would say, 'Have complete self-confidence. Do not doubt yourself. Don't doubt your destiny, your path.' So, those are my final words to you, and thank you all. I'd like to say as Arnie did, how grateful I am to be here with you in your presence, and thank you for all your teachings for us. And now, once again . . . ." (Everyone burst into applause. Heidi was also a very dynamic speaker.) "Thank you. And we have these Masters with us; it's a great experience. And we have our Kung Fu Master and he's going to show us more things about his own, this wonderful method that he has devised which is sort of I think kind of revolutionizing the way we can learn kung fu. So, thank you."

Rob then took the microphone and he thanked Heidi for her words. He then spoke in regards to his own thing. He stated that what Heidi spoke about was so true in regards to what he was trying to accomplish. And that all of it was about seeking the truth and how we perceive it. Rob stated, "Through this Qi Gong and through this pursuit of higher beings and all this, you will obtain your own inner truths. And being your own science project alerts you to your senses and makes you aware of these things. And with these exercises of the Qi Gong or feeling the other person's energy and our own and how that might reverberate, ricochet off of one another gives us immediate feedback. And all this Nine Psalms is really just a way to inspire you to think for yourself and seek out your own truths. And know that it's okay to use the fact that we're trapped inside of our bodies as a tool to make an adventure out of that, and try to enjoy yourself while you do alert your senses. You can do something similar type of thing that I have and you can do with it about smell. You can do just about anything. We're not limited to these Nine Psalms. And these Nine Psalms are just mere observations that I made about common truths of different kung fu systems. They don't have to be Nine at all; they can be just the fact that you have all the freedom in the world to pursue enlightenment, that through spirituality and enlightenment, it's also a tangible approach by illuminating your imagination. So I hope that's coming across with everybody." Then the group burst into applause again. He said he hoped to go through this again because so much of it was about illumination, the sensitivity of water weights, how our bone structure works with gravity, all those sorts of things. Plus, fitting in to being a better person. Rob then stated that if we have a bit of adventure in our lives, we should be a lot less irritable. There was no use dwelling on everything when we could have this escape route. Rob stated, "It doesn't matter. You can open up a doorknob with your toes, right? Little things like that are what keeps our ghost trapped in these bodies, it just makes it fun, fun for me anyway. So I want you guys to go do that, too. One thing we were doing earlier, I was walking with David Nakahara, the Shadow Mantis, and we had sunshine. So it was really easy to show him what I was trying to get across. And we're a little bit limited on that right now because we're miked up and we're trying to . . . We've got to try to stay organized in here, but luckily, the sun is shining and we can go over here, and I just want to show it over here in the sunlight, okay? How you can apply yourself. Okay? So let's stand up for a minute."

Rob got us to stand up and had us move to where there was a large window with sunlight shining through. He showed us what he meant by Shadow Mantis. As always, he was very enthusiastic, talking fast, and always moving. He explained how the best way to do Shadow Mantis was with you being back lit so you cast a shadow on the wall, similar to how the old boxers would train. The boxer would be looking at the wall and he's punching away, trying to slip his own punches. That was one of the inspirations for this particular exercise. He also stated that you could play around with dimension. He could feel the sunshine on the back of his hand and that it felt more like isolated energy that way. He said that being alive to that sensitivity is one more awareness. The he demonstrated on what happened to his shadow. He first demonstrated doing gibberish and he stated that it didn't look very controlled, but he then stated if you stay in tuned with your hands and remained centered, showing using spirals and other forms, that it can be more controlled. He was demonstrating how this could be very beneficial because you have not let go of the senses inside of them; you've remained centered and aware of what is going on. He also pointed out though he was doing everything off the floor; he was in two places at the same time because his hand was in sunlight, feeling the sun on his skin and casting that shadow. He stated that because he was in two places at the same time, working his shadow off the floor and in the sun, he could mirror himself and he could create a chi and it could be really powerful to work with. Or he could concentrate on just one thing, feeling the sunlight or working the shadow on the floor. The point he was trying to make is that we could go outside of ourselves as well as inside, it's all here. He encouraged us to try this whenever we're outside, because it would make more sense doing this outside on a sunny day. He said just to enjoy that and have fun with it.

Rob Moses is such a fun, enthusiastic teacher. You can really see he enjoys having a lot of fun and he tries to make learning fun. He brought in the analogy of using a yo-yo, pretending that we have a yo-yo while we were practicing doing Shadow Mantis outside. It brings in so much more that just moving your hand in a gibberish way. You can actually build chi because you are feeling more of that centrifugal force and you are using your imagination to create a cause and effect, even if that yo-yo isn't real. It helps to build your awareness. Rob again stressed that this was our own science project. These Nine Psalms that he's been trying to teach us was his way of trying to get that across to us. He also recommend to us when we try each of the Nine Psalms, not to go any father than water gently coming out of the hose, not on the fast spray nozzle. He said that if you were to move too fast, it would break up the spirit of it and disrupt the flow. You need to go at a slower pace to begin with and get used to the feeling of the change in the water weight, to become more aware of your own water weight and how it changes when you move. He then had us move across the floor and form a single line. After lining everyone up he got into explaining more what he was trying to get us across to us.

Rob stated, "Now, center masses, what I'm trying to get at is everyone roughly moves at the same speed. So the only time you're going to accelerate that, give or take a little bit, only in the long run are you going to make adjustments for that. And for linkage you're going to make adjustments for that. I want everybody to move absolutely as fast as they can when I clap my hands to move forward. It's a race. So everybody try to come at one step. And if you don't have room form another line behind that line. Now as fast as possible, as soon as I clap my hands, everybody has to move up. On your mark, get set, [Clap]. Okay, he kept going (noticing one of the group was still moving), that's okay. That's cool. Let's try it again. Well step back. Enthusiasm is what you want, you got to get there as fast as you can. One step. Feet together. Okay, no off sides. Right, no cheating. Feet together. All right, on your mark, get set, go! [Clap] See? Everybody is just as fast as everyone else is. Because of the center mass. So, stealing the pebble is kind of like preheating the center mass. And having that *boom* you do it through linkage. But it has to churn first in order to accelerate. But the idea of this center mass is still going to be the same, so whether you are waltzing, or ice-skating, or swimming, or just strolling down the street. If you don't try to hurry that center mass, its going to move at the proper timing. And you don't have to move fast to hit hard. If you are moving fast, chances are you're going to lose your senses to some degree. So don't be in a hurry and you won't when you're doing the Nine Psalms. You can, if you are in the mood to hurry, but then it's you. Its still part of that personality. You need to have a . . . . Emotions are good to get out. I'm not saying you have to have w weird personality or erratic personality, but it is nice to be able to have . . . . You know . . . musicians, sometimes they'll play . . . you know . . . a tempo, sometimes it's a soft tempo . . . as people I think those moods can reflect that and so can the Nine Psalms. And just because I teach something here don't separate that and don't think that you can't turn into another direction. As soon as you need to turn, you can do that, right? Incorporate different spirals with feet to help you to move. This wheel and also be outside here. (Much of what Rob Moses is talking about, he is also doing the action and it is visual as much as it is verbal. Unfortunately, I cannot show the visual so much. It would take too much memory and I even if I could have, video cameras were not allowed unless the instructors said it was okay.) How or whatever you need to do to intermingle all of this stuff and add to them and making it your own is how you're going to benefit the most. So let's get comfortable. Everyone moves at the same speed, so what's the hurry."

End of Day 3 - Morning Session - Part 4

Alisa Joaquin Copyright@2002.
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