by Claire | Sep 6, 2007 | Uncategorized
Existing knowledge are based on different layers of reality, all of them true to their specific circumstances or limitations. They are true for different consciousness levels, or parameters of that consciousness. The knowledge becomes obsolete when the limitations are gone. Thus is the case with Newtonian physics and quantum physics.
The ultimate reality has no limit, no circumstance, no parameters. To know it one cannot have limits or parameters either. The ultimate reality is unspeakable, for language itself is a parameter, a limitation. The ultimate reality can only be known through direct experience, a full perspective view of the universe. We are all innately connected to it at all times. Once in a while when we are truly open, without conception of our worldly knowledge, without being colored by our desires and attachments, we tap into the ultimate reality momentarily, this sheer magnificence, this pure elegance.
The highest level of teachers and healers operate from the ultimate reality. They do not need any tools for all tools can limit as well. With their own ultimate reality, or the Buddhist call it the Buddha nature, to illuminate another. And they see the Buddha nature in the other. As soon as they see it, the other is enlightened, literally, his/her Buddha nature becomes the reality. This ability to see Buddha nature is called “Tong Shen Ming” in ancient Chinese texts such as the Yellow Emperor’s Classic. It can be translated as probing or penetrating spiritual light. The highest level of teacher and healers see the core of this world, the essence of life. They see through the condition of a person, 360 degree view of the person, his/her true nature. They know the condition of this world. In this level, the boundary between seeing and knowing and being is gone.
It is the reason Mingtang calls this form of healing Image Therapy. We are directly seeing the healthy image in another person thus the image becomes the reality. The image level of vibration is the highest and purest, as far as we know in this realm. The sound level of vibration, resonating, like mantras to create change, create new reality is the next level down from the image. This is the method of healing and practice Mingtang is trying to teach us. It is a practice of cultivating our own inner seeing, inner light until the light is pure and high in vibration so it illuminates all reality and cut through to the ultimate reality. Through “know thy self,” one becomes enlightened. This “know thy self” is not from the mind, the superficial level, or limited psychological levels. It is from the tangible experience of the penetrating spiritual light.
by Claire | Sep 6, 2007 | Uncategorized
There are generally four stages of spiritual development. All stages in our spiritual journey are at the right time necessary, but at other times they can cause spiritual stagnation, becoming yet another form of attachment.
At the beginning of our spiritual journey, we like to look at all different forms of spirituality, different methods of practice to see which suit us best right here right now. But if we became attached to this stage, it becomes spiritual materialism, which stems from greed or fear of true commitment to working within. This spiritual materialism can end up draining our energy, time and resources outwardly without much internal growth.
When we first became aware of all the areas that we have been in denial of, revealing our hidden pain, this is a necessary awakening stage. But if we get obsessed about our own pain, we lose sight of the journey.
The next stage of empowerment, gaining power of intention, power of healing, power of energy and mind, it is also easy to endlessly play with becoming more energetically powerful, or experiencing that blissful, estatic state, and forget about our true spiritual journey.
There are also practitioners who try to slip the becoming aware stage and the becoming powerful stage, and try to go from being unaware to emptiness. Many meditators do this. They may lose a lot of time getting no where.
This is why it is important to have a teacher who have walked this path, and can shine light on our obsessions, our attachments, our blind spots along the way.
by Claire | Sep 6, 2007 | Uncategorized
Nov. 07
We cannot resolve emotions through the mind. The mind is merely the receiver of information. The sender is our body. That is why when we get angry, it rises faster than our rational mind could catch it.
To resolve anger, we must release our awareness into our liver. We will learn tangibly how to finely and fully tune into how our liver is feeling when we are angry. When our awareness become more and more sensitive, we could feel more and more strongly that anger releases such toxin, such poison, such destruction force in our liver, into our own body! This bodily sensation becomes so overwhelming that we are horrified at how we abuse ourselves when we get angry with others.
This is when we break down in grief for ourselves. This is when past anger that’s been stored in our liver can begin to release. Then there is space within to feel the tenderness and gentleness for ourselves. Compassion can arise within ourselves. This is when we would never want to commit such atrocity, unleash such violence on ourselves again.
The next time when something outside of us shows injustice and wrong doing, we can firmly put down our principles of what is right and just without anger. This is the ultimate way to end anger—through tuning into our body, through deep meditation when we release our awareness into our body, keeping it there so the awareness becomes finer and finer, until we truly hear our own body, truly know our own body, and truly understand our own body, what it wants and how to gain balance and harmony. This peace within will manifest to the without. This is the true change. Our mind will follow this change of our being.
by Claire | Sep 6, 2007 | Uncategorized
November 7, 2006
We tend to think of breathing harder to get more oxygen. We try to bring in more energy, suck in more life force. We try to get healthy. We try to attract more wealth. We try to find love and happiness. We use all these active terms, breathe, try, bring in, suck in, get, attract, find, etc. This thinking of working hard to bring in the good is based on fear.
The truth is there is endless amount of oxygen for all. The universe is filled with energy. There is enough material goods for everyone on earth. And joy and love is in every moment everywhere.
When we relax, release the tightness, oxygen naturally flows in. When we release our body, let go holding patterns, energy floods into our being. When we release blockages in our body and being, health and wellbeing is ours naturally. When we relax, smile and trust, all goodness come into our lives, and life becomes easy. When we relax and let our heart open, we discover love is all around us. When we surrender to the moment, we feel joy and peace.
This is the natural way. Being with the flow of nature is effortless. This is our place in the universe. It is eternal, limitless. This is true freedom. This is the essence of life. This is we.
We do not need to try hard. Tap into the effortless flow of nature. Our original soul is connected to the infinite. It is part of the limitless light and power. It always has been and always will be. All we need to do is to release our holding patterns, our tightness, closedness, blockages. Each tightness residing in our body is part of our mind-heart soul, our ego. It takes energy to hold each pattern. When we exhale and release the tightness, light rushes in, life force floods in, energy and power pours in.
It takes a lot of life force to hold all the patterns and controls in place. This is when we feel tired, depleted, uncreative, tied up. It feeds into the tightening spiraling of fear. Each time we release a tightness, a holding pattern, we feel more spacious, more free and more energized.
The key to releasing is our body. Our body is the perfect tool for developing our awareness, deepening our awareness to the state of awakening. The release does not happen from thinking, from our mind. Our mind’s job and training is to be in charge, hold structures and patterns for control. It is very difficult to work with the busy mind without feeding back into it. What we can do is to smile at the mind and relax it. This releases our awareness into our body, into our whole being. This is a reason why we have a physical body in this physical world. When our body communicates pain and discomfort, we can follow that signal for releasing. Then our body would naturally flow into the healing path.
Surrender our ego control. Let our body come back onto the natural way. Water does not struggle. It just is. Trees do not fight. It follows nature. The planets and stars do not try hard. They just are. When we release, we are on the effortless path, the natural path. When we let go, we are bio composting our waste energy, and completing the natural cycle. When we surrender, we are with our original soul. We are light. We are eternal.
by Claire | Sep 6, 2007 | Uncategorized
Before I left for Peru Karen invited me to Ecstatic Dance—an open free form session moving to world music. Since I have been back, I have been going regularly. The space is perfect for my spontaneous movement and Zhenggong practice (A level four ZYQ practice) where I receive teachings directly through movement. Many times during these practices, I feel the divine coming through me.
At the beginning of the dance, I turn the center of my awareness within, using my peripheral awareness throughout the room. I stretch out stagnant energy channels and points, shake stagnant qi loose and out. Somewhere along the way when I least expect it, the divine touches me, moves me, and becomes me.
Last time I was meditating while dancing, I abruptly had to open my eyes. Near me I saw a man kneeling; his head was bowing all the way down to the floor. His full awareness in his movement was palpable. He surrendered with his whole-being, whole-heartedly, fully present in each mille-second, which slowed time around him, and around me too. All of a sudden, the air around me became tangible. All of a sudden, the beauty of the moment shook me lose, shook me open. All of a sudden, the air above me opened. Divineness came through my being. Tears ran down my face.
Then the energy changed. I felt the Earth energy coming into me. I was pregnant with a great ball of qi in my belly. I held it with my whole being. I adored it. Every cell in my being revolved around it. I loved it with my whole heart, with every bit of my being. Suddenly a thought lit up in me, this is femininity, this is unconditional love and nurturing. This is how our Earth feels about each and every one of us. I am our Earth’s child. More tears streamed down.
After these repeated experiences of deep connection, it became clear to me that by coming into a group, such as this one at Ecstatic Dance or a class or a workshop, I choose to step beyond my personal awareness and merge with a larger, broader group awareness. The group awareness helps me to step beyond my own identity, my own routine ways of thinking.
The group awareness also helps me to make a definable containment, a firm boundary which makes my ego feel safer to explore beyond its usual territory. I, and all of us in the group, can dance/leap/shake and bound outside of our norm and still feel cuddled by the gentle holding of the group. This is the benefit of group practice. If one is already able to meditate in any situation, for example among the fifty thousand children practicing martial arts in the Shaolin Monastery, one learns to use any environment as a tool for focusing one’s awareness more deeply.
This is also why when we come to a qigong meditation class, the teacher offers that broader yet firm boundary that lets us, as students, grow in a nurturing and constructive way. Our spiritual growth needs both the wild intuitive power and the structured disciplined practice.
When one person in a group becomes fully present, everyone around him/her has an easier entry into presence themselves. The change of vibration in the air is noticeable. This effect is another benefit of group practice, especially when practicing with advanced meditation masters. Many of us have had that bliss by osmosis experience while meditating in Mingtang’s presence. But practicing with our peers also can create more chances for deeper awareness.
In the sharing after the dance that night, a woman talked about feeling her spine for the first time. She was beginning to get to know her spine after an accident. These words brought up similar vibrations in me, in my understanding. Only after we have lost something or somebody do we begin to know the importance of that thing or someone. It’s the contrast of having and not having, the duality of this world, that offers us the understanding and awareness of the duality and yet the oneness of God. This is why we go through the challenges that we do in life, isn’t it? Verbalizing our experience clarifies for ourselves that experience, connecting and strengthening the energy channel between our heart and the back of our brain. And at the same time sharing the words brings about understanding and resonance of similar experiences in those within the group as well. The cascading effect of the “Aha!” moment occurs within the group on multiple levels for each individual.
I hope to share our presence, our awareness, our awakenings and our understandings with you in our group practices.
by Claire | Sep 6, 2007 | Uncategorized
Lately it occurred to several of us healers that a number of people have been going through a challenging time. (I would be interested if any astrologers can give me some insight on what planet going through what stage may be causing this deep inner work.) I myself have been going through one of my darkest nights of the soul for a few weeks.
A fellow Image Therapist Deb gave me a book called “The Red Lion.” There is a statement in there that struck me. It’s something like this—our world is like a mirror image of the higher realms. What we think is good such as pleasures, luxuries and desires can actually lead us toward the lower realms; whereas what we think of as bad, such as hard work, minimal material things and emotional challenges can actually lead us toward the higher realms.
It also is clear to me that going through the dark night of the soul gives me the opportunity, the doorway for new realizations and horizons that there is something limiting in ourselves, physically, in thought, energy and emotional patterns, that may release and transform for us to become lighter and freer. It is a necessary progression of growth.
That moment a light came on in me. It is not darkness itself that lead us to see our darkness. It is in fact when we have light, when we have the resources to shed more limitations, the challenges appear. And when we go into this challenging period, we are surrounded by light! Only so are we able to see shadows that we were oblivious of before. It is so important to remember the light around us as we tumble and wrestle with our own shadow. When we ask for help, pray for light, our eyes open to it, our heart feels it.
It takes courage and perseverance to change, to transform and to be free. Know that there is no shadow that cannot be penetrated by light. Continue to ask, to pray for help in everyway possible. Light and love comes through, and permeates us.
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