Meditation Informs Healing Facilitation

Intentions for 2019

These arose out of the 10-day retreat I just recently returned from. Most are mundane.

1. Keep the container full and clear – patch any leaks ASAP; be gentle; ask body before doing anything dysregulating; spend time re-building trust with my body / kidneys / heart / brainstem
2. Practice Dharma and / or Qigong daily: if you start feeling off, you need to do qigong ASAP
3. Receive Bodywork 3x / month: Self Care regimen
4. Each breath is a death & re-birth: bring mindfulness to everything you do; mindfulness of body, breath, Vagus system, energy and awareness
5. Prep for Polyvagal Workshop– read & takes notes on the 5 books
6. Plan ahead for SE Training (woohoo!)
7. Maintain virtue for SE training & Polyvagal & to be as present as possible for clients / students
8. Healers Must Do less; what can I take off my plate? Muscle test, ask I Ching about new ventures, new trades

Going in order from our 6 am Qigong start to the day.. then at 6:45 am we did a silent sit to nurture the chi which we had just cultivated. That lasted until 7:25 am. Not a whole lot more to share about that. 🙂

I usually did the Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind (Toward Enlightenment) every morning during that silent sit time. Including a body scan to go along with Impermanence, it would take me the whole 40 minutes to get through the Leisures and Endowments, contemplating Impermanence, Karma cause and effect and lastly the Six Realms – and really getting juicy with the sufferings of the lower realms (if you are looking for a good text about this, the Words of My Perfect Teacher includes some rather graphic – yet good grist for the meditation mill – details about the suffering of the Hell realms or the Transformation of Suffering by Khenchen Konchog Gyaltsen).

Then during the 7:30 – 8 AM window, we did Dharma discussion. This was another time in the day when we could share briefly and not be breaking Noble Silence. We talked about the Four Immeasurables – which included the Drikung Kagyu prayer, another interpretation from Jack Kornfield and a beautiful piece by Caroline Jones:

Brahma Viharas

Metta is the love that connects.

It is an antidote to all forms of aversion.

It is not [grasping] attachment.

If it slides into sentimentality,

Karuna brings the heart back into balance.

Karuna is the love the responds.

It is an antidote to cruelty.

It is not pity.

If it slides into sorrow,

Mudita brings the heart back into balance.

Mudita is the love that celebrates.

It is an antidote to envy.

It is not competitive.

If it slides into agitated excitement,

Upekka brings the heart back into balance.

Upekka is the love the allows.

It is an antidote to partiality.

It is not indifference.

If it slides into disconnection,

Metta brings the heart back into balance.

In addition to the above practices, we also looked at the Eight Fold Noble Path – right view, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, etc and we examined more of a Theravada themed text on the Anapanasati’s – the Mindfulness of Breath practices. We looked at the Four Holdings of Mindfulness, the Seven Factors of Awakening and Knowledge and Liberation.

This was a nice brief way to set the mind toward right motivation for the day before breaking our fast for the day. 🙂

Thanks for reading and more to come soon!

KM

Hello dear friends,

I just returned yesterday from a sublime and moderately restorative (I got from 4 – 8 hours sleep each day / night) dynamic retreat at the beach.

We were at Sandbridge Virginia, in a house which had an easy glimpse of the vast ocean, the endless horizon and the immense spacious sky.

Every other day there were dolphin sightings and on the last full day, as I was walking bare-foot through the chilly low waves of the Atlantic, a small pod of 3 dolphins swam to within 10-feet of me (and a couple other retreat ants were further up the beach watching as well). We were afraid they were about to beach themselves! They were saying good-bye to us and then they swam back out to the larger pod of frolic and playing dolphins. So so beautiful!

Another last-day first sharing… and I’ll need to provide some context so you get the hilarity of this…

Each year, on retreat, we do dream-time play from 6 to 7 pm each evening. Then we have 2 – 1-hour sits to complete the day and to chew on / integrate what we discovered in the dream sequences. In the past, the retreat leader, Janet Evergreen usually always has a dream, somewhere on retreat, of shit – literally a poop dream. And we look at these dreams from both a mundane psychological interpretation standpoint, AND we look at these dreams from an enlightened, non-dual standpoint as well. So a poop-dream is laced with purification, cleansing and composting / renewing.

This year, several people slept in the shrine room on their last night of retreat (especially if they left early – this is how several people slept separately in the shrine room on several evenings). I continued this trend… and guess who had a poop dream?

Me! I asked Janet (once we broke noble silence), if she had had her usual poop dream and she said “No.” I told her that might be because I just had one! 😀

She jokingly said, “Oh that must mean you are taking on more of a leadership role now!”

Very funny indeed – especially if you had been sitting in the sublime and tranquil stillness for 10 days…

Will share more soon!

Wishing you all Tashi Delek for this New Year! Auspicious greetings and wishes for everyone who is practicing virtue! (And may those not practicing virtue come to realize the ignorance of their ways and return to the path of merit and wisdom.)

Until soon, Big Hug,

KM

Hello dear readers!

I just completed the application today to begin Somatic Experiencing training in Roanoke in March. It is a serious commitment – 3 years, 8 modules, 12 sessions, 12 group sessions and a significant financial obligation. So I had been chewing on this for several weeks – and actually pondering it for several years now. I just learned about the Roanoke training a couple weeks ago (a city about 2+ hours away from my home).

After completing the application, I took a nap and had a fairly profound dream:

I should also mention that I have been doing more Emotional-Process-oriented-bodywork as of late, involving more Craniosacral Therapy, Polyvagal Therapy, Visceral Manipulation and Birth Process work, aka Pre- and Perinatal and Attachment Therapy. It is that last modality that seems to play the largest role in this dream.

In the dream, I am doing a PPN (birth process work) session with a client. Then, in the dream, I go into a trance state, and go back in time apparently. Because in the trance state, I walk through a corridor of a hospital and encounter my client’s mother hand-cuffed to a metal table. There is a cop, a doctor and a nurse near her. My client is about to be born. 

In the trance state, within the dream state, I start imploring with the doctor and the nurse to loosen the restraint on the mother. I am persistent in pushing to take off the hand-cuffs for the benefit of the unborn child. The cop tries to grab me but I step back and I am still diligent in trying to benefit the unborn baby client (part of me).

The trance state fades and I am back with my client in the “normal” dream. And it seems like the trance benefited her somehow – having an advocate, having someone offering protection, even from a distance helps.

Then I woke up. Pretty wild dream (for me anyhow).

Somatic Experiencing is a modality specifically for trauma resolution. It helps to identify the state of the nervous system and it provides many tools for working toward greater self-regulation and a healthier, functional social nervous system.

I am greatly looking forward to this training! Apparently so is my unconscious mind 🙂

Thank you for reading!

Be well,

~km

I was recently asked to substitute teach for a Qigong class at the local City Center. It was a great group – 6 students attended. We went slow – it was their first class. 

We went over a foundation (which can be a complete qigong practice in and of itself), and then did Tap Qigong (Dahn Hahk style). It took me a few minutes to come down out of a busy few days – since last Thursday I have not had many hours to myself (actually).

But soon I was smiling into my radiant heart. Activating the Wei Chi (protective, boundary, immune system life-force energy) via Tap Qigong, I asked them to slow down, to notice… what is the same… what is different from when we started?

Then we covered another foundation. And brought those two with us into Chen Style Waist Power qigong. It was very nice, going slow, pausing in between each exercise.

At one point, I had a vision of myself doing and teaching qigong on a foreign mountain top – probably teaching to some of the people there tonight, yet long ago. I got the sense I was teaching on one of the five element mountains, one of five sacred mountains in eastern China. That was obviously another lifetime however, as I have not been to China yet (this time around).

Then after about 3 or 4 exercises, I asked if they had any questions. Of course one of them asked where exactly this originated from. Cognitively I did not know the answer, but I think my vision showed me. So I told him, “from the 5 Elements Mountains of China.” That was pretty cool!

They asked, “What exactly are we activating by doing these exercises?” There were so many great questions asked! I loved it!

My answer was, “by focusing on our roots, we are consciously strengthening Yin Chi energy, as a result, we are bringing ourselves closer to the Earth, to earth energy. And in turn we attract healthy yang energy. Yin is like the fortress or the palace, yang is like the soldiers or the people going back and forth. Yin is structure and form, Yang is dynamic movement.”

Then later someone else asked, “Isn’t our culture strong enough when it comes to Yang? Why would I want to attract more Yang energy?” I loved these questions! And of course I had a good answer for her.

Thanks for reading!

If you are in the Central Virginia area, I will resume teaching qigong in January if I find a location (in Charlottesville). One of the students actually asked, “When do you usually teach qigong?”

I had to say, “Well I normally teach out in Crozet or Afton.” I gave him my card because I do want to teach more locally.

And have a good evening!

~km

Beginning with an aside… due to holiday travel and lodging in new places, I went four days without doing my usual 30 – 45 minutes of qigong in the morning, and I am really feeling it. Just doing 20 minutes of it tonight helped to right the ship as it were.

It is interesting, but qigong is becoming my go-to spiritual practice. Yes I still hold Bodhicitta dearly in my heart, but doing Dharma practice (aside from sitting occasionally on my meditation cushion) is challenging for me by myself. Qigong though has become a healthy, life-enhancing habit. I am very grateful for all my teachers – especially Dan Retuta for re-kindling the qigong fire within me.

Last week, I taught qigong again, in the beautiful foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains (literally at the base of mountains that support Wintergreen Ski Resort). The clean crisp mountain air and water are truly a blessing. Just to walk around out there mindfully, slowing down and taking in the clarity and purity was special.

I saved Water Qigong for last because it is the most subtle. Solar (fire) Qigong is quite obvious – you feel the sun’s warmth on you! Tree Qigong is embodying the connection between heaven and earth – which the trees do before our very eyes! Dropping roots down into Mother Earth while reaching for the heavens simultaneously. What better teachers of Heaven and Earth practices?

But Water Qigong? It takes a refined being or someone with the potential to become a refined being (and who isn’t that?) to feel the subtle flow of yin chi energy across the hands. To feel the cool breeze of the water chi as you stand near a mountain stream.

Just like the previous week, the practitioners (students) were hungry to learn. Although I think they were just as surprised as I was that last time Tree Qigong would reveal so many insights!

They were definitely looking forward to the Water Qigong (I may have talked it up a bit). Just standing meditatively near a clean clear mountain stream however is healing, beneficial, prayerful. Then having gratitude in your heart and having a decent lineage of teachings to go with that – makes the process even more profound.

I loved how we each had a different symphony of water / stream / river sounds to listen to. Two people even heard some bass notes playing. I love the land where we practiced. I hope to do my own practice out there soon.

I say that because as I stood near a convergence of two streams, a little water spirit came and stood by my side. It was a little uncanny at first – I could see her (I’m pretty sure it was a she?), but I definitely felt her presence. She was urging me to do more for the environment. I also suspect she was most displeased with the incoming pipeline which is going in a few miles from where we were practicing. Therefore, I’d like to get back out there to see if I can open up those lines of communication again – to hear her more clearly.

After my time in Crestone Colorado, where the water spirits (and wind spirits and more) are much more accessible, perhaps that influenced my connection with them elsewhere. I’m not sure. Not bragging, just noticing. Nothing special, just rare communion with nature spirits. 🙂 Rare for me that is – precious and few-and-far-between.

Thank you for reading!

Hello Dear Readers,

I have skipped a few descriptions of classes in the past few weeks. Been staying pretty busy. And I consider myself to be privileged to lead Chi Kung – I am slowly discovering what it means to be a Chi Kung (qigong) teacher.

We met at a new venue today. An idyllic, well-cared for house and land in the Blue Ridge mountains of Nelson County Virginia. Incredibly beautiful, radiant, soothing, serene – the perfect setting for chi cultivation!

Today, among other exercises, we did Tree Qigong. I love the elemental forms of Qigong we learned at Crestone Healing Arts Center in Colorado – Tree, Solar and Water Qigong. I have also been working with another friend and mentor who studied with Mantak Chia for a number of years – she has been sharing some great advice and techniques, and I am downloading new exercises for taking these forms of Chi Kung deeper.

The first time leading Tree Qigong, I was blessed to have the group share and Wow! They had some beautiful words and experiences!

When we flush our circuits with light and love for over seven weeks, then it will start to open things up – in a gradual, safe, contained, kind manner! All 5 of us received a different message from our trees – a magnolia, a weeping willow, a poplar, an oak and a cypress. “Be radiant, share your inner beauty,” “allow your thirst for water to rise up through all your cells – drink to your heart’s content.” Etc. Great stuff!

In addition, we discussed the wind points on the back of the neck – appropriate considering the breezes and the temp tonight is supposed to drop to 23 degrees! Plus we did brief Dr. Yao’s Tap Qigong, the Chen style Waist Powers and we completed Solar Qigong! Amazing what we can cover in 8 weeks.

I love the saying, “By going slower, you get there faster.” That is so true of qigong. It takes practice, but over time, it will definitely start showing its results.

Thank you for reading! Donate if you like.

~km