Sunday, April 24, 2005

shooting stars, shooting energy

Went to half the kali seminar this morning. It was pressure points, I figured it would help through my healing process. Meridians, chakras, pressure points, they all follow these channels of energy through the body. Had to run to rehearsal, so I could only stay through part of it. But had fun watching Tuhan flip all the boys around by their fingers. And these are HUGE guys, I mean 6'6" HUGE guys who could just drop you if their fist landed. But it's not all about mass, and often it's about the tiniest of things, like the joint of the thumb. You watch these big muscular guys grimace in pain, drop to their knees, grit their teeth hoping for mercy. OK, so I'm kind of sadist. It's funny when it's not me, as Sister Mary might say.

One of my students apparently is the rare few who don't feel pressure points at all, so we figured if anyone would find them on him, Tuhan could. Even then it was difficult. Even then, we're not sure he felt them. Perhaps it was because he was young (no blockages), or that he was a guy (aren't so sensitive to pain). Who knows?

The women took to "our side of the playground". What's worse than getting pressure points done on you, is pressure points done on you by people who have no idea what they're looking for. And the women would much rather just play with the other women.

After a few painful points, Tuhan then mentioned using the pressure points for healing is just the slight difference in the way one presses into the body. The healing way can be just as painful as it attempts to release channels and energy. He mentioned how the shoulders tend to be connected with the relationships people have, and we all instantly became reflective over how tense our shoulders were and how that tied into our relationships. I had heard this before in his Feng Shui lectures about how the body maps to your home.

I had often read over the years the ties between body, healing, and emotions. Kind of like the Rosen method or energy balancing. Physical blockages/pain being reminders of things we have not healed, only covered up. From my experience in Kali, there's got to be something to this. Sometimes it seems like the wounds are so old, I've forgotten what it was I was crying over, but the body remembers.

I know several folks who have taken Qi Gong, a Chinese art form, that focuses on flowing healing energy through the body. One guy in my school, was diagnosed with a neurological disease where he was losing sensation in his legs. He said the Qi Gong he practiced worked. A friend of mine asked me why this might work. And what I said was that there is a belief that we draw energy from the earth and the sky, if that is so, then we are conduits of energy between these two bodies. Certain forms, meditations, align the channels/meridians/chakras to facilitate this energy. But in order to flow well, the energy that flows must clear out the system. The way water carries debris down river so the channels flow faster and faster. Now, I don't understand a whole helluv alot, but this seems to be the most plausible understanding for me at this time.

I've hit certain positions in kali, where suddenly, it feels like the body fills with energy, the hands and fingertips tingle, my feet suddenly feel grounded, but move slightly and it disappears.

And sometimes the blockages occur not as reminders of past injury, but because we are running away from the thing we should be facing. This thing in my neck has something to do with me not dealing with my cousin's death, and perhaps the deaths of several other people. A sign of something unfinished. In any case, it comes back down to truth. As the initial pain subsides, there's a strange clarity that comes to mind. Knowing with all certainty what one must do. Sigh. yeah.

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