Classes and
Workshops
Classes and workshops
are designed to follow the theme of energy enhancement. At first it
is necessary to have a very direct experience with the Qi force before
more advanced training can seriously begin.
We begin all
our programs with a basic understanding of the "History Of Energy".
This short lecture provides a background for all the classes and workshops
which will follow.
Walk Like the
Egyptians - A History of Energy
We all come from
a common ancestry. We can look around the world to see where examples
of this are true. We go as far back as the Egyptians, we see that
energy /subtle energy was a very important concept. The remnants of
their belief in subtle systems are left to us in magic, alchemy, and
astrology. For our discussion here, we reference their belief in the
subtle energy that rests, dormant, around every living thing. Once
activiated, this system of energy can redefine a normal human into
a superbeing, with many of the skills that have been attributed to
cartoon characters, gods, and other-worldly beings. The Egyptians
thought that the human was the embodiment of the divine, and the pharaoh
was an example of a god on earth. The Egyptians worked with a concept
of energizing mind, body and consciousness through the development
of internal forces. They were interested in walking between the worlds,
interacting with the gods, and representing the gods here on earth.
Their training, in mystery schools, Egyptian yoga, energetics of mind,
body, and consciousness, the mer, ka, and the ba, activating this
principle, was the opening of the merkaba, which is a three dimensional
star tetrehedran, or star of David, in the Jewish tradition. So this
three dimensional star tetrehedran was built in the imagination through
visualization, and projected around the whole body. Today the process
has been rediscovered and is taught as the Flower of Life series.
Working with the merkaba, the dormant spiritual body or "light
body,' which is a more modern term - in the opening of the light body
is the development of super-human energetics, this connection between
the human and the gods. We see this duplicated in other ways in other
cultures.
If we take a look
at the Indian culture we see a similar system of energetics in the
chakra system. This is the energetic system most widely known and
interacted with in our modern, Western world, especially through the
huge popularity of yoga. The chakras are wheels or vortexes of energy
at specific points on the body / consciousness. The root chakra, down
at the sexual organs, the second chakra below the navel, third chakra
at the solar plexus, fourth chakra at the heart, fifth at the throat,
sixth the third eye, and seventh chakra at the crown of the head,.
The chakras are centers, vortexes of energy that actually have consciousness
within. At each vortex is a level of consciousness that stimulates
that particular area. The lower chakras represent survival issues,
sexuality, and all manner of things pertaining to the physical world.
A person with consciousness trapped in the lower chakras might very
well be steeped in survival issues, issues related to sexuality, issues
related to supply and demand, physical desires, fulfilling earthly
desires. On a more positive level, the root chakra represents our
groundedness, the second chakra our sexuality and emotions, the third
chakra relates to power and identity - it is called our "power
center," fourth chakra related to heart, our ability to receive
and give love, fifth chakra related to our ability to give voice to
our truth, who we are, sixth chakra the center that brings together
consciousness, left and right hemispheres of the brain, how inspiration
moves through consciousness. This third eye chakra also represents
our intuition. The seventh chakra receives spiritual inspiration and
guides it down through the rest of the chakras, first being managed
at the third eye, or command central (in the endocrine system this
is represented by the hypothalamus gland,) and then guided down through
the rest of the mind/body. So each chakra represents a certain kind
of consciousness.
These chakras
can be seen a tube of light, or the trunk of a tree, that runs through
the core of our body and being. Branching off from this core are increasingly
finer lines of energy, the datus and the nadis, which are extremely
fine energetic channels throughout the mind body. These channels are
extremely subtle, effected by everything around us. When activated,
cleared, cleansed, they turn on, like the merkaba, and allow us to
interact with our supra-human abilities here on earth. As well, if
there is congestion, or stagnation at any one of the levels of consciousness,
then we literally suffer pain, sickness, and eventually death when
there is major stagnation within a chakra. Working energetically,
it is within our means to rejuvenate, regenerate, and bring to life
these subtle channels. Homeopathy, flower essences, and alchemical
medicine all work with these subtle channels.
While the Egyptians
aimed to walk across worlds and embody and interact with the gods,
the Indians seem to have been content to sit within this divine energy
and embibe it. They were sitting prophets, whereas the Egyptians were
moving prophets who put stock in demonstrating their divine abilities
of manifesting god on earth. The Indian practice was much more yin,
watery, receptive, while the Egyptian is more yang, or fire like.
This brings us
to the Chinese, and in the Chinese way of looking at energy, primarily
there is the expression of the divine duality without judgement: yin
and yang, male and female, white and black, day and night. What is
similar about the Chinese and Indian system of energetics, is that
the same channels in the body are relevant. In Chinese energetics,
both medicine and martial arts, Shaolin medicine, kung fu, and all
of these things, the microcosmic orbit is activated to bring health
and power to the person. This orbit is a line of energy that runs
down the front of the body and up the back. In the drawing here, which
is based on my experience of the microcosmic orbit through Mantok
Chia's work, the energy comes down from the cosmos through the crown
of the head, moves through the front of the body, crosses over at
the dan tien, or lower burner, to the back of the body, passes down
the legs, and into the core of the earth, from where it rises back
into the body through the feet, travels up the front of the legs,
crosses back over the the back of the body, and rises from there to
the crown. So in the microcosmic orbit we see the connection between
the energy of the cosmos, the energy of the human being, and the energy
of the earth. Many significant points along the microcosmic orbit
correspond to chakras in the body.
When this orbit
is worked with, with the tongue at the roof of the mouth and the anal
sphincter slighted closed shut, there is a generation of energy within
the body that stimulates what the Chinese would call self cultivation.
This is everything from rejuvenation techniques to suprahuman feats,
as the Shaolin monks practice. Just recently we went and saw how the
Shaolin were able to do everything from lay on sword points, hoisted
up into the air, to breaking large heavy metal plates across their heads.
They began by first building up the energy, increasing the generation and containment
of it so that when it is finally released it released in ways that
appeared super human.
The primary intention
of the Chinese, in working with energy, is self cultivation. The Chinese
took a lot of the mysticism out of this work. By this I don't mean
mystery, because the practice of the Shaolin is steeped in mystery.
Only recently have they been known outside of China. They took a lot
of the religiosity out of it. In the Indian system there are many
gods, deities, outside forces. In the Egyptian system these outside
forces were recognized as well, and embodying them was considered
an admirable thing. The pharoah was an embodiment of god on earth.
But in the Chinese system, especially the Taoist, focuses on self
cultivation. There are segments of Chinese philosophy that are steeped
in ritual and religiosity, but the Shaolin practitioners and the mystical
Taoists were not believers in these other worldly forces. Their focus
is that we can raise ourselves through self cultivation to an immortal
level, so that we are gods walking on earth. This has to do with balancing
our internal forces through the microcosmic orbit, taking into account
the orbit's connection to the cosmos and Mother Earth.
There are in China
meditations to planet bodies and star constellations. This is where
we can see a correspondence to the Egyptians and their ability to
walk betweeen worlds, to travel in time and space. The ancient Taoist
mystics were also in contact with these beings from other places.
So the Chinese and the Egyptians are more similar to one another than
to the Indians, as they both wanted to be an example of diety on earth.
As we go on throughout other cultures and belief systems who work
with energetic principles, they tend to add a lot of religiosity to
their system of energetics. So there are these primary ones, primary
to the work I do, and then there are secondary, yet they have existed
throughout time - such as the ancient Aztecs, the Mayans, the Yoruba,
Dagara, and other African cultures. Powerful energetic systems that
call on these forces, but when put into the framework of the Chinese
and Egyptians, and in more modern times, Chinese Energetic Method,
these are scaled down. Not to suggest that there is no need for religion,
but from the energetic point of view these systems are more like a
science, or a technology of energy. This is why I focus on these in
my practice, because I am not interested so much in religion, but
in the technology of energy. This science, these techniques and basic
principles remain the same and form the basis for, as the Chinese
define it, self cultivation. Anybody, from any religious system can
self cultivate. These are the building blocks of the rest of this
book, and you will see that my goal is in alignment with the goals
of the ancient Egyptians - to embody our full potential as spiritual
co-creators, as enlightened light beings. This is why the book is
titled "Walk like the Egyptians."
Now, there is
another system I want to talk about, which is closer to the Western
point of view, because it is Jewish mysticism - the Kabbalah. The
Tree of Life is another name for it, and it represents a map of the
cosmos and everything in it, as well as the history of creation, mapped
out in ten different energetic dimensions, or sephirah - ten different
levels of experience. From heaven to the micro-organisms, everything
can be broken down into these ten dimensions. The upper levels of
the tree represent energies that are closer to the etheric, the non-embodied.
The lower aspects represent the very corporeal, from cells and tissues
into matter and form. This tells the story of creation, from "the
Word" to the flesh made real, and this story is etched into our
energetic bodies, each of us. The first sephirah, aleph, represents
the Void, from which consciousness separated itself from itself in
order to become light. Then this energy diffused down throughout the
rest of the ten sephirah, which in each of our beings are somewhat
like the chakras, vortexes of energy. Recently, I went to a lecture
given by a dowser who has mapped these points out with his rods, and
does therapeudic work with the Tree of Life as it eminates out from
the human body.
In the Kabbalah
there are three paths, or three pillars. When you look at the Tree
you see this, a column of sephirah on the left, a column on the right,
and one in the middle. These could be compared to the meridians, the
in the Chinese system. One path is Severity, one is Mercy, and the
middle path is the path of Compassion.
Generally the
right side of the body is understood to represent the path of Severity,
and the left side the path of Mercy. This, however, is left up to
interpretation, because the Jewish Kabbalists say that the body, "man,"
is facing away from the Creator, which changes which side of the body
this line falls on, whereas the Western magicians, the Kabbalists
of the West, saw the human being as facing God, which would put Severity
on another side. So there is a challenge in how one looks at which
side of the body relates to Mercy and which to Severity, but all schools
suggest that the best path is the middle path. This path is a merging
of the Mercy and Severity, and the very middle sephirah, tipherah,
which corresponds to the heart chakra, can be understood as representing
Christ consciousness, or ultimate compassion. This middle path seems
to be the same as the chakra line and the microcosmic orbit, which
goes straight up to the cosmos and straight down to the core of the
earth.
There is an interesting
correlation between the Kabbalah and the Egyptian merkaba. The activation
of the Tree of Life is called the merkava. The activation of the star
tetrahedran is called the merkaba. Obviously there is a relationship
between these two systems. However, the worldview of the ancient Jewish
mystics is quite different from that of the Egyptians. The goal of
the Kabbalists was to evolve, to ascend. They are not in any way aspiring
to be gods. Jewish mysticism is always in reverence of God, always
a servant of God. This is why you can't see God, your back is to God,
God's light is too profound for the human to see. The Jewish mystics
were always in some way afraid of the power of God. The name of God
could only be mentioned once a year by the holiest of holy priest.
You can see this in the stories of the Old Testament about the ark
of the Covenant, which was always veiled, no one could cross behind
the veil. Always an understanding that we are somehow not good enough
to be in God's presence. When we look at the story of Jesus, that
veil was torn. I would see Jesus as an ascended master, who had studied
in India as well, who was pointing back to the Egyptians, to the path
of co-creation, but his teachings were interpreted by a culture that
didn't recognize this. It is recorded in his teachings, "what
I have done you can do also - this and more." But it would seem
that the teachings of Jesus came before their time, for that culture.
And as you embark on the path of co-creation in your own life, it
is important to realize that Western culture, in as much as it is
rooted in Jewish culture and a Christian/Jewish tradition, strongly
resists the concept of co-creation, of walking with the gods.
So there are inumerable
cultures who have had systems of working with energy, with these two
spins on it. Either they are headed towards co-creation, or we are
subjected to some kind of force larger than ourselves, servants of
that, but not in any way like that - it was outside of us, not within
us.
I include the
Tree of Life here because I have tried to include the paths that have
been relevant for myself in making the jump from a religious base
of understanding to a more spiritual base of understanding. My own
path has been coming from a religious, Muslim, background, trying
to figure out who God was, this force outside of us. My path took
me to a very deep mystical understanding. The Kabbalah was a deep
revelation for me, and when I started doing Kabbalah meditation, these
incredible openings were taking place, but I didn't have a concept
for co-creation. It was all that I had to be a servant, which I didn't
have a problem with undtil I came upon the works of co-creation -
where we can change the universe at will. This is a fire tecnique.
In Chinese philosophy, to be able to change the universe is not looked
upon as good or bad, it is just considered fire techniques. Whereas
waiting for a change is looked at as water techniques, and I appreciate
that because it seemed to me that why would there be a problem with
changing something in the universe is we have the energetic technology,
and we have the spiritual understanding and wisdom to do so from a
strong spiritual base, so that we are not afflicting but aiding humanity.
So I became more attracted to understanding how the will can change
something on the outside, and that lead me to ask, what were the Shaolin
doing? These very spiritual men, who could do these miraculous things
with their bodies? I didn't see the Kabbalists doing this, I saw them
putting down the body. That the body wasn't as relevant as the soul.
We have to use this body, this body is relevant, it has a divine
purpose. With the Kabbalists, which can be seen as major aspect of the spiritual
base of our present culture, I saw that only one thing was the highest,
the soul, whereas in other systems mind, body, and spirit are given
equal importance, One is not better than the other, but they
are all tools for self cultivation.
So I had this
experience in Thailand, which was such a profound experience that it lead me
to question "how does energy really work".
So even though I had studied martial arts for years, was an acupuncturist
and understood energy at a certain level, after this experience I
felt as though I had been toying with energy. I knew nothing about
energy, flows of energy, space and time, that could explain what had
happened in Thailand. Quantum physics allowed me to explain this.
Quantum physics allowed me to understand that consciousness not only
effects matter, but is in fact the only reality, around which space
and time are constructed. And this same consciouness, which is all
that is, and which all of us possess, is what creates the illusion
we experience as matter, time, and space. In this way, quamtum physics
lead me back to the Egyptians, who can be looked at as old school
quantum physicists. They had more than the theories, they actually
had the practice.
Their technology
is so deep until we still can't explain how they built the pyramids.
Even the Japanese, who have a lot of money and a lot of technology,
tried twice to construct a replica of the Gaza pyramid, and they couldn't
do it. The cranes would break when they tried to pull the stones through
the sand, they could not place them to the degree of accuracy as the
Egyptians did, they had to completely give up on the project because
even with lazer technology they could not cut these stones to the
precision that the ancient Egyptians did. So for me, coming to quantum
physics was a full circle experience, and that is what this material
is all about - the Quantum Being. Because with a knowledge of quantum
concepts, an understanding of the flow of energy, and the technology
of each of these ancient systems of working with energy in the body,
how to work with certain meditations, how to work with certain rejuvenation
techniques, how to eat well, look at life in a different kind of way,
we actually can become co-creators, and our destiny can change because
of it. My hope is that in reading this material awakenings take place
all along the way. Because I've had awakenings in reflecting and writing
the material. I had awakenings when I had the experiences. I feel
doubly, triply blessed to be able to put my journey down in this fashion,
so, have fun!
