No-Form (was Magical Passes - Carlos Castaneda)

> > As the physiological sensation diminish, it becomes
> ever easier to
> > get lost in *other people's wild worlds* and use entirely the
> > wrong maps; for teachers it becomes ever easier to
> mistake THEIR
> > universe for THE universe, draw up idiosyncratic maps and then
> > foist them unto other poor innocent victims seeking healing.
> >
> > What we will be doing is to develop *highly
> personalised energy
> > evocations* that are structurally absolutely related to
> > Castaneda's drills and Reiki symbols, but indeed are
> YOURS and not
> > to be foisted on anyone else.
>
>
> Hi Silvia,
>
> this discussion brings to mind something I was
> fortunate enough to
> learn early in my martial arts training. This was basically put
> foward in the context of helping you kick butt better,
> but like most
> good drills could be applied to any area of your
> life.(as was the
> teachers purpose)
>
> The idea was to simply put yourself in any position you wanted.
> Relax. And wait for the energy to move you. The writer, Cardin
> Shannach, called the drill "No-Form". His idea was that
> everyone was
> doing plenty of "Form" (ie. the various katas,
> patterns, stylistic
> techniques etc of their particular style/s) and that
> that was puting
> the cart before the horse.
>
> What existed before the "Form" ? His instructions where
> to simply put
> yourself in a relaxed position (no limits or boundaries here,
> whatever you felt like was fine) and to just wait until
> the qi moved
> you. The purpose of the exercise was not to move
> neccesarily. If it
> felt better to simply stand, lie, sit, be in a fetal
> position that
> was fine. As long as YOU decided to do or not do based
> on how you
> felt. Similarly no movement was out of bounds, anything goes.
>
> As you can imagine this was not the easiest thing to do. My
> experience early on with this was fairly typical of
> most others I
> know who did it. Lots of mental involvement (am I doing
> the right
> thing?...what is this for?...this is stupid...I feel
> like an idiot
> etc etc...boy EFT/ET would have come in handy..)
>
> As this was SUPPOSED to be a martial arts drill, if you
> watched me
> doing this drill (which you wouldnt have been able to
> as I was way
> too self conscious to simply move in a way that felt
> good to me...let
> alone let people actually watch me do it)...you would
> have seen kicks
> and punches and the like... I was moving/behaving as a
> martial artist
> (or at least my idea of a martial artist)..I really
> didnt have much
> of a clue.
>
> Shannach taught that many of us are so beaten down by
> "authority"
> that we are essentially paralysed into non action
> unless we get some
> outside approval. He was basically teaching that we
> have all the
> resources we need, if we get out of our own way. Sounds
> familair.
>
> His suggestion was to work up to 15 minutes of
> "No-Form" per day and
> do for at least a month for the basic level. After
> which time you
> could start looking at "Form" to add to what you were
> doing..or not.
> The idea, which echoes what Doc was talking about in
> his post, is
> that at some point when the energy was moving freely and easily
> through you and you had a sense of your personal
> "Form", your energy
> system was calibrated to a free flowing energy state
> and that if any
> movement, idea, pattern, created any resistance to that
> flow, then
> you would know about it by how you felt and the results
> you were
> getting.
>
> When I look at drills like the "Magic Passes" (or any
> martial art
> forms, qi gong etc) I cant help thinking what was the
> person who
> created this doing before they created it? from where did this
> technique/drill arise? From the great "No-Thing"
>
> Cardin Shannach was not against "Form" in any way. He
> was talking
> about balance. Form and No-Form. Which part of the cup is more
> important the cup itself or the space within? Which
> part of a drill
> is more important, the drill itself or the calibration?
>
> He was suggesting that we let energy be our teacher and
> to create
> ways of living/moving that were in total allignment
> with that energy.
> In any area of our lives we create the "Forms" that
> work for us.
>
> Regards
>
> Glenn

Hi Glen,

and thank you for your First Class post.

All I can say is - EXACTLY.

No-Form.

Freestyle, if you will.

Which you are just about anywhere only allowed to do after many
years of entrainment into the existing forms so how "free" can it
ever get?

I was and am, of course, aware of the exact difficulty you are
describing when you tried it back then, namely that you stand
there and think, Duh? basically. LOL.

But on the bright side, someone who had learned EFT two days ago
said to me, it's much easier than EmoTrance. How could you
possibly ever know where what is and where something wants to go?

The answer that came to me was, "Well we've done EFT for AGES and
it teaches you a lot about the energy system. You get to know what
shifts feel like, what points are particularly responsive, get
these weird energy sensations. So by the time you get to
EmoTrance, you already know quite a bit about how energy feels in
the body and it's easy then."

I'd go on to say that someone who has done a bit of EmoTrance will
be in a much better position to perform something like No-Form and
that indeed is why we're still doing the basic body stuff and not
any wider-energy-field freeform rituals or symbols.

So yes guys, try the No-Form as Glen described by all means! At
the very least, it should be fun and interesting and any doubts
can go into the Thought Flow or tranced while you're there, swish
em and see where it takes you.

Fun thing to remember is that EmoTrance is not a martial art so
there is NO presupposed outcome to doing it OTHER than Even Flow -
having a happier energy body overall, deep structurally, very
personally. When that is starting to work, THEN we can use it for
various things, such as martial arts, healing, magic, learning,
power, creativity, whatever.

Way to go Cardin Shannach and thanks again for this Glen,

x

Silvia :-)

           
Received on Sat May 17 2003 - 05:56:17 BST