Home › Forum Online Discussion › General › QF1-2 Workshop Review and Personal Exploits
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November 14, 2007 at 1:17 am #25873StevenModerator
Hello all,
Got back yesterday morning from the QF1-2 Workshop down
in Asheville with Michael . . .The workshop itself was fantastic.
He had an “optional” free Inner Smile meditation and talk Friday
night that was open to the public. I went down to
Asheville early to go to that also. It was packed!
There were probably 40 people at least!I think that this extra free session Friday night
is a great way to get a lot of people exposed to
the system without any heavy commitment, and I think
it is a great move to generate interest.There was a film festival going on in town that weekend,
so the area was extremely busy. Although I’m beginning
to think that Asheville always has some event going
on causing activity . . . (BTW Michael, you don’t
live in town do you? I don’t think I personally
could stand the noise, and Asheville seems pretty noisy!)He did different versions of the Inner Smile Friday
night vs. during the workshop vs. on the CD, which
actually I thought was nice because I personally
love the Inner Smile and it’s great to have variety.I checked into my motel Friday night, and I instantly
realized how I’ll never stay in that particular motel
again. It was the Super 8. Actually I was a little
surprised, because I’ve stayed at other Super 8’s in
the past and they were quite good, but this one was a real dump.When I checked in, I was assigned to Room 237.
The room number alone should have told me I was in
trouble. (Do you get the reference?)
I slide my card access into the door, the light turns
green but the door won’t open. After repeated tries,
I slam my body repeatedly against it to get it to
open. Finally it gives. The door is messed up and
doesn’t open properly without a lot of effort.
All of the lamps, except one don’t work at all! After
managing to get my stuff in, I use the bathroom, and find
out that the toilet doesn’t work. Well, that’s it.
I’m not staying there.I tell the front desk I want another room. My original
room had a one king size bed, and they offer me a room
with a queen. Fine, I take it. I go to the room.
I open up the door, and I’m struck with Elvis. Elvis
everywhere actually. The whole room is Elvis themed.
Elvis paintings, Elvis bedspread, Elvis lamp, etc.
I’m not a big Elvis fan, so I felt a little unnerved, but
when I saw that aside from the ONE Elvis desk lamp, there
were NO lights at all in the place, I felt I had to change.I tell the front desk I want another room. They tell
me they only have one room left–a handicapped room
with two double beds. I take it. *Most* of the lamps,
but not all of them work. The shower–being a handicapped
bathroom–has no bathtub; thus the bathroom floor and the
shower floor are the same, so when you shower the water
just goes all over the floor. In fairness, there is
a big drain on the floor so it’s not too bad, but
weird.On Sunday morning when I’m leaving, I get out of bed,
and when I look back, I see a crushed bug in the bed
where I was sleeping. GROSS. Although I’ll return
for more workshops, I’m never staying at that Super 8 again.Back to the workshop . . .
The workshop itself was great. While there were a lot
of people, there weren’t as many as there were Friday night,
and actually it wasn’t too bad spacewise.Now for me, QF1-2 was a complete and total review. I
pretty much know that stuff backward and forward, both
from starting practice a year ago, and taking the fundamentals
retreat over the summer, but I still really enjoyed the
weekend. Actually, I’m not sure what Michael did
differently this time, but the workshop seemed a lot
better than when I had the course before. It seemed
like somehow we not only got more and better information
during his discussion sessions, but it seemed as
if we had a lot more practice time and went into
the practices with more detail, more depth, and more
comprehensively. The irony here is that supposedly
you have less time on the weekend workshops, so
I’m not sure what improvements were made, but
they were a plus.I had a long drive ahead of me back home, so I
had to cut out like a half hour early on Sunday,
which was unfortunate, but I loved the workshop.I had a few minor catastrophes on the way home.
Somewhere in the tight winding roads in North Carolina
near the border of Tennessee, I was driving along (it
was dark at this point) at standard highway speeds and
as I rounded yet another very sharp turn, there sitting in my
lane was a smashed car (no lights on it) completely stationary.
I immediately swerved into the other lane. Thank God there was no one
in the other lane, and thank God I had quick reflexes. I was
within moments of getting into a head on collision at highway
speeds with another car (the smashed stationary one in the lane).Had I hit the car, I would have very likely been dead or hospitalized.
A little ways ahead, off the side of the road, there were
two parked cars, so I’m not sure if they had something to do with
it or not. However, as I proceeded onward, I kept thinking
that there was going to be a major major car accident pileup scene
as multiple cars smash into the wrecked one, causing others to
pileup. Given the speeds that people on the highway travel at,
and given the multiple sharp bends and turns bordered by cement walls,
you have no way of knowing that there is something blocking the
lane until you are on top of it, and it is too late. I probably
should have called someone–police or something–to let them know,
but to be honest, I was shaking and far too rattled to consider
fishing for my cell phone or pulling over and fishing for it. I
just wanted to get out of the winding road segment!Maybe 15-20 minutes later, I saw SEVERAL emergency vehicles,
police cars, rescue vehicles etc. traveling the other way back
in the direction I came, and I couldn’t help but think that
there was a major pileup there–and moreover, thank the
universe for letting me escape unscathed.
I guess it was good I left a little early.Later into the night, I was driving on the highway, and the car
in front of me hit a deer. He hit it and swerved away to the
other side of the road. This caused the deer to crumple to the ground
on its knees, and put it directly in the path of my car–which
I ended up hitting! Well, I swerved when I saw it, so this
in combination with it already being near to the ground, it
didn’t do any physical damage to my car–I just felt a big
bump as I hit part of it, and put the remainder of the deer
out of its misery.The car that originally hit the deer had pulled over to the
side of the road. The driver was unharmed, and was outside
assessing the body damage to the front of his car and was calling
the police. I probably should have stopped and joined the guy,
but I figured that since he didn’t see me hit the remnants of the
deer, and since my vehicle was unharmed, I didn’t really
see a point since I still had 5 hours of driving yet to do–moreover,
I was pretty tired so my empathy meter was close to zero.All in all it was an adventure I won’t soon forget, but then
again it seems like a number of big things like this
happen whenever I go to one of these things, so in
a way, it’s almost expected! Moreover, despite some
of the “crazy” personal things that happened, it won’t
stop me from going to more of these in the future. Despite
the all of the drama, I really had a good time and
look forward to another.Crazy for qigong,
StevenNovember 14, 2007 at 9:32 am #25874jsunParticipant… drive careful man. j
November 14, 2007 at 9:48 am #25876StevenModeratorI was driving carefully actually.
That’s why I made it home in one piece without
having any real problems.November 14, 2007 at 10:06 am #25878StevenModeratorit’s a good thing I chose to leave early,
or I would have been driving too fast . . .November 14, 2007 at 10:36 am #25880jsunParticipantNovember 14, 2007 at 3:42 pm #25882Swedich DragonParticipantIs there any hidden meaning for you to have so many bad things happening while doing something like seems to be good for you like going on this workshops?
November 14, 2007 at 4:52 pm #25884StevenModeratorGood question.
The only thing I can figure is that the universe is
trying to give me the “opportunity” to practice the
skills that I’m learning.I think it is testing me to see
1. If I can remain calm and patient in the face of difficulty,
especially since ordinarily I tend not to be a patient person.2. How serious I am about cultivation, i.e. should I waste
my time increasing his chi flow and awareness only to find
that he’ll give up and stop due to frustration?The old saying “what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger”,
comes to mind here. At the very least, it tends to make
various internal problems not seem so important . . .I don’t know; that’s my best guess.
The irony here is that despite the occurrence of these
irritating little problems that have seemed to come up
during these “spiritual vacations”, I have nonetheless
come away from these workshops feeling more grounded,
centered, and internally happy.I still remain positive and upbeat nonetheless, and
at the very least, these things make for a good story πSmiles,
StevenNovember 14, 2007 at 5:02 pm #25886DogParticipantYeah, Steve its all about you, not the poeple on the side of the road. π just yoking.
November 14, 2007 at 5:28 pm #25888StevenModeratorWell I was speaking about the problems in general, not
specifically about the two car issues. As for those
particular issues, in retrospect I probably should have stopped, but
I was far too tired and not in the right frame of
mind to be able to provide constructive positive energy
to the situation.Moreover, it would have actually been
dangerous for me to stop/pull over on those winding roads
through the mountains as it would have provided another
car obstacle to increase the likelihood of more car
accidents.Nonetheless, I appreciate the poke at my guts π
Smiles,
SteveNovember 14, 2007 at 6:06 pm #25890DogParticipantI was getting at the fact that we sometimes are viewed as selfish or self absorbed, as well as pride full. Also playing the role of extra verts not appreciating intraverts and vise versa.
November 14, 2007 at 9:05 pm #25892StevenModeratorYeah, it helps keep you humble and not get too cocky.
November 15, 2007 at 1:28 am #25894Swedich DragonParticipantYes man it also seems to look like this: No this little Steve have had a far to calm way lately so we have to ballance it a litle bit. God doesn’t seem to think you should have a calm and not hectic life. ( don’t take this to serious, was just on my mind right now π )
More seriously: How is it going with your cultivation. Are you hanging on to it regularily. What do you like best and wherer do you have dificulties?
Take care
S D
November 15, 2007 at 4:05 am #25896StevenModeratorIn my other life, I’m completely absorbed into my studies and
I tend to ignore the rest of the world.Thus when I take a break from it, I think the universe is
really trying to say, “hey pay attention to the world!”As for my cultivation, it’s really been sporadic.
I’ll go a couple of days without really practicing at all,
as I’ll have every waking moment sucked up by being
a grad student. Then I’ll get fed up and decide to
take a break.When I do practice, I’ll do qigong from the Healing Tao
system–namely the Inner Smile meditation, QF1-2 material,
Deep Healing Qigong, Primordial Qigong. More often
than not, when I do choose to practice I either select
the Inner Smile Meditation or the Deep Healing Qigong
as I tend to get the most out of those practices. I also
do some silent sitting meditation from time to time.My only real difficulty is maintaining regularity with
my practice. In principle, I practice on average twice
a week–sometimes more, sometimes less. I’d like to
practice daily, but can’t seem to make it happen, as
this $#*@ other life keeps interfering . . .Well, at least I’m making *some* progress.
November 15, 2007 at 1:11 pm #25898Swedich DragonParticipantYes it remains me of a dream I had last night. It was a cold winter day and I had forget to put on my extra radiator and then my body gets realy cold and I usualy dreams some nightmare. This wasn’t realy a nighmare more kind of a interesting dream. The dream: I met a guy in the entrΓ© to my home. He was asking me something I can’t remember what right now. I can’t do it I told him my body is so cold. Perhaps to make him understund it, I told him to put his hand on my body to feel the cold. He didn’t want to do it beacase he was on his way to go and study. I shouted to him don’t be a (It’s a Swedish word: Direct translation not good is Dry ball) and a bore theoretician use your senses!
Yes I have been into this situation with studies. It’s the main reason why I did have the burn out condition also. Now days I realy prioritate to have my daily exercises, but perhaps I make it most of the time beacase I just have to work half time at the moment, or maybe it has more to do with diciplin and will, I don’t know. Propably both.
One important aspect though is to think about what is most important in the life and when we or u know it then try to follow what we u know. Perhaps the studies aren’t always so important. How much do you remember after 10 years of the stuff you have learned for instance?
Pehaps in your case it’s possible to set up a daily routine that takes just a couple of minutes or so. And then perhaps if you like to increase it a litle bit after awhile.
By the way what are you studing?
With regards S D
November 15, 2007 at 3:45 pm #25900StevenModeratorInteresting dream; it points out the struggle between the
scientific mind and the heart-centered spirit . . .>>Yes I have been into this situation with studies. It’s the main reason why I did >>have the burn out condition also.
I’m sorry to hear that. However, I *completely* understand!
>>Now days I realy prioritate to have my daily exercises, but perhaps I make it most >>of the time beacase I just have to work half time at the moment, or maybe it has >>more to do with diciplin and will, I don’t know. Propably both.
Yeah, in my case I’m currently in grad school, which means you “never” leave
work. You are on campus all day long, then you go home, but you still have
grading to do, student emails to respond to, your own course work and studying to do, advisor expectations to meet, let alone any life maintenance stuff
like eating, laundry, grocery shopping, etc! Literally everyday is a
opportunity for someone to be pissed at you because you didn’t get “xy and z”
done already. Then I get phone calls from family and friends pissed
at me because I haven’t taken the time to call in a while. Sometimes
it gets to be too much, and I just want to say f**k all y’all, I’m done
with this lousy game–I quit!! Part of the problem with graduate school is
that most of the people there expect that you will *only* be interested
in spending all of your time doing your studies, and if you are not,
then you are not a serious student.If I weren’t doing this, and were just working a “typical” job, where you
don’t really *need* to bring a ton of work home, then I would have
no trouble finding daily time to practice. The motivation is certainly
there. It’s all this junk that I don’t necessarily want to do, but
have to that eats up all my time.Yes, I could just quit, but I’m only about 2-3 years from finally getting
the degree, so it seems silly to stop now. It’s about cultivating
patience and knowing that this situation *won’t* last forever.The fact that I have managed to practice at least twice a week, the fact
that I’ve made a lot of progress in the year since I began, and the
fact that I have somehow managed to fool enough people so that I can
slip away to workshops in Asheville, helps to give me the strength
to maintain patience through what I know is a *temporary* situation.>>By the way what are you studing?
Math, at the PhD level
Best,
Steven -
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