Pictures from Alaska

Alaska - Dream Mountain

There is in every child-
hood imagination a dream
mountain.
Sometimes there is snow
on top. Sometimes the peak
is hidden by the clouds
or mist.
Sometimes it is just a bald
granite rock. In mine, there
is a shimmering light,
a distant inaccessibility,
a mystery, so that as
in the deepest meditation,
if I entered
it, I would be stepping
into emptiness,
into a frequency
so soft,
I would dissolve
in the arms
of the Great Mother
of all.

Alaska - Train Exiting Tunnel

There were no tunnels
in my time. Nobody
blasted through
the mountain
with machines
or exploded
dynamites to open
a road. The trail
circled the boulders
and the rocks,
and where it could
be done, spared
the trees that stood
in the way. The tunnels
were the caverns
that were there
from who knows when.
We went inside
with a torch
and heard the wings
of the bats, smelled
their home,
felt the flow
of a hidden spring.
When the strangers
came looking
for gold, they
followed a straight
line to their goal,
lighted dynamites
in the thick granite
and blasted
a whole mountain
side.

Alaska - Boat and Mountain 1

You get up from your meditation
in the morning, open the curtain,
go outside your cabin, and
expecting darkness, find
this sea- and mountain-scape
looming in the distance. What
it triggers is part awe and
part humility and part gratitude.
You know you are lucky
to be there before it disappeared
from your sight or from
the earth. Such fragile
scenes do not last: it was there
thousands of years ago and now
the glacier has melted,
“retreated” back, diminished,
and is now just a shadow
of the past, and we can
not even imagine what
it looked like when its
history began. You take
a child to this place
to teach her the lessons
of nature and life, to learn how
to hold on to this beauty,
gently with her hands,
“while it is still there.” How
many of the landmarks
of our childhood are
gone? The old ricefield
or woodland has been
levelled to make way
for a warehouse
or housing development.
On the lot of the historic moviehouse stands
a skyscraper. Everything
is there for just a moment
and then disappears
from our sight.

Alaska -Boat and Mountain 2

The distant boat leaves
a white ribbon on its trail.
You aim the camera and shoot
sometimes a little too late,
sometimes a little too fast.
While looking through
the viewfinder, you
hope for the elements
of the scene to come together.
But the clouds and the boat
are both moving according
to their own pace, they do not
wait. Nothing
you can do, except press
and shoot, hoping you’ll capture
what is called the Moment,
that split-second experience
or image when everything
stands still and sometimes
if you are lucky, you are gifted
with an epiphany that is beyond
understanding,
beyond description.

Alaska - Glacier Lake glacier

The glaciers have been there
for millennia. Yet within
the last hundred years, they
have been retreating, have retreated,
more than the millennia before.
The planet has changed more
within the last
century than ever before.
What shift has our sun
taken as the earth
wobbled on its path?
Technology and the pollution,
and greed have also left
their ugly mark
on our world. And we,
the custodian of the earth,
still don’t realize what
we have done to it,
what we can do now.

Alaska -Mountain, Yukon Route
Alaska Mountain Yukon Route 2

It was on another train
somewhere in China.
Summer of 1983. I had
a glimpse of mountains,
ricefields, small villages,
caves on clay cliffs,
peasants hoeing
the ground,

and there was a quick
chance to shoot a dreamscape:
a mountain in the mist.

The camera, an SLR,
had to be adjusted
for speed and depth of field
and focus and there was
no time to compose.
It was an old Asahi
Pentax from the 60s
my brother gave me.
With a stationary object
like a building
or a flower,
you had time
to compose. But when
the subject was
in motion or
you were on a moving train,
would
the aperture catch
that split-second
image you wanted?
If you did not click,
the opportunity was
lost, so were the cloud
patterns over the top,
the angle, the colors.
It was only
an instant,
a thin slice of
the present
that flashed
into life
and was gone.

Where was I at the time
almost 30 years ago?
Three days and 2 nights
on a train between Shanghai
and Cheng-du
somewhere
in the hinterlands, crossing
territory that had no name.

Here in Alaska
many of the mountains
are nameless, too,
except perhaps
to a tribe,
and like dreams, they pass
in one’s vision
and are gone.

Alaska Ketchikan view from the train

It was like a dream city
from the train as it must
have been to many
during the Gold Rush.
There were diamonds, too,
and jade and minerals.
How extract
the stones and metals
with machines,
chemicals,
and explosives.
Even now, we can see
the jewelry outlets
side by side
on the strip
of road
running from
the ship. A town
beckoning tourists
to buy trinkets, fishing
equipment
and camping gears
while up in the mountain
forests are being
cut down and
prospectors
are diverting
rivers and changing
the landscape
forever.

Alaska Clan House door

Without opening
her eyes, she knows from
the sounds
around her
how the day
will be. The color
of the sky
and clouds,
what school of fish
enter the bay,
the scent of strangers
coming around
with muskets.
When the child woke up today,
she looked through the door
that’s always open
to life,
and saw the woods
and the lake outside,
heard the geese
and the moose,
the splash of the halibut,
sometimes
the song
of the whales,
smelled the sea salt
and the pine,
the world
of Mother
Earth
all etched
on her mind.

That world
is gone now.
The empty clan house
still carries the smell
of the hunt, the fish
grilling on the fire,
and the lost voices
of the ancestors,
the stories
told and re-told
in chants
and totem poles.

Alaska - Bight Totem Park

“We did not borrow this land from our ancestors;
we borrow it from our children.” Haida Indian
Saying

Where the clan lived
is empty now. Enter
the open
door,
see a totem
on the opposite wall
first, and then dried skin,
weapons, snow shoes,
fishing gear,
blankets.A circle of stones
in the center for family meals.

Where did they go?
Where is the tribe
that told stories
with totems
and chants by the ancestral
fire, where
are they
who fished the waters,
held the sacred
halibut and the thunder-
bird in reverence,
and the clouds
and sky,
in trust
for
the children?

Alaska Ava and Isabel on train

When you are young,
it is exhilarating to feel
the wind
and the chill,
as the train goes up
the mountain and
you look down the cliff
at the river, the white foam,
the waterfall,
the mist rising, and ahead,
snow-capped peaks. Always,
in your dreams, you can see
animals there, ferocious bears
and colorful snakes, and strange birds,
and giant tigers and dragons
and phoenixes.

Alaska - Mountain on Yukon Route 3

The mountain brought back
a time in my hometown:
A child of 8 went up
the mountain, whispered
bari-bari Apu to honor
the presence of its spirit, sat
on a rock and, breathless, looked
at the landscape below.
There was Ingkong Poli’s
farm: mango trees, tomatoes,
eggplants, okra. And the
ricefields green now but
turning golden with harvest.
There’s the dam where
cousins would swim
in the brown water
and pick kangkong
leaves and balibid snails
for lunch. When you
are a kid, you have
to hunt and forage to survive
on wild plants, bamboo shoots,
catch and dress the frogs
and the birds
or the elusive iguana
that hides in the woods
and cook rice
in a length
of green bamboo
tube.

Alaska - Ava on deck

LOOKING AT AVA

When I was 10,
like you, a dragon child
but born in 1940,
my world was
a small town
bordered by
a mountain
range on one side
and the great plains
on the other.
There was no
library or movie
house, no phones,
no hobby shops.
You carved your own
slingshot, or sword,
played the ancient
games,
and lived a life
demarcated
by family and tribe,
and grandfather’s
farm, a school
to which you walked
barefoot or with clogs.
How different it is
now: to travel
to places the ancestors
did not know, to learn
about the earth
and the stars
with the touch
of a button,
breathe the startling
journey
and see new
vistas far
from home,
ride a cruise ship
the size of a village,
to reach beyond
boundaries,
to link
oneself
to a universe
of forests, water,
glaciers,
valleys
and mountains,
and embrace the world
with
your body,
spirit and mind.

Dragonwell and Xing Shen Zhuan Fa Seminars in Boston Sept. 24 and 25

Rene will be back in Boston to teach two great qigong classes at the New England School of Acupuncture in September. The classes are open to acupuncturists, martial artists, meditators, healers and the general public. Please spread the word and sign up as soon as possible. To sign up contact the New England School of Acupuncture at www.nesa.edu  . Please post and email the info to anyone you think might be interested. Details below:

Xing Shen Zhuang Fa: 10 Special Movements for Cultivating & Moving the Qi Through the Spine & Limbs

with Rene Navarro, LicAc.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

9:30am-5:30pm

$150 for 7 CAEs

 

Xing Shen Zhuang Fa is a method of cultivating and moving qithrough the spine and limbs. It is appropriate for and used by both beginning and advanced practitioners interested in self-cultivation.  Its goal is to have the shen ming or light of the spirit permeate the physical body. Xing Shen Zhuang Fa has been adopted in Chinese hospitals, both as a cure and a rehabilitative therapy. The practitioner will be able to grow and nurture the qi, move the qi along the arms and legs and especially along the spine and  to the brain,  The movements will help students take care of obstructions in the physical and energy body, thus making for a more effective healing and self-cultivation.

 

Course Agenda:

 

9:30 to 10:30am: Preparations and Energy Anatomy of the spine

10:30 to 12:00pm: Movements 1 to 3 and Q&A

(1)   Crane Neck

(2)   Tortoise Neck

(3)   Dragon Neck

1:00 to 3:00pm: Review and Movements 5 to 7 and Q&A

(4)   Crane Spreads its Wings (A)

(5) Crane Spreads its Wings (B)

(6) Dragon Sweeping the Clouds

(7)   Dragon Waist

3:00 to 4:30pm: Review and Movements 8 and 9 and Q&A

            (8) Tiger Squat

            (9) Tiger Bend

(10) Heavenly Pillar

4:30 to 5:30pm: Review and Corrections

 

Course objectives:

  • To learn and practice the traditional 10 movement self-cultivation and healing method of Xing Shen Zhuang Fa.
  • To enable the practitioner to share these practices with clients.
  • To enable the practitioner to develop a more well-rounded practice and familiarity with different self-cultivation practices of China.
  • To learn methods to grow mental focus and qi for healing.
  • To learn how to clear obstructions in the body, especially the spine, arms and legs.
  • To deepen the practitioner’s access to healing qi.
  • To activate the Extraordinary Vessels and the acupuncture meridians.

DragonWell Qigong 

with Rene Navarro, LicAc.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

10:00am – 6:00pm

$150 for 7 CAEs

 

DragonWell Qigong is a sequence of some of the most important essentials of qigong and self-cultivation. In includes the 3 Breaths, Inner Smile, 6 Healing Sounds, all of which are foundational qigong practices in China. They are part of Taoist self-cultivation for healing and longevity. DragonWell Qigong is a healing sequence that incorporates different postures and movements that come from the traditional repertoire. The course will enable the practitioner to heal the organs, develop stillness and focus, grow qi, and strengthen the physical and energetic body.

 

 

Course Agenda:

 

10:00 – 11:00am: 3 Breaths; Inner Smile

11:00 – 12: 00pm: 6 Healing sound and review

12:00 – 1:00pm: Lunch

1:00 – 2:00pm: Guided Meditation 

2:00 – 6:00pm:  DragonWell Qigong

 

 

Learning Objectives:

  • To enable the practitioner to learn some of the fundamental, Chinese traditional self-cultivation and healing practices.
  • To enable the practitioner to share these practices with the clients.
  • To enable the practitioner to develop a more well-rounded practice and familiarity with different self-cultivation practices of China.
  • To enable the practitioner to grow their focus and their qi in healing.
  • To deepen the practitioner’s access to healing qi.

 

 

Rene Navarro is an acupuncturist, former faculty and graduate of NESA.  He has been a student and teacher of the martial arts for over 40 years. He has been engaged in Taoist self cultivation for decades and has traveled to learn from some of the most highly respected teachers in the world. He has helped ‘write the book’ and teaches the practices to many. He is the rare combination of an experienced and knowledgeable teacher and a friend who is dedicated to helping others on the path. To learn more about his extensive background and experience please see his website: www.renenavarro.org.