Audio Transcripts

Audio Transcripts

Move 1—Quieting the Heart

Quieting the Heart is the Ur move, the Great Practice. You can enhance the experience by washing your heart throughly with clean and pure energy of universal qi. All you need do is breathe deeply with your whole body, not only your lungs, and direct the vitalizing qi to every living cell of your body, imagining that both sides–your cells and the qi— are reaching out to touch one another, like lovers. On her deathbed Queen Elizabeth I was reported to exclaim, “All my possessions for moment of time.” Here is your unique moment in time.


Move 2—Finding Your Power/Becoming a Great Wave

Integrative vitality is about energy (qi and love), and energy is about power. This is an important link often missed in most meditative practices. The question is: what will you do with all this new life force and power? Ah Hah! That is part of our adventure!


Move 3––Discovering Beauty

In Beauty we encounter one of those boundaries between conventional western science and something else and profound. Neuroaesthetics is a new field of research at the intersection of aesthetics, psychology, neuroscience and human evolution. Its main objective is to characterize the neurobiological foundations and evolutionary history of artistic and creative experience. It is a deeply fascinating inquiry. And yet, like most contemporary neuroscience it is firmly located in the brain and oversteps the heart. Victor Hugo understood the heart’s domain very well when he described the refuge of his hero Jean Valjean in Les Miserables. He wrote: “A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in–what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.” 


Move 4––Connecting with Nature

What if all of Nature is intelligent and in constant communication? What if every cell, or intracellular organelle, like your mitochondria which have their own DNA and operate to some extent inside your body autonomously are alive and in constant communication among themselves, with every cell in your body, and the world around you? Can you imagine this!? What if it is possible to find new meanings inside these communications? What if there is a practical way to learn how to do all of this?

The poet-naturalist-explorer Stephen Harrod Buhner offers in his two seminal works, Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal World and The Secret Teachings of Plants a method:

  • You begin by Quieting the Heart, forgetting yourself. Your heart is your primary instrument for connecting to Nature.

  • Open your heart, in particular the energy field surrounding your heart. When you expand this energy field, your sensory gates open to outside stimuli. We are continuously bathed in these signals, but we regularly filter them out because of fear, anger, grasping desires, or other constricting emotions.

  • Listen intently and be patient for the signal.

  • When you receive a signal—it may come from any of your senses or combinations of these senses (called synesthesia)–pay careful attention. See if you can detect its unique quality or flavor. Stephen Harrod Buhner calls this the “Golden Thread.” It will lead you deeper into the Intelligence.

  • You proceed along the Golden Thread until you reach what the poet-scientist Goethe called the “pregnant point.” At this juncture meaning is revealed to you. The plant, the stone, the moonlight, the brook convey their own secret teachings; as Shakespeare wrote we “find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.”

An interesting question now arises when we connect with Nature in this way, “Who am I?”


Move 5—Downloading Musical Genius

I will tell you a story. In the old days I would drive from Santa Barbara to San Francisco along U.S. 101 which ordinarily takes about six hours, depending on whether you stop. There are some lovely stretches, but by and large it is a tedious trip, and I would find myself exhausted. Then one day I flipped on Glenn Gould playing Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier. Among my earliest memories is my father playing this great work on the piano. Now long dead, he appeared to me in his music, and I drove along with the memory of this happy time. Suddenly here I was arriving in San Francisco! Somehow six hours seemed like one or two, and I felt refreshed. What had happened? The road was the same, but the journey was different.

Many of the world’s spiritual traditions use sacred sounds (in India mantras) to connect the aspirant to the Universe. Great geniuses are able to take sacred sound and turn it into music. In other words, they can listen to the celestial harmonies and convert them into musical language that gives pleasure to our hearts. In electronic terms they act as “step down transformers.” What if our heart is a step down transformer able to direct the vitality of creative genius to our living cells? What if musical notes, infused with Beauty, can act like magical herbs to restore and recreate ourselves? Let us explore this idea together?

Each of the following excerpts has its own distinct resonant frequency. Can you detect its special flavor? Try not only to listen but also to hear in the deep heart’s core. What do you discover?

  • Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony—For me, I discover Mozart’s Olympian power. Your experience may be different. What is Mozart telling you?

  • Beethoven’s Kreutzer Sonata—For me this work embodies Beethoven’s smoldering genius at its wildest. What shall we do with all this power?

  • Handel’s Overture to Atalanta –Allison Bascom’s noble trumpet elevates my spirit. I see the world from the high notes. How about you?

  • Dylan’s Like a Rolling Stone—In this song Dylan asks the key question, “How does it feel?” The Rolling Stone is vibrantly alive!

  • Jimmy Cliff, The Harder They Come—How great is his spirit. The harder they come, the harder they fall. Yeah! When I was a young man, I trained in an Aikido dojo in Tokyo. I had so much vital energy after leaving the dojo that I fancied if I was hit by a bus, it would be too bad for the bus!

  • Sean Rowe, Leaving Something Behind—I love this song. I first encountered Sean Rowe in the movie, The Accountant. He touches a yearning for many of us that when we depart this earth, at least something has made sense.

We can build a living library in our hearts of our favorite musical works, and they will nourish and sustain us anytime we wish.


Move 6––Connecting Laughing Heart with Everything

Just as Laughing Heart can be a step down transformer, as explained in Move 5, so also can Laughing Heart become a step up transformer,

This process may have unanticipated beneficial side effects. An axiom of neuroscience is neurons that “fire together, wire together.” Here the Explorers Wheel process may not only foster a connecting of nerve cells in your brain but also create new neuronal and energetic pathways between your brain, heart, solar plexus (Chinese dantian: largest radiating nerve center in the body), and the qi field that connects you to all that is good and nourishing in the Universe. I strongly encourage you to explore this idea in the context of the Move # 7 Enhancing Your Immunity through Love.


Move 7—Enhancing Your Immunity by Love

The Blue Cliff Record is a compilation of Zen koans or meditative gates through which explorers since the 10th century have entered and expanded their levels of awareness and perception. Here are three of my favorite koans that particularly address the question of illness and health.

  • The Whole World is Medicine—The Great Master Yunmen addressing his community said, “Medicine and disease are in accord with one another. The whole world is medicine. What is the self?

  • Sun Faced Buddha, Moon Faced Buddha–Master Ma was quite unwell. The temple superintendent asked him, “Teacher, how has your venerable health been in recent days?”The master replied, “Sun Face Buddha, Moon Face Buddha.”

  • Each Branch of Coral Holds up the Moon—A monk asked Pa Ling, “What is the blown hair sword?” (a sword so sharp it can slice a single hair) and the teacher replied, “Each branch of coral holds up the moon.”

Koans are not meant to be solved intellectually as you would a puzzle. Actually, they are designed to be companions for our life’s journey. You might find it interesting to experiment with any one of these koans simply by holding it in your loving Laughing Heart and observing what happens. You needn’t do anything more.

References


Move 8Paying Forward

In his famous essay On Compensation the 19th century transcendentalist philosopher, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “In the order of nature we cannot render benefits to those from whom we receive them, or only seldom. But the benefit we receive must rendered again, line for line, deed for deed, cent for cent, to somebody. Beware of too much good staying in hand. It will fast corrupt and worm worms. Pay it away quickly in some sort.”

Why “beware”, and why “worm worms”? Is this simply 19th century superstition, or is there an insight here into the deep workings of nature?

As explained, Laughing Heart is a state of flow. When we hold on to the good that comes our way, the qi becomes blocked and stagnates, which can cause all kinds of imbalances, including dis-ease. Paying forward has thus very little to do with charity—in its pejorative sense in the U.S. today– and more in the original Greek meaning of caritas, or unconditional love. Paying forward is also very close to the Indian philosophy of Karma Yoga as taught by Vivekananda and other teachers. The core tenet of the karma yogi is not to hold on to the fruits of our labor but to pass them on to others. In this way the yogi becomes a-karmic and attains freedom from suffering in life and death.

References:

Ralph Waldo Emerson, On Compensation (1841)

Vivekananda, Karma Yoga (1896)


Move 9—Creating Your Own Luck

The ultimate goal of the Creating Your Own Luck Game is, like paying forward, to enhance your sense of freedom and balance. Each of us has a choice in how we respond to this moment, as Brother David Stendl-Rast advises to stop, look, and go. Gratefulness and freedom seem to run together.

Most of us are so busy we split our daily lives apart in discrete blocks or slices of time. By producing a “wave form” the Game helps us to become more aware and draws our attention to the deeper currents and patterns beneath the surface of things. It is very easy to play. It takes only 2-3 minutes each day or less. Sometimes really deep experiences in life can be simple, easy, and fun.

Reference: Elmer and Alyce Green, Beyond Biofeedback (1977).


Move 10—Realizing Laughing Heart Advantage Through Emergent Art™

You can think of Emergent Art as an individual and collective dream state, whereby an entire community can come together at the level of hand, mind, and heart to create its own myths. After he discovered the hexagonal structure of benzene in a dream of a snake swallowing its tail (an archetypal image known as an “ourobolus” depicting the cycles of nature), the Belgian chemist August Kekule remarked “Let us learn to dream, gentlemen, then perhaps we shall find the truth.” In Australia the aboriginal peoples have recognized since pre-history a distinct state of awareness they call “time-out-of-time” or “everywhen,” a land inhabited by ancestral figures, often of heroic proportions and supernatural abilities.

Emergent Art inspired by Laughing Heart presents local communities with both an opportunity and a choice. We live in dark times of murdering hate when our hearts can turn to stone. But these are also times of light and love. Emergent Art offers a process to restore hope, re-create ourselves, and invoke the angels of our better nature.

George Bernard Shaw wrote, “You see things and say, “Why?” But I dream things that never were; and I say, “Why not?”

 

Laughing Heart Advantage

Big Heart Intelligence
or
Laughing Heart Advantage

We are basically observing a continuous, compounding, cumulative, synergistic, resonantheuristic, exponential function or effect. It can be expressed mathematically as follows:

  • Compounding BHI Effect in a Smart Collaborative Innovation Network (S-COIN) (Initial 90 day trial): =(f) (BHI_p1(Δ+) x BHI-p_2(Δ+)…… x BHI p_50(Δ+) X (OSE Δ) X PFM (Pay Forward Multiplier) BHI Platform Effect X S (Synchronicity) where (t)=90…. n.
  • In this formula:
∑ = sum
(t)90 refers to the initial period of the experiment, i.e. 90 days
BHI Δ = each explorer’s BHI which is continuously increasing.
Open System Energy Increase = (OSE Δ) = where the qi and unconditional love within the Explorers Community is continuously increasing.
PFM (Pay Forward Multiplier)–where each explorer passes on a part of the benefits he or she is receiving without seeking reward or recompense
BHI Platform Effect—where the Platform itself becomes increasingly intelligent and interacts with and supports the individual explorer’s journey in many ways.
Synchronicity—an increase in apparently chance but meaningful events. It is not certain whether Synchronicity is an expression or a contributing cause of the BHI Effect or both.
  • The Compounding BHI Effect can also be illustrated graphically, where the x-axis represents time and the y-axis represents increasing BHI. The difference between the normal mode of transacting in the world and the exponential rising curve of BHI illustrates the BHI Advantage. The line depicting cubic growth describes intermediate levels of progress during the early years of takeoff.  
  • See also Metcalfe’s law which states: the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system (n2).

Conversations with the Future

Conversations with the Future

This ignorant present, and I feel now
The future in the instant.

Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 5

Laughing Heart is a high energy state in which you begin to develop unusual visionary powers.

You may enjoy exploring this phenomenon. Here are two paths of exploration described in Piloting Through Chaos -The Explorers Mind.

Backlighting the Future

In a Laughing Heart state you paint a picture in your Heart/Mind of a future in which all your talents, powers, resources, and life experiences come together in helping you realize your highest and best destiny.

Then you very systematically trace backwards, specifically what were the seminal people, events, and circumstances that enabled this possible future scenario to come about, right back to the present.

Write down the pathway, study it, and fill as many details as possible.

This is not an idle pastime. Dr. Elspeth McAdam, a pioneering English psychiatrist has shown in her work with disempowered communities in Africa, Australia, and India that backlighting the future has an amazing way of actually coming to pass.

Try the exercise working with a friend, exploring with each other using the technique of appreciative inquiry.

Dream Incubation

You can incubate a question relating to the Future, after you have practiced Laughing Heart, and prior to going to bed.

Hold your question in your heart/mind eye; then simply let it go. Keep a pad of paper by your bed. When you awaken in the morning, write down any dreams you have, backward, taking the first dream element first, then the next and so on.

You do this so you don’t forget that element which is most fresh in memory. Often precognitive insights or even events will be foreshadowed in your dream. This is a deep and fascinating field.

Conversations with Mayumi Oda

Conversations with Mayumi Oda

The following interviews were conducted on February 28, 2017 at Mayumi Oda’s Ginger Hill Farm on a promontory overlooking the Pacific. We are not far from where Captain Cook perished in Kealakekua Bay almost 250 years ago.

Mayumi is a master explorer of the intertidal frontier between compassionate social engagement and art. The following links provide her bio and representative works introduced in her own words.

My interviews explore the connections of Mayumi’s work to Laughing Heart from the wellspring of her childhood inspiration during the midst of WWII to its most recent expression in Sarasvasti’s Gift, her just published book.


The Artist and the Shaman


Living on the Edge


Searching for Peace


Sarasvasti’s Gift


 

 

 

Conversations with Harry S. Brown

Conversations with Harry S. Brown

Conversations with Harry S. Brown, MD, FACs, Founder Surgical Eye Expeditions (SEE) International

Dr. Harry S. Brown is a pioneering eye surgeon who founded Surgical Eye Expeditions (SEE) International in 1974. Thanks to his compassionate vision 460,000 people in over 70 mostly poor countries, who would have been permanently blind, can now see and live productive lives.  In 2014 Dr. Brown received the Surgical Humanitarian Award from the American College of Surgeons

The following conversations were recorded at Dr. Brown’s home in the springtime of his 86th year. The first explores the roots of SEE International and his original inspiration. It is called “The Gift”. The next conversations introduce the first in a series of stories and are entitled, “Let There Be Light”, “I am a Christian Man”, and “Two Blind Sisters.” Like the Arabian Nights the stories are set in exotic places and each story unfolds the personal stories of Dr. Brown’s patients and other characters he encounters on his journeys. Together they provide portrait of the intelligence, kindness, and deep humility of this very great man.


The Gift-Pt 1


The Gift-Pt 2


Let There Be Light


I am a Christian Man


Two Blind Sisters

Conversations with Li Junfeng

Li Junfeng
— Early Years —
Origins of Big Heart

(Interview with Julian Gresser/April 2015)

Note to our Readers:

Qigong Grand Master Li Junfeng is a living exemplar of Laughing Heart’s exuberant vitality. At 78 he is as spry as a mountain goat. He travels around the world and according to him is never jet lagged even after 20 hour flights. As all true masters he is continuously learning and perfecting his art. He shares these never before published personal insights of his life’s journey in the hope of inspiring other explorers.


Master Li Junfeng–Profile

Li Junfeng achieved initial prominence as the head coach for over 15 years of the Beijing Wushu Team and the National Wushu Team of the People’s Republic of China. Under his leadership and collaboration with Co-Head Coach Wu Bin their teams won over  one hundred gold medals and numerous other laurels and brought great honor to the country. During these years he also achieved national fame as a martial arts movie actor and director. Master Li is an innovator of world stature who has made a unique contribution in integrating China’s great martial arts tradition and advanced practices for health and longevity within a comprehensive body of knowledge and experience based on the principle of unconditional love (博爱养心) Master Li is currently Chairman of the International Shengzhen Society Foundation. During the past twenty-five years he has developed a network of certified teachers in over 30 countries, and visiting over 70 countries where he has offered training program.


(JG) Master Li, what are some of your earliest memories?

(LJF) I was born on October 13, 1938, in the Year of the Tiger, in Hebei Province, China. My grandfather was a Chinese doctor. Our family was relatively well off, but like many families we suffered greatly during World War II. My father joined a local militia, fell ill, and died when I was a month old. I was raised by my mother and grandparents. I admired my grandfather greatly and wanted to become a doctor like him.

From my earliest years I loved Chinese martial arts. Many people in our village practiced martial arts, and I loved the movements and the beauty of the forms. In our elementary school there was a wonderful teacher who had been a friend and classmate of my father in high school. He encouraged me very much to practice martial arts, and also sports, music, and other art forms.

I joined the student council in high school, and as a member, one of my responsibilities was managing the riflery team. Since I had no experience shooting rifles, I was required to learn. In 1957 after a few months of training, I entered the Si Jia Zhang City Riflery Competition and won first place, and afterwards joined the city riflery team. I participated in a province-wide competition and won second place. In 1958 I joined the Hebei Province Riflery Team, and remained a member for nearly two years. The demands of the team meant practicing riflery all day, to the exclusion of other classes. Because I wanted to attend a university for college, I left the riflery team in December of 1959 and returned to high school.

When I went back to Shi Jia Zhang First High School to study, there was a nationwide food shortage and the government issued food ration coupons. I was often hungry, especially after the special food I got on the Hebei Province Riflery Team. I had a friend on the riflery team, Liu Zhi Qang, who left Shi Jia Zhang city to join the team at the same time I did, and returned to school at the same time, though we attended different schools. One day he found a food ration coupon in the street, and with no way of returning it to the person who’d lost it, he traveled across town to find me and share 100g of bread with me. Though he certainly could have eaten it all himself and probably still been hungry for more, he chose to share it with me. This really moved my heart, and I’ll never forget him or this demonstration of unconditional love. Even now, I still miss him and remember him fondly. I still keep his photo with me.

In the summer of 1960 I graduated from high school and took a college entrance exam. I still wanted to attend medical school and become a doctor like my grandfather, but at the time, universities that taught Athletics, Art, or Music had priority selecting students. The Physical Education University of Beijing recruited me after my initial exam, and accepting this invitation meant I could enroll right away with no further examinations.

In college I majored in Wushu, (Chinese Martial Arts). Wushu was a very popular major, and I started my college education with a large class of peers. In my third year, the university selected a few distinguished students to become members of the University Wushu team, and I was among them. This was quite an honor. Our team performed wushu exhibitions for foreign dignitaries from all over the world.

In 1964 a French television crew visited China and came to our school, and filmed me for the Paris Channel 2 feature, A Day in the Life of a University Student in China, which was broadcast in France. The crew recorded my daily routine and gave me my first experience of being on film.

Lost in the Desert: A Taste of Flour Soup

(JG) I get the impression that your life was relatively easy and uneventful in those days.

(LJF) Actually, those days were not easy. In fact, I almost died in 1962. In the early 60s there were three years of calamitous natural disasters that caused a serious famine in China. Even in the cities food was scarce. Though we ate better than most, even the athletic department lacked food. In our university many people suffered from edema as a result of malnutrition. This is why the national athletics department formed the National Hunting Team. Because of my experience with the Hebei Province Riflery Team, I was conscripted to join along with members of the national riflery team, and sent on a hunting expedition into Xinjiang province to hunt yellow sheep and to provide food for our starving people. Xinjiang is an autonomous province in far northwestern China on the border with Mongolia and Kazakhstan. The hunting team consisted of marksmen and motorcycle drivers.

Every day we hunted from dawn until dusk. It was winter, and the cold was so severe that the sheep froze almost as soon as we shot them. The government had strict rules about hunting: we were not allowed to hunt during calving season, and we could only use single shot rifles in order to protect the sheep population.

My partner was a professional motorcycle driver, and he drove a motorcycle that had a modified sidecar to carry cargo while I shot sheep. The two of us worked very well as a team. One day we went to hunt in the area around an old oil rig that everyone recognized as a landmark. At dusk we headed back to our base camp which was very far away.

We hadn’t shot many sheep that day, and on the way back we came upon a large herd and decided to continue hunting. We followed the sheep for a long time. Our sidecar was already full of sheep, night was falling, and we were very far from our base camp. I thought we should return to the oil rig, since we knew the route back to our base camp, but my partner thought we could take a shorter more direct route to the base. I reluctantly agreed and we used a compass to locate an old track, which we followed until the ground became too soft and our motorcycle could go no further. We unloaded a few sheep to lighten the load, but the motorcycle was soon stuck in the sand again. We left a few more sheep and proceeded a little further, but the same thing happened so this time we had to unload all of the sheep. But still we couldn’t make any progress through the soft sand. At this point we decided to stop for the night.

Our team’s emergency procedure was to make a signal fire if lost at night, since it would be visible for miles in the desert. But when I suggested that we start a fire we realized, to our dismay that my partner (who was responsible for carrying our lighter) had leant it to a friend. Needless to say this was a dismaying realization.

We couldn’t sleep because there were wolves in the area and we had to stay alert, with our guns ready. The temperature dropped precipitously with nightfall to well below freezing. It was very dark. We had no light, no food, no water, and no shelter. Our uniforms were insulated so we tightened our coats, but we could not sleep, we could only wait for morning. Thank God no wolves came around that night. We were lucky.

When morning arrived we climbed a nearby hill, and from the top we could see the oil rig. We tried to start the motorcycle but it wouldn’t work because the oil was frozen solid. If we had had a lighter we might have melted the oil to create a fire.

We reasoned that if we could see the oil rig clearly, we must not be too far away from our comrades, so we left the motorcycle behind and started walking. But we misjudged the distance as the rig was still far away, and because our uniforms were heavily insulated, our progress was slow. Also we were very tired and hungry from lack of food and sleep. We walked all day, stopping frequently to rest. We became really exhausted and tried to use dried brush we found as improvised walking sticks. We encouraged each other to keep moving towards our goal, promising that we would rest once we got there. We finally reached the rig at dusk.

We had assumed that when we got to the oil rig we would find someone there, but there was no one. At this point our spirits really began to sink, but we were grateful to find a primitive room used by workers where we could take shelter. It was still very cold but at least we were protected from the wind. The room had a door and we were very pleased we had a way to keeping the wolves outside. We made mats of dried vegetation and fell asleep.

We spent the third day in the rig waiting for someone to find us but still no one came. That night we could hear wolves baying and prowling in the vicinity, so we barricaded the door and put our backs to it, and slept fitfully with our guns at our side.

(JG) I can’t imagine how you survived. Didn’t you panic? Weren’t you in a lot of pain not eating or drinking for several days?

(LJF) By the fourth day, we were feeling a little panic, but we kept our spirits up by telling each other jokes. “Maybe we are going to die,” I said, “but if we don’t die, I think we’ll have a pretty good story to tell. We’re both our parents’ only children, so we can make a compelling movie for them.” We joked with each other in this way to keep from losing heart.

By the end of the fourth day we began to really feel the effects of starvation and dehydration. Several times we thought we heard approaching engines and people talking, and we’d run outside, expecting to greet our rescuers, only to find no one. We were so thirsty we had the idea to drinking our own urine, so we found an old, dirty bottle, but by this time we were so dehydrated that we could not even produce any urine. A few snowflakes fell from the sky and we tried to catch them in the air and lick them from the ground, but ended up with more sand on our tongues than water. But we were grateful for even a tiny drop of moisture which gave us great relief.

That night we began to hallucinate. We’d hear the sound of motorcycles and voices and people calling for us, but when we looked outside the oil rig, there was nothing but empty desert. At this point we really began to despair. That night we talked about the dire predicament we were in, and I said, “I’m my mother’s only child, and my father is dead. If I die, she’ll be devastated. So I can’t die here. We must conserve our energy.” From that point we stopped running outside every time we thought we heard someone approaching, and we stopped talking very much, and remained lying down or moving very much.

The fifth day we spent in this way dozing on and off.

On the sixth day we again heard sounds outside and roused ourselves to go outside, hoping to find someone, but again, it was just a hallucination. We still believed our team members would find us, but we stopped talking entirely to conserve the little strength we had left. If we thought we heard rescuers approaching, we stopped telling each other, and instead took turns peeking out the door. But the sounds were only the workings of our imagination.

Close to dusk we heard the sound of a motorcycle, but we didn’t bother, assuming it was another hallucination. The voices persisted. I slowly got up and looked outside. This time I saw a few parked motorcycles and people walking around. With our last burst of energy we ran outside, shouting. Chinese don’t ordinarily hug, but we embraced our teammates with great bear hugs, and everyone was in tears. It was almost dark and we climbed on the motorcycles and returned to our base camp.

On the way back to camp one of my teammates offered me a radish, I tried to chew but I could not swallow, so we waited until we returned to camp to eat. Our leader made us some flour soup. It was easy to eat, easy to digest, and the taste was better than anything I’d ever tasted. I drank only flour soup throughout the next day, too. I’ve never loved food so much in my life. Sleeping in a tent was also an exquisite pleasure. I understood then that happiness is completely relative– having simple food, not freezing, or being eaten by wolves made me very happy. It was more than enough. I still love flour soup very much and I know how to cook it. Actually, before we go to class let me make you some flour soup. (He starts cutting vegetables and making the broth.)

My comrades later told me they knew we were somewhere near the oil rig, and they went back to look for us, and searched a long time for our signal fire, but never found it. On the second day they returned and searched again, but still had no luck finding us. We explained that we didn’t have a lighter, and had traveled far from the oil rig by the second day, out of visibility and earshot, and we didn’t get back to the oil rig until dusk on the second day. When they couldn’t find us they thought we must have left the area and searched a wider perimeter, but still couldn’t find us. They were on their way back to camp when they stopped to rest at the oil rig. I told them we were inside the room, and they said they checked the room on the first and second day, so didn’t feel they needed to check again since it was empty before. All of our problems would have been solved by a lighter.

(JG) That’s quite a story. Surely, at sometime during this saga you must have been worried?

(LJF) No, I didn’t worry. From my heart I believed in my team. My comrades knew where we were heading and they knew about the oil rig.

(JG) Did you feel any anger?

(LJF) No, we didn’t feel any anger at all. We felt that our comrades had probably already come to the oil rig when we were lost in the desert, and had waited all night for us, but of course we weren’t there.

(JG) What about the driver? Didn’t anyone blame him?

(LJF) No, no one blamed him. The driver loaned his lighter to a local person in kindness, and forgot to get it back. At that time the locals in Xinjiang province had never seen a lighter before, and they were very interested in it. His heart was in the right place. He was just forgetful and never expected to get lost in the desert.

(JG) Why did your friends return to the same place after they had already looked for you there?

(LJF) Ah, that was a bit of luck. They went back to the oil rig simply because they were tired and wanted to rest. They didn’t expect to find us.

(JG) I wonder whether this is how Big Heart opens a place for chance to happen. Did you draw any life lessons from this experience? It almost seems like a parable?

(LJF) Yes, this experience deeply influenced my life. My first lesson was to be prepared. When you go into the desert you need a lighter and not only one lighter – a lighter for each person! And you need water, and food – these things are important. I also learned to say “No.” I knew my comrade’s short cut was a very bad idea, but I didn’t want to conflict with him. Sometimes you must hold your ground when you know the correct way. I learned to pay attention to small things. In the desert small things can save your life. I discovered also that happiness is relative. This is a very important lesson. I can tell you I was never as happy and appreciative in my life as when I tasted that flour soup after having nothing to eat or drink for five days! My experience in the desert also helped me to understand suffering. When you suffer, you don’t always know whether it is leading you to a good thing or a bad thing. Sometimes the worst pain of our life gives rise to many good things. After suffering in the desert, I can appreciate everything, even really simple pleasures like food and shelter. I can be flexible; eat anything, sleep anywhere. Also, when you have a hard time, out of nowhere people help you. Through hard times we can make very good friends. Now I love flour soup. Look, the flour soup is ready. Let’s enjoy it together.”

First and Last Love

(LJF) After I graduated from high school the government appointed me to the Beijing Shi Sha Hai School. After I registered, but before I started teaching, the government sent me to do community service in a remote mountain village for more than a year. I worked and lived among poor farmers who opened their homes to me. We worked very hard and survived on subsistence rations with no meat, rice, vegetables or even wheat flour, and no fuel for heat in winter. We had to wear hats indoors to protect our ears from frostbite. The entire village shared two small wells, so each family shared a single pot of water for a day for washing.

When the Cultural Revolution began, the community service program was cancelled, and I returned to Beijing and joined the revolution. During the revolution we had no classes, the country was in chaos. It was anarchy. I witnessed many terrible things during that time. Every organization – schools, factories, hospitals – were divided into two factions, a rebel faction that fought against the organization’s leadership, and a conservative faction that was for it. The Beijing Shi Sha Hai School was no exception. I was among the new coaches returning from service assignments in remote villages. We had no experience with the school and so no ideas about our leader. We just wanted less conflict. As a group we started a third faction – the neutral faction. Our focus was on ending conflict. We were lucky that we’d been sent away before we had students, because during the Cultural Revolution many students fought against their teachers, but we managed to avoid being in that situation. We just tried to make peace in our school.

(JG) It seems like a very Spartan existence. Did you have any personal life? What about girls?

(LJF) In those days it was very difficult to meet girls. Because the school had cancelled the wushu program and stopped enrolling students, we taught small, free, informal wushu classes. I had a student who was also a personal friend, who invited me to her home to introduce me to one of her colleagues named Yanfang. I asked another wushu coach to join me, because I was shy. After thirty minutes I excused myself to go to the bathroom, which was a public facility on the street. The other coach joined me. My real motive was to give Yanfang and her colleague, the matchmaker, a chance to talk. The other coach asked me if I liked Yanfang and I said, yes, I liked her very much. He preceded me back to the apartment and let the matchmaker know. She told him that the feeling was mutual and he relayed this information to me. So Yanfang and I both felt the same way, but didn’t discuss our feelings with each other until I walked her home. In those days it was dangerous to walk alone on the street at night, so as I accompanied her, she asked, “Are you really sure?” and I said, “Yes, really sure.” And that decided it. We became boyfriend and girlfriend that night and had a simple wedding ceremony a year later. I never looked at another girl again, and she never looked at other boys. We still love each other very much! (He starts to laugh.) This was our destiny – to love each other.

Training Stories

(LJF) During the Cultural Revolution, when the wushu team was cancelled, we were sent to do different jobs in the school. I was assigned to work in an office, other people taught football, and others became warehouse workers. After the Cultural Revolution, in 1971 we started wushu classes. During that time we only had two coaches, Wu Bin and me. We were friends in college and had a very good working relationship. He was a year my senior and I respected him, and he trusted me very much.

Our first enrollment was in 1971 and again the following year we had another enrollment. Our students began training at ages 9-13. We looked for the same essential qualities in prospective students — physical strength, a suitable physical symmetry, agility, and a keen intelligence. We knew when we saw a certain light in their eyes. We interviewed their teachers to find out if they had discipline. Wushu was an extracurricular activity, so students trained in the afternoon after a full school day. Our students improved very fast.

Wu Bin and I proposed to the government that we form a Beijing Wushu Team but our request was at first denied. In 1974 our students, representing Beijing city, competed in the national wushu competition and won the group championship. The same year China formed two national teams, one went to the US to perform at the White House, and the other gave an exhibition in Japan. Most of the national teams were comprised of our students and Wu Bin and I became the national wushu team coaches. We wrote a letter to the Beijing Athletic Department and they finally agreed to form the Beijing professional team.

Wu Bin’s coaching style was very strict, although he was a kind man. After we formed the Beijing Wushu Team, we divided the students into men’s and women’s teams, but our goals were essentially the same – to build champions. From 1974 our team won group champion continuously for 12 years. Group champion meant everybody got gold medals. Our team won more than 100 individual gold medals during the same period.

(JG) Can you tell us some stories about your coaching days? What were some of the secrets of your success?

(LJF) Before I do that I need to tell you about an event that happened many years before that shaped my philosophy of coaching. On my riflery team we had a very demanding, disciplined coach who trained us very hard for the shooting competitions. But he was so strict that he demanded an immediate response from his students whenever he blew his whistle. One day the whistle blew and I rushed to respond, but the surface I ran on was uneven and I broke my ankle. Although I recovered rapidly I placed second in the province-wide competition, but I am certain that if I had not been injured, I would have placed first. I learned from this example that it is very important to be disciplined, but never to excess. It’s important to be strict and precise, but always to pay attention to safety. And never rush, always remain calm and attentive.

(JG) I agree with you. This will be an important theme our book, especially the relationship of Big Heart and Mind to the emotions. It is very interesting to understand how these ideas were shaped by your life experience. So what were your secrets?

(LJF) I will tell you about my approach to training and coaching.

First, basic training is very important. But this is not simply a matter of hours devoted; quality is more important. We had very high standards and a precise training method. We could accomplish better results with our focused methods than many hours of training with the alternatives. We trained part by part and step by step to ensure the foundations were very sound. Each form has different basics; all of the weapons forms and regional styles had their own fundamentals.

Second, different people respond to different treatment. We always adapted the training method to the individual needs of the student. One size never fits all. People have different physical strengths and personality traits. Some students need to be driven, others require support. Some are better suited to certain weapons or styles, so we found the right fit, but even two students practicing the same form must be treated as individuals. The nuances of their performance will be different, so we had to identify their unique talents and then play to their strengths.

Third, Strict management. This means making people become very disciplined and very focused. When the student becomes focused, they bring more energy to their training and improve faster, and they understand their coach’s instruction.

Fourth, we cherished our students like our own children. When they were sick, we never sent them to the hospital alone. I put them on the back of my bike and took them there. We would help them take their medicine and discussed their condition with their doctors and parents. For example, one student who won many gold medals came down with hepatitis. This was a very serious illness. We interviewed several doctors, and I asked them, “What is your strategy to cure hepatitis?” And we listened carefully, and helped the family select the best doctor. And during her treatment we took care of her, just like I would care for my own daughter. A journalist wrote a story about this incident, declaring, “Coach Li cured his student’s hepatitis!” So, many people called me to find a cure, and I had to tell them, “I’m not a doctor, go to the hospital and ask!”

Another girl had a bad tooth, but she had an even bigger problem – the dentist fell in love with her, and started making advances. We had to speak with the dentist and remind him to behave like a professional. We settled this matter without conflict. Another student fell in love with this lovely girl, but she was suspicious and asked me to help her. So I talked with this boy and he said to me, “Coach Li, I really love her, please trust me. I am serious.” And I could see that his heart was good and I believed him. They got married and now have several children. Today she is coaching the gongfu club at Stanford University.

The parents appreciated our approach because we were not only teaching martial arts; we were helping our students understand the meaning of integrity.

Fifth, My co-coach Wu Bin and I were very close, like family, like one heart. We always helped and learned from each other, and we always shared good things and supported each other through hard times. Though we divided the job, we always cooperated, and our team’s success was our unified goal. We always trained and practiced together.

Sixth, We were open-minded and understood that valuable knowledge could be found outside of conventional circles. We always tried to learn as much as we could from any available source, whether it was other coaches or traditional wushu masters.

I loved all my students very much and even today when I visit them in San Francisco, Berkeley, Portland, Singapore, Manila, Beijing and other cities they regard me as their second father.

(JG) Do you have children, and do they also practice martial arts?

(LJF) In 1973 my daughter Li Jing was born, and then two years later, my son Li Hai Chuan, nicknamed Jack. From an early age, Jing loved martial arts and at 8 years old she began serious training at Beijing Shi Sha Hai School. Her coach was one of my former students. After 3 years she became a member of the Beijing Wushu Team and participated in national competitions. She later competed in the Asia Games and international competitions. She studied at a university in the Philippines, and now lives in Germany, and she teaches Sheng Zhen Gong in Europe and assists me with international teacher training. Jack was interested in music and the piano, but my wife and I did not know anything about piano. We did what we could to support and encourage his interest. He was passionate about music and found a teacher by himself. He studied in China and then went to the US and studied piano for eight years and got two Master’s degrees, one in piano and one in art management, and a D.M.A. in performance and teaching. He now works at the Music Institute of China. So I’m lucky I have a son and a daughter.

Fame and Stardom

(JG) Tell us now about what caused you to become involved in movies. After all, it is an unusual career change, especially as you became a national film star so rapidly.

(LJF) I always loved movies, but I never expected to become involved personally in the film industry. Sometimes in life when your heart is open and you help others without asking anything in return, something good happens. It was that way with my film career.

In 1982 The Beijing Movie House decided to make a wuxu movie, Wu Lin Zhi, and asked me to help search for a star. The director contacted me through our school. He was compiling a list of candidates, so we met and I went with him for a month all over China, even to remote provinces, and interviewed various martial artists and coaches. The main character was a very special person; in fact the movie title in English was The Honor of Dong Fang Xu or Pride’s Deadly Fury. It was about this good person, a person of integrity who has all of these difficulties and must make great personal sacrifices, and has many battles, but because of his skill and integrity he prevails, and even becomes friends with his chief antagonist, who is a real bully in the beginning.

After auditioning many, many martial artists – we even went to the national wushu competition to scout potential actors – the director said to me, “I know the best person for this role; I have an idea.” But he did not tell me anything more about it. We returned to Beijing and after a few days the director and producer went to my school without telling me and started making inquiries. That day one of my students was on her way to the bathroom and she overheard the director speaking with the school principal, saying that he was very interested in casting me for the role. My student rushed back to the gym to tell me, “Coach Li, the director is thinking of selecting you for the lead role!” I said, “Impossible, I don’t believe you. Stop joking.” After training, my principal called me to his office and told me they’d agreed to send me to the Beijing Movie House to star in the movie, but that I’d still have to continue training the Beijing Wushu Team. If I could do both, no problem, but if I couldn’t continue to coach then I could not be in the movie. Of course I agreed to do both. I was happy to do the movie because I was familiar with the script and it was a good story that promoted wushu philosophy.

I immediately reported to the film studio and accepted the role. The director and assistant director ran through the script with me. When I asked, “Why did you choose me?” the director replied, “This movie is really about integrity, and we see that you understand this. You never once proposed yourself, or told us you wanted the part. It is important that the main actor understand the character of Dong Fang Xu, and therefore be credible.” Several other actors and coaches had reached the final round of auditions. We prepared for a few days and then returned to the studio to do screen tests. Then we were sent home to wait for the news of who would be cast in the role of Don Fang Xu.

After a few days I was notified that I’d been chosen. I returned to the studio to study the script and prepare for the role. Before shooting even started, the leader of the Beijing Athletic department decided I couldn’t do the movie, since it could put our team’s champion status at risk. I had no choice but to leave the film production. But the Beijing Movie House wouldn’t take no for an answer, so they went to the vice-mayor of Beijing and the leader of the national athletics department to intercede on their behalf. They applied pressure, and I was allowed to resume work on the film.

First we studied the script for many days, and the director asked me to write the story of Don Fang Xu’s life from early childhood so that I’d gain insight into his character. I wasn’t completely unfamiliar with the film industry, since I’d previously been a consultant action director for other films. I did a lot of research and asked actors I knew for guidance to prepare for my role. When filming began, I was very shy, and often broke character when the director shouted “Action!” But after three days the shyness vanished and I felt much more comfortable and confident. I’m grateful for this experience, since life is much more comfortable now that I can teach anywhere without feeling shy.

I continued to coach the team during off hours, and I explained to my students that they’d have to train even harder in my absence. They assured me that I could rely on them. The team had two captains, Li Xia and Ge Chun Yan, but Ge Chun Yan had been cast as the leading lady in the same film, and Li Xia said, “Coach Li, don’t worry, just go and make the movie. If you two are not here, I’ll lead the team and we’ll take our practice seriously. You can rest assured.”

(JG) It sounds like it was smooth sailing from then on. This story is interesting as it shows how potential conflicts were resolved in Chinese society in those days. It seems there were no hard feelings all the way round.

(LJF) Yes, there were no hard feelings. We worked in harmony. But once the movie was well underway a more serious conflict occurred which placed the entire enterprise in jeopardy.

There was one actor who felt he was being exploited since he didn’t get to keep his pay. It went to his company the same way that my wages were given to my school and everyone else’s pay went to the various agencies they represented. He told the producer that he wanted to be personally paid, but the producer refused on the basis that the studio couldn’t afford it. The movie was in the final stages of production, but if this actor refused to participate, it would never be completed. I talked to the rest of the cast and then approached the producer and asked him to give the actor in question just a little more money, and reassured him that the rest of the cast wouldn’t follow suit and demand more for themselves if he did. So he agreed, and the production continued, and the movie was completed.

In 1983 Wu Lin Zhi premiered in Beijing. It was an instant blockbuster. It won an award for an outstanding film of that year, and I went on stage with the director and accepted a trophy. It was the Chinese equivalent of the Academy Awards ceremony. From that time on many studios began approaching my school and I received many offers to play leading roles in films.

(JG) How did you feel about all this sudden fame?

(LJF) Actually, it was interesting in the beginning because it was novel and unexpected, but I soon found it very tiring. I felt all of the attention from fans and the press really limited my freedom and I longed to return to a normal life.

I continued to train my students very seriously while making the movie and the film took a hiatus while my team competed in the National Wushu Competition and won seven gold medals. After the film was completed the team competed again and did even better than before. This time we took ten out of a total of sixteen gold medals. This was an all-time record in the history of competitive Chinese martial arts on a national level.

(JG) How were you able to manage this? I can imagine playing a leading role in a movie and training a national level martial arts team each require enormous energy and mental concentration.

(LJF)—We did everything with heart; we always tried to do our best. I had this very strong sense that this director and also my school and students trusted me. I felt a deep responsibility and obligation to them. (He moves two oranges on the table in front of us to illustrate the principle.) You see these oranges? They represent my two jobs. When I was doing the movie, I focused all my energy and my heart on doing this job; and when I was training my students, I gave everything to them. This was the only way I could fulfill my obligation to them. The result was that each received perhaps even more of my heart and my attention than if this challenge had not been presented.

The Philippines

(LJF) In 1987 I was the only coach of the Chinese national wushu team. Our team participated in the Pan Asia Championships in Japan and won thirteen out of sixteen gold medals. At that time I received an invitation from the Philippine National Wushu Federation to train its team. But the Beijing government did not accept the invitation from the Philippines – they wanted to keep me with the Beijing wushu team. Negotiations continued for some time. In 1988 it was finally agreed upon – I was free to go to the Philippines and begin training its team. From 1988 until 1991 I was the chief coach of the Philippines National Wushu Team. This is how I came to make many friends in the Philippines who are very supportive of my work in Big Heart practice until this day.

The Inspiration for Sheng Zhen and Big Heart

As the years passed my passion for external wushu gradually evolved towards internal wushu forms, like bagua and taiji, which naturally also led to meditation and various styles of qigong. Also, I met several qigong masters in China and learned much from them, especially how to purify the Heart, and the relationship of Heart to Mind. In 1987 I learned a special meditation; Union of Three Hearts, and through the practice my understanding of human life deepened. In 1991 I was inspired to create the moving forms that comprise Sheng Zhen Gong. Through meditation I began to appreciate and understand the power of love in the world, love without any reservation or conditions. I started to develop my own practice combining many of the techniques and principles of martial arts with what I was discovering from inner practices. I developed a new kind of practice involving moving and still meditative forms which I called Sheng Zhen Gong, or as it is called in China today Bo Ai Yang Xin Xun Lian Fa. This perfectly captures the spirit in the title of our book, Big Heart. In 1992 I returned to the Philippines and in 1994 I dedicated myself to teaching Union of Three Hearts and the other Sheng Zhen Gong forms. I received a lot of support and interest from my friends in the Philippines, and in 1995 we founded the International Sheng Zhen Society.

From 1995 until today I have visited more than 30 countries to teach, and we have excellent certified teachers in many of them. In the beginning I lived in Manila, but for the past 12 years my wife and I have lived in Austin, Texas where I’m the dean of the Body and Mind Department at the Academy of Oriental Medicine. Jing lives in Germany and Jack teaches piano and music in Beijing.

(JG) That is a wonderful story. What is the next stage of your journey?

(LJF) I have had a strong intuition that Santa Barbara may be a very promising place to continue. I am very happy to have so many able and sincere students here. I am glad that we can develop this new framework together which we are calling “Big Heart.” I am happy to draw from my life experience and also yours, which is very different, and that we can work together with many new friends and introduce Big Heart practice in a very broad way, and continue to learn. This really was the essence of the vision of the vision I had when I moved to the Philippines, although Big Heart is taking a very interesting new form that I hope will appeal and be helpful to many people. Big Heart with Love– is the essence of our practice, what I hope for the world.

© Copyright Julian Gresser and Li Junfeng February 2017 , All rights reserved.

Consulting Shakespeare

 

Consulting Shakespeare

EdwardDeVere

The above picture is of Edward De Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford. Mark Anderson makes a fascinating, stupendously controversial case in Shakespeare by Another Name that De Vere was in fact the “real” Shakespeare.

Notwithstanding the unresolved question of Shakespeare’s identity, he remains agelessly vital and so can help us on our journey. Suppose Shakesvere were sitting right beside you and you posed the following questions. How might he answer you?


I. Experiencing Laughing Heart

How can I quiet my heart?

I know myself know; and I feel within me a peace above all earthly dignities, a still and quiet conscience.
Henry VIII, Act 3, sc. 2

How to find my great power?

O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention, Henry V, Prologue

How to discover Beauty?

O, speak again, bright angel! For thou art
As glorious to this night, being o’er my head,
As is a wingèd messenger of heaven
Unto the white, upturnèd, wondering eyes
Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him
When he bestrides the lazy-puffing clouds
And sails upon the bosom of the air.
Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2

How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
Here will we sit and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night
Become the touches of sweet harmony.
Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold:
There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins;
Such harmony is in immortal souls;
Spoken by Lorenzo, The Merchant of Venice, Act 5, Scene 1

How to learn Nature’s secret language?

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date
Shakespeare Sonnet 18

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin
Troilus and Cressida, Act 3, Scene 3

And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.
I would not change it.
As You Like It Act 2, Scene 2

In nature’s infinite book of secrecy
A little I can read.
Anthony and Cleopatra, Act 1 Scene 1

II. Exploring Laughing Heart

How to discover my Muse in music?

If music be the food of love, play on Give me excess of it; that surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.”
Twelfth Night, Prologue

“The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils; The motions of his spirit are dull as night, And his affections dark as Erebus. Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.”

Merchant of Venice Act 5 Scene 1

How to find the secret connections of everything with everything?

I this infer, That many things, having full referenceTo one consent, may work contrariously:As many arrows, loosed several ways,Come to one mark; as many ways meet in one town;As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea;As many lines close in the dial’s centre;So may a thousand actions, once afoot.End in one purpose, and be all well borneWithout defeat.

Henry V, Act 1 Scene 2

How can I build life force through love?

She loved me for the dangers I had passed,
And I loved her that she did pity them.
This only is the witchcraft I have used.
Othello Act 1 Scene 1

**Shakespeare–The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene I

The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest. It becomes
The thronèd monarch better than his crown.
His scepter shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings,
But mercy is above this sceptered sway.
It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings.
It is an attribute to God himself.
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice.


III. Applying Laughing Heart

How do kindness and generosity multiply?

The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest. It becomes
The thronèd monarch better than his crown.
His scepter shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings,
But mercy is above this sceptered sway.
It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings.
It is an attribute to God himself.
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s
When mercy seasons justice.
The Merchant of Venice, Act 4 Scene I

How can I create good fortune?

Fortune brings in some boats that are not steer’d
Cymbeline, Act 4 Scene 3

If you can look into the seeds of time
And say which grain will grow and which will not,
Speak, then, to me, who neither beg nor fear
Your favors nor your hate.
Macbeth Act 1 Scene 3

This is the excellent foppery of the world that
When we are sick in fortune—often the surfeit of our own behavior—
We make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars,
As if we were villains by necessity, fools by heavenly compulsion,
Knaves, thieves, and treachers by spherical predominance,
Drunkards, liars, and adulterers by an enforced obedience of planetary influence,
And all that we are evil in by a divine thrusting-on.
King Lear, Act1 Scene 2

Fortune is painted blind, with a muffler afore her eyes, to
signify to you that Fortune is blind; and she is
painted also with a wheel, to signify to you, which
is the moral of it, that she is turning, and
inconstant, and mutability, and variation: and her
foot, look you, is fixed upon a spherical stone,
which rolls, and rolls, and rolls: in good truth,
the poet makes a most excellent description of it:
Fortune is an excellent moral.
Henry V, Act 3 Scene 6

How can I help my community realize Laughing Heart Advantage?

Who seeds love, collects happiness.

All places that the eye of heaven visits
Are to a wise man ports and happy havens.
Richard II, Act 1 Scene 3

With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.
The Merchant of Venice, Act 1 Scene 1

Dialoguing with Your Past

Dialoguing with Your Past

The ancient Greek poet Agathon (~441-401 B.C.) observed, Even God cannot change the Past”. Agathon’s statement implies that the Past is a distinct, inflexible, linear, dead “thing,” separate from the living Present. Is he correct? What, after all, is the Past?

There may be another way to think about it. Here is what one Laughing Heart practitioner reports: “At those times when my own mind is light, I have discovered that my relationship with the Past appears to change. The dark stories soften, or perhaps I see them with fresh eyes. The Past becomes closer, more intimate, and events and people long forgotten suddenly reappear in new and often helpful ways. It seems that a curtain parts and two worlds which once appeared separate are one. The relationship of our mind to the Past may be far more adaptive, plastic, and dynamic than we generally suppose.”

Try this exercise for yourself in Laughing Heart. Write down your discoveries. We are very interested in hearing your insights on Agathon’s axiom. Try solving the discovery puzzle noted below. References and Links: Julian Gresser, Piloting Through Chaos/The Explorers Mind (2013), Book II A Puzzle: Alive or Dead? – What does this puzzle tell you about Laughing Heart?

Daowu and Jianyuan went to a house to offer condolences.

Jianyuan struck the coffin with his hand and asked, “Alive or dead?”

Daowu said, “I’m not saying alive, I’m not saying dead.

“Why not,” Jianyuan asked.

“I’m not saying, I’m not saying,” Daowu maintained.

On the way home Jianyuan became belligerent, “Say something immediately, Teacher, or it will be the worse for you.”

John Tarrant, Bring Me the Rhinoceros, 2004


Hint:

Is it possible that a person can be alive although fundamentally dead to life, its beauty, wonder, and potentialities?… while someone who is already dead can have an enduring ever-living influence on our health, vitality, and well being? In this very moment are we alive or dead?


How to Use the Explorers Wheel in a Nutshell

How to Use the Explorers Wheel in a Nutshell

You can use the Explorers Wheel to connect Laughing Heart to any cause, idea, or concern of importance to you, your friends, colleagues, or society at large. Here’s an example focused on our central theme: Cultivating Exuberant Vitality.
  • The EnsoSeeding the Process/ Beginning Your Journey—You have a choice to begin either in discovery or invocative mode. In the former you simply write your question inside the enso—the Japanese brush stroke at the bulls eye of the Wheel; in the latter you invoke the help of the Explorers Wheel, something like the oracle or Sibyl of ancient Greece. For example, you might write, “Please guide me to sustainable exuberant vitality for the rest of my life.” Formulating and writing down your question is all you need do to start the Explorers Wheel spinning.
  • Laughing Heart as your Guide—Now simply let your Laughing Heart guide you to which “moon” seems most relevant. You may feel a slight “tug” or an inner voice inviting you to come to a particular moon. In preparing this explanatory note the Past moon immediately “called” to me. “Go back to a time when you are most vital,” it said. And immediately I was at the height of my youthful powers training at the main aikido dojo in Tokyo. You can easily capture the special resonance of each moon for you. Don’t try to think your way through. The key is to listen to your Laughing Heart and let the process guide you.
  • Finding New Connections—The next step is to draw lines connecting other moons to your questions and to each other. In this way you can discover the “intertidal” linkages among the moons. I naturally draw a line to Life Force and also to the Discovery/Invention/Innovation moons.
The Beauty moon also begins to speaks to me in an interesting way. The next evening I dream I am listening to the last movement of Mozart’s or Hayden’s Coronation Mass—I am not sure. I am submerged in its majesty, beauty, and power. But when I listen to the actual work the following morning, the original is very different. It seems the Explorers Wheel can constellate and even create new relationships on its own.
Drawing a line to the Future moon enables a form of time travel. I imagine myself in my late eighties, looking, feeling, and transacting little differently than I do today. Flowing with exuberant vitality, I can trace my pathway back from this future/present time space to the active Present. When I do this move I fancy the Explorers Wheel is spiraling inside my Laughing Heart, helping me to discover fresh and interesting connections in my life.
  • Collaborative Exploration and Discovery—The Explorers Wheel gains momentum, the more we play with family, friends, colleagues, and even perfect strangers! Actually we are all connected in many ways of which we are not generally aware. Discovering this shared consciousness can be a source of enormous vitalizing power. The Explorers Wheel and Laughing Heart offer an alternative to our ordinary consensus-based versions of reality.
  • Other Applications—You can point the Explorers Wheel to any other application that interests you. We have used the Explorers Wheel for large scale challenges such as developing innovative strategies to address the Fukushima nuclear disaster or new models of earthquake prediction. Always the best test for Laughing Heart and the Explorers Wheel is: are you having fun? What if our life itself is a great Explorers Wheel?

Explorer’s Wheel Printable Worksheet PDF