Door I · Part One · Entering: Of the Thirst That Wakes the Heavens
«When the thirst no longer seeks outside, the heavens begin to rain within».
Touch the door to open it.
Lifting the Sky with Both Hands
The book describes this form step by step. The description accompanies learning with an instructor and, afterwards, helps you remember the movements.
«I have decided not to teach these arts to anyone under eighteen». Common Guide to the Practices.
«God recognizes my presence on earth».
- Opening
- Sense, soften, and smile from the heart.
- Breath
- Coordinate the movement with a comfortable breath, without imposing a count.
- Repetitions
- The number of repetitions corresponds to the form learned with your instructor.
- Closing
- Finish with the common closing at the lower Dantian and the facial massage.
- Care
- If a movement causes pain or dizziness, stop.
To carry into the day
«I am here»
To carry this door into the day, you can stay with a phrase: “I am here.”
Seven days
Each day, stay with the phrase. Then mark the day.
0 of 7 days
«If something does not serve you, let it go». What you mark stays on this device.
Write from there
Stay a moment with a memory of them. Perhaps a gesture will appear, a way of calling you, or the silence you shared. There is no need to complete what you do not remember.
Notice what happens in you as you remember them now. There may be affection, sadness, distance, or feelings you still cannot name. Let them be, even if they contradict one another.
Do not hurry to close these questions with an answer. Choose the one that held you longest and write from there, even if the first thing you can say is: “I don’t know.”
If you can, write on white paper with a graphite pencil. If you don’t have them at hand, write here and then print your notebook.
What you write here is neither sent nor saved: it is erased when you close the site or reload the page. Print it before you leave, and read your journal again often.
More about this door
«Considerar nuestra alma como un castillo todo de diamante o muy claro cristal, adonde hay muchos aposentos, así como en el cielo hay muchas moradas».
Teresa pictures the soul as a castle with many rooms. I return to one I knew as a child, on Saturdays, in the seat of a car leaving Caracas for Valencia. My father drove; I waited to arrive.
St. Teresa of Ávila · The Interior Castle (Las Moradas) · “Let nothing disturb thee”
St. Teresa of Ávila in the book- Chi Kung
- The Chinese art of cultivating energy through posture, movement, breath, and mind (qigong in pinyin).
- Wong Kiew Kit
- Grandmaster of the author’s Shaolin school, fourth generation of the Southern Shaolin Temple; in the book, Sigung.
- Eighteen Lohan Hands
- A series of eighteen Chi Kung exercises of the Shaolin tradition, taught in the author’s school; from it come the practices of Doors I to V: Lifting the Sky with Both Hands, Looking Back to Carry the Moon Upon and Within Me (Holding the Moon), The Fierce Tiger Pushes Mountains, Plucking Stars, Changing Galaxies (Harvesting Stars), and Shooting Arrows to the Left and Right. The book’s thirteen practices do not form a single traditional series.
- Lower Dantian (also spelled dantien)
- “Field of cinnabar”: a center in the lower belly, in the energetic language of this tradition. In the book, attention returns there before the closing facial massage.
- As a boy
Saturdays, from Caracas to Valencia: a hundred and fifty kilometers in his father’s car.
- 1984
Miami, at seventeen.
- 1999
Leaves his father’s company to start his own.
- 2000
National champion in the Gran Turismo category of Venezuelan motorsport.
- 2006
Dominican Republic: a leadership course.
- July 14, 2007
Bogotá, Hotel Windsor House: a workshop with Wong Kiew Kit.
The full story is in the book.
A letter every month
Once a month, a short letter from Sifu Carmine «Tony» Colarusso, in Spanish, English, or Italian. You can unsubscribe from any letter.
Of the Light That Learns Thy Name
«Light does not seek you to illumine you, but to remind you who you are».
Enter through Door II«You can read one door a week, or stay longer in the one that asks for it».
How to walk through the doorsBack to the thirteen doors