Door X · Part Three · The Center: Of the Love That Keeps Vigil
«The vigil of love is tenderness».
Touch the door to open it.
The Immortal Cleanses His Eyes
At this door: to cleanse my eyes before deciding.
When I give only the name of a form, the name serves to recognize it with whoever teaches it to you; the gesture that follows neither describes nor replaces its technique.
The book presents this form by its name alone. It is learned with an instructor.
«I have decided not to teach these arts to anyone under eighteen». Common Guide to the Practices.
Read the common guide to the practices
A place of this door
On a visit to Venezuela, Sigung wanted to walk behind the curtain of the El Sapo falls. His trousers got soaked, and the next day he was to fly back to Malaysia. That night it fell to me to dry them under the light of a bedside lamp.
The full story is in the book.
To carry into the day
«May the truth embrace me without wounding»
A personal gesture for this door, independent of the school’s exercise:
- Before sleep, go to your altar or to the place where you usually gather yourself.
- Sit with the soles of your feet on the ground.
- Breathe naturally and ask for “truth without veils.”
- In your prayer, surrender one hardness and one scattering.
- Incline your head just slightly and say: “May the truth embrace me without wounding.”
Seven nights
Each night, before sleep, make the gesture and say the phrase. Then mark the night.
0 of 7 nights
«If something does not serve you, let it go». What you mark stays on this device.
Write from there
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
- Disciple
- «How can I hear, if my senses and my will fall silent?
- Master
- When you quiet the senses and the willing of your own self, then the eternal hearing, seeing, and speaking become manifest in you, and God hears and sees through you».
To draw near to that listening, I imagine a submerged bell.
- Sinew Metamorphosis (Yi Jin Jing)
- A series of exercises of the Shaolin tradition, distinct from the Eighteen Hands and the Eighteen Arts. From it come the forms chosen for Doors X, XI, and XII: The Immortal Cleanses His Eyes, The Sacred Tree Spreads Its Branches, and The Immortal Touches the Sky.
- Sigung, Sifu
- Grandfather-teacher and father-teacher, respectively, in the school’s forms of address.
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 Spiral of the Saints
«When the soul remembers its orbit, it stops walking: it begins to turn».
Enter through Door XI«You can read one door a week, or stay longer in the one that asks for it».
Return to Door X when you need to look at your decisions in the light of your values.
How to walk through the doorsBack to the thirteen doors