Door XII · Part Three · The Center: Of Permission
Touch the door to open it.
The Immortal Touches the Sky
The image that goes with the movement is that of wanting to climb onto parallel bars you can barely reach.
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.
- Opening
- Sense, soften, and smile from the heart.
- Repetitions
- The choice, frequency and repetitions of each form are learned with the instructor.
- Closing
- When you finish, leave room for the inner flow of Chi and for stillness. Complete 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
“It is no longer just about me”
A personal gesture for this door:
- If it comes to you, sit with your back supported and feel the holding.
- Notice the support of the seat and of your feet on the ground.
- You may say inwardly, without forcing the breath: “It is no longer just about me.”
- Let your gaze rest on one point and stay a moment.
- When you finish, rest your hands on your legs. Perhaps these words will stay with you: “I stay to care.”
Seven days
Each day, rest your back, say the phrase inwardly, and stay a moment. 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
These questions belong to the site. In the book, this door closes another way.
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 or reload the page. Print it before you leave, or tick “Save on this device,” and read your journal again often.
More about this door
«Mi alma se ha empleado,y todo mi caudal, en su servicio; […]».St. John of the Cross · Dark Night of the Soul · Ascent of Mount Carmel · Spiritual Canticle · Sayings of Light and Love
St. John of the Cross in the book- 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.
- Chi
- Vital energy, in the spelling of the author’s lineage (qi in pinyin).
- 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.
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.
“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