Door II · Part One · Entering: Of the Light That Learns Thy Name
«Light does not seek you to illumine you, but to remind you who you are».
Touch the door to open it.
Looking Back to Carry the Moon Upon and Within Me
Its technical name is Carrying the Moon; in my story it also appears as Holding the Moon.
The name I chose for the chapter expresses my relationship with the exercise; the form itself is Carrying the Moon.
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.
- Breath
- Keep a comfortable breath.
- Repetitions
- Repeat as learned with your instructor.
- Closing
- Afterwards, leave room for the flow and for stillness, and 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
As a personal gesture for the day, pause for a moment and remember a gaze that made you feel welcomed. You need not rebuild an exact image. It is enough to recognize what that person meant to you.
Seven days
Each day, pause and remember a gaze that made you feel welcomed. 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
If you remember a moment when you were about to ask it, return to it slowly. What were you going to say? What made you keep silent? Stay with whatever you remember, however little.
Set aside, for a moment, the answer you hoped to receive. Listen to your own question. What does it say about what you need, what hurts you, or what you cannot yet name?
Perhaps you do not yet wish to share it. You can begin by writing it for yourself. Notice what you feel when you see it on the page, with no need to justify it to anyone.
Remember the last time you made it. What were you tending with that gesture? What place does it hold in your life when practice ends and you return to the everyday?
Stay with the question that touched you most. Give it room before you answer. You may also write from doubt, from a contradiction, or from something that has no words yet.
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
«A cuanto yo puedo entender, la puerta para entrar en este castillo es la oración y consideración».
Teresa places the entrance to the castle in prayer and reflection. Reading her, I return to a night breeze carrying the scent of the salt pans of Cervia and of walks with my grandfather Livio. From that memory I draw near to a presence I could not, at first, name.
St. Teresa of Ávila · The Interior Castle (Las Moradas) · “Let nothing disturb thee”
St. Teresa of Ávila in the book- Kuan Yin (Kuan Shi Yin Pusa)
- Bodhisattva of compassion, “she who hears the cries of the world.” The author links her presence with the maternal dimension of his own devotion.
- Ho Fatt Nam
- Wong Kiew Kit’s master within the Shaolin tradition. In Door II, the author tells how Sigung identified him as the figure he had perceived during a practice.
- Sigung, Sifu
- Grandfather-teacher and father-teacher, respectively, in the school’s forms of address.
- Om Mani Padme Hum
- The mantra of compassion associated with Kuan Yin.
- Biso
- A tall, fine grass that grows around the salt pans of Cervia, as the author names it.
- La Montaña Azul
- A retreat center in the mountains of Costa Rica where the author practiced with his master; the mountain of his mother’s dream (Doors II, VI, VIII, and IX).
- Metanoia
- A deep change of mind and attitude. Jung links metanoia with spiritual rebirth (“The Undiscovered Self (Present and Future),” § 536) and, in another passage, speaks of a change of mind that recognizes the whole human being (“Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth,” § 719). Both texts appear in Civilization in Transition, Collected Works, vol. 10. In Doors II and VII, the author links it with his experience of inner transformation, whose path he discovers by walking it. That personal description is not a technical definition of Jung’s. The author also describes it as “that other inner space where, for me, two plus two can open onto the infinite.” This image, together with those in the entries “Orthonoia” and “Paranoia,” expresses his personal way of telling what happens to him.
- July 2007
Bogotá: at his first workshop with Wong Kiew Kit, a feminine presence appears to him.
- On a journey
Chirripó, Costa Rica: he finds the image of Kuan Yin carved in wood.
- June 2009
Kota Kinabalu, Sabah: the Puh Toh Tze temple.
- March 2010
La Montaña Azul: a question at Sigung’s table.
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 Threshold of Return
«Whoever returns changed does not return to the same place».
Enter through Door III«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