Book Review | Blue Star Visions

Jun 26

Carol Bowman Children’s Past Lives

By heidi.skarie@gmail.com | Book Review, Past lives | 25 Comments

Some parents and preschool teachers have noticed that young children will occasionally talk about another lifetime. It’s as if the veil between their last life isn’t fully drawn. The glimpses these children get into the past allows them to remember a small piece of another life. At other times they’ll remember their most recent past life in vivid detail. The child may startle their parents by saying something like, “When I was big . . .” or “When I used to be a nurse or fireman . . . .”

At other times they have nightmares or fears connected to their past lives. My niece would wake up crying at night. In a past life her family died in a fire while she slept overnight at a friend’s house.

In Children’s Past Lives: How Past Life Memories Affect Your Child Carol Bowman researched different studies on children who remember past lives. She takes the field of healing from past lives a step further by teaching parents how to help their child get over phobias from another life.

Bowman’s journey into this study began when her young son Chase suddenly became afraid of fireworks. Soon after, a hypnotherapist friend of hers, Norman Inge, came for a visit and Bowman mentioned her son’s fears. In an impromptu therapy session, Inge asked Chase what caused his fear of loud noises. Chase began to describe himself as a soldier carrying a gun with a sword on the end of it in the midst of battle, surrounded by smoke and flames. Eventually, he was wounded. Unlike adults, Chase didn’t needed hypnotic induction to remember his former life. After recalling his life as a soldier, Chase’s chronic eczema and phobia of loud noises went away. Later Chase remembered more about this fateful day in battle.

After his wound was patched up, he was sent back to the battlefield to operate the cannon and was killed. He floated above the battle, glad he was done with that hard life. Then he floated over his house and said good-bye to his wife and children. “They don’t see me because I’m in spirit, but they know that I’m dead.” (p. 24)

Bowman previously had a memory of a past life when she was very ill in this lifetime. Like her son, the remembrance helped her heal. In the experience Bowman states the following:

“I understood—really understood—that I was a part of something greater than the finite me. In a flash I realized that this energy I felt within myself could never be destroy—it would always exit. Only the body dies, while this essence that was everywhere but somehow still centered in my body continues forever.” (p. 34)

Bowman wondered why she was healed and came to understand that it had something to do with “recognizing patterns from the past and understanding how they carried over from life to life.” (p. 48)

Bowman’s inner question about what reincarnation meant for her present life was finally answered—directly and practically. “Re-experiencing my past lives released the grip of the past and gave me a fresh start in the present.” (p. 49)

Her interest in Chase’s experience led her to do extensive research on reincarnation. She found books by Dr. Edith Fiore, Dr. Helen Wambach and Dr. Raymond Moody. Wambach did experiments to prove past lives are real after having a spontaneous past-life recall. Wambach hinted that “The healing effect of recalling past lives is both powerful and universal. Just by remembering past lives, people could heal themselves of phobias. They didn’t even have to know it was possible.” (p. 64)

Fiore’s book You Have Been Here Before focuses on the healing benefits of past-life regression. She discovered an emotionally traumatic death is often the cause of the patient’s problems. Once the forgotten trauma surfaces, the patient’s symptoms begin to clear up.

In Dr. Raymond Moody’s book Life After Life, he describes near-death experiences similar to Dr. Fiore’s reports of patient’s descriptions of their death experiences during regression.

“Everyone who remembered dying described a continuation of consciousness after death; their awareness didn’t cease when their heart stopped beating. Their perceptions remained viable. They could see, hear, sense what was happening to them and around them . . .

“At the moment of death, they felt themselves leaving their bodies, suddenly feeling lighter, floating like a feather, rising up into the air, looking down at the scenes they had left below. . . . Many entered a celestial realm of bright light and bathed in its warm, loving presence.” (p. 68)

Bowman’s study led her to Dr. Ian Stevenson who wrote Twenty Suggestive Cases of Reincarnation and Children Who Remember Previous Lives: A Question of Reincarnation. The first book is full of cases where two- or three-year-old children recall, without prompting, enough details of a past life for his or her former identity to be established. Bowman realized that Stevenson was addressing the question:

“What survives bodily death? Thanks to his enormous lifelong effort, for the first time in the history of science we have objective evidence for proof of reincarnation—evidence that suggests strongly that something of our personality does survive bodily death.” (p. 110)

For thirty-five years Dr. Stevenson and his colleagues collected 2,600 cases in a range of culture and religions from around the world. (p. 112)

Bowman pursued training to do past-life regressions and began her work with children. Once when regressing her son Chase, she asked him “What happens after we die?” He explained:

“You can go back to a scene from the life you left and get any information you want to answer questions to finish up your life there. You can see what happens with the people you left behind. You can go back while you’re in spirit and say good-bye and see what happens to them in the future. If you see that all is well with them, this frees you to leave the Earth plane.” (p. 139)

Bowman decided to write a book on children’s past-life memories, so she placed an ad in a parenting magazine asking parents to share their children’s past-life memories. Colleen Hocken answered her ad.

Colleen’s three-year-old son remembered being hit by a truck and killed. This past-life memory was confusing because he couldn’t differentiate that life from his current one. Bowman gave Colleen techniques she could use to work with her son to “clarify” the painful events that happened in his past life. He needed to understand his current parents loved him and that he was hit by a truck while in another body. After having a conversation with his mother about his past life, the child’s face lit up. “You could just feel this incredible weight lift off him.” (p. 174) Colleen told Bowman. He became a happy, playful child again.

Colleen went on to say, “‘More people need to know that children can have troubling past-life memories and that their parents can help.’ She added, ‘I’m going to write to Oprah Winfrey to tell her about this.’” (p. 175)

This resulted in Bowman, her two children and Colleen Hocken appearing on Oprah to talk about past-life memories. People in the audience also shared some past-life memories from childhood. One woman shared the following (excerpted from Bowman’s book):

“When she was a little girl, she heard a single plane fly overhead, but had a vision of the sky filled with squadrons of planes coming to attack. She ran to her grandfather, screaming, “Run to the cellar, the bombers are coming!” (p. 187)

This story brought back my memories. Many times I’ll be peacefully gardening and hear a plane fly overhead. Instantly I have an urge to run into the house and hide in the basement. I suspect this stems from my own past life in World War II.

Bowman also shared her upset and unhappiness as a child at being sent away to camp. Upon further exploration, she discovered that her feelings came from her last life when she died in a concentration camp. This also lit up for me; when I was a child I had the same unexplained upset at being sent to camp.

Bowman states the following:

“Any child, anywhere in the world, can have a past-life memory, regardless of the cultural or religious beliefs of the parents. Most of those memories don’t cause problems. They are benign and are useful to help explain a child’s talents, temperament, behavioral quirks . . . they can forever change the most fundamental beliefs of the parents about death and life. For, by sharing their memories with us, small children teach what we adult have forgotten: that life continues after death.

“Sometimes, though, children have troubling memories from the past that create problems, such as phobias or physical ailments. These children may need help separating past from present—they may need to be told that the past life is over. Or if the memory is a sign that something from the past is unfinished, they may need help discovering what that unfinished business is in order to resolve it. They may need to examine their feelings and thoughts at the moment of death and be guided toward a resolution . . .

“For some children it’s even simpler than that . . . all the parent needs to do is simply acknowledge the truth of the memory and not deny it. Then the memory will run its course.” (p. 152)

The second and third parts of Bowman’s book are A Practical Guide to Children’s Past-Life Memories and Listen to the Children. These two sections give techniques parents can use to work with their children who have past-life memories. In the last section, Bowman explores the reasons people are afraid to publicly come out and say they believe in past lives. It may come from a past life where people were executed for having ideas outside church dogma.

If you have a child with a past-life memory you’d like more insight into or if you are fascinated by the topic, you’ll find Bowman’s book a well documented, thorough study that can transform your ideas about life after death.

Below is a You tube video interview with Carol Bowman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-MVcWEusW8

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Mar 21

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On the Then and Now
By heidi.skarie@gmail.com | Book Review, Past lives | No Comments

Today’s blog is an article by Jo Leonard, author of The Would Be Saint.

Jo Leonard on the Then and Now

Heidi Skarie’s interest in Native Americans, and generally in past life recall, are two subjects that resonate deeply with me. I was looking at her website the other day and read this review from Colorado Libraries on her and her book entitled Red Willow’s Quest: “…and obviously has extensive knowledge about the life and customs of the Shoshoni tribe.”

I know that kind of authenticity doesn’t just come from an author doing research. Whether a writer is conscious of it or not, memories of the past are often sprung open from little cages stored within us as we write. Words then begin to appear as though by magic on the computer screen and even the author can be left to wonder: “Where did that come from?”

The sweat and toil of research aside, there is often a flow of what I have come to call superior knowledge (or knowingness) that surpasses what mere research can bring to a story. That superior knowledge often shows in the details; details that come about because one has known them first hand.

In the story below, I recalled “a gorgeous morning filled with bird song, the smells of impending summer, and the fluttering sound of curtains blowing in the open windows.” It was a memory from this lifetime. I also wrote, “I remember looking at a yellow sun hanging high in the sky just before I heard the pounding of horse’s hoofs and the screams of terror.” That was a memory from a past lifetime. Is one memory less valid than the other?

We each have a very long history extending across oceans upon oceans of time and space. How much you recall depends on how much you want to recall and accept. Learn to embrace your many lives, after all, you are the sum of all your parts and then some.

The story to follow is one of many Native American past life recalls.

Little Big Man

I was elated when I first heard the word reincarnation. It explained the inequity of life and the feelings of familiarity I had about certain people and places. But most of all, it eliminated my fear that a single lifetime precluded the possibility of any truly significant spiritual unfoldment.

Of all the past life recalls I have had since learning about reincarnation, one in particular stands apart from all the others. It was a lifetime in which I had been taken from everything I loved in an abrupt and horrid fashion.

In present time, I’d been hanging around with a group of like-minded Souls who met on weekends at a friends non-working farm. We’d gather as a group for spiritual conversations and meals, but we’d also spend time alone in various parts of the house or surrounding fields pursuing our own desire to read, paint, or meditate upon the mysteries of life.

The day of the past life recall was a gorgeous morning filled with bird song, the smells of impending summer, and the fluttering sound of curtains blowing in the open windows. I was sitting in the living room of the house wondering about some of the people who were currently in my life. These were people who were not present at these informal weekend convocations but were connected to me or to others in the group. Three people in particular paraded across my mind’s eye as I rested my head against the back of the sofa. I knew I knew them, knew them from before.

Was this a dream? A vision?

I saw myself as a Native American woman working in a field in the company of two of her three children, beautiful brown-skin children. My miserable, wizened, old mother-in-law was back in the teepee with my other child, the youngest of the three. The two children with me in the field, and the mother-in-law, were the three I knew in my current life.

It was a beautiful day. The men were out on a hunt while the women tended to the crops. I remember looking at a yellow sun hanging high in the sky just before I heard the pounding of horses’ hoofs and the screams of terror.   I watched from the dreamer’s perspective as Custer’s men rode through the fields and slaughtered me, my two beautiful children, and all the other innocents in that field.

It might have been months or perhaps years later, that I saw the film Little Big Man. In this satirical recounting of how the West was won, there is a scene that mirrors my recall of that day in the field. I was strangely detached as I watched the movie. I had already come to terms with how that life had affected this one. It was no longer of any consequence.

So much of the now is colored by past events that exist like little film clips we carry along with us from life to life. How do we keep from replaying these clips and start afresh? It begins by waking up to the fact that these memories of other lifetimes do exist. Then, when you’re ready, you ask to see them. Just put the thought out there into the great unknown that you wish to know. Ask for insight and, more importantly, ask for guidance lest you become entrapped in the past.

Want to get started? Here’s a way to prime the pump of past life recall. First, you ask to see. Next, you watch your dreams and the events in your waking life. Let’s say, for example, that your son asks for help with his homework. His assignment is to write an essay on the eruption of Vesuvius and the destruction of the Roman city of Pompeii. Later that evening, you tune into the History Channel. What’s on? A documentary on the city of Pompeii! It starts you thinking about a trip to Mexico and how strongly you reacted, though in no danger, to seeing smoke rising from “El Popo,” the volcano that sits between the cities of Cuernavaca and Puebla.

Are you beginning to get it? When you connect the dots, a picture begins to form. Pursue that picture as far as you want to or need to. Simply let it go when you are done looking and learning. Then is then and now is now.

Excerpt from The Would Be Saint by Jo Leonard

The Would Be Saint by Jo Leonard is a collection of short anecdotes chronicling the spiritual experiences of a soul in search of God. Writing with simple authenticity, the author demonstrates that the mystical experiences of the saints are actually available to us all.

Jo Leonard has traveled the world presenting consciousness-provoking talks and workshops to other like-minded seekers. A published author, her writings, both non-fiction and fiction alike, are spiritually insightful, inspiring, and often laced with humor. She currently lives in Occoquan, Virginia (near Washington DC) with her husband and a Siamese cat.

The Would Be Saint

by Jo Leonard

ISBN 978-1439232859

Available at www.amazon.com

Website: www.jeleonard.com
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Feb 26

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Michael Newton, Journey of Souls book Review
By heidi.skarie@gmail.com | Book Review, Past lives | 5 Comments

Most of us have pondered the questions, “Why are we here?” and “What happens after we die?” We wonder why some people are born to a wealthy and/or loving family and why others are born into poverty and/or into an unloving family. We wonder why some people suffer from disease and die young while others live a long, healthy life.

We may come to conclusions based on our own personal religious beliefs or based on what we were taught in church. Most think you can’t actually know the answers to these questions until you die.   Michael Newton’s book Journey of Souls Case Studies of Life Between Lives offers new insights into what happens between lives, why we are born, and why the physical world is such a hard place.

Dr. Michael Newton is a hypnotherapist who discovered that we, as soul, have a life in the spirit worlds between our lives here on earth. The first time he had a glimpse into this soul life was when he hypnotized a client and asked her why she was lonely. She replied, “I miss some friends in my group and that’s why I get so lonely on Earth.”

Over a period of ten years Dr. Newton worked with his clients carefully recording what they told him about their life in their “life between lives”. He discovered that helping people find their place in the spirit worlds was more meaningful to people than remembering former lives on earth.

Newton says, “Having a conscious knowledge of their soul life in the spirit world and a history of the physical existence on planets gives these people a strong sense of direction and energy for life.” (P. )

This remarkable book covers soul’s experience right after the body dies, and the journey to its spirit-world group of friends and what it learns there.

Many books discuss reincarnation, but this is the only one I’ve run across that goes into depth about what soul does between lives. One of the most important aspects of Newton’s finding is helping people to eliminate the fear of death. Newton says at the time of death, “All people report a euphoric sense of freedom and brightness around them. Some of my subjects see brilliant whiteness totally surrounding them at the moment of death, while others observe the brightness is farther away from an area of darker space through which they are being pulled. This is often referred to as the tunnel effect, and has become well know with the pubic.” (p. 9)

After this tunnel effect, soul is met by their relatives, close friends, and/or personal guide. More advanced soul isn’t met by anyone as they don’t require a support system.

Next, souls are taken to a “space of healing” to help soul recover from their last life. Here soul is debriefed by their guide about the life that just ended. Earth is a hard place compared to the love and wisdom of the place where soul was created, so soul often returns bruised and needs time to heal.

After healing, soul returns to its group of intimate old friends who are at about the same awareness level. This is “a small primary unit of entities who have direct and frequent contact, such as we would see in a human family.” (p. 8)

A guide, who is a more advanced soul, works with the group. “Guides only want the best for us and sometimes this means they must watch us endure much pain to reach a certain objective. Guides cannot assist in our progress until we are ready to make the necessary changes in order to take full advantage of life’s opportunities.” (p. 119)

With their group a soul will go over their last lifetime and review what they did well and what they could have done better.

Souls are on different levels: beginner, intermediate and advanced souls. Newton didn’t interview many advanced souls. He says, “The fact is, a person whose maturity is this high doesn’t seek out a regression therapist to resolve life-plan conflicts.” (p. 16)

An advance spirit shows more patience with society and has good coping skills.   They show kindness and understanding towards others.

The next area Newton covers is the selection of soul’s next life. After the wounds of a past life are healed, soul feels the pull to reincarnate again on earth, though soul can reincarnate on other worlds a well. With their guide, soul decides where they want to live, what lessons they want to learn, and what parents they want to be born to.

Newton gave an example of a soul who wanted to study music. The soul wanted to live in New York with parents who were supportive and well off enough to pay for music lessons. This soul said, “If I want to express the beauty of music and give pleasure to myself and others, I need proper training and supportive parents, otherwise I’ll get sidetracked.” (p. 21)

Each person comes into a new life with lessons they have chosen to learn. They pick a family, friends and a mate to help them learn these lessons. One particularly interesting part of this plan is that we have triggers to help us remember the important people we will encounter in our life such as who we are suppose to marry. A piece of jewelry, a laugh, the eyes, or a fragrance can trigger the memory.

We have amnesia about our soul identity when the soul and human brain merge. The merging takes place in the womb early or late in the pregnancy. This amnesia allows soul to have a fresh start. But there is often a bleed through in young children who remember their past lives or in all of us when we meet someone we have an instant recognition of.

Once soul enters the body of a baby, it comes and goes while the baby is in the womb. After birth, soul continues to come and go when the body is sleeping or in deep meditation.

In conclusion, Newton says, “If you carry away nothing except the idea you may have a permanent identity worth finding, I will have accomplished a great deal.” (p. 274)

We live in an imperfect world by design. “We bear responsibility in the evolution of a higher consciousness for ourselves and others in life.” (p. 276) We learn that we have a loving place waiting for us where we belong. One day we will go there to finish this long journey and reach a state of enlightenment.

I’ve just touched on the essence of this fascinating book. You may not agree with all of Newton’s findings, but does open doors to possibilities. I believe he has just scratched the surface of the inner worlds and there is much beyond what he describes.

Michael Newton has written other books and has some You Tubes videos online. Here’s one you might find interesting.

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Feb 11

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Brian Weiss on Past Lives
By heidi.skarie@gmail.com | Book Review, Past lives | No Comments

Last winter when I visited friends in Hawaii, I came across a remarkable book on their bookshelf: Many Lives Many Masters by Brian Weiss. It is a true story about a prominent psychiatrist and his patient who were both changed by the patient’s past-life memories. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested metaphysics. It is a thought-provoking, fascinating story that took courage to write.

Catherine came to see Dr. Weiss because she was plagued by fears, phobias and anxieties that were keeping her from living a happy, fulfilled life. After 18 months Dr. Weiss had still not made any significant progress treating her, so he tried regressing her to her childhood through hypnosis. She remembered some childhood trauma, but she didn’t get any better. So Dr. Weiss told her to go back to the time when her symptoms arose and she began telling him in great detail about a past life.

Neither Catherine or Dr. Weiss believed in reincarnation. Weiss was skeptical at first but as Catherine continued to remember past lives his doubts eroded. Catherine’s past-life recalls occurred in many time periods and she was both male and female. In all of them, she was an ordinary person: a servant, soldier or peasant. Many of her lives were hard and her deaths brutal, such as having her throat cut or drowning in a flood. However, it was remarkable that as she remembered these lives she started healing from her fears and anxieties.

Dr. Weiss began to research past lives and learned about Ian Stevenson who interviewed 2,000 children with past-life recall. Weiss also discovered references to past lives in the Old and New Testaments that were taken out in 325 A. D. by the Roman emperor Constantine the Great. Still it took him awhile to fully embrace the idea of past lives. He studied them as a scientist would, and kept detailed records of his sessions with Catherine.

Interestingly in one session Catherine told Weiss that he was her uncle and teacher in 1568 B.C. It became apparent that it wasn’t an accident that she and Weiss came together in this life.

In each lifetime, Weiss would take her to the moment of death and she would float out of her body, toward a light where guides or spiritual masters were always waiting for her. Even though her deaths experiences were similar, her religious beliefs about the afterlife were different in each lifetime.

As well as remembering past lives, Catherine began to talk about her in-between–lives state. In that state Catherine could channel guides or masters who spoke to Weiss. Once they gave her a message from Weiss’s father and son, both of who had died. The son had died as an infant from a heart defect and had come to show Dr. Weiss “that medicine could only go so far, that its scope is limited.” (p. 55)

From these inner guides Weiss learned that “we are all in school… (and) No one is greater than another.” (p. 210) We learn a “systematic body of spiritual knowledge. This knowledge spoke of love and hope, faith, and charity.” (p. 172)

From these past-life memories, Catherine got rid of her symptoms and became a much happier person. Meanwhile Weiss had a spiritual awakening and eventually felt guided to write this book about what he’d learned. He thought it would comfort people to know that we never die, that we have lived countess life times, and there are spirits that are guiding us.

Dr. Weiss has written many other books about his experiences with patients remembering past lives. You can check out his website at: http://www.brianweiss.com.

I also found an interesting You Tube video interview with Dr. Weiss Entreparentesis – Dr. Brian Weiss.

In this You Tube Weiss explains that consciousness survives death and that everything is about love. In each life we have to come back here to get it right, but eventually we move to a higher place.

Knowing that our loved ones never really die helps people find joy. In one of his past lives Dr. Weiss was killed for talking about past lives. But in this life he feels incredibly blessed to be able to share this information and in return he meets wonderful people all over this planet.
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May 27

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Chungliang Al Huang
By heidi.skarie@gmail.com | Book Review | 4 Comments

In a recent post I wrote about Huang being an inspiration to me. Today, I found an article with a photo of him in the Your Life Lakeshore Weekly News here in Minnetonka, Minnesota. The photo was taken by Mark Trockman.

In the photo Huang demonstrates the Tai Jai move The Sing Whip in front of a new sculpture at the Marsh. The sculpture was done by Zhu Ming a Chinese artist and brought here from Hong Kong.

The photo captures the wonderful spirit of this amazing person.

Who are some of the people in your life who inspire you, help you follow your dreams and keep your vision on what is important to you?
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May 22

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Conscious Women Conscious Relationships
By heidi.skarie@gmail.com | Book Review, Writing | 5 Comments

Darlene Montgomery has a new book in her conscious women series:

Conscious Women Conscious Relationships

True Stories of Wisdom and Awareness on the Path of Relationships.

Compiled by Darlene Montgomery

I have a story in the book called Three Gold Coins about my journey as a writer. In the story I talk about getting the story idea for my first book through a series of six dreams that were like watching an action/adventure movie. I also talk about the amazing experiences that happen when I listened to my inner guidance while promoting Red Willow’s Quest.

The following is a quote from my story.

“We each come into this life with unique gifts and talents. It’s up to us to discover what they are, to develop and believe in them, despite the obstacles. We are always being guided and aided in our mission, if we listen and stay tuned to the highest part of ourselves. When we follow our heart and serve our purpose it opens the door for great joy and brings a passion for living to our lives. Equally important, it inspires others to do the same.”

The book includes a story by Oprah Winfrey called On Success.   Other stories are by Jo Leonard author of The Would Be Saint, Darlene Montogomery author of the Dream Yourself Awake, Ellie Braun-Haley author of A Little Door, A Little Light, and Monique Rider founder of Body Life Dynamics

Here is a quote from the introduction to the book by Darlene Montgomery.

‘”Nothing in our lives challenges us, sculpts us, nor moves us to grow or reflect the way our relationships do. Relationships of all kinds, from: spouses, parents, children, friends, relatives, workmates and more are the soil from which we harvest the qualities of patience, humility, harmony, detachment and most importantly, Divine Love. All of our relationships are for one thing: Ultimately they lead us to a greater relationship with our self and ultimately God.

All the stories in this book bear a lesson. Among them: forgiveness, letting go, humility and discipline. But above all these is the lesson of Divine Love. By using Divine Love in all life situations, we naturally learn its by-products of forgiveness, harmony and patience.”

Do you have a story about a lesson you learned from life and your relations? Please share it as a comment so others can learn benefit from what you learned?

What People Are Saying About

Conscious Women Conscious Relationships

“Conscious Women, Conscious Relationships combines wise journeys of women’s struggles and joys with transcendent poetic images. The spiritual truths in these stories shine divine light onto the murkiest paths. Let these women inspire you to create your own conscious life.”

~Linda Anderson, co-founder, Angel Animals Network, www.angelanimals.com

“This is a book I have waited for my whole life. The stories are our own. Dare to find yourself in these pages!”

~Maxine Hyndman, Author, The Naked Millionaire and The Organic Entrepreneur

“The Conscious Women series of books is like a hug during uncertain times. It’s healthy and helpful for us to look at other women’s lives, their struggles and their triumphs. It helps us realize that—to paraphrase someone wiser than I am—no matter what lies ahead of us, it can’t possibly measure up to what lies within us. Here’s to conscious living—and Conscious Women! ”

~Erin Davis, Radio Host, CHFI
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May 22

0

Inspiring People
By heidi.skarie@gmail.com | Book Review, Writing | One Comment

I’m inspired by people who are wonderfully alive and still contributing to the world in their later years. It opens me the possibility that I, too, can be productive and giving to the world as I age. This winter when I was at an art gallery in Hawaii I saw on display clay figurines of animals created by a women in her eighties. They were charming sculptures and she has quite a following of people who collect her work. The woman still teaches art classes as well as selling her artwork. I left the art gallery thinking about how wonderful it was that she could still do what she loved and pass her skill along to others.

This week I had another experience with a person who is contributing to life. The man was Chungliang Al Huang. He is 73 years old and full of energy, love, and life. I attended one of his workshops on Tai Ji. Huang is the founder and president of the Living Tao Foundation and the author of numerous books. Accompanying Huang was Dave Darling who is an award-winning Cellist.

I came away from the workshop recharge and inspired. Huang talked about Tai Ji as an ever-constant ever-changing creative process. He teaches his students to be spontaneous and to dance with the movements.

In his book, Spirit of the Dancing Warrior, he says that “Your primary intention is to discover how to play, train, work and live in alignment with our heart.”   He quoted the Buddha who said, “Your work is to discover your greatness and to give your self to it.” Huang went on to say, “When you function from a heart-space . . . you demonstrate integrity, affirm yourself and others, and seek the extraordinary in each day.”

In an article in Internal Arts Magazine July- August 1988 Huang told a story about a man who came to a Zen master. He said was a doctor and told all about himself, then said he wanted to learn from the master about Zen Buddhism. The master asked him to have some tea, and then poured the tea into a cup. He continued pouring even though the cup had overflowed. The doctor said, “The tea is spilling over.” The master said, “You come with a full cup. Your cup is already overflowing with knowledge. Unless you come with emptiness and openness, I can give you nothing.” Huang said, “We need that kind of innocence, that kind of ignorance, in learning and dealing with things every day.”

In the class Huang talked about the same idea. The Chinese phrase is Wu Wei. Doing by not getting in the way, or going with the flow. I think of it as letting go. Not getting in the way of life. So often we have to release something in order for something new to come. Be grateful for the wonderful things we experience and then let them go so new things can come in.

Darling led a part of the workshop as well. He taught us to let go of all limitations about our musical abilities whether singing, dancing, or playing a musical instrument. Forget any teacher that said you couldn’t carry a note or discouraged you in some way. Darling said that when he works with cello students he doesn’t say this is going to be a difficult piece, he said this is a beautiful piece and we will have fun learning it. We sang and danced to his beautiful cello music, letting ourselves be free and enjoy the energy of the other people in the room.

Spirit of the Dancing Warriors is by Huang and Dr. Jerry Lynch. The book uses a meditation program based on warrior virtues. It is a soulful path to motivation, inspiration, and wisdom for athletics, fitness, and life. Huang’s website is www.livingtao.org.

Have you read any books lately that inspired you? Please share the book and tell us why it inspired you.
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