Dahn Yoga MA Member’s blog

Today’s card was Sahm (Three): Connect Heaven and Earth with your body.

Sit with your spine erect and your balance centered in your lower abdomen. With one half of your body firmly rooted to the ground, let the other half be open toward heaven. You will feel your own holiness when you connect Heaven and Earth as one through your body.

Hmmm…so I should sit up straight more often. So this is why good posture is not just good for my body, but for my energy and spirit. Some people discover this on their own when they do ji gam exercise in class. They realize they can feel the energy of their hands more when they are able to sit up straight.

It seems like winter is officially here with the end of November and the arrival of cold weather today. But things were warm inside the Dahn Center despite the cold outside.

In the past couple of days I’ve begun to reach out to healthcare agencies and other businesses around Jamaica Plain to offer them group rates for their employees.

Many people decided to continue with their Dahn training today, including one JP member who was going to stay away for a few months because she was too busy with school and was going away. She decided she couldn’t stay away

Here is some news from David healer nim’s newsletter to the Dahn Healer community. It is a great resource:

BRAIN MANAGEMENT:  The new book from Ilchi Lee is out and just got reviewed on Yahoo.     http://news.yahoo.com/s/prweb/20071109/bs_prweb/prweb567653_2

SHIM SUNG AT WENDY’S!  No, not the burger place.  Wendy Hall runs an independent yoga studio called Roots To Wings on the north shore.  After studying Dahn, she began teaching it at her studio.  It’s become so popular, she teaches it twice a week now.  Also, she has many members that want to do shim sung.  Here is a note from her:

Chun Shim Nim are leading a Heart Opening Workshop at my studio which is open to the public on Wed Nov, 28 from 7-9 PM.  I have attached some information regarding this event.  In addition I will be hosting Shimsung here at my studio in February of 2008.  If any healers have family or friends that live in this area that may want to attend either event please have them get in touch with me.

CHECK OUT THE WEBPAGE:  http://web.mac.com/davidsho/THE_MAIN_PAGE/Newburyport_Shim_Sung_Information_page.html

Shimsung Information

Pre-session Tuesday Feb 12 7-9 PM

Day one Saturday Feb 16 10-6 PM

Day Two Sunday Feb 17- 8AM-7 PM

Post Session Thursday Feb 21 7-9 PM

Chun Shim Nim will be leading the Shimsung along with other help from the staff.  

My website for information regarding my studio is at http://www.rootstowings.com and the phone number is 978 463 YOGA ( 9642)

Love to you

wendy nim

NEW LIFE INSIDE THE DEPRESSED BRAIN:  Interesting article from The Boston Globe (located in the Library)

http://web.mac.com/davidsho/The_Library/New_Life_In_The_Depressed_Brain.html

DON’T FORGET TO CHECK OUT THE CALENDAR.  PLEASE COME TO THE YEAR END HEALER MEETING AND POT LUCK DINNER IN ARLINGTON ON DEC 16.  

CALENDAR IS HERE:  http://web.mac.com/davidsho/THE_MAIN_PAGE/DAHN_HEALER_CALENDAR_%26_NEWS.html

DON’T FORGET TO CHECK OUT THE LIBRARY. 

LIBRARY IS HERE:  http://web.mac.com/davidsho/The_Library/The_Library.html

The Boston Phoenixi are raising funds to support the tuition of the next crop of powerful young earth humans. One way they are doing this is by selling hot packs and Chun Bu Kyung cards at Dahn Centers in the greater Boston area. What great healing gifts for yourself or a loved one! They will also be selling them and other items at the Jamaica Plain Center on December 14th during the DahnMuDo Dance Night from 7:30 to 9:30/10:00 pm.

The first card I picked was actually one I already picked recently: Mu = Nothingness, No, None,  Zero, Creation arises from an empty mind. I think I should take the hint.

But as a matter of interest to people reading this website, I picked another one for today:

Sah = Four
The soul wants to completely itself.
Your soul wants to know itself, to realize itself, to complete itself. when this need of the soul is not met, your life becomes empty, and your soul asks you in a voice that grows ever louder: “Are you happy?”

So unhappiness is just a message from your soul saying, “Pay attention to me! I know what I’m doing! You’re going the wrong way right now!” It will happily steer you in the right direction towards happiness. To do this we need awakening and the action. We need to be awake and aware enough to listen to our soul and be strong and flexible enough to act on what it says, even when it seems irrational or no one else is doing it. While the Initial Awakening Workshop is where we awaken our bodies, the Shim Sung Workshop is where we awaken our soul or True Self.

Some people don’t like the word soul. Maybe it’s too religious or doesn’t fit into enough belief systems. I only used it because it was on the Chun Bu Kyung card. Other people like the word True Self. Whatever you want to call it, there is a particular energy or feeling inside that is bright, true, healing, and happy. All the card says is to follow this feeling

I received this message as part of my 21 Day Miracle Newsletter from www.ilchi.com. I thought it was an inspiring way to look at life, which that website is full of by the way. I love water, and I love the idea of being like a river– strong and yet not rigid. It reminds me of the “urban poet” I met by the Boston Commons one day last year. I spoke with him for just five minutes, but the beautiful words that came out of his mouth were just what I needed to hear at that time. The only ones I remember are, “Firm, not hard. Soft, not yielding.” Almost like a river. Here is how Ilchi Lee put it:

Like River Water, Embrace Obstacles

Our lives flow like water in a river, like little paper boats floating on the river of time — but not passively. As masters of our own lives, we each have our own currents, creating new paths, speeds, and directions.

In our lives there will be difficulties, there will be loneliness, there will be obstacles. These challenges are there to help us to learn. We can create ways to overcome even apparently insurmountable obstacles and through this we grow. I have encountered many obstacles during my life, but ultimately, they have helped me along my way. Obstacles provide opportunities, positive steps to climb causing you to grow in a myraid ways.

When the river encounters boulders it does not stop, does not give up. The water carries on flowing over and around the rocks, persistent in its effort, strong in its direction, without fear.

You too should pass by obstacles like a flowing river. I ask you to create your own lives, boldly and yet quietly. Become like river water flowing beautifully, magnificently, and proudly. I want you to live your life for your vision, like a river that flows ceaselessly as it embraces everything in its way.

Ilchi Lee

David, a Dahn Healer from the Newton Center who is in charge of keeping all of the Dahn healing community in touch with each other, has created a website where people can share information and experiences. Check out the interesting articles related to Dahn practice at:  http://web.mac.com/davidsho/The_Library/The_Library.html!

In today’s news:

Dahn Instructor Ari Laquidara, currently at the Brookline Center, will be leaving us this week for a little over a month to train with DahnMuDo Master Jang, head of DahnMuDo in the United States. Good Luck Ari nim!

Yesterday, Nora nim, who is in charge of the Brain Education program in schools for the United States, did a presentation at the Germaine-Lawrence school in Arlington. Apparently the teachers who attended were impressed an excited. Please share any comments here if you know more about what will happen next.

Colorful hotpacks arrived at your center today as a fundraiser for the Phoenix Project. These are great to put on your dahn-jon or shoulders (or anywhere) to relax them or reduce pain. They make great gifts. The Phoenix Project is a program of the non-profit Dahn Foundation that awakens the power of young adults and gives them an opportunity to use it in the community through service projects. All proceeds go directly to the Phoenix Project.

Tonight is our monthly Special Healing Night at the Jamaica Plain Center! Open to the public, anyone can come and learn tools to heal their common ailments based on energy and the meridian system.

Have a great day!

This is actually a chapter in the book The Way to Light Up Your Divinity by Ilchi Lee (then using his given name of Seung-Heun Lee…Ilchi is his spiritual name meaning “One Finger Pointing The Way”). I was flipping through it again today and I saw a part about the white uniforms. Most members in Boston actually don’t buy or wear the white uniform, unless they go attend Dahn Healing System, they didn’t have something comfortable to wear when they joined, or they’ve been a member for a while. In fact, one day I had a class where everyone except one person wore all black So here is what Ilchi Lee says about them:

The white uniform we wear at the beginning of our practice symbolizes the clearing of our desires and emptying of our minds. We need to empty our minds. If we come to the Center just with desires, no matter how great a Cosmic Energy pours in, it only inflates our desires.

…I don’t deny the desires of people. So for those who have illnesses, I teach how to get better. But that’s not my real intention. The desires of people have no end. That’s why they say an ocean can be filled up, but not the desires of people.

What I want to tell you from the bottom of my heart is about the True Nature of a human being, the potential of every living being.

On our path to the Way, health is important. But too many have their final destination on health, living only to satisfy their body. But the body we train, polish, and serve with too much trouble is perishing and dying out with time. Most of us live to please the eyes, ears, tongues, or thoughts, but the real master of us is not one of these. The true entity of us is not like that.

…When we learn things and make them ours, our True Nature is covered more with those things. So this Practice is doing it in reverse; unlearning, so to speak. The learning of the world is to acquire and accumulate in our brain and body. In the learning of Dahnhak we cleanse out and throw away…But as long as we hold onto the desires, even the best teachings can’t penetrate through us.

…For this practice we need to compose ourselves. That’s why we’re wearing a white uniform. The learning of the world will produce greater success the more we want out of it. But the learning of Dahnhak requires emptying of the mind.

Pretty interesting. Here’s my summary: We need to take care of our body. But it’s a good investment to take care of the part of ourselves that will live on past it, our True Nature. Our True Nature is always there but it gets covered by the other things we pay attention to– all of the desires of our body and mind, all of the food, information, etc. that we accumulate. So if we want the deepest level of health, we need to keep cleaning out everything we accumulate the way we clean out our house. Otherwise we get heavy and/or sick physically, emotionally, and mentally. As an outward action to create the mindset of cleaning and purifying, we wear white uniforms. In my experience, what I wear and my environment definitely affect my mind.

Kue Ho Lee just arrived this week from the Brea Center in Orange County, California. Based in Andover Center at the moment, Master Lee is Boston’s newest regional DahnMuDo trainer. He has been busy this week starting private DahnMuDo healing with many members. On Sunday, November 25th, he will lead the DahnMuDo workshop at the Beacon Hill Center from 9 am to 5 pm. I haven’t seen Master Lee’s stuff yet, but he’s received rave reviews from everyone who has.

I’m very excited with the anticiption of DahnMuDo growing in New England! I love how grounded, real, and open DahnMuDo makes me feel. I am able to feel much closer to my true self through DahnMuDo exercise.

Tonight current healers and potential future healers got together at Arlington Center to hear sharings about Dahn Healing System, practice healing techniques on each other, and share food and laughter. It’s one of those special events when members of the Dahn healing community can get together and share their beautiful healing energy in a space where people are open and happy. I’m so happy we  have something like that here in Boston!