In the documentary Don’t Be Denied, Neil Young reflected on his career in a wave metaphor, “You’re going to go up and down. Sometimes you get lost in a trough and no one can see you and no one cares. They’re just looking at the whitecaps, then you come up again.You just have to hang in there and keep going.”
Life moves in waves. Energy moves in waves. Compressional waves — like sound waves, and transverse waves, such as light waves, like the energy of the sun reaches the Earth in transverse waves. Think of it as visible lines moving around you – do they flow freely? Are you able to move with the lines? Do the lines run parallel to you, where they are out of your reach? Where do they intersect with other lines? Do the lines spin around you like a cocoon? Or a tornado?
In his portrayal of a Shaolin monk on the Kung Fu TV series, David Carradine took us on a journey. As an orphaned child of an American father and Chinese mother, after years of rigorous spiritual training he finds himself avenging his master’s death, fleeing China as a fugitive. Ostensibly a pacifist, the lines of serenity were intersected by lines of violence. Though fighting in self defense, and always on the side of justice, the lines, most of the time, tethered him to the ground. His adventures were symbols of our own human journey: a quest for liberation and release from earthly ties.
On June 4th, David Carradine was found dead in a Bangkok hotel room, under questionable circumstances. Years of highs and lows in his personal and professional life’s energy lines seemed to have taken their toll: whether it was attributed to suicide or the result of poor judgment. And do not confuse celebrity or a fictional character with the struggles or even the “strangeness” of a real person. Those lines that we surf may allow us our rides on the energy lines of big, beautiful waves. We will fall below the lines too, pulled down deep in the undertow, as Young said “lost in the trough”. And sometimes the lines take hold, the energy seizes us, surrounds us, strangles us.
While listening to the gospel song I’ll Fly Away, a bird flew in through our window, perching on a lamp. It spread its wings and flew off to the perfect soundtrack ushering it out.There are moments that compel us to look at the seeming randomness, the possibility of synchronicity – the actual ordering of randomness and its energy. Perhaps where the lines intersect creates the space where it hurts the most. Ours is a journey; a quest for liberation and release from earthly ties. We are moving with the lines and surfing the light.
Rest in peace, Mr. Carradine.
Please leave your thoughts and comments.
Toni Josephson
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Tags: david carradine, energy, energy waves, kung fu, Martial Arts, tandao
Wow, that very first paragraph about the ups and downs of life, and to just keep hanging in there – says a lot. We all have to develop resilience. We can’t focus on just what is happening now if it’s bad stuff – we have to look to the infinite possibilities of how things can improve.
Energy moves the way we choose to make it move, even with our thoughts. Psychologists are now saying that our thoughts create, or manifest, so we need to take that thought energy and focus it on what we’d like to experience in our lives.
The Kung Fu character David Carridine portrayed had a major influence on my life when I was in my 20′s. I wanted to be like him, though probably without the rigorous physical training. I practiced Yoga regularly, did meditation, studied Wicca and other religions, and since then, I’m still studying. I’m still working on looking at life from all different sides and seeing those “waves” as they move in different directions. I like the way Martial artists “move” and work with energy patterns, as was portrayed in the Kung Fu tv show.
I believe the true reason we do anything in life to to be happy. And in order to be happy, we need to focus inward. I believe that in Truth, we all want to be free from attachement, because attachment, in many ways, causes misery.
Perhaps it doesn’t really matter how someone passes over to the other demension. Maybe what matters is that it is that person’s time. Perhaps on some deep, unknown, unconscious level, David Carridine was ready to travel on a different non-earthly plane. Hopefully, he had a good life here on earth.
Still, I am sorry to have heard of his passing. I thank him for being such a wonderful actor and for starring in the Kung Fu series. He was a very convincing Shaolin priest.
Blessings to you David, wherever you are.
Great Post Toni and Lawrence
Love you,
Rose