Free The Secret of Shambhala: In Search of the Eleventh Insight by James Redfield Page B

Tibet, but I would
     like for you to rest.”
    “That would be nice,” I said. “I’m bushed.”
    “Yes,” Yin agreed, “we have had a long day.”
    “Make sure you expect a dream,” Hanh added, leading me toward a bedroom.
    “Expect a dream?”
    Hanh turned. “Yes, you are more powerful than you think.”
    I laughed.
    I woke up suddenly and looked out the window. The sun was well up in the sky. No dream. I put on my shoes and walked into the
     other room.
    Hanh and Yin were sitting at the table, talking.
    “How did you sleep?” Hanh asked.
    “Okay,” I said, slumping down in one of the chairs. “But I can’t remember dreaming.”
    “That’s because you don’t have enough energy,” he said, half-distracted. He was staring intensely at my body again. I realized
     he was focused on the way I was sitting.
    “What are you looking at?” I asked.
    “Is this the way you wake up in the morning?” Hanh inquired.
    I stood up. “What’s wrong?”
    “After sleep, one must wake up one’s body and begin to accept the energy before one does anything else.” He was standing with
     his legs far apart and his hands on his hips. As I watched, he slid his feet together and lifted his arms. His body rose up
     in one motion until he was standing on his tiptoes with his palms pressed together directly over his head.
    I blinked. There was something unusual about the way his body moved, and I couldn’t focus on it exactly. He seemed to float
     upward rather than use his muscles. When I could focus again, he was beaming a broad smile. Just as quickly, his body moved
     from there into a graceful walk toward me. I blinked again.
    “Most people wake up slowly,” Hanh said, “and slouch around and get themselves going with a cup of coffee or tea. They go
     to a job in which they continue to slouch around or use just one particular set of muscles. Patterns set in, and as I said,
     blocks develop in the way energy flows through our bodies.
    “You must make sure your body is open everywhere in order to receive all the energy that is available. You do this by moving
     every muscle, every morning, from your center.” He pointed to a place just below his navel. “If you concentrate on moving
     from this area, then your muscles will be free to operate at their highest level of coordination. It is the central principle
     of all the martial arts and dance disciplines. You can even invent your own movements.”
    With this comment, he launched into a multitude of movements I had never seen before. It appeared to be something like the
     shifts of weight and the twirling that one sees in tai chi. He was definitely performing an expansion of these classical movements.
    “Your body,” he added, “will know how to move in order to help loosen your individual blocks.”
    He stood on one leg and leaned over and swung his arm as if he were pitching a softball underhanded, only his hand almost
     touched the floor as he made the movement. Then he spun around in place on the opposite leg. I never saw his weight shift,
     and again he seemed to be floating.
    I shook my head and tried to focus, but he had stopped in place, as if a photographer had frozen his movements in a snapshot,
     which appeared impossible. Just as suddenly he was walking toward me again.
    “How do you do this?” I asked.
    He said, “I began slowly and remembered the basic principle. If you move from your center and expect the energy to flow into
     you, you will move in a lighter and lighter manner. Of course, to perfect this you must be able to open up to all the divine
     energy that is available within.”
    He stopped and looked at me. “How well do you remember your mystical opening?”
    I thought again about Peru and my experience on the mountaintop.
    “Fairly well, I think.”
    “This is good,” he said. “Let’s go outside.”
    Yin smiled as he got up, and we followed Hanh out into a small garden and up some steps into an area of sparse brown grass
     and