Dragon’s Tears Workshop Experience in Istanbul with Lujan Matus

Testimonial

I was very excited, yet paradoxically calm, when it was finally time for Lujan to come and teach us the Dragon’s Tears in Istanbul. Another paradox was that the noisy city center seemed to magically open a daily oasis of reclusion for those of us attending the workshop, hidden right amid the chaos.

I had been worried that I wasn’t in my best condition to be doing any physical exertion but with the start of the workshop, was quickly relieved that the energy need for the postures was really not much at all. What was actually required was the person to be mindfully present, and this was not difficult at all with Lujan’s ease of teaching and lightening everyone’s mental obstacles they had been applying to their physical learning.

The effects of learning even the first part of the set was quite immediate; on a physical level I could feel the warm and pleasant reminder of unused muscles burning without strain, and on an electromagnetic level I could sense the tingling building up in my body into heat throughout.

Starting to gaze peripherally at my surroundings, as Lujan was reminding us to, I started seeing brief rainbows around everyone’s gestures as we were absorbed in practicing the Tears together. I noticed that the practice had also started harmonizing the two hemispheres of my brain that had also induced a natural gazing and switching off of one’s mind. Returning home the first day, I was feeling very relaxed and energized even though we had been physically practicing for 4 hours.

The rest of the week, my physical condition was improving unbeknownst to me, and by the fourth day I woke up to find my arms had changed though this was not perceptible to anyone else but me. My kidneys had also started detoxing around the same day demonstrating that things had definitely been affected on an internal level as well as external. By now, most of the class had been altered to the point of waking up in the middle of the night at the same hour while apparently practicing the Tears together, and I have a clear memory of Lujan’s teaching continuing into the morning hours, pre- our physical class.

What has emerged from that week of learning for me is more than just a set of movements. I was reminded of my baseline signature by being in close proximity to Lujan, and being given a daily practice to bring me back to this baseline, which are both priceless gifts… Yet I have also been given an opportunity to remember what it is like to express this baseline in the safety of an harmonious environment, and may recall it again in disharmonious circumstances so as not lose myself.

This reminder, and the daily practicing of catching one’s self in one’s gestures of intent, no matter how visually crude they are yet, is one of the most refined challenges that makes the difference between sculpting a warrior on their life’s path and the insistence of a worrier in pursuit of appearances.

With love and gratitude,
Lyra
Istanbul

Dragon’s Tears Workshop Experience in Istanbul with Lujan Matus

Testimonial

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