Friday, June 20, 2008

1998 - Report at Shenyang

September 9th, 1998. I rode the train to Xian. When I met up with a friend, he told me, "In the afternoon, Master Wang is going to give a talk in the discussion forum held by the Liaoning Province I Ching Study Committee."

When I got this news, I immediately called my friends at Dalian and Shenyang. After they confirmed the news, I bought a plane ticket and flew to Shenyang with my friend. I was happy to see Master Wang again. He was originally planning to go home the same day but since we came over, he stayed for 3 more days. I reported to him on my Channel SHO study group and he gave me some valuable advices.

I obtained a recording of Master Wang's talk in the forum, it was clear that Master Wang has a deep understanding of I Ching, from theory to practice. The only thing I regretted was that I didn't have the chance to learn it from him systematically.

As I am reaching higher and higher level in my own practice, the number of problems I face also increase. On one hand, I tried to find the answer from the classics, on the other hand, I also got help from Master Wang. I was very lucky to have such a great teacher, whenever I am stuck, he would always answer my questions in detail. Even though my kung fu was still limited but under the guidance of such a great teacher, I was able to progress smoothly.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

1998 - Retreat at Lanzhou University

The 2nd Channel SHO study group was held in Lanzhou University on 10th August, 1998 to 3rd, September 1998 Here are the details.

(A) Basic information.

A total of 12 students. One of them arrived half-way through the seminar. Two students could only participate for parts of it due to work reason. One student left during the crucial stage towards the end due to family emergency. Eight students were present for the entire seminar. Among these 8 students, 4 attended the first seminar in Taoyuan. The result was that the 4 students from Taoyuan had improved a lot. 2 new students attained Channel SHO, 2 were almost there.

(B) Analysis

(1) Kung Fu = Methods + Time.

The foundation for opening up the Channel SHO is the requirement that the houtian qi to be abundant so that xiantian qi can be created to sufficient level. This is not imagination, this is to be done step by step, it requires dedication, great endurance to pain and patience. This is real kung fu. Kung fu= Methods + Time. Beside proper understanding and utilization of the methods, one must also put in certain amount of time to practice hard to ensure the emergence of real kung fu. By accumulating kung fu and experience the quality of the training will improve. During this seminar, 4 students could not participate for the entire time, even though they were young, energetic and were taught good methods, none of them achieved the goal set.

(2) Illness can impede progress.

Two students who attended the entire class and who didn't open up the SHO, one of them had coronary heart disease and the other had issue with the bladder. Heart disease patient is not suitable for tiring and physical demanding exercises. Even though only sitting crossed-leg was required, but the strength of the daigong was very strong, not even normal people can endure it, not to mention heart disease patient. The student with bladder problem needed to use the rest room after an hour of sitting every time, how could she accumulate kung fu. Even though they both improved their health greatly after this seminar and there was some signs that the channel SHO was very close, they ultimately failed to do so. It was evidenced that illness and the ability to attain Channel SHO were related in a complex way, it needed further careful research.

(3) Opening up Channel SHO require real kung fu.

The two students who opened up the Channel SHO had the following features: one of them practiced extremely hard, he could sit in full lotus for 2 hours, he had done really well to accumulate internal qi, as long as the method was right, it's impossible for him to miss it. Another was a youngster who had super endurance, he could sit in full lotus perfectly still for 2 hours. When the body stayed still, the shen is focused and qi will be created, after an extended period of time, opening up the SHO is the natural conclusion.

(4) Houtian to xiantian, wonderous experiences.

Four students attained their SHO from the first seminar. They took this opportunity to sit in the strong qi field to improve their cultivation dramatically.

Mr. Zhou, he could only sit crossed-leg in the first seminar, this time he could sit in half-lotus for 2 hours and full-lotus for 1 hour. He could see closed eyes things that happened inside and outside his body.

Ms. Huang, she barely attained the Channel SHO the first time, she came here to continue her treatment of her illness. Started from the first day, the internal qi, like a riptide, flooded all her organs, meridians and bones. It slammed every source of her illness in the body. From then on, she felt numbness and pain, she wanted to vomit, cry and sneeze. The feelings were only alleviated towards the end of the seminar. She wrote in her practice diary that : "It felt like there was a pair of wondrous hands which held me tight and then squeezed every part of my organs, they squeezed out every last drop of disease qi. I felt like every part of my body, the organs, meridians, bones, bone marrows and muscles etc were given a new life. Even though I am not cured completely yet but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, I can see the dawn of a life without anymore pain."

Mr Li, he attained the SHO barely the first time. Due to a busy schedule, he couldn't practice often and so he felt little improvement. After this study group, his Channel SHO circulate smoothly without any blockage. The qi can be felt clearly through the channels and meridians. The five elements can be created and converted easily, the organs and the seven openings were linked clearly. Three new single hand signs appeared when he practice Ping Heng Gong. During star formation practice, his two kidneys would heat up quickly and then they would vibrate strongly, the internal qi moves in the kidney and bladder meridians. When he practiced the Bagua Ball, the nine palaces on his head will move.

Ms Yip, the first student to attain Channel SHO in the first seminar. From then on, Shen Laoshi taught her "Nu Dan Gong" (female practice). After the first seminar, she practiced very hard and improved alot. She kept a detailed practice diary as requested by Shen Laoshi. After 5 months of hard practice, her level of achievement had already improved dramatically when she joined the 2nd seminar.

(C) Deficiency

1. The practice ground was in a university and hence there were too many people walking around and the surrounding was quite noisy.

2. A Channel SHO study group is an enhanced study group. The goal was set clearly. The seminar had very high standard required of the participants. One must put in all the endurance and body strength one has to concentrate completely on the practice. Unfortunately, some students could only participate parts of the seminar due to work and family issues. Some students came here to learn the practice but they couldn't focus on it only, they went to the temples nearby to ask for empowerment, they called it Buddhist/Taoist double cultivation. All this are impediments to attaining the Channel SHO.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

1998 - Report from Shangri-La

16th March - 30th March 1998, the flowers blossomed in the southern part of China. At Shangri-la, the 35th daoist cave heaven, the first Channel SHO study group was hosted by Shen laoshi(*). The practice ground was in an abandoned factory room located near a quiet town on the mountain.

(A) Basic Information

(1) Composition of the students

There were 26 students in total, 19 males and 7 females, from all over the Taoyuan county. There was an retired government official. There were "face down to the yellow ground and back to the sky" life-long farmers. There were middle and high school teachers. There were corporation management-level employees. There were middle school students. The oldest was 78 and the youngest was 14, average age was 52. 11 persons over 60, 11 persons between 40-59 and only 4 persons were below 40. The highest education level was university graduates, the lowest was primary school grads. 14 of them had below middle school level education. 3 above tertiary education level. 5 persons had good health. The rest were all inflicted with different degree of illness, 6 were seriously ill. All of them had learned Ling Bao Tong Zhineng Neigong Shu before, the longest had been 10 years, the shortest was 1 year long.

(2) Teaching goal

The goal for this specialized study group was clear, to open up the Channel SHO and refined the body from houtian stage to xiantian stage. Therefore all the lectures, daigong and complementary exercises were all constructed around that goal in mind.

(2) Duties of the student

Around sunset and sunrise, work on Ping Peng Gong for 3 hours outdoor. The main purpose was to emit internal qi out and absorbed external qi inside the body in order to increase the strength of the internal qi's movement.

Two hours of meditation both in the morning and in the afternoon, we concentrated on Zhineng Fa, Yin Xian Fa and the Human Immortal Methods of the Three Immortals Method.

Star Formation practice for 1-2 hours at night, in order to borrow the cosmic power to stimulate latent abilities.

Long distance daigong from Shen laoshi during sleeping practice. The total length of actual practice is 10 hours per day.

(3) Structure of the classes

All the lectures, daigong, group practice was carried out by Shen laoshi. The students were required to keep a diary of their practice to record everything related to the practice. When the seminar was finished, they were required to turn a copy of their diary to Shen laoshi. The dairy must be a detailed recording of all the phenomenons, feelings that happened during the seminar, they should be written in an objective and factual way.

(4) Weather

The 2nd half of March was humid and warm but there was one unexpected cold front which rendered the seminar to be held in a cold environment. It rained 8 days out of the 15, temperature range was 1 - 4 degrees Celsius. Because of the rain, the students did not have much chance to do Ping Peng Gong. This decreased the chance to strengthen their body. Since the cold front was unexpected, many students did not bring enough warm clothing. Some of their internal strength was used to resist the cold, this had a negative impact on opening up the Channel SHO.

(5) Result

After 15 days of intensive training and Shen Laoshi's daigong. 14 students achieved Channel SHO. The abilities that were development was exactly as described in Neijintu.

(B) Some Important Observations

(1) Beside Master Wang, there was no one else who publicly taught Channel SHO. In this seminar, 14 out of 26 students succeeded, 53.8 % success rate. This proved that Ling Bao Tong Zhineng Neigong Shu had many advantages for Channel SHO.

(2) Even elderly people can attain SHO

Age was an important factor in determining the success rate of Channel SHO. Elderly people tends to lose Xiantian yuen qi, they don't have as much yuen qi as younger people. But it is not hopeless. The oldest person was 78 and the youngest was 14, they both attained Channel SHO. It proved that as long as the method is right and the student works hard, people of all ages can attain Channel SHO.

(3) People with bad health can also attain Channel SHO

The wellness of the body also affect the success rate but it's not determining factor. Everyone has Xiantian qi, as long as one practice to stimulate it, the Ren and Du channels can be reconnected again and open up the Channel SHO. The classic case were Mr. Huang, who had four invasive operation done; Mr. Li, who had part of the stomach and gall bladder removed, whose 4th thoracic was broken; Miss Wang, who had stomach illness and serious joint pain; Miss Huang, bad health since childhood who was pretty much "raised with medicine", when she was 20 years, both of her hands were seriously burnt in an industrial accident. She has one kid after marriage and because contraceptive didn't not work on her, she had 10 abortions. She was tired both in body and the mind; Mr. Zhou, who had cognitive disorders; Miss Wan, B-type liver disease. All these people, after some hard work, they all attained the Channel SHO.

(4) After attaining Channel SHO, health can be improved dramatically

When people who had serious illness attained SHO, their health generally improved immediately, the speed of their recovery was amazing. For example, after SHO, Mr. Li found that all his body Pain disappeared ; Miss Wang's stomach illness was healed and her joints pain was also alleviated ; Miss Wang's meridian and bone still hurt, but the pain was not as severe; Miss Wan's liver pain also disappeared.

(5) Opening Channel SHO is un affected by period

Generally speaking, a woman's period cycle affect her psychology and physiology greatly. Miss Wang attained SHO while she was in her ovary cycle and Miss Li attained her while she was in her period cycle.

(6) Occupations and Education level does not affect the Channel SHO

People of all education level and of all kind of jobs can open up their Channel SHO.

(7) To attain Channel SHO, women are easier than men, youngsters are are easier than the elderly.

7 students were female, 6 of them were successful. The last one only joined the group in the last 5 days. 19 students were men, only 8 succeeded. The average age of those who were successful was 47, lower than the average group age by 5 years.

(8) The process were the same for everyone who was successful.

When the houtian qi was full in the body, the xiantian qi began to be created, the yuen qi initiate from the lower tien, pass through Hui Yin then Wei Lu, Jia Ji and up to Yu Zhen. Then it came down from Tian Men, Tian Mu. The qi then went down to lower tien along the Ren channel. The cycle continues automatically.

(9) After Channel SHO, internal qi move automatically.

After the Channel SHO, the internal qi will be guided by Xiantian qi and automatically move around the organs, meridians and channels. Being initially restricted by the wellness of the practitioner, the automatic movement of internal qi began in part of the body where there was illness only, after the illness is cured. The internal qi can move in other parts. When the body is healed completely, the internal qi will automatically move around in all the organs, meridians and channels.

(10) Attaining Channel SHO also develop other latent abilities.

After the SHO was opened, the successful students develop different levels and kinds of abilities. Miss Wang saw a tree when she closed her eyes and meditate. Later she found the exact tree in the Taiyuan park, she had never been there before; Mr. He developed see-through power and ; Miss Ye could see her own bones, meridians and points; Mr. Zhou could see his own bones too; Miss Liu developed automatic daoyin and Nu Dan movements.

(11) The emotions fluctuate greatly during the seminar.

In the early part of the seminar, the students had different goals and many questions. They were all reassured after Shen laoshi's clear explanations and powerful daigong. Half-way through the seminar, because of the cold weather and the difficult 2 hours session of meditation, the students were generally depressed and bored. On the 8th and 9th day, following the first and second success, all other students were inspired and they all worked hard so that they could be the next one. Towards the end, when the 78 years old student and the one who had his gall bladder and part of the stomach removed also attained Channel SHO, everyone was excited since they should be the ones who had the most difficulty to open it.

(12) Opening the Channel SHO require dedication and hard work.

Every student agreed that, opening the Channel SHO required confidence, endurance, sweats, pain and patience. Everyone is equal in front of it, it doesn't depend on external factors. There is only one way to do it, students must have strong faith and confidence, careful study the theory and follow the instructor's direction precisely.

(C) Deficiency

Since it was Shen laoshi's first Channel SHO class, there were places that can be improved :

(1) Weather

The weather was terrible which affect to certain degree the success rate. The location should be chosen carefully.

(2) Lack of movement exercises.

Due to the bad weather, the student did not have enough outdoor practice.

(3) Not enough mental preparation.

The students had different goal in this class, some of them just wanted to improve their health, some of them just wanted to learn the gongs and some were only curious. Therefore some student didn't work hard and just did their own things, when they finally understood what was offered to them the seminar was almost finished, they all regretted it a lot.

(4) Not enough understanding.

Some students like to learn many different gongs from different schools, hence they lack practice in Ling Bao Tong or they misunderstood the theory and practice. Therefore they won't have good result. Some students didn't follow the Shen laoshi's instructions carefully and hence they couldn't possibly succeed.

(*) laoshi : means teacher in Chinese

1998 - Retreat at Shangri-La

16th March - 30th March 1998, in the Daoist 35th cave heaven, Shangri-La, I taught the first Channel Small Heavenly Orbit study group. There were 26 students in total and in the end 14 of then attained Channel SHO, they all developed the accompanying abilities such as internal viewing, remote viewing, automatic meridian movements and self-guided movement of internal qi. Like them, I was very excited and emotional. After all, this is a key step in authentic daoist cultivation.

Before the class someone asked me, "can we really open up the SHO ?" I said, "sure." "For half of us ? " "I bet at least 10." I said. In reality, I believed I could definitely help someone to do it. But I wasn't so sure about the exact number. In the end, I was very encouraged by the result even thought it had been difficult work. The most important thing was that I gained a lot of confidence, the confidence to help other to open up the SHO.

1997 - The curtain was raised

Late 1997, a friend from Taoyuan in Hunan Province came to find me. The Hunan Taoyuan Qigong Science Research Council and the Taoyuan Ling Bao Tong Zhineng Neigong Shu Study Group has asked him to hire me to teach a seminar. I told them I wanted to teach a Channel SHO class. They were overjoyed to hear it and so we reached an agreement quickly.

My intention was that I would teach with the goal of helping the students to attain the Channel SHO if possible, so that I could accumulate experience from these teachings which in turn would increase my understanding of the methodology.

Another point worth mentioning is that Master Wang had warned me before : Without 10 years of kung fu, don't come out and teach. From 1987 - 1997, it had been 10 years. It was time for me to come out and teach on my own.

1997 - The First Joyous Moment

In the first half of 1997, I taught 10 persons in a month again. Unfortunately none of them them attained the Channel SHO. Two months later, one of the student told me that whenever she sat cross-legged, her lower abdomen would vibrate. My heart skipped a beat when I heard that, that was a good sign. I asked her to continue practicing and to tell me if there any new signs. We communicated twice in the next month. When I thought that she was ready, I tried to daigong with her to help her opening it up and it was a success. Afterward she insisted in communicating with me about her progress, as long as she did it well, the SHO will move automatically. Her heath was clearly improved. The SHO would even start automatically at work sometimes.

She was the first student of mine who attained the SHO. Here are some conclusions I had from this incident.

(1) My method was essentially correct but there were a lot of room for improvement.

(2) My daigong strength was still weak. So a lot of it was depended on the effort of the student.

(3) The student must worked hard and had great endurance and patience.

This was my first success, I gained much confidence from it. From that time on, I had to accumulate more experience.

1996 - Putting theory into Practice

In 1996, I became the vice principal of the technical training school of my company. Other teachers in the school knew that I practice Dandao, they were also interested in learning. Hence I began to instruct them and I set my goal to help them open up the Channel SHO within a certain time.

Because of lacking experience and other factors, I taught 10 persons for a month, but none of them had their SHO opened.

The result was disappointing but not unexpected. I was still at the experimental stage so I wasn't too depressed about it. Even though my goal of opening up the Channel SHO failed, but their health had improved to different degrees and so they were pleased by the result.

1996 - Studying the Classic texts

Even though I knew about the Channel SHO before and I had seen Master Wang helping other to attain that level. But I was even more interested in it since I came home from Shanghai in 1995. I told myself I must understand it completely.

I began to study Longmen Pai classics "Ling Bao Bi Fa" (Spiritual Jewels Exercises) and "The Daoist teaching of Chong and Lu". "Chong and Lu" was an annotation of "Ling Bao Bi Fa" and "Ling Bao Bi Fa" was written to explain the Three Immortal Methods (TTIM). TTIM consists of Three Stages, 10 methods and 45 segments of actual practice intructions. Three Immortal Methods is the actual methods buried in "Ling Bao Bi Fa". Master Wang at that time had only revealed the three segments of the first method "Matching the Yin Yang". The three segments are "Exchange Yin and Yang", "Matching Yin and Yang" and "Restore Yin and Yang". I analyzed the structure, the limit and boundary described by the three segments. I strived to unravel the logical connection linking the three segments in order to extract the theory, method and result. I got a first glimpse of the basic model of the cultivation passed down from the great ancestors Chong and Lu.

Secondly, I also began to investigate the "Nu Dan gong" (female practice). Master Wang revealed the actual methodology of Nu Dan Gong in 1988. I included it in "Walk on the Great Path". The Nu Dan Gong was passed down from Ancestor Sun Bu Er. Sun was a student of Ancestor Wang Chongyang who was a direct lienage holder passed down by Ancestor Lu. It is believed that Ancestor Lu had taught many women in different times in history. So it's not hard to believe that Ancestor Lu created the Nu Dan Gong from the premises of the Three Immortal Methods, obviously this is just my own speculation, it was never recorded in any daoist literature.Ancestor Sun passed down the Nu Dan Gong and it was refined and improved over time by other Masters.

Since man and woman have different physiology and so the actual cultivation methods are also different. I got many inspirations by analyzing the differences between the male and the female practices and also from the parts where they overlap.

1995 - Channel Small Heavenly Orbit

"Small Heavenly Orbit (SHO)" (or microcosmic orbit) is a term that can be seen often in qigong literatures. Many different schools all aim to "open" it. You can even heard of "speed courses" which claim to open up the SHO in a few days. But if we look at all these so called SHO methods, one can see that they are actually talking about Intention SHO or meridian SHO. Intention SHO means that the practitioner uses variants of visualization or intention method to "open" SHO, this is nothing more than fantasy. It will cause more harm than good. Meridian SHO means using will power to concentrate on points of the Ren and Du channel and then using intention to guide the Houtian (*) Qi to move in the channel. Since usually the movement got mixed up in other channels in the front and in the back, it created the illusion that there is actual movement in the SHO. Again this causes more harm than good.

The term SHO originated from ancient neigong art, it has a very specific meaning in daoist cultivation. The old daoist ancestors discover through their power that the Ren and Du channel of a fetus inside the mother's womb are connected together. When the baby is born and the umbilical cord is severed, the two channels also get disconnected. Daoist practitioners believe that if one want to get from Houtian to Xiantian (**), to reverse the aging process, Ren and Du must be reconnected again and the internal qi must be reversed back into the fetus stage. The authentic SHO is the method to reconnect the Ren and Du channel. What it means it that when the Xiantian qi is full, the Xiantian yuen qi initiate from the lower tien, then through the Hui Yin point going up inside the spine, knocking down the three gates of Wei Lu, Jia Ji and Yu Zhen, and opening up Tian Men, Tian Mu and the three fields. The Ren and Du channels reconnect and the process is automatic. Once this stage is reached, the internal qi reverse back into fetus stage and a series of natural Xiantian abilities will also appear, Internal viewing, remote viewing and the automatic movement of the internal qi. Since the authentic daoist SHO means that Xiantian qi reconnect the Ren and Du channel, and these two channels are part of the body's Eight Wondrous Channels, therefore this is also known as Channel Small Heavenly Orbit. In the Three Immortal Methods, this is the fifth stage, the "The Golden Sphere Flying up from the side".


(*)Houtian : it roughly means "after birth". It represents things that belong to this material world, it also means polluted.

(**) Xiantian : it roughly translate to "before birth". It represents things that are natural and pure.

Monday, June 2, 2008

1995 - New level of daigong

In June 1995, Master Wang called me and asked, "When will you be free this year ? "
"In August." I said.

"Then come to Shanghai in August to learn 100% success rate of opening up the "Channel Small Heavenly Orbit"." Master Wang said.

"What ? 100% ?" I was very surprised.

"Yes, you will know it when you get here." Master Wang said calmly. I couldn't wait for it to happen of course.

Within half a month in August, it really happened, 100% of the attendees have their Channel Small Heavenly Orbit opened up. It was unbelievable. I was the lecturer and I also did the daoyin, but clearly the one who moved the 5 elements and exerted pressure on the channel orbits was Master Wang. And only Master Wang can do that.

This incident affected me very much. Normally speaking, neigong is practiced alone. But when Master Wang daigong with a group of people, he can greatly increase the efficiency and result. Everyone who had ever attended Master Wang's class can confirm this point. But to what level can this method be pushed? I guess no one really knows. Within half a month, everyone had opened up their channel small heavenly orbit, this was a fact. I saw it, I experienced it. As a practitioner, I wanted to open up my own channel quickly. As a teacher, I wanted to help other achieve this quickly too. After this incident, I had a thought: Let see what happen if I teach 100 persons to open up their channels?

1994 - Power of Daigong

In Aug, Oct 1994 and Nov 1995, I attended Master Wang's seminar in Dalian, Beijing and Jinhua of Zhejiang province as a teaching assistant. Every seminar brought me new idea and new knowledge, I always looked forward to the new content revealed by Master Wang. In each session when I daigong, I always have the desire to lead everyone to a higher level or achievement. This is because of one reason: How should a modern person cultivate? The modern society is different from the old society. The way a moderner practice neigong should be different from the previous generations.

Master Wang is an authority on this because he had been working hard on this problem. For example : ancient neigong was usually practiced alone but Master Wang was the first to organize group meditation practice. This led the qigong world phenomenon of "group daigong". Another example: before 1985, people only knew about using qigong to heal oneself. After Master Wang publicly taught Ping Heng Gong, they realized that one can use external qi to heal themselves. There are many more similar examples.

Master Wang had told me this :

"The ancients need 12 years to complete the Three Immortal methods. Moderner only need 6 years. For exceptional individual, 3 years is also possible." At that time, I didn't understand how this could be done. But later on, I saw two demonstrations which gave me hope.

(1) 1991 in Shenyang , Master Wang revealed the "Female Practice": the volunteer had never studied "Female Practice" before. She sat crossed legs and closed her eyes. Master Wang didn't talk and didn't touch her but he daigong quietly to regulate her internal qi. Not long after, both of her hands moved on their own, quickly from initially random looking movements to regular patterns. The 500 persons there all knew that she was do the fourth level of the "Female Practice". If Master Wang daigong for her a few more times and she also worked hard on her own, can you imagine how quickly she can improve? Master Wang told me he demonstrated this 4 times, I saw 2 of those.

(2) In 1994 at the Beijing Stadium: the volunteer lied on the stage. Master Wang again daigong without saying anything nor touching him. When his internal qi was full, the volunteer suddenly sat up on the stage. Master Wang continued to exert pressure and the volunteer got into a full lotus position within an impossibly short time. There were 400 attendees who witnessed this including people from France, Germany, Japan and Taiwan. After a short while, the volunteer started to shake spontaneously and both of his hands began pressing the relevant points in different channels. The movement was clumsy in the beginning but quickly it had become very smooth. According to "Spiritual Jewel Exercises", it needs 6 years to reach this level. But Master Wang was able to help him achieve it within an hour. This was simply mind blowing. Can you imagine what will happen if Master Wang can help him a few more times ?

Sunday, June 1, 2008

1993 - Writing "Walk on the Great Path" (4)

In Sept 1993, Master Wang attended the National Olympic Game. I saw him in the Wu Zhou Hotel. I noticed that he was wearing the identity card of the lieutenant governor and so I asked him why, he said "They are afraid that I will escape and so want to tied me here with this." I said "What's your mission?" Master Wang answered "To ensure that Liaoning Province win the most gold medals. Before the event, they were worried that Liaoning wouldn't come top. Now that their gold medals are way more than the second place, they are worried about there won't be enough bonuses for the athletes." I asked for his opinion on the book. He said that he had read it, there wasn't much to change in the content. But he wanted to tell us about the influence of "I Ching" on Chinese civilization:

In Chinese history, the times of Fu Xi, Shen Nong and Huang Di were the beginning of the ancient cultures; emperors Yao, Shun and Yu were the origin of the people cultures ; Dynasties Xia, Shang and Zhou was the birth of the Chinese civilization proper ; the Spring and Autumn and the Warring states periods when the hundred schools of thought sprung up established the base of the traditional Chinese culture. The core body of all these is I Ching.

Master Wang gave me the final touch I need to complete the book and also deepen my understanding of the Chinese culture. After I got home, I worked on the final edition of the book. On my birthday in Oct, I officially finished writing, I was thirty years old.

I didn't anticipate that publishing a book was so difficult. When I was still writing the book, I contacted the publisher of the "UFO" magazine about publishing my book. I sent them some sample chapters and they agreed to publish it with the Gansu Science and Technology Publisher. I wanted to publish my book in Beijing and so I declined their offer. I was then unexpectedly turned down by dozen of publishers, the reasons were that: (1) I didn't have money. (2) The editor didn't understand the book. After a year of major effort, I had finally found a publisher, the China World Language Publisher but there was one condition : I must pay 15000 yuens. I manage to raise the money from everyone I knew before the Chinese New Years holiday. During the festival, my wife only had 120 yuens. Whenever I thought about this later on, I always felt ashamed.

In May 1995, "Walk on the Great Path" was finally published. From 1985 - 1993, from the time I began to learn qigong to the completion of the book, or from 1987 - 1995, from the time I started learning from Master Wang to the publication of the book. They had been both 8 years long. It seemed the number 8 was my lucky number. In business world, 8 means good luck with wealth. However, other qigong books authors can make a fortune but I couldn't even get back the 15000 publishing fee. I told myself : As long as I can popularize traditional daoist cultures, I should be happy. So I have never regretted.

1993 - Writing "Walk on the Great Path" (3)

In my opinion, I wouldn't be able to write a book on my own. I hoped that there could be a few persons who could write it together. An old student of Master Wang took a look at the table of content of "Walk on the Great Path" and said, "You will be lucky to finish all this in your lifetime." Another friend took the table of content away one evening and in the next morning, not even 6 a.m yet, came and knocked on my door. He said after reading the table on content, he was too excited to sleep the night before and he just wanted to come over and tell me that "Write it quickly." I was very touched by his enthusiasm.

It became obvious that no one was going to help me write it and so even though I was very unwilling, I began writing. In Oct 1992, my daughter was born. A month later, I sent my wife and my daughter to my mother's place. I asked for 3 months of vacation to concentrate on the book.

I didn't know how other people write a book. I locked myself at home for three months. Sometimes I would write it sitting down, other times I was writing standing up and sometimes I wrote it when I was crouching. The only thing that didn't stop was my hand writing furiously.

The three months as an "author" brought me two irreplaceable damages :

(1) Taking a long vacation time during the grace period of my job meant that I was downgraded two levels in the pay scale permanently.

(2) The new boss in my division wanted me to go back to work, I didn't comply and so he said a lot of bad things about me behind my back to the higher up management. It damaged my relationship with others in the company.

The proverb said that "Loss in one area will be complemented by gain in other", therefore i didn't think much of it.

Three months was quite long, towards the end, I was really unable to write anymore. So I stopped and went to work again. In the next three months, I used my spare time to complete the rest the book. I printed the manuscripts and asked my friend to bring it to Master Wang.

1993 - Writing "Walk on the Great Path" (2)

When I met up with Master Wang in 1990, I gave him the outline of the book. After he read it, he said, "Daoist explore things that are unsee-able and intangible to ordinary people and that's why it's impossible to communicate daoist ideas with ordinary people. This is also the reason that most people can't accept daoist ideas. To encourage more people to accept daoist practice, we need to concentrate on things that can be seen but intangible, or the tangible things that can't be seen. For example : qigong can cure some diseases just by adjusting breathings and postures, this is result that can be seen but people don't know why, therefore they will be curious and want to discuss it with you. Another example : you use your remote seeing ability to see the illness in someone's body, you tell him about it, he then go to the hospital and was confirmed about the illness. This is his own illness, they can feel it or see it and you can sense it too, he will then want to know why. And just like that, there will be more people who want to know more. There are many more examples in other areas, you should explore them."

After being inspired by Master Wang, I gave up on the materials on the unsee-able and the intangible and reorganized the table of content. At that time I didn't have a name for my book. Not long afterward, I heard that Mr. Chen and Mr. Zheng were writing "Opening the Dragon Gate". So I decided to name my book "Walk on the great path" and planned to publish it after "Opening the dragon gate" as a sequel.

1993 - Writing "Walk on the Great Path" (1)

New Year Day 1993, I called Master Wang to wish him a good holiday. He said, "If you are not able to complete the book, then don't write it." I thought it's time for me to start.

The reason I kept delaying the book was that I didn't have much confidence to do it. In my second year in high school in 1980, I didn't write too many essays. I also failed the Chinese and English Language exams in 1983. I told myself at then that, "The worst subjects in my life are going to be writing." When I went to college, I took a writing class and I began writing diary and letters, only because of this that my writing skill had improved slightly. But with that level of writing skill, I wasn't too sure I could write an entire book on my own.

I had attended seven seminars by Master Wang between 1987 - 1992, my friend Liu Yapi attended one, so i have eight complete sound recordings of Master Wang's lectures. At the same time, I collected all available information on Master Wang since 1985. I was probably the one person in the world who had collected the most information on the practice. After each seminar, I tried to convert the recording into word as soon as possible. In the beginning, I needed 7 -8 hours to complete it. Once I got the hang of it, it only took me 3 - 4 hours later. During that period, my only hobbies were reading and organizing materials on Ling Bao Tong. I organized them into different topics and collect all the relevant materials in each group with repeated content removed. The end product was the material for the different gongs Master Wang had taught, I asked Liu Yapi to type them into computer.

1992 - Formation practice

After the seminar had ended, I stayed at Master Wang's home for a night together with 2 friends from Beijing, 1 from Canada and a well-known Buddhist monk. The monk mentioned that the night before, he slept on Master Wang's bed but he could only slept till mid-night and then after that, he just couldn't fall asleep again, he needed to lay on the floor to sleep again. I was curious about this and he told me to ask Master Wang. Master Wang said, "There are magnets embedded in my bed to form a special formation. Normal person can not endure it. There were a group of Japanese who made some sample magnetic beds for my inspection. When they arrived in my house, the beds' magnetic pattern were changed, They didn't understand why and were quite embarrassed. Their design weren't as good as ours. Too clumsy." When I asked Master Wang the reasons, he said,"The magnetic field of the formation ran in the same direction, why don't you do some research on magnetism and then we can talk more." From that point on, magnetic formation had become one of my research topics.

1992 - Revision of the Daoyin words again

In Aug 1992, I attended Master Wang's seminar at the Shenyang Aviation Academy as a teaching assistant again. Before the seminar, I told Master Wang, "I want to revise the daoyin words again." Master Wang asked, "How do you want to change it? " I said, "When practicing the channel between the middle and lower tien, can we extend it to Tian Tu point?" He said, "Yes, it can even extend to Cheng Jiang point." My logic was that: during daoyin, it's better to concentrate on the Ren Channel. Considering that the 12-story tower (throat) has a broken point, I only wanted to reach Tian Tu. Master Wang not only confirmed my thinking, he even went one step further than me. This proved that my reasoning was correct, including my first revision of the daoyin words. This gave me much more self-confidence.

Since I already had one experience of daoyin, I could solve problems that came up in class more smoothly, I also clearly felt that I had improved a lot. But Master Wang had told me more than one time that the way I speak was too gentle, it lacked authority.

1992 - Laozi study

In May 1992, as recommended by Master Wang, the Shaanxi Province government invited all the first rated scholars and professors around the country to the first annual "Forum on Laozi's teaching". It was a very educational experience for me to attend this high quality meeting.

(1) I knew that these scholars and professors had their own models and methods when they studied Laozi. They were the academic type, they study Laozi from the written words and they all had their own interpretations of the "Dao of Laozi".

(2) I got to know Master Wang's ways of thinking, method and quality of his interpretation of Laozi. He is an enlightened individual in Dao, from his paper "First look at the World view and the Dao of Laozi", one could clearly see that an enlightened individual had his own unique way to experience and understanding of Laozi, it was coined "Neo Daoism School" by one scholar.

(3) From the different interpreatations of Laozi between Master Wang and the scholars, I truly understood the difference between a practitioner and an academic. These scholars studied the written words of Dao, it was a theoretical discussion, it lacked any kind of practical values. Whereas Master Wang study the paths to Dao, it is based on empirical experiences, it had much deeper meaning and value.

1991 - Helping my master to transmit Dao (2)

In this seminar, Master Wang again revealed more new materials. For examples: practice with the five dippers star formation, human to heaven practice etc. Since I was the only assistant that time, it was very tiring and therefore Master Wang changed the schedule so that the afternoon classes became demonstrations and shows, it included the practice with the stars, human to human practice, group hypnosis, Female Practice and Ping Heng gong. It was all very exciting but for me, daigong used up qi and shen, I constantly felt that I was tired and did not have enough sleep. At one time, I overslept a class, a few students banged on the windows and it couldn't wake me up, they opened my windows then and threw some small stones at me to wake me up. During daoyin, because I was so tired, I kept using the wrong words in daoyin, sometimes i forgot what I was going to say half way through a sentence. I must had snored a dozen times during the hour and a half daigong. Master Wang said that some times ago, an assistant fell asleep leaning on a pillar while he was doing daigong. Before the seminar came to an end, Master Wang advised me that, "Once you get home, you must sleep more in order to recover some shen." The half a year that followed, I had almost no feeling of qi in my body, in the end of the year, I had finally recovered and I found that my internal strength was much stronger than before.

Daigong and practice are two different things, the first was to emit outward and the second was to collect inward. There were some interesting connections between the two.

1991 - Helping my Master to transmit Dao (1)

In 1991, I attended Master Wang's "Ling Bao Tong Zhineng Neigong Shu" study seminar and core development group as the teaching assistant. Master Wang was the main speaker, I was responsible for daoyin daigong. Before the class began, there was a small interlude. I needed to stop in Beijing for a transfer. I asked a classmate to book my ticket in advance. When I arrived in Beijing, my classmate told me that Master Wang was in Beijing too. I quickly contacted Master Wang by phone, he told me he would take the train in the afternoon next day to Shenyang, I realized that it was the same train as me. We agreed to meet up on the train. I got in the train early and waited for Master Wang. After half an hour, Master Wang showed up with another friend. I went up to help them with the baggages. We chit chatted a little and the topic quickly changed to the upcoming seminar. I asked "Master Wang, when I daoyin, can I change some of the words used? " He said, "Yes sure. You must remember that when you daoyin, you are the commander of the entire group, the student will listen to you, we will also listen to you. In this way, the group can become one. Daoyin words are to elicit people to practice and the purpose and content of each practice are different, therefore the words are also different. In reality, the words should even change according to the change in the environment and the quality of the qi."

After this conversation, it basically re-enforced my principle of daoyin daigong. In this seminar, I used different daoyin words from before, I basically integrated the breathing principles of the Three Immortal Methods into Yin Xian Fa, furthermore I also changed the breathing techniques into a specialized topic to practice, the purpose was to learn and practice different breathing techniques in order to experience the differences and the results so that it would help to increase the functionality of breathing, eliciting the students from Yin Xian Fa to the Three Immortals Methods. Some senior students couldn't accept and they voiced some opinions. I asked Master Wang for some explanations. He said in class, "Xiao Shen is researching on the unified field of the human body. Listen carefully to his daoyin and then you will understand." From that point on, no such incident had occurred again and I was gradually accepted by the students.

1990 - Discussion of Dao at the Police University (8)

In June 1990, Master Wang taught at the Shenyang Northeastern Technical College. I was too tied up to attend, hence I asked my friend to bring my questions to Master Wang. My friend brought back notes and sound recordings and also Master Wang's answers.

In Oct 1990, Master Wang taught at the Shenyang Stadium, I attended this time. There were two notable things that happened.

(1) I didn't need to use my hand to get into the full lotus position. I had only seen two persons who could do this before. Unfortunately it only lasted for about half a year, after I started teaching in 1991, I was no longer able to do it.

(2) The vice secretary of Liaoning Province Qigong Science Research Council contacted me, he wanted to employ me as Master Wang's Teaching assistant. I told him if Master Wang agree then I would do it. Master Wang told Secretary Guo that, "You need to think carefully about this, with Xiao Shen's fee, you can employ three assistants in Shenyang." Secretary Guo insisted, "I will employ Xiao Shen."

As Master Wang assistant, there was a lot of pressure, but it was also a rare chance, I had more opportunity to learn from Master Wang. I prepared carefully for this job.

In Nov 1990, Master Wang lectured on "Practical Yijing" in the "Yijing Study Group" hold by the Liaoning Qigong Council. I got the entire recording of Master Wang's lecture and convert them to written documents. From these material, I got a glimpse of Master Wang's basic thinking on the Yijing.

1990 - Discussion of Dao at the Police University (7)

In our long discussions, Master Wang told me stories of the Eight Immortals. He said, "When the eight immortals were in the learning stage, there were Master - Disciples relationships. When they achieved immortal status, they call each other friends. Do you understand?" He also said, "When there are other people around us, don't think much of my attitude to you, our relationship will continue for a much longer time to come. Some people will only get to see me once in their life, I must treat them passionately, especially old people and children, then it's women and you guys are last." Master Wang has very good social skills, everyone who has ever met him has very good opinion of him, his great charisma is unforgettable.

Talking about friends, there was another incident. In 1992, there was a "Lao Tze Teaching Study Group" in Xian, a university professor asked for Master Wang's autograph. I know Master Wang doesn't like his photos to be taken with other people and he is even more unwilling to sign his autograph. But since that was an university professor, he had agreed. I took that opportunity to also ask for Master Wang's signature. He looked at me and smiled. He wrote this on his paper:

"My daoist friend Shen Zhigang, please enlighten me. Wang Liping."

I was very emotional when I saw that, I told him, "How can you write that? I can't possibly accept this." He just answered, "It's fine just like this."

When I was in middle school, college and when I started working, there had always been a teacher who helped me along. They help me solved difficult problems in those times. In the journey of my life, Master Wang has taught me, protected me and helped me. I came to understand deeper the meaning of the word "teacher", he is the teacher of my life.

1990 - Discussion of Dao at the Police University (6)

In 1988, I used my spare time after work to organize and convert the sound recording of Master Wang's lectures to written words. Not long after that, I also converted the lectures from Shenyang Railway School. I told Master Wang about this. He said, "You can organize this materials and then publish it with your name. These materials are not important to me but it will help you immensely. These materials were left behind by the ancestors, I don't want to use my name. But the government doesn't agree, they only let me publish with my name." I said, "These are all your materials, it's not right to publish with my name only, If i am going to publish it I must add my own content."

Therefore, while I was organizing Master Wang teaching material, I was also thinking about "my own content".

1990 - Discussion of Dao at the Police University (5)

Ling Bao Tong Zhineng Neigong Shu is a set of closely integrated, clearly defined and content rich techniques. Master Wang always has new materials to lecture on in every seminar and you could not get them from other places. Everyone enjoys Master Wang's lecture, they are like beautiful music, soothing to the mind. When I asked Master Wang what is the proportion of materials that he had revealed compared to the undisclosed materials. He said, "The demonstrations is about 2/5. The lectures is about 1/10." At that moment, these were only numbers, I couldn't even imagine the things that I don't know. In the 10 years that followed, after many lectures and my own study and investigation, I came to fully appreciate that the wisdom, knowledge, ability and magic of Master Wang is not comprehensible by ordinary people. Here is an example to illustrate this point.

In one of the conversations we had, Master Wang said, "A rocket need an optimal escape velocity, angle to leave the earth's gravitational fields; to escape from the gravity of the sun and the solar system, the rocket also needs specific a velocity and angle. In daoist practice, when yang shen leaves the body, it also needs specific velocity and angle. Similarly when the yang shen enter and exit earth and the solar system, it also needs a specific level of strength, angle and direction. But there are very few persons in the world who knew the required strength, velocity and direction of the 28 stars cluster." I just felt that was way beyond me at that moment, almost incomprehensible. In these few years, from my own practice, I really can feel my connection to the moon, the sun and the five dipper clusters which include the Big Dipper and their internal connections to the human body. For example the big dipper is affiliated with Water of the space five elements, in human body, the kidney and the bladder are affiliated with water. When one practices with the big dipper, the five element qi resonate, the internal qi move in the Kidney and Bladder Channels. I also got hold of a book called "Da Qian Tu Shuo". It introduces the connections between the the stars and the daoist practice, including the Zi Wei Stars system, the Five Dippers, the 28 stars clusters, the Northern Stars and the Southern Stars system. We only practiced with a small portion of these systems, this made us even more in awe of the Master Wang's knowledge and we really admire all the daoist masters including Master Wang, they are too amazing.