I have just finished reading the article “Morsi the Cat” by Peter Hessler in the New Yorker (May 7 issue). If you cannot get a copy, go to NEWYORKER.COM. It is about the author’s sojourn with his wife and young twin children in Zamalek, Cairo, Egypt. Like me, Hessler taught English as a Second Language in China, he in Fuling, I in Hangzhou. Hessler wrote about his experience in his first book “River Town.” (Another well-written and highly regarded book about teaching English in China is Mark Salzman’s “Iron and Silk” which was made into a movie.) He also wrote a couple of other books about China, one of them “Oracle Bones,” a poetic, perceptive and informative study of China’s past and present. I wish I could re-read his books but I do not have time. I thought I’ll try to connect with him in Cairo in November but he has moved his family to Colorado.
I have just booked a tour of Egypt on Friendly Planet, including a cruise up the Nile to Aswan Dam with stopover in Karnak and the other temples in Upper Egypt, from November 14 to 24. (Those of you who have been planning to join me on a pilgrimage to Egypt, please don’t say I didn’t inform you.) Egypt is one of the most fascinating places in the world. Its antiquity, the stunning pyramids and temples, and the wisdom of the ancients, among many, are to me a feast to be experienced again and again. I’ve developed long friendships with Egyptian healers over the years. Sometime in 2002-2005 I taught Taijiquan, Qigong, and Qi Nei Zang internal organs massage and also administered acupuncture to patients, once on a houseboat on the Nile, another time at an apartment in Cairo. A student and her husband took me to a resort on the Red Sea, the Suez Canal and the desert. An Egyptian woman who read the Akashic Records told me I was a scribe in ancient Egypt, another said I was a priest. At a dinner with some 20 women (I was the only man in the room) a young healer asked me resentfully why I rejected her in the remote past. She said she was my student in ancient Egypt. Honestly, I had never met her before; at least, not in the present incarnation! Stunned by the question, I stammered that I could not remember what happened. On several occasions, I had dreams of a life in pharaonic times. (A famous psychic said I had a lifetime as a general in ancient China too.) I cannot reconstruct all the mystical experiences I had in the pyramids, especially in the Queen’s Chamber, and temples (like Karnak) partly because they were too many and partly because they were simply incredible. Besides, who believes those things anyway? We are rational and scientific and live in modern times, isn’t it? But I can say that after seeing me and two companions performing Taoist Qigong movements, one of the guardians of the temple, who are invariably secretive, gave us a private tour of several small temples closed to the public in Luxor. He even showed us a method of energy manipulation on the spine similar to Xiao Zhou Tian or Small Heavenly Circle in the tradition of Longmen Pai or Dragon Gate Lineage in esoteric Quanzhen Taoist alchemy. I’ve been wondering, was that technique part of the repertoire from the Emerald Tablet or the arcana of Hermeticism and the Philosopher’s Stone? (For other details about my experiences in Egypt, please read my essay “Letter from Cyprus” in the Writings Section of my website.)
I was in Machu Picchu, too, and I did the Taoist exercises that bring down or bring out what the Chinese call the Qi (the translation is inadequate but in English it is lifeforce or energy). I wandered around the ruins and tried different positions and movements but I could not quite connect. The experience there wasn’t as profound as in Egypt. The Peruvian sacred site did not affect me as much. It is true I had felt a kind of stirring, a frequency, but it did not last long or penetrate deeply. Perhaps too many tourists disturbed the frequency of the place, or perhaps I was not aligned to the true center. It puzzled me. Whatever the reason, Machu Picchu did not have the same effect on me as the pyramids or the temples of Egypt did. (For a guide to these practices, please see my article “Opening the Body to Nature” in the Writings section.) It was different in Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world at 12,000 feet that I visited, too, but that’s another story. All I can say for now is that I left the tour and jumped in the cold water!
As part of my plan to study yoga, I am reading the book “The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: New Edition, Translation and Commentary” by Edwin Bryant, a professor of Hindu studies at Rutgers U. It is slow and careful reading. He also wrote several other books, but I only have “Bhakti Yoga: the Tales and Teachings of the Bhagavata Purana.” I am doing an extensive research into yoga. I am just beginning to learn the different Sanskrit words, their roots, Hindu concepts and myths. From what I have read, it seems like much of what is being taught in the West is just one, the third, of the 8 branches — hatha yoga or asanas — and its various and modern variations. The other important teachings like bhakti yoga, karma yoga and jnana yoga — are often not taught. How about dhyana, the origin of chsn and zen meditation? I have actually been searching authentic transmissions of Asian meditative and healing arts all these years, choosing the best reading materials and seeking genuine masters. When Asian techniques reach the West, they are often diluted, simplified and commercialized or commodified. For this research into yoga I have several of the essential books on the subject, including the anthology “Yoga: the Art of Transformation,” the Upanishads, several translations of the Patanjali and Bhagavad Gita, the books of BKS Iyengar and a bunch of books on the asanas.
I am scheduled to visit the Philippines July 17 to August 17. There’s a Traditional Yang Family Tai chi chuan residential intensive that I am going to teach at the ylang-ylang farm in Estipona, Pura, Tarlac. Two separate groups are signed up. The first group will take the second section, part 1, of the 108 movement solo fist form and the basics of the staff. The second group will be split into two – one will take the first Dao/Broadsword form and the other the first Jian/Straight Sword. Along with these courses, I will review Microcosmic Orbit Meditation, Xing Shen Zhuang Fa and Yi Jin Jing. Now that I am 77, I hope that with these intensive training classes I could form a core of practitioners and teachers who could carry on my work in the country. I have taught in the Philippines off and on for 20 years. I have taught classes in Qi Nei Zang Chi Nei Tsang internal organs massage to blind masseurs and village women. I started a class in qigong, including a protocol for treating trauma, to women and “street children” living in a shelter. Now I am also planning to begin classes for young Filipinos and children. To achieve and continue these courses we need teachers and facilitators and financial and moral support from the community. The Philippines is one of the few Asian countries, perhaps the only one, that suffered a decimation of its culture and traditions because of its colonization by Spain and the United States. An often quoted expression from a French journalist: “The history of the Philippines is 300 years in a Roman Catholic convent and 50 years in Hollywood.” It’s actually worse than that because the effects of colonization have continued to the present. The long-term and deleterious effect of westernization has been profound, resulting not only in the loss of native traditional culture but also the continuing westernization of the people. The Filipinos, to be honest about it, simply love the culture of their colonizers!
At the same time, like other countries, there is already a growing wave of interest in different Asian healing and meditative methods in the Philippines. There is a government commission that regulates different health and healing modalities. Acupuncture has been practiced for at least 40 years. Martial arts, including arnis de mano, have been popular since the mid-1960s. Along with meditation, massage, essential oils, crystals and qigong, yoga is gaining adherents in different urban areas along with nutrition and dietetics. The colonial culture is definitely getting transformed for the better. Even places like Bohol, Palawan, Albay, the Ilocos, Baguio, Cebu and others are seeing the opening of health spas and resorts and the creation of different groups practicing Asian arts. Eventually, I am sure, the Philippines will be able to develop its own eclectic tradition, a weave of different threads and colors. It may take time but that is how culture evolves. We have to develop a tradition of discipline of discrimination, a curiosity for the authentic arts of Asia. Many arts are shallow and fabricated. Not every Tai chi chuan form, for instance, is genuine. It is easy for teachers to claim genuine credentials. There is a lot of deception in the marketplace. The development of a culture is slow and hard. India and China took thousands of years, borrowing from each other and other countries. Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia have their own cultural mix. Who would have thought 200 years ago how they would turn out?
What are my other projects for the year? I am working on my poetry collection “Shaman,” a compilation of the poems I have written since the 1970s. The manuscript has been formatted (thanks to my friend Manny Maramara) and a publisher, Mark Wiley of Tambuli has shown interest in it. I am also doing the preliminary research for an essay on Philippine national hero Jose Rizal and his Masonic connection. It is known that Rizal was a Mason, but what were his Masonic (and Hermetic) practices and beliefs? I have also been working on a piece about my martial arts masters – Grandmaster Gin Soon Chu and his son and heir Vincent Fong Chu. How long it will take me I really do not know. At this point I feel I do not have enough materials for what I intend to include. There are missing pieces and gaps in my knowledge, I must admit. The book is definitely not going to be your “he was born in (place) and on (date) and studied this and that with this teacher” kind of writing. I want to write something truly substantial, a careful presentation of techniques and methods, not just a list or a narrative but what the different forms aim to develop in the practitioner. I am honestly not excited writing about (and teaching) basics; I have done that since 50 years ago back in the 1960s. After seeing the Magus of Java in Indonesia and Xuan Kong in China and studying with Jeffrey Yuen, Mantak Chia and David Verdesi I have set higher goals for myself and my work. If you are going to write about a master, you better write about masterful teachings and masterful methods. The Chus, father and son, definitely deserve such a treatment. Their methods, realistically techniques of human transformation, have to be shared with the world.
A short mention of the routine I try to observe Monday to Saturday: I often sleep early, preferably before 9 pm, and wake up between 2 and 3 am. Before sleeping I do a form of meditation. When I wake up I meditate again and then either do some writing or reading. I go to the gym after breakfast and spend an hour or two doing the machines to exercise my breath, hamstrings, abdominals, triceps and biceps and then, after a short meditation, do a round of Tai chi chuan and Shaolin. Depending on the day, I try to do a fist form or two and the swords – dao/knife and jian/straight sword. I need a nap in the afternoon because I begin to feel sleepy after lunch.
Lately, I have been watching DVDs of martial art forms – Shaolin and Wudang and a bit of Wu-Shu (contemporary martial art) style. I’ve been watching my forms from 1995: 3 Traditional Yang Family Tai chi chuan forms (the 108 movement solo fist form, first Dao form and first Jian form) and a Shaolin form called Dragon-Tiger that I learned from Grandmasters Johnny F. Chiuten and Lao Kim in the 1960s. I noticed that there are many aspects of the forms that I have changed and corrected, i.e. I am doing them differently now. What I noticed also is that I have lost the flexibility and stamina I had when I was in my 50s. I have also been watching the DVD of Master Vincent F. Chu. Fong shifu’s presentation of the 108 is graceful, fluid, soft and strong. “Steel wrapped in cotton,” as the Tai chi Chuan Classics would call it. What a pleasure to watch his version of Tai chi chuan. For hours I would sit in front of the large-screen TV mesmerized by this extraordinary master who is the most knowledgeable Tai chi chuan master I know. Having studied with him since 1989, I know that his teachings are a treasure and I can say he is the Michelangelo of the Tai chi chuan world. His knowledge of Tai Chi Chuan is vast, profound and ancient. A living legend if there is one. Sadly, he has not received the recognition he deserves. Perhaps that is how it is in the world: the real master lessons are ignored because they are difficult and students often fall for the easy and shallow and popular.
Blessings of peace and love, always,
Rene