China - Part 7: Cultivating Chi in the Mountains Oct 4-Nov15

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I came to China with only one major purpose: to study Tai Chi & Qi Gong with a competent master with the hopes of understanding the basics enough to continue practicing at home on my own for some years.



Its said that after years of study, the benefits include a highly focused concentration, improved health & healing of joints, cured diseases, & cancers, greater physiological control such as emotional calmness & some control of involuntary body functions (heartrate, body heat, blood flow), and an awareness of the energy in ones body, aka “the cultivation of Chi,'' which leads to an inner power above normal human capability. I plan to test this for myself.



It took 4 flights to get from Kolkata to Beijing. I still love lifting off & returning to ground, and have somehow sat at a window seat for 9 out of 11 flights this trip so far. I took a shuttle train from the airport to central beijing, and then went to take a taxi to the railwaz station. I asked the taxi driver how long the drive is, and he lied to me, saying half an hour, when its reallz only 10. He asked for 100 Yuan, about $16. This was starting off like india. But then a girl from the shuttle train I had just rode in, who happened to speak perfect engllish, suggested I come with her. It turned out that she happened to be taking the same rail train too, at 3am, so she helped me get a ticket, and then we went for a snack together. Jojo was her name. She told me about her boyfriend, who actually has a previous girlfriend and an oblivious wife. Jojo doesn’t know what to do because her bf isn’t fair and doesn’t always treat her well, but promises her he’s going to leave them both for her and then the can get married. Despite knowing that he’s a liar, Jojo still stays with him, which I found crazy. I tried to steer the conversation toward the solution rather than the problem, but it was no use. “What I’d really like to do with my life... I should leave him, but I cant, I dont know how to do that...'' In that conversation I saw how true it is that we human beings really can neglect responsibility for our own lives.

The next train I took from Beijing to Siping, in Northern china, was 13 hours long, but I had a little bed. Apparentlz there are no restrictions on smoking in China, which sucks. I talked to some chinese people who seemed quite entertained by the fact that they were bunked with a foreigner who spoke a different language. One man could say a few words in english. I realized that unlike India and Africa, Chinese people no speake engrish. Fortunately I know some chinese though, I started studying it about a year ago on my ipod. When I arrived at the Siping station, I found a taxi & took it to my final destination –“Wa shyung tso dadi chew nar, chewyow tour shyow shijyen? '', I said, asking how long it would take to get there.

The Siping Shaolin Martial Arts Academy is located at Ye He Ancient Castle, in the mountains of china. I arrived before 5pm, just in time for dinner, and looked at the features of the academy. Very nice. I was welcomed, and shown to my room which is very big, clean, and cold at night - the opposite of my last room in India. Then I went downstairs to eat dinner. There were 8 foreign students, 9 with me. We all sit at one table. They welcomed me and told me that we basically become like a family after a few weeks. Some of them are here for years but as for me, just 6 weeks. Apart from the 9 of us, there are about 20 chinese boy students aged about 6-12, 2 english translaters, and 4 masters. I watched the evening training class. My training began the next day.

Every weekday training starts at 5:30am. After stating my learning goal, I was matched with Shifu Lin (Shifu means Master). He carries himself how I hoped a master would – with a calm power. We started out by running, and then did a Qi Gong form that is slow and meditative. At 6:30 we had breakfast, and when we returned to training at 8:00 we went up a set of 24 stairs many times, in different ways like hopping up with one foot only and crawling down head first on hands and feet. I began to learn ‘Tai Chi form 24‘ for the rest of the morning. Its similar to the Kata forms I did in Kickboxing, but much slower and more relaxed, and the rate of my breath is the pace I move at.

The first “rule'' or principle is to bring your full awareness to your practice. This is not easy to do for an extended period of time, and we are training 7 hours per day between 5:30 and 19:30. To be honest, I’ve realized that my mind is not very disciplined. It’s hard for me to concentrate only on the practice, my thoughts drift and I’m easily distracted. Thats one of the reasons this kind of exercise of the mind & body together is very valuable, it teaches people to focus, to have greater awareness & control over their own mind.

Apart from regular training, every day we meditate during afternoon class. Sometimes in class we play basketball, hackysack, go for runs in the forrest, or just take a walk to the castle watch tower where the surrounding mountains and lake can be seen. The castle grounds are very big: 30,000 square meters according to the website: www.shaolins.com. On weekends, I’ve been going with s few students to Siping City, about an hour drive from the academy.

I pay close attention to the way Shifu Lin moved, which way his palms faced, which leg moved first, which way he leaned, how fast he moved etc... and sometimes he has to show me a movement 4-5 times before I copy it correctly. Shifu Lin can say only simple things like “pain, lower, cold, tomorrow'', but he gives direct feedback, corrects my posture and sometimes uses a translator to explain things , or his hands. One of the first things he did when I was starting to learn Qi Gong was to reach up and touch me between my legs with his fingers and draw a line up my back & head, down my arms & back up, down my chest, to my lower belly, and down to my feet indicating the flow of Chi through the body and its major energy center in the area of the intestines. Fortunately for me I also have a book on Tai Chi which I bought & read 3 years ago, and it helps to explain some of the principles of this martial art.

Apart from regular training, every day we meditate during afternoon class. Sometimes in class we play basketball, hackysack, go for runs in the forrest, or just take a walk to the castle watch tower where the surrounding mountains and lake can be seen. The castle grounds are very big: 30,000 square meters according to the website: www.shaolins.com. On Friday nights, I’ve been going with a few students to Siping City, about an hour drive from the academy. We usually buy groceries, get a massage, go for dinner, and sleep at an incredible bathhouse for only $5. Sometimes, on a students last week, Shifu Lin will come to dinner with us and pour us Chinese 60% liquor, and drink beers with us. Some of the students over drink every time and waste their weekend. But we have a good time on those nights.



My impression of the masters in this academy is that they are dedicated and have a lifetime of experience in martial arts, but that they haven’t approached the highest known levels of mastery. The other students who have been here longer say that the masters here are tired. In the future, I know where to look next, in a totally different provine in China, but for now I have the training I need to get started on this new martial arts training on my own when I return to Canada, and that’s what I came here for.



Country comparison:

After seeing Tanzania, India, and China, I have to say China has the most differences from the other two. First, almost nobody speaks english here, and there arent english written translations on buildnings etc, like in India & Africa. Second, the food. In Africa & India, you eat with your hands, but in China you ue In Africa & India, you eat with your hands, but in China you ue In Africa & India, you eat with your hands, but in China you use chopsticks. Tea in Africa & India came with milk & sugar, but not in China, there arent even many cows even in china. And unfortunately most food in Chinese stores has preservatives, artificial ingredients, is wrapped in blankets of plastics. Cooked food has too much salt. Also, its true you can find just about any animal for food in China, including scorpions, squirrels, and cockroaches. Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE Third, internet. Africa & India were fine, but in China, the government has blocked Facebook, Google, Youtube, and a ton of other sites. I wonder if they think its too much information for the people. Fourth, the dogs... In Tanzania, dogs are used everywhere as security. They are given marijuanna smoke to make them aggressive, and then released at night usually after 10pm and roam till dawn. In India dogs are like crows. They wander around, not really taken care of by anyone in particular, but surviving off garbage and living with eachother. They seemed the most stable in India, but occasionally looked like they had suffered a bad beating and were missing a chunk of skin or had a mangled limb. In China some people see a dog and wonder if it would go best with bbq sauce or teriaki. Lastly, the poverty. In China, where I’ve seen it, there aren’t beggars at all. It seems like nearly everyone has food, clothes & shelter. India & Africa are less developed and have more homeless & jobless people.

Similarities: The children, when misbehaved, will get hit whether in tanzania, India, or china. But I found that in China at the martial arts academy, the children get spanked regulariy with a long wooden stick by a master. Ouch. And sometimes even the adult foreigners get the stick, but this group is pretty well behaved. One of the most amazing things for me to see has been this: that in Tanzania, everyone is Tanzanian; in India, everyone is Indian; in China, everyone is chinese. I have gone through 3 paradigm shifts in the last 4 months. Each time I step off the plane in a new country, I have to get my head around a totally different understanding of the human ecology, and adjust to their style of interacting with people, and I find that the biggest differences in my environment have been created not by temperature, space, cleanliness, wealth, weather, scenery, development, or even food, but by people. Human beings are the most dynamic features of experience that our planet has to offer, and my amazement with how we’ve been created will never end. We truly are this universe’s most outstanding known masterpiece.



Now its November, and after a few more days in the academy I’ll leave China and return home...ahhhh Im looking forward to Mom’s cooking. The next step in my life journey will be to finish school and become a paramedic. As I do that, I’ll remember the experiences I’ve had over the last 4 months with people from so many different walks of life. I’ve liked every moment of this journey so far and I am very greatful for it.

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Photos

Training grounds
...part of them at least

Jeff academy fruit seller
This is what I did for halloween.