My teacher in China Jianshe, a wise, smiling man in his mid 50's who speaks English well, but with a thick accent, is a practitioner of Zhineng qigong, or Wisdom Healing qigong. It is the same type of qigong as taught by Ming Tong Gu in New Mexico, but I found their approaches to be quite different.
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| Jianshe |
The main difference is in the way the two teachers approach the practice. Ming Tong Gu suggests visualizations to strengthen the feeling and flow of qi through the body, such as a flood of light or an ocean of energy washing over and through your body. Jianshe says, no visualizations! Nothing! Jianshe says, the most important thing is to relax your body. Which should I do? I am experimenting with both: emptying my mind of thoughts, visualizations, and allowing my mind to project images. Actually, it seems they can work alternately in one practice - I do both.
Jianshe often mentioned Anita Moorjani, whose talks and book share what she learned about life and healing while in a near death coma. She saw the truth, he said. The Truth. I've listed her book in the sidebar.
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| the Center |
Traveling to China is much farther to go than New Mexico, but the total two week retreat cost plus airfare proved to be less to go to China. Everything seemed to cost less in China, though shopping was not a big factor on the trip.
All meals were supplied, and was extremely healthful, cooked by our young Chinese chef, Yan and his father-in-law, Bai, who was driver and purchaser as well. The fare was local vegetables and fresh tropical fruit, rice, wheat noodles, tea and coffee with an occasional bit of chicken or fish.
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| foreground l-r: Yan, Jenny, Bai |
Bai's daughter, Yan's wife Jenny, was the other English speaking teacher at the center, and the fourth member of Jianshe's team.
Our typical day the first week and even during the second week when we traveled to other locations on the island of Hainan was this:
6:00 coffee or tea if you wanted
6:30 walk or bike to the beach for qigong practice or else on the roof: Lift Chi Up Pour Chi Down
9:00 breakfast
10:00 meet with Jianshe for Chi song, La Chi, talk, question and answer
12:00 lunch
1:00 rest/freetime
3:00 varied: qigong eye exercises, visit to a local site, calligraphy lesson, tea ceremony...
6:00 dinner
7:30 varied: sometimes the group would practice together on the roof or inside, or go out for a beer
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| qigong at the beach |
The weather in April was very hot and humid in Hainan, the very most southern part of China. They said unseasonably so, but that it would be much worse in summer. So our group, consisting of six German women and two American women from northern states suffered greatly from the heat and we probably spent more time in our air conditioned rooms than we might have otherwise. It was therefore, a restful, even lazy, retreat.
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| Jianshe relaxing at the coconut farm |
Since leaving China, I have continued to practice the Lift Chi Up... movements daily. I was able to finally memorize the sequence by the end of the two week retreat. I have a routine. Each morning after I make my bed, and drink some water, I sing the Chi song, with Ling Ling on a recording or by myself. Then I either do Yin Yoga, or some qigong warm up movements that I learned at a recent "Slow Yoga and Qigong" retreat at Kripalu. Then the movements one time through. I follow this up with a daily reading from "Courage to Change," writing in my journal and reading a book that I can learn something from. Now I'm reading about understanding poetry.
All of this is in my bedroom where I have created a quiet, peaceful corner for these activities.
Occasionally, I have done other qigong practices on my own later in the day, and I go once a week to do a short practice with a friend or two, along with a YouTube video. It's not enough. I am doing well, someone said I looked "radiant" recently, but I know I need to do more. PD is not so easy to
overcome. I need to keep pushing on.
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| The retreat group plus friends |
