grady

Veritas, doing qigong outside is 100 times more beneficial than doing qigong indoors. That being said, doing qigong inside is 1000 times more beneficial than not doing qigong at all. Practice accordingly. This is misleading. Yes, the moon is Yin in the context of its relationship to the sun. In the context of its relationship to the earth the moon is actually Yang (!). TianDiRen 天地人 “heaven earth man", remember? Ren 人 “man" exists within the YinYang polarity generated by the interaction of heaven & earth. No "thing" actually *is* Yin or Yang independent of its relationship with some other "thing" which we choose to describe in those terms. Best of luck with your cultivation.

There are at least 2 students performing in that video. Some things I can do on my own, others I can do with Shifu's or the brother students' help. I have not yet reached the "gold standard" of the basic training in our school, which is the ability to project qi *without* the aid of Shifu or one of the seniors to first open certain meridian points or irrigate certain meridian channels immediately prior. To my knowledge there are at present no Western students who have reached that level. [EDIT: I take that back, I was told about one of the early Western students who achieved a fairly high level in a few years time, but he passed away in a car accident in the late 90's and I don't know much more about him.] With Shifu's or one of the senior's assistance it's possible to do quite a number of things within just a few years of training, whereas doing them on your own is significantly more difficult. However having Shifu help is a lot like having training wheels on your bicycle, it does speed the learning process and greatly reduces the risk of injury.

You are correct that our Romanian friends visit Shifu for diagnosis free of charge. I am also very honored to be able to bring those seeking medical treatment to Shifu in this manner. This statement, however, is mistaken: "the fact still remains most of them didn't ever pay for teachings and training." I can understand why you would think so, given that different people pay different amounts for different things and under different arrangements at different times. In short, the seminar I am arranging is different than what others have done in the past. Apples & oranges. This is a very Chinese way, a very "Taoist" way, to approach every situation as different, and unfortunately the truth is it does often strike our Western minds which crave standardization as "shady" or a "double standard", but it is what it is ... it is *their* way, *their* culture, *their* art, and we must adapt ourselves to it. "what can a 10 day seminar offer, that repeated FREE　visits and empowerments could not cover?" At the end of the day you get what you pay for, and "free" is often a great deal more expensive than the alternative.

I can think of 3 ways off the top of my head: (1) You can watch the second video that I linked to in this thread and witness multiple students of Shifu demonstrating various abilities. (2) You can take the word of other people like myself who have visited Shifu and witnessed his students demonstrating similar abilities, many of whom have written accounts of their experiences and posted them publicly. (3) You can come to China yourself and personally witness/experience Shifu's students demonstrating similar abilities.

A number of people have written me in regards to various health issues and a desire to visit Dr. Jiang for medical reasons. As a result this past week I asked Shifu, and he has very graciously has decided to permit me to bring those interested in being diagnosed medically, but not interest in practicing our art formally, to the November seminar. Those only interested in receiving Shifu's diagnosis, and potentially his treatments, will not be charged tuition. If you are interested in joining the November trip as a medical patient please contact me via PM for more information.

If you review the second youtube link I posted, which is a compilation of various clips, I believe you will find that it contains footage of at least one of the brother students (a bald gentleman) passing ZhenQi diagnostically into a foreign patient. The "turtle & shirt burning demos" (*my* shirt, incidentally) were taken down from youtube almost as soon as they were posted because they were uploaded without Shifu's approval, and as I understand it as soon as their otherwise well-intentioned uploaders were informed they immediately removed them. Trust me, I'd love to post something new; Shifu has been treating a large group of foreign patients for the past few days and there was some video taken that I would love to share, but at this time it just hasn't been approved.

I decided to reply to this post because a number of people seem to be under the mistaken impression that Dr. Jiang only "projects qi that appears to burn like a laser". First, the "qi that burns like a laser" is indeed one application of YangQi 阳气 that sometimes Shifu makes use of for medical purposes, however it is not the only one or even the primary one. The primary "flavor" of qi used for diagnostic & medical purposes is in fact quite similar to what you see John Chang projecting in his videos for diagnostic & medical purposes, what you guys like to call YinYangQi 阴阳气 and what we call ZhenQi 真气, a very electric-like qi that causes muscles to involuntarily tense/shake/vibrate. I refer interested parties again to the collection of videos posted here, which gives a broader exposure to some of Shifu's abilities: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC7RT3QxFWk&feature=results_main Second, there were indeed some complaints by attendees to previous seminars (not organized by me) who were diagnosed with various health issues which would impede their progress, and felt that Shifu's prescribed treatments were more expensive than expected. For those who are interested in our seminar I discuss this in significant detail on the private forum. Suffice it to say here that *no one* is under any obligation to follow *any* of Shifu's medical advice, or training advice for that matter, and no one is officially or unofficially precluded from progressing. He tells you very honestly if he thinks you have a problem that will impede your progress and what he thinks will fix that problem, nothing more, nothing less.

This letter was originally intended for the Gengmenpai private forum, but after glancing at the discussion that has occurred here over the past few days, I decided it was appropriate to post it here given the subject matter. 2012/9/11 A quick note from the beautiful city of Hangzhou, where I have just returned having been with Shifu and my fellow tudi for the past week training, seeing patients, sharing cooking duties, and working daily on a big project which I hope to be able to talk about more openly in the new year ... Shifu has for the past few days been concentrated on treating a Chinese patient with FeiXinBing 肺心病, what a Western biomedical doctor would diagnose as pulmonary heart disease, a very serious condition. I have not witnessed the treatment of this specific condition before and it has been an important opportunity for me to observe the very delicate way in which Dr. Jiang and his assistants alternately use applications of both qi and herbal medicines over the course of a few days, as well as lifestyle changes & sometimes specific exercises, to achieve their results, in this case increased blood flow to and through the heart. When a patient is diagnosed with a DuSe 堵塞 "blockage", ZhenQi 真气 "true/real qi" is often used to YaPo 压破 "break up" the blockage and then herbal medicines are used to help clear the blockage from the system, however sometimes when a blockage is too severe (as in this case) initial application of qi is counter-indicated as it can be "deflected" by the blockage and injure nearby organ systems, so herbal medicines are used first to weaken the blockage and the area is then "irrigated" with qi. Upon completion of treatment the patient will be advised to return to his Western-trained biomedical doctor for a checkup to confirm his results, as all Dr. Jiang's patients are so advised. Although I am quite accustomed to it now, it still a matter of no small excitement to have the opportunity to listen in on the discussions of a new (to me) illness, from diagnosis all the way through treatment and follow-up. I am reminded of how skeptical I was in the beginning, particularly when my Chinese was not at the level to be able to understand 100% of everything was said, always suspecting and listening to see if perhaps something other than legitimate treatment was actually discussed. We often say "seeing is believing", but in truth, with something as uncommon as the skills regularly displayed by Shifu and the brother students often "just seeing" is not enough. Indeed the patient above to which I referred was quite apprehensive himself until Shifu diagnosed his condition using his special method of pulse diagnosis as identical to the one that a Western-trained doctor had diagnosed him with, and was still finding it hard to believe the pronounced daily reduction in his blood pressure and other less objective symptoms (chest pain, cough, etc.) It turns out we Westerners do not have a monopoly on skepticism. It makes me think back to a conversation I once had with Shifu when I asked him why they didn't make more of a concerted effort to publicly demonstrate the scientific validity of their skills & treatments. Shifu just smiled knowingly and told me that "those who can MingBianShiFei 明辨是非 'differentiate truth from falsehood' will see, those who can not will not, it's a matter of QiShu 气数 'fate' and YuanFen 缘分 'predestined affinity'". A very Chinese answer certainly, and perhaps an unsatisfying one for our Western minds, but the truth nonetheless. More to come when I have the time to write. Best of luck to all in their search, -Grady

It depends on what you mean by "spirit". If you are using the word in the religious sense then you don't need qigong/neigong, a retreat, or any of this to be closer to God. Pure prayer can take you all the way in that regard; nothing stands between you and God save what you place between you. If by "spirit" you mean 神 shen, then: 炼精化气 lian jing hua qi "refine jing into qi" 炼气化神 lian qi hua shen "refine qi into shen" Qigong 101. The vast majority of modern "qigong practitioners" have heard of this formula, but will never actually achieve the level of refining jing into qi. We call what we do "qigong" because we primarily focus on working with qi. Without the ability to work with qi effectively on at least an intermediate level, any thought of working with shen is pure fantasy.

YM, I fail to see how you posting a photo of Paiyunlou's dorm-style accomodations (which almost every mountaintop hotel offers for budget travelers, by the way) serves to refute anything I said. I can assure you that the last time *I* personally stayed at Paiyunlou my room did not resemble the pic you have posted. When was the last *you* were there? You sir are clearly an internet troll, and I will not be feeding you any longer.

Bwahahahahahaha! If only I had a dollar for every time I heard that joke in my lawyer days ... actually your implication is not altogether inaccurate ... my surname *is* actually derived from bloodsucking worms. "Leach/Leech" was a Middle English occupational surname for a medical doctor, a physician. My family crest is a hand grasping a serpent (leeches were thought to be a kind of snake). Some may not know that leeches were used in traditional medicine from prehistoric times all the way up until the 19th century, usually for bloodletting purposes but also for the treatment of what we now call arthritis, etc. They are actually still used in modern medicine, as it turns out some of the chemicals they secrete to keep blood from clotting can assist in the reattachment of severed limbs and are not readily synthesized.

YM ... really? First off, these are NOT the only two articles regarding Dr. Jiang on the internet, even a cursory search proves that. They are simply the only two you could find accusing him of being a fraud. Second, did you even read the article you link to? And I quote: "从武侠小说看到的，被气功点穴应是麻麻的，或者从内到外的有点发热的感觉，但我伤口完全是皮外伤。" My translation: “From what we’ve seen in martial arts novels, if your acupuncture points are opened with qigong it should feel numb, or feel warm from the inside to the outside, but my wound is completely on the outer skin.” In short, this guy thinks that Dr. Jiang must be a scam artist because his experience wasn’t just like what he read in martial arts novels. He then goes on to speculate about all the different conventional sleight-of-hand ways that Dr. Jiang might have used to produce the phenomena he experienced, without a shred of proof that he did so, other than his own imagination. Am I the only one that finds this amusing? What is actually surprising is that there aren't MORE articles accusing Jiang Shifu of being fraudulent, given the thousands of people he's treated over several decades in medical practice. If you had any knowledge of the location in mention I seriously doubt that you would have posted it in an attempt to discredit Dr. Jiang. He no more "worked" there in 2009 than The Rolling Stones "worked" at the Beacon Theatre. Paiyunlou is one of a handful of higher-end hotels on the summit of the Yellow Mountain where party leaders and other VIP's often stay on retreat. Dr. Jiang is regularly invited there to practice his medicine for these VIP groups, and sometimes his treatments are available to other hotel guests, as it appears happened here. Dr. Jiang has accepted these sorts of invitations since at least the early 1990's. Given their clientele the level of government scrutiny at these locations is very high. If you honestly think that someone could make a practice of defrauding high level party members over decades, particularly in the period following the government crackdown on the "qigong cults" in the late 1980's and early 1990's, and maintain your career or even your *freedom*, then you have a very mistaken perception of how things operate on the mainland. We have an expression where I'm from in Alabama: "You can bring a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." So very true. But the bigger truth is that it's not my job to encourage *anyone* to drink when they're not thirsty. Someone made the comment that Taobums is a terrible place to advertise. And if marketing results are what you're after, it certainly is. Fortunately I'm just here to let a few like-minded seekers know where the water is.

The mistake you make is to think of it as a business, and thus judge it against a business model. It is not. Your error is to assume that we would want "corporate sponsoring. Or professional marketing". We do not. Neither Shifu, nor I for that matter, make our living teaching or giving seminars. The cost of the seminar consequently has almost nothing to do with supply and demand. I am very thankful for that, and you should be too, because if it did, I imagine that things would be a great deal more expensive than they are.

Ignoring for the moment the incredible arrogance implicit in the ridiculous air of moral authority that you have taken here, I will leave you with a thought: Dr. Jiang gave his master his *childhood*. Seven to seventeen. Actually it is more accurate to say that his childhood was taken from him, because he really didn't have much of a choice in the matter. What was YOUR childhood worth? More or less than $4000? I have given the last few years of my life to this full-time work. What is it worth to you not to have to spend years, quit your job, leave your family, move to a foreign country, learn an alien language, and all with no guarantee of success? More or less than $4000? It is ... enlightening, I suppose, to see how many people are willing to spend $4000 on a high end flatscreen TV or a 10-day cruise but expect the "secrets of the universe" (in quotes for a reason) for free ... This stuff is not for the many, it's for the few. The further I walk down this road the more I understand the wisdom of the ancients in making it so.

You phrased the question correctly; there is a big difference between having money & not being willing to spend it, and not having the money in the first place. I hesitate to put words in Shifu's mouth, but the truth is that he has so often counseled personally me in regards to building and maintaining a healthy financial condition that I feel confident he would probably say some of the same things to you. The practice is alive, it's like a plant who must have fertile ground in which to take root. That fertile ground is not just a healthy body-mind, but a healthy lifestyle as well, both in terms of your personal relationships and in terms of your financial situation, amongst other things. In short, if your financial house is not in order, Shifu's first instructions to you would likely not be qigong exercises, but admonitions to get your financial house in order.

For those who are interested I've posted a link to a long compilation of clips someone (not me) put together, it's basically a collection of most of the youtube clips of Shifu which have been posted by various parties over the years, and some photos as well. There's some very nice footage of Shifu at home in his socks passing qi diagnostically into a Western patient at the 5:30 mark, so much for the "electrical device in his shoe" theory: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC7RT3QxFWk&feature=results_main

The correct character is 耿. The burn is a side effect of the injection of yang qi into the body for medical purposes, not the objective. The Yijinjing is usually listed as one of the famous 少林五诀 "Five Secrets/Arts/Techniques of Shaolin" Our Yijinjing and the "fusion of yin & yang" are not mutually exclusive, quite the contrary. I'm happy to try to answer more specific questions on our forum, please PM for details.

You're doing a good job of quoting my posts but not a very good job of reading them. Again, to my knowledge he publicly retracted his statements to the reporter and asked for the forgiveness of Shifu and his brother students in Taiwan. Again, I don't know if when or where his retraction was *published* by Apple Daily, and I really don't care, but I understand why someone who only has the internet to go on would. Frankly I doubt that a Taiwanese newspaper would be very interested in posting a retraction of a story it printed about a mainland qigong practitioner being a fraud, given the politics and stereotypes involved. I clicked on your link to take a look, but that website is blocked on the mainland, another indication of the politics at play.

I am not certain when, where, or even *if* his retractions were ever published. As I said, "Unfortunately publishing retractions is less enticing than publishing defamatory articles." For a lark I tried to see if I could find it just now but apparently the Apple Daily's website has been "harmonized" (is blocked for the mainland). I can understand why someone who has nothing but the internet to go on would be obsessed with these kinds of allegations, but it's just not a priority for me anymore. I have witnessed these phenomena (and others which have yet to be shared) dozens of times and I have always been very skeptical, always checking for places devices could be hidden, always watching for assistants doing something sly, always angling to see things impromptu or in a different context, always listening to Shifu speaking with the others in their native dialect (some of which I have grown to understand over the years) to see if they would spill something ... indeed it was my skepticism which directly prompted the infamous "t-shirt burning demo" in 2007 at our first meeting in which I took the shirt off my back and Shifu burned a few holes in it from a distance with his yang qi at an elevation of over 10,000 feet, video of which I believe may have been leaked on this forum for a short time ... trust me, I get it. You are not going to find a great deal of references to the "Gengmenpai" name, although they are out there (in Mandarin of course) although a number of people have written it with the wrong character (including the Apple Daily article, if memory serves) which is both amusing and instructive. Shifu is not big on formal names and usually just calls what we do "Yijinjing". "Does Sifu Jiang's training consist of ... fusion of yin and yang?" Yes. As for the term "LeiShanDao" I believe David is the only one who uses it; Jiang Shifu and my Chinese brother students at least do not.

Good questions. 1: A disgruntled student who wanted immediate results and subsequently slandered Shifu in an article, then publicly retracted his statements later. Unfortunately publishing retractions is less enticing than publishing defamatory articles. 2: I have only met a few of the Malaysian students, and I have not met the one to whom you are referring. I do however remember Shifu mentioning that procedure in passing in a conversation, and I've read that article. My understanding was that it was a special case. (I am tudi, and while I have undergone similar empowerments to what is described in that article, nudity was never required, and Shifu has never needed to personally check the strength of my manhood). Shifu teaches by prescription, and he empowers by prescription as well. However much we each share in common, every body-mind is different. 3: That procedure involved the transfer of qi from an animal to human for medical purposes. The animals were not killed. I am not a scholar of buddhist ethics, but it doesn't seem to me that the five precepts were broken. Unusual certainly, but done to achieve a compassionate end. 4: In short, it depends on which ancestor you count from. More information is provided on the forum. Please PM me if you are interested.

I imagine you're referring to the Romanian group. They are lovely people. I have assisted in translating for their group before, and I imagine I likely will again. I believe they may also train with Wang Liping, and perhaps other teachers in China as well. If my experience was any indication their trips to China to see Dr. Jiang are largely medical in nature, but there is definitely a practice/training component to what they do, as I have witnessed Shifu evaluating the progress of a few members of their group firsthand. At the end of the day I frankly don't know what they pay, and as far as I'm concerned that's their private matter and none of my business. If you are interested in what they do, I encourage you to contact them.

The fact that not only can he *demonstrate* the skills that practically no on else has, but that he also has a verifiable track record of successfully *transmitting* them to his students, that the transmission takes place within a comparatively *short* timespan, and that he is *willing* to do so ... *that* is what makes it worth it. Again, this presupposes that you are actually interested to cultivating the ability to demonstrate objectively verifiable qi phenomena. If you aren't, and subjective experience is sufficient reward for your efforts (no judgment here), then it's a moot point.

What is being offered here are neither "very basic methods", nor does Jiang Shifu's empowerment merely "amount to getting a healing done". What is being offered here are a set of practices and an empowerment leading to skills which the vast majority of "qigong masters" simply don't possess. If you think the seminar is too expensive, that's certainly your prerogrative. If you had met Dr. Jiang before and experienced his gong firsthand, I doubt you would consider it a "ripoff". Though I'll be the first to admit that this kind training is certainly not for everyone.

Indeed. David was the person who first introduced me to Dr. Jiang five years ago.

My name is Grady, long time lurker, first time poster. I am a former American attorney currently residing in mainland China, where I have lived full-time for the past four years. I am an indoor student of Dr. Jiang Feng, the headmaster of Shaolin Yijinjing Gengmenpai (å°æ寺æç­ç¶è¿éæ´¾) qigong. I will be organizing a group to travel to China and begin training in Dr. Jiang's art later this year. Please check my full post in the general forum, and PM me if you are interested. Best to all, -Grady