The 1st International Summit on Laozi and Daoist Culture

[宁]

 

 

Chia around?

 

Tao Toe,

Yoda

 

He's in Bucharest teaching Kan and Li, but he did receive an invitation. Busy schedule...

[doc benway]

We're really proud of you Stig!!!

I hope you're having a great time.

[voidisyinyang]

This is sweet. A new Winn interview. Still I'm sure your interview with him was about your mutual fear of Pai Mei. haha. Just think Taobums is one connection away from being an "official" rep for Taoism in China. That's hilarious -- and you're getting this VIP status with the scenic bus route and then the early morning banquet. haha. Jackie Chan's Twin might have to step in for you. haha.

 

Update:

 

Currently housed in a 5-star hotel in Zhengzhou city, capital of Henan province. The bus trip here was GRUELING indeed! An 8-9 hour road trip was stretched out to 17hrs due to traffic jams and then wrong turns and backtracking as the drivers tried to get around through the backroads (saw some damn interesting sites though on the way). We got to our hotel at 2:00am only to be met with an official welcome and a massive banquet in our honor O.o

 

Yesturday was a big trip out to Louyi city, the heralded birthplace of Laozi. After yet another massive lunch banquet we were shuttled in to a mini-summit / conference. Noone was really prepared for this and especially we were not prepared to be asked for speakers from the international delegates. Funnily enough the organizers threw a request my way to speak for 5 or so minutes (I wonder how they got the impression that I love to talk ) So here is little ol' me who really was a "street-kid Daoist" compared to the other dignitaries sitting side-by-side with communist party members representing the Western Daoist world I took the opportunity to give a very summarized version of my paper that I wrote and told them how damn wonderful they all were for putting on the event (they kinda liked that )

 

Then it was off to the Laozi temple for a quick visit (many of the folks felt it was much too quick). It was really nice though with group photos and the opportunity to light incense at the official Laozi shrine and pay my benedictions.

 

Today was off to Louyang to see the Longmen Grottoes, an incredibly impressive Buddhist sacred site where over 10 million Buddha statues of all sized from the very small (5-10cm) to the very large (4-5 stories) had been carved into the rocks along the stretch of the river. Like I said very impressive. Then to top it off Page, a lass from LA who teaches Taiji, and I did some Taiji together in front of the biggest statue (I got some vid of that so I will post it up when I get the chance).

 

On the bus home I had the great good fortune of doing an hour long interview with Michael Winn of http://www.healingtaousa.com It was an awesome interview with some really meaty stuff being discussed. I will post it up with the raw audio (low quality as it was on my iPhone and the bus noise was distorting things a bit).

 

Not sure what's on tomorrow but you can betcha it will be accompanied by yet another sumptuous feast (I'm gonna have to go on a diet when I get home ).

 

[exorcist_1699]

Wonder what it means if Daoism is the official religion in a communist (still) country.(?)

 

Maybe the only system that can assimilate , not using the term "getting rid of ", Marxism is Taoism . Likely similar to Taoist treatment of Buddhism , it does not get rid of it , but quietly assimilate it as in the case of Zen Buddhism . Comparing to the previous , unsuccessful attempt of dialectical materialist to assimilate qi into Marxism, trying to interpret it as some forms of matter, Taoism's assimilation of Marxism should be done in a " natural" way, in the form of wuwei ; not a simple discard , but an absorption of those fantastic ideas such as alienation , negation of negation , commodity fetishism ..and useful ideas from thinkers such as Reich , Fromm, Marcuse ..

Edited November 14, 2009 by exorcist_1699

[Stigweard]

Back in Oz ... Clean air! Sunshine! Yay!

 

An awesome trip all round. Will have full report with heaps of pics, vids and audio to post up (will take some time though to get it all sorted).

 

I have been left with a definite sense of our path being blessed at every turn. Even when I got to Wudangshan and I couldn't get up the mountain due to snow I just happened to run into a Chinese-American lad, David Wei, and got to spend a whole morning at the Louxu Temple (an ancient complex in the township itself) training with his Wudang master and doing pushhands with some of the students (wait till you see the pics ).

 

A formal report will follow once I settle in home again.

 

[Creation]

Oh, you're already back. I guess that means the fun's over for you, but it's just starting for the rest of us .

Edited November 17, 2009 by Creation

[JessinChina]

Hi Stig and TaoBums,

Part I on the Daoist Summit is now live on my blog. Please see http://jessgoestochina.spaces.live.com/default.aspx. Meant to file sooner, but dysentary brought me down for two weeks post summit. Parts II and III coming up.

JessinChina

[thelerner]

Hi Stig and TaoBums,

Part I on the Daoist Summit is now live on my blog. Please see http://jessgoestochina.spaces.live.com/default.aspx. Meant to file sooner, but dysentary brought me down for two weeks post summit. Parts II and III coming up.

JessinChina

 

Great reporting on the Summit. I look forward to reading more.

 

When I was reading your second article(the censored one) it struck me that the offending notion was on Laozi not being real. Haven't some sects already named him an immortal or god? We always tread on dangerous ground when we say out loud 'Your belief is superstition'.

 

Michael

[Stigweard]

Here's the group photo of all delegates at The Great Hall of the People, Beijing, November 5th

 

 

Here's a high res image if you are interested:

 

http://taowizard.com/images/GHOP-group-photo.jpg

 

I'm the good lookin' one

[JessinChina]

Hi Michael, thanks for this response. I hadn't read it until today. Part II on the summit will be posted this weekend for the new year and part III about our trip to Laozi's 'birthplace' shortly thereafter.

 

You are correct there are sects that consider Laozi a 'God' and an 'immortal' depending on the translation. We visited a temple dedicated to Laozi on the trip. I also agree, definitely not my call to make on whether Laozi existed or not and certainly wouldn't tell someone their belief system was 'superstition.'' Instead I deferred to the experts and reporterd what one Chinese expert and one Western expert at the conference told me: the Chinese prof said yes and the Western prof said no.

 

Thanks again for reading the posts.

JessinChina

 

Great reporting on the Summit. I look forward to reading more.

 

When I was reading your second article(the censored one) it struck me that the offending notion was on Laozi not being real. Haven't some sects already named him an immortal or god? We always tread on dangerous ground when we say out loud 'Your belief is superstition'.

 

Michael

[JessinChina]

Stig, you are the man! How did you get this pix? Thanks so much for posting it. May I copy it to my blog? They were selling the photo at the conference for 600Y and I didn't want to spend the kuai. Let me know if it's okay for me to use it. My best to you and yours in the New Year.

JessinChina

 

 

Here's the group photo of all delegates at The Great Hall of the People, Beijing, November 5th

 

 

Here's a high res image if you are interested:

 

http://taowizard.com/images/GHOP-group-photo.jpg

 

I'm the good lookin' one

[Stigweard]

Stig, you are the man! How did you get this pix? Thanks so much for posting it. May I copy it to my blog? They were selling the photo at the conference for 600Y and I didn't want to spend the kuai. Let me know if it's okay for me to use it. My best to you and yours in the New Year.

JessinChina

Heya Jess

 

Jen from Canada sent me a copy Beaut photo ain't it? I am quite sure it's fine to use it on your blog.

 

By the way, are you thinking of going to the LA conference in June?

[JessinChina]

Thanks so much Stig. I'm thrilled to have the photo. yes, Livia Kohn invited me to attend at the June conference to teach XSZ in a two hour session, said she might get me some stippend. I will try to go. Livia is hard to resist. Also, Wang Tin Jun has passed away, he was a master of taiji and of course xing shen zhuang, so I feel more and more I should get out and teach the forms as best I can. I did not study with him, and was dearly hoping to interview him for my book on the form, but that's not to be now. My teacher studied with Wang tin Jun and of course David V. did as well. Lots of love to you and Carol. You both look great in the pix.

 

Heya Jess

 

Jen from Canada sent me a copy Beaut photo ain't it? I am quite sure it's fine to use it on your blog.

 

By the way, are you thinking of going to the LA conference in June?

[LINGGUZI]

No master!

[soaring crane]

Thanks so much Stig.

 

Thanks so much to you, for resurrecting the thread which many would not have seen otherwise

 

I wonder if Michael Saso was there(?).

[Stigweard]

Thanks so much to you, for resurrecting the thread which many would not have seen otherwise

 

I wonder if Michael Saso was there(?).

Now there's the coincidence of all coincidences because I have just engaged him in conversation over the paper I presented. Yes he was there, an incredibly well researched man indeed. Have you met him yourself in person?

[soaring crane]

Now there's the coincidence of all coincidences because I have just engaged him in conversation over the paper I presented. Yes he was there, an incredibly well researched man indeed. Have you met him yourself in person?

 

No, though I'd be thrilled to meet him. I had some contact with the Taoist Restoration Society about 10-11 years ago and was involved in some discussions with him, basically Q&A stuff. He's a very impressive, humble scholar. I have a few of his books and they're up there with the best of the best.

 

If you have a chance, ask him what happened to Brock Silvers and the TRS, ok? I'd really like to know if they're still active in some way but it seems they just went *poof*, no sign of them on the interwebs anymore.

[JessinChina]

Hi all, just posted Part II on the Conference with pictures -- which didn't show up in the cut and paste here. If you want to read it in the blog, with photos go to: http://jessgoestochina.spaces.live.com/default.aspx

Happy New Year...

 

January 03

Part II Daoism Conference East/West Divide

The First International Summit on Laozi and Daoist Culture held Nov. 5-7 at the China World Hotel in Beijing launched Daoism as an official native religion of China. More than 600 Daoist academics and clergy from all over the world attended and presented. See November 30, 2009 entry, Part I PRC Embraces Daoism, below.

 

photo

 

In the Great Hall of the People, Beijing.

 

 

Following our luncheon at the Great Hall of the People we were shuttled back to the hotel for the beginning presentations. The conference was categorized into three groups: A, B & C. The "foreign group" for Western scholars was ascribed to Group B. We had instant translation via headsets for both Chinese and English presentations. As it was already late in the day, there were only two panels presenting and then a few moments to spare before a banquet in the evening.

 

Some notable presentations that afternoon were from Mary Bockover of Humboldt State who spoke on Desire in the DaoDeJing, Kimberly Powers, a doctoral student at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes on The Shamanic Influence on Early Daoism and Huang Zhi'an of the Chinese Taoist Association who spoke on Daoist Culture and Human Civilization in the 21st Century. The banquet afterwards was classical Chinese food, interspersed with a few speeches by conference organizers and most of us went off to bed as early as possible. I had a bath. My first real bath in China [since I moved here in 2008.]

 

Day 2 of our conference dawned. I woke early and looked out the hotel window to see... nothing. Smog? Dust storm? At nearly 6 am, downtown Beijing visibility was practically zero. I had heard that smog was a problem in Beijing, but the day before had been clear and sunny and cold. Today, the air was a sickly yellow and almost completely opaque. I had thought to practice Taiji outside before my morning presentation. I spied one lone Daoist in full dress strolling outside as day broke, but declined to risk it myself. Instead I went downstairs to the hotel gym and found a room to practice in. Afterwards, a delicious breakfast -- the hotel's food was fresh, amazing in its variety and had many Western appointments including silverware and coffee.

 

 

photo

China World Hotel Dining Room

 

My panel, Daoist Conception of Body, Health and Medicine was presenting at 9:50 am. There were six of us and we each had about 15 minutes to present. Most had PowerPoints and the hotel's tech gurus managed it all easily. Donald Davis of Old Dominion [whom I had met at the Wudangshan Daoism Conference this summer] moderated and Rey Tiquia of University of Melbourne, Australia opened. We had a lively panel with lots of humor. Tiquia cleverly mixed tongue-in-cheek with academic rigor and focused on whether the Dao has a physical 'body.' Next up, the keen-minded Deborah Sommer, from Gettysburg College, on Concepts of the Body in the Zhuang zi. Vincenzo di Ieso, president of the Taoist Association of Italy, presented thereafter new research on Daoist Qi gong with a demonstration of his abilities to read energy in a room and then I presented Xing Shen Zhuang Fa: A Daoyin to Liberate the Spine. Here is an excerpt:

 

 

photo

...During the presentation...

 

 

This presentation gives a brief overview of xing shen zhuang fa形神庄法 , a rare Daoyin form seldom presented in public that seeks to open the body and the mind by stretching and releasing muscles, nerves and fascia along the spine. It is the only Daoyin form that focuses exclusively on the spine and the entire spinal column.

 

Xing shen zhuang fa opens and releases the spine through a series of slow, gentle movements that begin at the cervicals and finish with the tailbone. Regular practice of these standing postures has been known to strengthen internal organs, heal disease and clear subtle and physical obstructions in the spine and elsewhere.

 

The series of simple exercises also awakens sensitivity and promotes health, strength, flexibility, lightness and suppleness originating from the spine and extending to the limbs. The movements, like many Daoyin forms, are not strenuous and can be done by most anyone regardless of athletic ability.

 

The ultimate achievement from the xing shen zhuang practice however is song送 , that elusive state of total awareness and relaxation that is the key to Daoist longevity and ascension practices.

 

 

photo

Donald Davis with microphone, me demonstrating one of the form's movements.

 

The full academic paper was submitted to the conference and is to be published in a collection in the following months.

 

My presentation over, I sat down to listen to author and scholar Livia Kohn of Boston University speak on Daoist Body Cultivation and Behavioral Kinesiology and Healing Dao senior instructor and prolific Daoist alchemy author Michael Winn speaking on The Role of qi gong and Inner Alchemy in the West's Emerging Science of Consciousness.

 

After Winn finished, I got a cup of tea and ran into several colleagues who complained they had been turned away from Conference room A where the Chinese scholars were giving their presentations. My colleagues are Western scholars, fluent in Mandarin and the others had headsets. We wondered why we were separated. I left my friends in the hall and plucked myself up and out and walked the short distance to Conference room A. Sure enough, two suited hotel staff with earphones and walkie talkies stood at the entrance of the glass doors and denied me entry. They pointed to my badge which says Group B [meaning I belong in Conference room B] and turned me away. I shrugged, puzzled. On my way back, I ran into Winn. Both of us former journalists, we didn't take well to being herded. Winn suggested we instead try Conference room C--if we could sneak in--and see what was going on there.

 

Winn and I, headsets in hand, slipped into the back of room C. We sat down and listened as a very strident sounding woman spoke in Mandarin. After a second the translation in English began:

 

...The West thinks that China is telling lies...Why don't they believe us? The West, when powerful it will invade. We have a lot of harmony. We have power and yet we do not attack. Religion is integrated in China. Our religions live in peace and harmony. But in the West they are not mixable and the religions contradict. They believe in religious conflict. We believe they are inclusive and can meld together. Also, some differences: in the West, people are evil there is original sin, into material things and are self-centered. They use forks and knives to cut their food. In the East, we believe people are good natured, we believe in the collective, we use chopsticks to eat our food. In the West, knowledge is power. In the East, we learn and be good natured with the idea that you are serving people. Knowledge is not equal to wisdom. Wisdom is coming from knowledge. In the West they believe in games: checks and balances, geographical and geopolitical boundaries. In the East, we believe in harmony, achieved through the distribution of power and using resources for harmonious living....

 

Wise Winn, he nodded off. Me, with my mouth agape, I took notes.

 

The experience in Conference room C set me to looking for the excerpts from Conference room A papers published in brief in the conference materials. Here is what I found, of those that were translated into English [errors in the original]...

 

 

The Interpretation of TaoTeChing in The Vision of Comparative Culture, Zheng Hailing, Institute of Comparative Culture and Translation, School of Foreign Language and Literature, BNU... Hegel's misreading and misinterpretation for Confucius and Lao Tse works...highlighting the inevitable linguistic obstacles in the internationalization of Taoism. Language translation, which functions as one of the important means for cross-culture communications, inevitably result in some barriers.

 

 

[Title and Author in Mandarin only; excerpt in English]...Philosophy is the soul of a nation...However, since May the Fourth Movement, total Westernization has mislead China in to the mud of western philosophical ideas and thus the effort of nearly hundred years has turned into nothing. Based on Taoist ideas this article tries to clarify matters and get to the bottom of things and to lay a solid foundation for the revitalization of great Chinese civilization. The philosophic category and rhetoric the writer uses are fully that of western philosophy. This is what is called as 'taking foreign advantages to control foreigners' or cutting through his shield with his spear.

 

 

[No title] Gong Butan, School of Law, Wuhan University...In the process of cultural globalization, local culture is straightly facing the impact and pressure of western strong culture, which becomes the internal motivation of Chinese traditional culture's rejuvenation. DaoDeJing is increasingly and broadly applied into many fields such as politics, business, science, etc. in contemporary China, as a newly emerging group in China's market economy, Daoist businessman plays a main role as enterprise manager and carries a heavy duty of rejuvenating the traditional Daoist culture nowadays.

 

 

I first wrote about the differences between the West and the East and the divisions, barriers and challenges between our cultures and Daoism after my first Daoism conference in China at Wudangshan in June of 2009. That article was submitted to the Beijing Review and was due to run the week of November 2 -- concurrent with this conference in Beijing. It was pulled at the last minute from publication as 'unsuitable' over the protestations of my editor who has published my work before. That article is posted in this blog under Dao Assembly: East Meets West in Mt. Wudang, November 21, 2009.

 

Part III on the Beijing conference where the organizers take over 100 foreign scholars on a wild bus trip through Henan province to see the 'birthplace' of Laozi and the Longmen Grottos, with pictures, will follow in a few days.

[Creation]

Jess,

 

Thanks for the fascinating read. The part about your experience with groups A and C especially.

 

It's always nice to have a reality check if you find yourself idealizing those who are said to represent a philosophy you respect. The traditionalists of the West think their philosophies are best and only see the bad in the philosopies of others, likewise with the traditionalists of the East.

 

By the way,

 

It is the only Daoyin form that focuses exclusively on the spine and the entire spinal column.

This is quite a big statement you've made. Have you hear of B.K. Frantizis's Bend the Bow Spinal Chi Gung? It is level two of his form The Marriage of Heaven and Earth. I have wondered about a comparison of this with XSZ for a while.

[JessinChina]

No I have not heard of BK Frantizi's Bend the Bow spinal Chi Gung. Please tell me more or direct me to those that can. Any books? Research? Contact for BK Krantizi? I would love to interview the teacher or anyone with direct transmission and experience of the form. Thank you for enlightening me. I appreciate your help.

Sincerely,

JessinChina

 

Jess,

 

Thanks for the fascinating read. The part about your experience with groups A and C especially.

 

It's always nice to have a reality check if you find yourself idealizing those who are said to represent a philosophy you respect. The traditionalists of the West think their philosophies are best and only see the bad in the philosopies of others, likewise with the traditionalists of the East.

 

By the way,

This is quite a big statement you've made. Have you hear of B.K. Frantizis's Bend the Bow Spinal Chi Gung? It is level two of his form The Marriage of Heaven and Earth. I have wondered about a comparison of this with XSZ for a while.

[Creation]

No I have not heard of BK Frantizi's Bend the Bow spinal Chi Gung. Please tell me more or direct me to those that can. Any books? Research? Contact for BK Krantizi? I would love to interview the teacher or anyone with direct transmission and experience of the form. Thank you for enlightening me. I appreciate your help.

I'm afraid I've only heard of the form. Frantzis is not offering any seminars on it that I know, and hasn't published any books on it. In his system it is taught after the form Marriage of Heaven and Earth, and he doesn't offer too many seminars on that in the first place.

 

Frantzis' site:

http://www.energyarts.com/

 

Bend the Bow

http://www.energyarts.com/Energy-Arts-Syst...ung/Qigong.html

 

Marriage of Heaven and Earth

http://www.energyarts.com/Energy-Arts-Syst...ung/Qigong.html

 

Some of his senior students teach it more regularly. Anyone listed with level 2 certification in Marriage of Heaven and Earth should know it.

http://www.energyarts.com/Directory/Browse...ng-Level-2.html

 

A google search turned this up:

http://www.taoist-arts.com/html/chi_kung.html

It was the most promising lead I found.

 

Good luck.

Edited January 4, 2010 by Creation

[YMWong]

If you have a chance, ask him what happened to Brock Silvers and the TRS, ok? I'd really like to know if they're still active in some way but it seems they just went *poof*, no sign of them on the interwebs anymore.

 

Silvers has been back to business for a few years already, apparently not much involved in Daoism anymore

 

YM

[JessinChina]

Thank you for your help. These are great leads I will follow up as soon as I finish the term here. I teach at a University in Hangzhou and it's exam time. Thanks again. Best wishes for the new year.

JessinChina

 

I'm afraid I've only heard of the form. Frantzis is not offering any seminars on it that I know, and hasn't published any books on it. In his system it is taught after the form Marriage of Heaven and Earth, and he doesn't offer too many seminars on that in the first place.

 

Frantzis' site:

http://www.energyarts.com/

 

Bend the Bow

http://www.energyarts.com/Energy-Arts-Syst...ung/Qigong.html

 

Marriage of Heaven and Earth

http://www.energyarts.com/Energy-Arts-Syst...ung/Qigong.html

 

Some of his senior students teach it more regularly. Anyone listed with level 2 certification in Marriage of Heaven and Earth should know it.

http://www.energyarts.com/Directory/Browse...ng-Level-2.html

 

A google search turned this up:

http://www.taoist-arts.com/html/chi_kung.html

It was the most promising lead I found.

 

Good luck.

[Iskote]

Hi all, just posted Part II on the Conference with pictures -- which didn't show up in the cut and paste here. If you want to read it in the blog, with photos go to: http://jessgoestochina.spaces.live.com/default.aspx

Happy New Year...

...

Thanks for posting this. Was there much in the conference in the way of actual practicing Taoists

giving presentations?

 

Best wishes...

[JessinChina]

Sorry to say, it was an academic conference and I believe the xing shen zhuang in my presentation was the only 'demonstration' on the agenda. There were hundreds of practicing Daoists from different sects at the conference. I heard one from Spain give a talk, but he offered no demonstrations of techniques. He spoke about the temple he had created in Spain and the need for more temples around the world. So, other than XSZ -- there were no demonstrations I saw, at least not in B conference room....

JessinChina

 

 

Thanks for posting this. Was there much in the conference in the way of actual practicing Taoists

giving presentations?

 

Best wishes...

 

 

You can see what Brock is up to on linkedin here: http://www.linkedin.com/profile? Search for his name and you will see he is ceo of a consultancy for startups in Asia.

 

PS. Just read your issue of Journal of Chinese Martial Arts. I enjoyed it very much. Best of luck in the new year.

JessinChina

 

Silvers has been back to business for a few years already, apparently not much involved in Daoism anymore

 

YM