Shaolin Yijinjing Gengmenpai "12 postures" seminar in the *USA*, Summer 2013

[grady]

Ever since I began to represent Dr. Jiang publicly a number of people have written privately to me, both on this forum and elsewhere, asking about the possibility of seminars in the Americas or in Europe.

The main problem is that Shifu (and myself, for that matter) is unwilling to teach the inner neigong of the system to those who have not received his approval & empowerment, primarily for reasons of safety but also due to the fact that his experience has shown that real progress in the higher levels of this art is nearly impossible without it, and I am not personally at the level to be able to empower people effectively.

After a recent conversation following the opening of the hospital Shifu seems tentatively open to consider allowing me to teach the jibengong 基本功 ("basic/foundation gong") of this system to those who are for whatever reason unable to travel to China but who earnestly desire to begin training.

Such a thing is unprecedented and has never before been permitted in the history of our sect.

The jibengong of our system corresponds to what many people publicly refer to as the 古十二式 ("Old Twelve Postures") of the Yijinjing, although we refer to it as the XinShiErShi 新十二式 ("New Twelve Postures"), and the material that has been passed within our sect differs in substantial ways from what has been made public by others.

These are the basic exercises which were required to be trained diligently for 3 years prior to RuMen 入門 ("entering the gate") in orthodox Shaolin transmissions.

While it is admittedly not possible to progress to the level of emitting the electric-like ZhenQi 真氣 ("true qi") solely through this material, it can and does have a tremendous effect on one's health, and aids in preparing the ShiErJingMai 十二經脈 ("twelve organ meridians / twelve conventional meridians") for the deeper neigong of the system.

In addition to teaching the "12 postures" I will be personally evaluating each person's meridians and overall health condition according to the classical Chinese medicine that I have been learning from Dr. Jiang since 2009. While I am by no means at his level, I have sufficient knowledge to evaluate and manage many issues, and I will be consulting with him by telephone throughout the seminar to deal with whatever problems may be beyond me.

If you would be interested in attending such a seminar as early as the first half of this summer, please shoot me a PM on the forum here and I will provide you with more information. The location will almost certainly be the continental United States, and will probably take place in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, Houston, or another major metropolitan area with a large Chinese population and thus access to the range and quality of Chinese herbs that I will need - feel free to reply to this thread with your preferred location.

The seminar will last between 7-10 days, and Shifu is telling me that the tuition will be roughly half that of the seminars in China (~$2000). While Shifu wants to make this material available to as many as sincerely desire it, as before I will likely be limiting participation to 10 people in an effort to make sure I can give everyone sufficient personal attention.

This is breaking news so please stay tuned to this thread for more updates and information as I am able to confirm it. It is an exciting time for our Gengmenpai and I genuinely appreciate all the support which has helped to make this possible!

-Grady

 

www.apricotforesthospital.com

 

Previous taobums discussions of Dr. Jiang's Shaolin Yijinjing Gengmenpai:

 

http://thetaobums.com/topic/20075-demonstration-of-emitting-qi/

 

http://thetaobums.com/topic/24662-shaolin-yijinjing-gengmenpai-qigong-seminar-with-dr-jiang-feng-in-china-november-2012/

 

http://thetaobums.com/topic/25410-shaolin-yijinjing-gengmenpai-qigong-seminar-with-dr-jiang-feng-in-china-spring-2013/

Edited May 7, 2013 by leandro

[Ish]

Sounds interesting.

Just a suggestion, for the people who attend this course perhaps it could enable them to get a small discount for the training retreat of the main system with Master Jiang if/when they are able to pursue it.

Could be a good way to encourage people.

[grady]

Location will either be San Francisco, Los Angeles, or NYC - these are the only places that Jiang Shifu and I are sufficiently confident will have the range and quality of herbs I need.

Dates will be in the first half of July, most likely Saturday-to-Saturday to help folks who are on corporate schedules.

Tuition is confirmed as $2000, with a deposit of $1000 required to reserve your place.

Unlike the seminars in China we will need a minimum of 5 participants confirmed in order to make this happen - please contact me via PM if you seriously desire to attend and I can provide more detailed information.

I will be holding an open clinic according to the classical Chinese medical practice (some say of Buddhist origin) of YiZhen 义诊 "compassionate diagnosis" (in other words free diagnosis) in conjunction with the seminar for anyone who is interested solely in having their health condition diagnosed, and not necessarily in learning our jibengong.

Please post here with questions or to further convince me of which city we should choose ... personally I'm leaning a bit towards San Francisco.

Edited March 20, 2013 by leandro

[grady]

I'm in Korea for a few days and being out from behind "the Great Firewall" I had the chance to upload some material from the grand opening of Shifu's hospital which overlapped with our last Gengmenpai Yijinjing training seminar in China.

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/doctorjiangfeng

 

I'm still working with Shifu to confirm exact dates for the USA training, but we should still look good for early July.

Edited April 8, 2013 by leandro

[grady]

2013's Summer "12 postures" seminar is confirmed, finally!

I am delighted to announce that the location will be beautiful San Francisco, California.

Dates will be Sunday July 7th - Saturday July 13th (try to arrive on Saturday the 6th and we can all meet somewhere for dinner that night).

As soon as I know exactly where we will be holding the lectures/practice/clinic I will let you all know so that we can arrange lodging, but I wanted to firm up the dates so folks can book airfare before things get too expensive.

For anyone else who is interested in coming please PM me.

Looking forward to seeing you all in a few months!

[grady]

Just a short note to thank everyone for their interest and to let you know that there are still two spots left available in the private room that we've arranged at the seminar location, so if you're on the fence or have questions that you'd like to have answered before diving in, it's best to act quickly.

 

Looking forward to seeing everyone in July!

[Kasuku]

Damn I wish I could be there. Leandro what are the chances of shifu jiang to come to NYC in the coming years. Does he plan to continue teaching? How did he get his chi projection ability? How do u create the Ming/battery in your school?

[Kasuku]

Ie can people can learn the neigong of the system - including how to produce the magical qi (source qi)

[ChiDragon]

Anybody can learn Neigong(內功). However, one must understand the basic principle behind the system instead of learning it blindly.

Edited May 8, 2013 by ChiDragon

[Baguakid]

2000.00 Plus airfare, plus hotel, plus food, plus time off from work.. plus, plus, plus, plus..

 

sigh...

[Friend]

Edited August 17, 2013 by Friend

[grady]

Damn I wish I could be there. Leandro what are the chances of shifu jiang to come to NYC in the coming years. Does he plan to continue teaching? How did he get his chi projection ability? How do u create the Ming/battery in your school?

Unfortunately the chances of bringing Shifu to the States anytime in the near future are practically nonexistent. The difficulty of acquiring the appropriate government permissions (both on the Chinese & the US side of the equation) is more than a little daunting, and with the opening of the new hospital in Yellow Mountain it seems Shifu has recommitted himself to practicing his medicine and teaching in China.

Edited May 12, 2013 by leandro

[grady]

Grady,

 

It would be benifiting since it is a 10 days to have an additional open door day where people can come for a smaller amount of cash

since it is people can easier take free for one day- sunday I think is a day which not interfer with jobs and put away the sorrow on hotel. I ask me if it is possible then to give a small transmission and a single exercise for the purpose to the open door participator for health to have either the motivation to learn more or/ and ease the attachment and curiosity and open up further interest for visits. Beside this I ask me if Mr.Jiang is able to make distance transmission or transplant transmission (Put it on an object).

 

This seminar is 7 days, not 10.

 

I'm sure from a "marketing" perspective it would be good for me to offer something like the "open door day" you suggest, but contrary to what some believe the format of these seminars is not designed with marketing in mind - 7 days is the absolutely minimum amount of time in which Shifu feels it is possible to get people to a level where they can practice effectively without supervision.

 

Also, as I have written above please keep in mind that throughout the seminar period my door is open to anyone who wants to come and have their health condition & meridians evaluated, not necessarily to practice our qigong.

 

No, Shifu does not perform "distance transmission" or "transplant transmission", and frankly I would urge you to be very suspicious of anyone who claims to do so!

Edited May 12, 2013 by leandro

[grady]

We have just one spot left available in the private room at the seminar location, in case anyone feels like making last minute plans to join us in beautiful San Francisco a month from today feel free to contact me.

 

Once again my doors are open to anyone who wants to have their health evaluated according the principles of Dr. Jiang's classical Chinese medicine (I'll actually be consulting with him during the evaluation process, so you will be getting my opinion as well as his).

 

Looking forward to seeing everyone stateside!

Edited June 9, 2013 by leandro

[mla7]

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd write a few words about the seminar which took place in San Francisco.

First of all, without going into details, the practice we learned was very simple with not much in the ways of extraneous bells and whistles. Please understand, when I say "simple" I in no way mean "easy." The practice is rather demanding both mentally and physically (especially mentally). It felt like the stripped down, real essence of qigong. Hardcore stuff, no fancy magical fluff.

The seminar basically consisted of alternating sessions of practice and theory. In the sessions devoted to theory, Grady put a strong emphasis on grounding the practice in the matrix of Chinese thought and culture. He did this by dissecting the Chinese characters for important concepts (jing qi shen, yin-yang etc..), analyzing their component parts, and then bringing it all back together to arrive at a composite meaning much deeper than any simplistic one to one correlation with an English word could provide. This was a really cool approach that I think transmitted the flavor of the practice much more accurately than a more English-centric approach could hope to.

When not practicing or learning theory, I spent time hanging out with fellow seminar participants, or walking around San Francisco, a very pretty, and very very hilly city.


All in all, a really excellent seminar. A really fascinating method, very clearly explained, with a really very nice group of friendly qigong eccentrics!


mike