Gengmenpai Spring 2014 Update

[grady]

I posted this update to our private forum a few weeks ago, and after a fair bit of thought I have decided to post it here as well.

 

Barring some unforeseen reason or event, this will be my last post on the Taobums in regards to our activities …

 

In the past few years of posting here I believe I have more than repaid the karma owed to this place and to the fairly tangential but not insignificant role that it played helping me find Jiang Shifu and the Gengmenpai those many years ago.

 

I will continue to check my PM mailbox here from time to time, and I will continue to respond to those who are interested in how to learn more about who we are and what we do, and of course I will continue to be very active on the private forum where we will continue to organize both training & clinic opportunities in mainland China, the US, and elsewhere throughout each year.

 

My sincere best wishes to all in their endeavours, may all achieve in this lifetime!

 

 

2014/05/06

Greetings from sunny Seoul, South Korea!

It's been a very busy few days here, and I will be returning to China and the hospital tomorrow with an extra two suitcases heavily laden with this trip's purchases, including the variety of "red" ginseng particularly emblematic of Korea as well as a number of other whole herbs best found here.

Today is also the 8th day of the 4th month of the Chinese lunisolar calendar, which means that today is the celebration in both China and Korea (as well as a number of other China-influenced Mahayana Buddhist countries) of Prince Siddartha Gautama the Buddha's birthday.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddha%27s_birthday

It's a good day to reflect on the life of an individual whose life and teachings, regardless of your particular religious orientation or lack thereof, have had a truly profound effect on the world as we know it today.

It's also a particularly auspicious day to announce a number of changes that Shifu has recently decided to make regarding how future training opportunities in China will take place.

In short, Shifu has decided not to personally host any more intensive workshops solely devoted to practice here in China for the foreseeable future.

This decision rests on a number of factors: the priority he has decided to give to treating the growing number of patients here at the hospital, the difficulty that most of us Westerners have in traveling all the way to China to spend the length of time necessary to actually engage in an practice-intensive workshop in such a far away place, and his desire to remove at least some of the cost barrier (specifically, tuition) that has prevented otherwise sincere people from gaining access to this training.

What this means for us is that going forwards, all meetings in China will be tuition free.

Shifu has asked me to make it very clear that from this day forth anyone who claims to be charging tuition on his behalf in order to travel to China and meet him is doing so without his knowledge or consent.

Meetings in China will be open to both people who are interested solely in practice, solely in medicine/health concerns, or both, and they will be somewhat abbreviated (4 full days instead of 7-8) in order to make it easier for those with corporate schedules or other responsibilities to come. Anyone who has the desire and is sufficiently healthy to receive the empowerment to practice our neigong safely will receive it, and anyone who wants to learn neigong will be given the opportunity do so, without reservation, and with no costs attached. Anyone who has been previously instructed in our neigong and has been practicing is welcome to attend, have their practice evaluated by Shifu, and receive adjustments if necessary - there is no need to attend any one specific meeting.

And I repeat, there will be no tuition fee or other monetary obligations of any kind to study or be trained.

As for training intensive workshops (and the associated open clinics), they will continue to take place *outside* of China (as in this summer in San Francisco - http://thetaobums.com/topic/33966-shaolin-yijinjing-gengmenpai-waigong-workshop-in-the-usa-summer-2014/#entry528677) and very likely in more countries than the USA in the near future (Europe, Australia, and South America are the three places that are being worked on right now) as Shifu becomes more and more comfortable with me teaching & treating people on his behalf without his supervision, and there will continue to be a tuition associated.

 

These intensives will continue to focus on the foundational waigong of the body and the corresponding quiescent training of the mind that we simply do not have time to teach during the meetings in China (which are focused on the neigong itself) and that experience has proved is fundamentally necessary for the vast majority of people for true neigong to be practiced effectively and efficiently, until such time as my skills rise to the level that I am able to safely empower students to practice the neigong on my own.

All in all this is really big news. Shifu is formally removing all financial barriers save for the price of a plane ticket and a hotel room to those who sincerely yearn for real empowerment and a true practice. In discussing this announcement with me he made it very clear that the bodhisattva vow is to vow to relieve *all* suffering, both of the body & mind, that our practice is the most direct vehicle he knows for doing so, and that he feels a genuine obligation to help those few seekers on the path who are truly in search of the real thing.

Will there continue to be vows of secrecy and obligations to teacher & family? Will certain advanced teachings continue to be carefully protected and slowly shared as individual students progress? Yes, of course, this is the Chinese way. But in his compassion Shifu has decided to shine a great big spotlight on the first crucial steps of the path, and I think that is cause enough for celebration!

Edited August 14, 2014 by grady

[GrandmasterP]

Who owns the hotel?

[Aetherous]

That's good news.

[MooNiNite]

Anyone know the link to the private forum? that might contain the dates for future China meetups

[grady]

Who owns the hotel?

 

What hotel? Do you mean where visitors to our hospital stay in China?

 

There are multiple hotels authorized to receive foreigners near our hospital, and our students, patients and guests are welcome to stay wherever they like.

 

I don't have the foggiest idea who owns them, but it's certainly not Shifu if that's what you're implying.

Edited May 25, 2014 by grady

[grady]

Anyone know the link to the private forum? that might contain the dates for future China meetups

 

Those interested in gaining access to our private forum are welcome to PM me here.