Shaolin Chi Kung with Sifu Joan

I spent ages getting dressed next morning as I had read that one should be well covered in Malaysia! I later realized that not everything you read should be followed! I left my air conditioned room and again walked into a blast of heat that was almost took my breath away. Having so much clothes on certainly didn’t help!

As I walked towards reception, a lovely hotel worker stopped his golf car to give me a lift and I was so thankful. He informed me that it was 40 degrees with very high humidity. It was so nice meeting so many lovely friendly people with the best smiles I had ever seen! I certainly felt so welcome and at ease, the beautiful people were a balm to my soul.  Looking around me, the grounds of the hotel were so green, this was my first sight of Malaysia in daylight, and it sort of felt a bit like Ireland.

After breakfast, which was a feast in itself, it looked like it included breakfast, lunch and dinner there was so much food, I went out to the pool area to meet the Master and author of the book I had read ‘Chi Kung for Health and Vitality’. It was my first time meeting a real life author!

I remember being very nervous and had no idea what to expect. As I approached the pool area, two other guys were already waiting. Philippe from Austria and Steve from Toronto. Both had come to meet the Master as well as travelling around Asia and were a bit amazed that I had travelled all the way from Ireland just for the course. We waited with a great sense of anticipation and trepidation.

Shortly after 8am, we noticed a Chinese man approaching us. The first thing I noticed was his magnificent smile, he just looked so happy and I remember instantly relaxing and saying to myself  ‘I want to feel like that’!  His ‘good morning’ sounded like it really was a good morning, not how we often say it here in Ireland after pulling ourselves out of bed. There was a happiness and joy in his ‘good morning’ where you felt only good things could follow for the rest of the day.

We immediately started the lesson. The first of six lessons over the three days. I remember standing upright and following the instruction of ‘Forget about everything’, actually I understood it as ‘Forget about everything I had ever learned’ which when I think of it now, was a really good thing. There is a story about the Buddha and Emptying Your Cup, which I didn’t know anything about at the time, but this is exactly what I did. I let go of everything I had read and learned and just simply followed the Master’s instructions.

I immediately completely relaxed for the first time in at least six years and perhaps even longer. It was the most beautiful feeling and then my body started to gently sway. I knew deep inside that this was it, it was what my body and mind craved that nobody else had been able to give me. I enjoyed myself so much and was disappointed when the session ended as I thought I may not be able to feel that way again or it may not be part of the remainder of the course. I had never done anything like that in Chi Kung before and I had been going to classes in Ireland for three years.

Thankfully, this was only the beginning of our Chi Kung practice with this Master, as the lessons went on and we learned some Chi Kung exercises, my swaying continued and was often quite vigorous. My head was bouncing up and down and I could understand that instead of keeping my neck still, it needed movement in a very relaxed meditative manner so that the chi could go in and heal the area. It needed to be opened up rather than restricted. On that very first day, I knew I had come home, I had found what I instinctively knew deep inside of me, the one thing that would help me heal.

I also understood why this man was called a Master!

to be continued.