I can’t believe the medicine course is over all ready, it feels like only yesterday that it started. This has truly being an amazing life changing experience and i’ve become so close to my brothers and sisters that i have shared it with. Also Shifu wasn’t just a teacher to us but a mentor and a father to us. if anyone had any issues however big or small he would always make sure that he could help us to resolve them. I must say the translators that work here are great people that put so much effort and energy to make sure not a word Shifu says goes untranslated, whether at meal, in class or per-sonal conversations they go through all.
Travelling there started off straight forward however from Shanghai to Shiyan was a mess. I made the mistake of not really planning anything. This meant i badly got ripped off by a taxi driver that took me to the wrong train station. Luckily a person in the train station spoke enough english to help me get where i am and introduced me to the metro system! This got me to my second train station, Xian, where i was able to buy a ticket using a sign with the characters on that i brought with me. However the person spoke a lot less english and i ended up buying a ticket for the south station and i never realized until i got to try get to the platform but this person spoke enough english to direct me to the other station. when i was finally on the train, as i was standing i found an empty corner on the floor where i spent the next 23 hours until i arrived. It only seemed like about 6 though.
The first climb of the mountain was definitely the hardest, it seemed to take forever. The route was probably a mile and 90% was climbing stairs. I massively over packed and the majority of the things i havent even used. also my bag that i bought was ridiculous as it had thin straps that cut into my shoulders. So i advise anyone that comes to bring a big backpack. However at the top seeing the temple through the arch for the first time definitely made the journey worth it and that was be-fore i even entered the temple!
Through out the course i learnt 25 different techniques at a good enough level i would happily use them when i need them at home and the other couple i would be able to with a little more practice. even though it was only a 2 month course the detail of everything we did was so great and we didn’t move on until everyone was very clear on it. We didn’t just go over and learn everything but went into so much detail of all the background theories of why they work. There was also many more we could have been taught if we had more time.
The Qi Gong and Tai Ji training both in the morning, evening and in class i always found hard. I en-joyed it but was always still seemed to drag. However in the last week and a half i could get enough of training. I was getting up at 6am each day for training.
Before coming here i had done little bits of meditation but not for this amount of time. So jumping straight to 40 minutes or more each night was very tough and i was experiencing personal issues which Shifu himself came in to help me. After that meditation became so much easier for me. It became something i wanted to do rather than having to. During the group meditation sessions i got a glance into one of the students possible future and also managed to understand how to dissolve blockages in tense areas of my body.
There are too many amazing moments from here that i could put however i would like to add a couple that have stood out above the rest. One of these was when i was having some big issues in my private life and while meditating i was visited by Guan Yin who cleared my mind and left a warming feeling in my body that has stayed there ever since. I just had to answer 3 questions « what is life » « who am i » « why am i here ». Another was the point through training i could truly feel the energy flow through my body and from that point i want to keep the feeling and make it grow. Also feeling my shoulders relax after years of solid tension just from the training here allowed it to happen.
The conditions of the temple are very simple and take a few days to get use to it. After that though i realized how much i had in life that i didn’t need and i took for granted back home. A lot of these things i will definitely continue to drop and also keep up the same diet at home too. As long as you are prepared for a little hardship and bitterness then you will definitely enjoy your stay here!
James
