A Collection of Sacred-Magick.Com < The Esoteric Library
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A Collection of Sacred-Magick.Com < The Esoteric Library
THEMAGUS
OFJA\A 'li:achiqgs of an AuthenticTaoistImmortal
KOSTADANAOS
J
TTi Iturcr Trâditions Rochester Vermont
For Doris
CONTFNTS Ione. Tiaditions Intemational Roche.ter,V€mont 05767 w{w.lnnerliaditions.côm CopydshtO 2000 by Kosia Danaos All rishts reseryed No pârtôfthis book mây be .€producedor utilized in any form or by any means,electronicor nechânicâI,includins phorocopyins, r€cording,orbyâ.y i.tomation storageandretrievalsystem,{ilhout permissiôn
Introduction ChapterOne
Looking through the Mirror
in w.iting lrom the publisher
ChapterTûo
Lifeforce
Libràry of Cons.e$ Cata,osins-ir-Publication Dôtô
ChapterThree
Beginnings
Chapter Four
The Immortals
35
ChapterFive
The Story of Llao Slfu
61
Chapter Six
Lessonsto Be Learned
76
ChapterSeven
ïn and Yang
99
Chapter Eight
The Vill of Heaven
116
Chapter Nine
The Keris
133
ChapterTên
The Nature of Reality
147
Epilogue
ForaBreathlTârry....
162
Appendix One
Notes
177
AppendixTwo
Obsenrationsand Speculation
200
The Masls of lava: teachinssofanauthenticTàoistimmoftâl/ KostaDanâôs. lncludesbibliogâphical .eiere.ces. I S B N0 - 8 9 2 8 18 1 1 1 G l k p a p € , L Chans,John.2 Taoists-lndoneria Indonesià Java Biosaphy l Ïtle.
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Biosnphy 3. HealeE
8L1940.C426D36 2000 299'514092-dc2I
tBl oa-o36942 Printed and boùnd in Canada 1098765 Text desicn a.d làyout by CryslalH H Rob€fts This book was typeset in Veisswith SchneidlerInitialsas the displaytypeface
vii 1
t2
INTRODUCTION
Imaglnea world where the mind and soul of rnar are foeeto reâch thchgreatestpotential,where powersonce consideredsupematurâl or paranorrnalare a simple fact of life. lmagine a place where disciscs hitherto thought incurablecan be treâtedwith the uncomplicltcd administrationofthe healersown abundantlife energy,a place where mankind caD readily communicatewith earthboundspirits, whcre powerful yogis can speakwith their Creator Cod Himself. Vouldn't it bewonderfulto dwellin sucha domain,the stuff of fairy talcs, myths and legends,storybooks, and Hollywood celluloid? Vouldn't life have a distinct flavor,a tangy zest,if suchthings were lndcedtrue? Velcome to my world. I live in such a place,where all the extraordinàrythings that I have suggestedare real and incontrovertlble. In my world Vestern scienceand Easternmysticismwalk hand In hand, embracedand inseparable,miror aspectsof the samerealIty, equâllyfactualandvalid. The opportunity to grow is thereevery waking moment, the gift of our own $eat potentialYoumight supposethat sucha destiny is fâr awat but in truth it ls at mankind'sdoorstep.There can be no doubt that humanity is once again in the processof chânging. Traditions ar€ evolving as crosscujturâl baffierc continue to fall. Old values,id€als,and conccptsare no longerblindly accepted;peopleof allcreeds,races,and nationshâve becomelesshesitantto question,to askolry
The mindofman is in a frenzyasoeverbeforeitechnologygrow, ing logarithmically by leapsand bounds.Ve have set foot on the moon and touchedthe bottom ofthe ocean.Ve havemovedat many tim€s the speedof sound and have viewed the facesof the planets around us. Ve control the power oa the atom and can replace a crippled humanheartwith that ofa suitable(andwilling) donor Ve are a st€paway from creatinganartificial,silicon basedintelligence Ve haveeven invadedthe sanciry ofthe g€neand createdclones.It seemsthat our quest for knowledge;s constrainedonly by energy, time, and financialâllocation. Ve havemademuch socialproeïess.Despitediscriminatorydis t.ibutioo, €ducationlevelsareat an all-time high for the humanrace. The phenomenonofhurnan serfdomandsub;ugationis on the wane, rebellionjs€videni all overtheworld. Peopleareawareofrheirrights andare willins to fisht-perhaps evento die-forrhem. (No simpte thing, this, wh€n you consider that the economiesof all historic empireswere foundedon slavery) Evenmore stirring is the fact that many individualsare now wjlling to fight and die for otrelpeoples rights, perhapsmoresothan in anyotherperiod in ourhistory. Vhat is equally important is that the seli-sacrificeof rhes€heroesis nor basedon any specificreligio6 belief or practice,but rather on the simple conviciion that human righrs deseweto be protected. There is a backlashto thh, ofcourse.Ethnic and.eligiousfanaticism is on the rise.Fascismtroublesus once more.Multinational cor_ porâtionsâbusetheir power èt will for $eater profits, bribing corrupt gov€rnmentsto râpetheir land and usetheir own cirizens.The planett ecologicalbalancehasbeen destroyeo-permanenuy,some people claim. Our flora and fauna are dying, rhe planet suffering The Almighty Dollarnrles, andconsumerismis the creedof the day. It seemsthat for all our power-for we are powerful-we have yet to answerthe fundamenralquestionsof life.Wbo areoezWlweare wegoh4t Why areae hrel Wbataft oxrjùeft t cababiliths, ohat ourJinal potentiabDo welio?o't aJterdeath,asis belkoedz Whatts troehappilrr;s dnâhow cdltue ftocbit/ Is there, hdred,a GeatorGodtThe list is endless,asold as man hirnself. Ii û rossiriefof us ro ânswerrhesequestions.The secretro a successfulresolution of thesebasicinquiries,howevet is that we must viii
makea committedeffort asa specin, not asnationsor groupsof people, to find the answers.Th€ method required is as sirnpl€,and as difficult, as that. Humanity hasdevelopedalong rnany different lines.There are as many cultural approachesto life as there ar€ naturaland sensory stimuli. Some culturesare visuâ|,others acousric,others olfactory othersintuitive. It is hard to quantify humaoculturewith pr€cision, and suchan anâlysisis far beyond the scopeof this book. Howevea it is possibleto say (speakingrery generally) that, as a dominant tendenct Vestern scien€ehas turned outv/ard, its int€nt b€ing ro quantity and modiÉymani environmenrto suit manswishes.Eastern science,on the other hand, hasturned inward, attempting to quan tiÉy and develop the innate capabilitiesof the human speciesand und€rstandits rol€ in the schemeof things. Vhile it is v€ry danger, ous and unscientificto make stat€menrsof this sort, for rhe time being it is important rhat I tak€ this srandpoint,if for no other reason than to clarify the purpos€of rhis text. Let me return to the phrasea cohtniued. e|Jon asa stsc,es This starement impliesthat we humanbeingsmust pierc€ through our ethnic andnationalbarriersandwork together Historytells us thai incred, ible events have unfolded whenever we rvere able to remporarily crossourself-imposedthresholds.The HellenisticAge, for example, clearly showsus what can be achievedthrough cdtural inreractionr in the fourth century BcEanci€ntCreecemet with ancienrIndia, and the destiny of the world was forever,and quite radically,changed., The exploits of Kins Alexanderand his men, howeve, ar€ not directly pertinentto this book. The point is, rhere is no reasonthat we todaycannot duplicarewhar the ancientsachievedthen,and that is to learn from eachother in ord€r to grow, to survive,p€rhapseven to thrive. In the nineteenthcentury Kipling wrote, '€asr is Eastand VestisV€st, andneverthetwainshallmeet."* Hewaswrong.Eastis meetingrl/est today,andwillcontinue to do so if we canjust nurture their union. To realize this, we must ensure that both cultures
l Seeappendix I for this and all other numberednotes. * RudyardKipling,'The BaUadofEastand Vesr, tss9.
approacheâchotherwith mutualrespect, openthemselves completely to ea€hother, ând shar€their conclusions.It is not an easytask. Chineseculture, and more specificallyTaoistculture, hastaken the Vest by storm. Acupuncturcis prâcticedeverywhere.Chinese restaurantsare ubiquitous.Kung fu moviesand TV showsare popuIar farandwide. Meditation hasbeenrecognizedasa bio,behavioral state by Vestern medicine.* The Tao Tè Ching is being read by unive.sity studentsall over the world, and many Westernbusinfss, men are using the I Ching and feng shui (Chin€sedivination meth, ods) in their day-to-dayd€cisionmaking. Andyet, despitethe popularappealof ChineseTaoistculture, a fine fusion of Ëastand \Xr'esthasonly begun ro take placein recent years.Forthe most part, peoplein the Vest either entirely reject the Easternapproachas mumbo-iumboor embrâc€itwith religiousfervor asmore ancientand spiritualthanVestem science.Both o[these attitudesareenoneous.The first presumptuouslyrejectsthevalue of Chineselearning,the secondtakestried andpmven biophysicaltechniques developedover millennia and turns them into dogmâ.This problem is compoundedby the fact that mâny \Testernersand Chinesealike are too eagerto pushwhat little tidbits of knowledgethey have down consumers'throats in a desperatequestfor moneyThe Chinesethemselvesare responsiblefor much of this. Th€re is, unfortunately,no such thing as Clirne science.Inst€ad,there are Janily and clar sciencesand arts developed by the people of the Chinesenationovermillennia.The knowledgedevelopedby the Chinese was'l.rerwidespread,not evenwithin China itself.lt wasthe prerogative and the powerbaseof the privilegedf€w and their families. In the past a ChineseMasrer nev€r taught his appr€ntices100 percent ofhis knov/ledge.!nsteadhe retain€d,say,rhe forenost t0 percent for hims€lf alone.Perhapshe would wrire down the rest in a document fof his favorite student, to be opened after h;s death. The result ofthis approachwas that the sum of eachclan'slearning decreasedby l0 percent with each generation,until some charismatic student was able to decipher the mysr€ry and return ro the * Herbert Benson,7'ûeRala'rnor R$po'n (New york, Villiam Monow andCo., 1975).
ritiltusol thc original teacher,at which point the cycle went on wlth ,i, students, and so forth.The €apabilities and exploitsof the Mastcrsbecamethe stuff of legend, and later the sroryline of the ( lhincscopera.Today they are the essenceof all kung tu movies. 'l'o make mattersworse, the Mastersa,most nevel worked tolclhcr. Th€ concept of a Vest€rn university,where knowledge is rharcd and experiencesare compared,was an alien one for them. l\rwcr was meantto be used for profit, materialand spiritual.More l|ltcn than nor rnartialMasterschallengedeach other, much knowl, cdac wâs forfeited in this manner becausethe bestedMaster fre(lucntly lost his life as well. To our Vestern culture, such an approachseemsshocking,to sây the least.Inlormation dissemination lI cvident ev€rywhere;indeed, it is very difficult, even undesirable, Lokcep knowledg€secretor propri€taryin our society.'? Yet there is a way that a complete union of thesetwo cultures crn be accomplished,and that is simply by the creation of a 'so flclcncethat is n€itherEasternnor \X/esternbut a union of both. Bold vlsionariesof g€nerationspast have foretold such a discipline.I be' llcvc that it is mankind! destiny to come together in this fashion, nnd that such a science,cornbining the orthological* approachof thc Vest with the mysticaldisciplineof the East,is beins forsed in our day and age.This story, in essence,representsth€ future directlon chosenby humanityt awakeninsdesir€ for a better life and a hlgher truth. You will find many pârallelswith readily available€xlliting texts. Th€ main difference,however,betwe€nthis book and any other is that it is representativeofa working, extant system,not â historicalaccountof somethingthat once was. lt is fact, nor supposition or a dogmaticsystemof beliefs. There is a man in Indonesiawho is a masterof the ancientChi, n€sesci€nceofrsi[{'rr, or "internalpower."His nameisJohn Chang, and h€ is my teacher.Mr Changv/asfirst presentedto the world in the award-winningdocumentaryseriesRi'4 oJFrre,rfilmed by the brorhersLorne and LawrenceBlair;his privacywas protectedbythe {
From the Creek oriro meaningcorect, propet straiaht-and "loaic " Ortholosical m€ans"having proper logic." 1 Lorne and LawrenceBfai, RiU oJFift' EastoJ:vdkdtaa,ts88.
rather ignominious psetd,onyrilDynaflaldc& In this documentary Master Chang shockedthe world by demonstratingthe impossible: First he generatedan €lectrical cunent of high arnperagetrstls 1'5 our bodyto heal Lorne of an eye infection, and then he "zapped" Lawrence(and their soundr€cordist)utilizing the sameenergy.*In a dramati€conclusionMaster Chang th€n usedthis bio-energyto ser a crumpled-up newspaperablaze,warning the researchers rhat the power same that had healedLome could readily be used to kill a man aswell. It was the first documenteddemonstrationof neikung giv€n ro tbe Vestern world. \ù/hat is evenmore amazingis ihat tens of thousandsofpeople aroundthe world (myseJfincluded)readilybelieved it, and that the two brothershad no idea what itwas theywere filming at the tim€. In order for you to fully und€rstandwhat the term neiha4im plies,you'll hàve to workyourway through thts text. \X/hatis impor, tant at this poirt is that, for the first time in hrrmandevelopment,a man who accordingto Chines€cultureis a rstri',aTaoist immofal, is willing to come forrh and revealto the Vesr the truth behind his teachins.John Chans is unique in the annalsof mankind. Like the Jedi Knights of the StarWan saga,he hasamazinspreternaturâlabiljti€s,telekinesis,pyrogenesis,electrogenesis, relepathy,Ievitation,rcmote vie\rins, ev€nastralprolectton(for lack of a better term).Thousandsof people have wihessed him do rhesethings. My teachert power is cntathomableto the \(esrern miodi â smâll per€enràgeof its accumulatedenergy can inslantly overpower,or heal, a human being or largeranimal.Andyet Mr. Chang tsa Vesterner A resident of urban Java,he visits Europeand the United Statesoften. He has searchedthrough China fo. others like himself with the intenr of leamins and sharing a unique trair for one such as hc, as you will discov€r It could be said that Mr. Chans is the ultimate combina tion of Eastand \X/estor, morc poeticall, rhat in rhe bidge between Eastand Vest, he is one of the loundation rowers r M â i n t a i n i n Ap h y s i c acl o n t a c rw i t h h i n a t t h a r p o i n rw o u l d h a v eb e e n like puttins onei hand tn a wàllsocket. I havc called rhis ability electro senesis(or clectroge.c.at ion ) for lack of a b*ter rerm
This tcxt will ess€ntiallycover the life history and preliminâry rcach;ngsof John Chang. I have attempted to follow the method suggestedby theJedi and presentÊasternconceptsin a mannerthat âll \flesternerscan und€rstand.As such, I pray that this volume wlll be up to the task,and honorJohnChangand his teachings. Perhapswe are indeed fortunateto be living in that time in our developmentwhen Cod has decreedthat the separatebranchesof humansciencecom€together Perhâpsw€of the rù/estneedthe East to saveour world from ourselves Kosta Danaos
Chapter One
LOOKINGTHROUGH THE MIRROR
FIRST CONTACT I am by training a scientist,and have degreesin two fields of engineering. Among other things, I have been employed as a senior project engin€e(by one of the largestcorporationsin the world. Logic and socialstereotypingwould dictate rhat I am not the sort of personwho readily believeswhat he hears or seesin film format, that things would have to be repeatedlyproven to me for me to question my establishedpattern of beliefs. Vhen I saw the documentary however,I did notdoubt its credibility fora second.I knew thatwhat I waswitnessingwasreâI,that itwas neitherspecialeffects nor haud. I wassureofit. P€rhapsit is the comingofthe newmillennium thât allows this, that a rnanschooled in Vestern thought and sciencecan look at a deviationfrom the acceptedlawsofnature and say, '"fhis is r€al." As I mentionedearliecthe well-donedocumentaryby the broth ers Lorne and LawrenceBlail called Rra4oJIrre, depicts a nond€s€ript Oriental man doing what is impossible according to our $/estern branch of medicalknowledgeand our Vestern scienceof physics:using his own int€rnal bio-energyro light a newspaperon
fire. Thls was accomplishedwith a minimum of fuss, almost nonchalantly.The man waiteduntilthe film crew wasready,looked up to check with the cameraman,steadiedhis right palrn over â crumpled newspap€r,tens€dhis body, and set the paper ablaze.lt was obvious to the viewer that somekind of pot€nt €n€rgywas be' ing generatedfrom the mant open palm-so much so that the newspaper burst into a roaring flame. There are at least two ways that this feat could have been ac complished as an illusion.One is that the filmmaken were collaboratingwith the man and,through specialeffects,perpetratingâ hoax. Th€ other is thàt it was the rnan himself who was tricking the re searchers,having slipped a piece of phosphorusor some other in' flammableinto the crumpledpaperandtiming his displayto coincide with the chemicalt oxidation.But I knew that neitherwasthe câse'I knew that I was looking at the real Mccoy, so to sp€ak. There were reasonsfor this, th€ most impoltanl beiôg tbe man himself. He was a well bùilt but smâll Oiental, srnilingand unpre' tentious.He appeâredto b€ of indeterminat€age,with a fullhead of thick black hair and thc skin of youth, but his eyeswere the eyesof an ancient,ând sincerityshonethrough them. His voice was caÎing and compassionate,without glrile. He was even nervousin front of the cameralMost important, it âppearedthat the man had nothing to gain lrom the displayrneither his nâme nor his location v/asdis, closed by the researcbers, and he certainly was not asking anyone None of ihes€ things occurredto me at the time, ho\ûever.In that mom€nt when I first sawthe video, I knew only one thlng, that I had finally, after twenty-five yearsof searchinsimet my mast€r It was shocking, I looked at him and knew htm, and nothins could sway me from going to hjrn. Lik€ many people of my generation,I had been studying the rnartialarts for a longtime.I hadstartedat the ageof ten and drifted through a seriesof Orientalfighting artsto finâllysettle onJapanese jujutsu in my early twenties. \ù/hat I had been searchingfor was simple, I wantedwhat the actor David Carradinehad so eloquently portrayed in the now classichit seri€sKnr, Fl,l.lwanted an artwhose Mâsterswere wis€, €nlightenedphilosopherswho could kill a tiger 2 LookingthrouShthe Mirror
with a punch if they had to, yet abhorredthe violencethey trained for I wantedan art whose practitionerswould acnrallygow strottger with age rather than weaker. Iwanted an art through \{hich my tcacherwould indeed teach me about myself and the world around me. I wanted to r? Kwai Chans Caine. I had searchedaround the world for such a mentor, and what I had found generallyfell into thr€e categories,enlightenedphilosopherswho could not punch their way out of a paperbag given the opportunity; total animâlswhoweregreatfighters,bur whom aciviIized man would not invite into his houserand individualswho appearedto b€ exactlywhat I wassearchingfor but proved inadequate to the task,ultimat€ly dispiayingeither lack of judgment, inh€rent weakness, haudulentmotives,or emotionalinstabil;ty.It is âlsoquite possiblethat it was I who was not worthy of them, and left them before I cameto understandthem. In the past I had r€peat€dlyrejected the Chin€se martial arts becauseof the notable scarcityof authenticknowledgeinherent to th€ir disseminationin \X/esternsociety.In the 1970sand 198Osthe Chineseartswere notoriousfor their lack ofcredible teâchers.Tiust worthy instructorswerc, in general,much harder to find than impostorscashingin on the popularity ofkung fu movies.Also, Icould not enter Communist Chlna to searchfor a true masteruntil 1992 becauseof my profession.And yet I had, like all diligent marrial artists,read the books by reliableresearchersand teachers.I knew th€ th€ory behindthe Chinesemartialarts,and Iknew that the man lhadseenon the filmwasChinese.lalsoknewr,vhat I hadwitnessed was calledneikung-the manipulationof internal power. I had to find him. I knew it wasnot going to be easy.I didnt know the mansname. The documentaryhad indicatedthat he l;ved somewhereinJava or Bali,but I had nowayofknowing if eventhatimplication wastrue they could have filmed him in San Francisco,for all I knew. And I spokeneither Chinesenor Malay. Tèndayslaterlwasonaplanetothelndonesiancapitalofjakarta. After ân eighteen-hourtrip, I checkedinto the cleanestof rhe dirty motels found onJalanJaksâand restedup for the morro\r. I knew it would be tough going.
3 LookinS throughthe Mirror
The next day I pocketedthestackof photographsI had takenof the video sequencein Rin4olFn and,setoff tor Jakarta's Chinatov/n, a district called Clodok- My plan was to visit all the Chinesephar, maciesand acupunctureclinics in Clodok, askingrhem whether or not they knew the rnan in the photographs.It seemedhke a good idea at the time. They thought I was insane. I must have made their week. It was my first trip to lodonesia;I had expectedthe worst and was dressedlike a \X/esterntourist on satari.Some shopkeep€rslaughed in my face; others just politely told me to piss off. One of them even rhrew me outl Afrer six or sevenhours of constantrejection,wâlking among beggarsand lepers and being followed by a pack of street kids, I spied an ancient Chinesetemplein the midstofit allandwalkedin. Immedtately, the noisewent away and I was Ieft alone. The templ€ caretakerswere curious.'ù/hat was I doing there?I was too shy and too embarrassed to tell them. They bought me dinner and gave me water to drink and sent me on my way. I rcturned to Clodok the following day, my resolvestrength, cncd and anned with â note my motel clerk had written out for me. | [tcr learnedrhrr w\ar he hadwrrtrenwas Honoredsir or madam, I am a very stupid foreignerwho has been tricked into coming here allthe way from Cr€ece.Thesearepi€turesofa man Isaw on a video, I am looking for him I do not know his name or where he lives.Do you know hirn?Thank you. This is probably why people were more polite and why I saw more smileson my sccondday. After a few hours of diplomatic rejection, I rnade my way back ro the temple, thinking that lwould meet with yesterdayi friendç. They were delighted to seemc aod twice as curious as before This tim€ I was the one who bought them all lunch, we sat rogether for a time, laughingand communicatinsin broken Englishand sign language.As our camarader;edeveloped,they grew cufiousenough to pressureme ior details. "Kosta,tell us, what are you doing here?" '\o, rt. rtupid,you donl wanrro know
l:inally thcy werc so i,rsistentthat I relented and, rather thân cxplaining,handedthem the note. Suddenly I was faced with â group of statues;thetr smileshad bccn replacedby distnrst.A chill went up my back One man whispcred someth;ng to a young boy, who ran off. As one, all rny ncwlound frlendsstood. "Stay here,"a burly man said Ten minuteslater a wiry Chineseof indererminatease rod€ up on a bicycle. He offered me his hand and sat down. "My nameisAking," he said."l am a studentof the manyouseek." Aking grilled me {or almost a week, asking rne questionslike "Vho sentyour" and "Vhy did you come to this place?"It was ludicrous to him thât I could have found a lead to his teacherso easily, coming as I did from Creece*of all places-wirhout â clùe as to Iocalcùstomand geography.He wassureI wasa spy in the scruiceof some intelligenceagency;he even mademe sunendermy passport to himl Afier a week Aking finally gave me an addressin a ciry in easternJava and told me to fly out ther€the next morning, the man I had seenin the documentarywould be expectingme, I was told. \/ell, I didnt believehim. It had been too easy,too Lrnbeltevably easy.I thousht rhat these plâying Chinese were ajoke on the foreisnel sendinghim srinnins on a wild goosechaseand having a laugh at his expcnse.I boarded the plane wjth hesitation,felt like a fool when llanded, felt even norellkea foolwhen ltook a taxi to the addressIhad beengiven and was told the man was out. Come bâck at two o'clock,they said.At leastthey spokeEngl;sh. I spenta few hoursfuming in my room at the dirty mot€lwhere I was staying.I vow€d etcrnalvengeanceon the peoplewho had sent me out here. I would teach them to bewareof Creeks.Hahr Hear about the Tiojan Var, my friendsr Youîe about to trade ùp. I felt ridiculous,like a jackass,stupid; I kept telling myselfthat the whole thingwas a hoax, that I hâd sp€ntway too much money coming out here,that I was an idiot and stupid and ûusting and naiveand. . . . I went back at two o'clock The man was there. I cannotplainlyconveythe shock,the.;oy,andthe reliel of findins Dynamo Jackstandingin hont of h;s home. I had beenan imbecile,
LookinSthroughthe Mirror
5 LookinÉthrou8hthe Mirror
succumbingto my all-too-readyanger'No one had been plaving a practicaljoke on rne,th€ studentImet had actuallvtriedto help rne' s€ndingme on to his teacher. Ve shook hands and he invited me in He said, quite simplv, that his namc wasJohn.Tlre surnameon the doorbell saidcHANcin Latin characters,a common-enoughnamefor a Chinese Joh Chang was the equivalentof JorflSn,É io the Unit€d States,a nameanvone could have. I introduced myself formallY "Kosta," he said, rolling the word around on hls tongue. The nàme must have soundedstrangeto him. "How did vou find mc/' His English was simple and lichtly accented "l sawyou in a video . . a documentârv,"I r€Plied. "Ah. That wassomeyearsaso Thev told me it would be for sci' lorth€m entific research,othelwiscI would neverhavcdemonstrated "Vhy not:" "Becaùset pfomisedmy Masterthat I \a'ouldûot Vhat can I do for vour Vn havcsone kind of problcmr" to the traditional Irhn was a hcrlcr Hc applieclacupuncture passins his cl]'i his gfeatlv bv its cltcct l,Lrlsupt)lcûr.ntccl t)orrrts, l)i(, c,,rray il yrru will, throrrghthc needlesHe had hcaledhun I wh<,nrVcstcrnmcdicinecouldDotaid,sonrethins rlrrrl' oi 1,c,,plc ( l i ( lr o t I r ( , w i l l h c ! i m c .I w i n g e di t "Vcll, two thinss " I had rehearscdthis part mânv times "l do havca problcrnwith nyjoints aftersomanvvea$ of polrndingthem in mârtialarts training . . uh, somethinglike osteoafthritisBone He smiled. "Too rnany years of impropcr trâinins, I think lt's possiblcthat I could help you l'll have to check voLrout first."
a radar,scarching,weish;ng, feeling.I gaspedand almostfell over "Yourheart is v€ry sood," he said. I noddedand gulped. I must have looked odd, but he was probably used to it. The streamof bio-energyhe was sendingthrough me mademy musclesjerk unconttollably. "Lungsareokay.Kdneys aregood.Livey'sall right."Vhile he was talking, I felt like I was going through som€kind of high-int€nsity ultrasound.I could feelhis power insideme,the energybuildingup as he becamemoreconfidentof my physicalcondition. "Oh," he said."l have it. lts ;n the blood. Yoû blood chemistry mâkesyou prone to calcium deposits." "Can you do anything about it?" "l'm not sure. \yy'ecan try. \yy'hereare you staying?" I nâmedthe motel. He nodded."Ve'11findyousomeplacebetter Vy'hatelsedidyou "l wanted you to accept me as your studentl" I blurted out. It came in a rush, and I was imm€diatelydisappointedwitb rnyself l had preparedsuch an eloquent speechfor lhat mom€nt, and âlr€rôateones,ât that-plàn B shouldplanA fail, and so on. Iv.as thirty fiveyearsold at the time, and had experiencedmuch;I wasnot prone to staseffight, butwhere I shouldhavebeenmatufc I felt like a child beforethis mâô. More precisely,like a punk kid. "No," he said."Oh no no. Idon't acceplstudentsanymore.Bul you can come back tomorrow moroing if yoù want us to get started on your treatment.' I was crLrshed.I wanted to fly back homc, mâsically transform myself into a five year-old,cfawl into my motheri lap, and cry. InsteadI went ba€k to my cheap,dirty motel room, and waited.
"Okav." "l'm going to haveto touch yoLr.Don't be alarmedat what vou11
TAOISM PRACTICAL
I took off my shirtandhe put his handson nlv chestand ppef lrnaglnea powerful,continùouselectricalcurre.t passingthfough your body. Inâgine that, despiteic impact,vou are somehowaware lhat this cur.cût is ben€volent,notdamàging lrnagineitworkinglike
Taoismis a millennia old systemof beliefsthat has,alonswith its rival andantipodeContucianism,shapedthecourseof Chineseculture.To 'Taoism quote the Ixcycloi?di,r Bitamicd, lbl a religlo'philosophical tradjtion thât has,alons with Contucianism,shapedChineselife for more than 2000 years.The Taoist hetitage, with its emphasisorr
6 I oôklnÉthfoughthe Miror
LookinSthroùghthe Mirror
indlvldual freedon and spontàneity,laissczfaire government and so€ial primit'vism,mysticalexperienceand techniquesof selftransformation,r€presentsin rnanywaysthe antithesisto Confucian concernwith individualmorâlduties,communitystandards,aodgov €rnmentalresponsibilities."* Many things popularly thought to be Chinesein the \vest ar€ actuallyTaoist,and havebecomewidespreadeven io China only in the pâstcentury. Amongthesearemany prâcticesthathave become "brandnames"in Vestern society,suchasacupûncture,t'ai chichuan, fengshui, and the I Ching. The truth is, it is now impossibleto separate Taoismfrom Chineseculture,tbe two have,in our age,becom€ one and the same Taoism has been categorizedby sinologistsas having both a philosophical and a religious tradition complctc with formalized doctrine ând a relisioushicrarchy.The Vesthas been flooded ln the pasttw€nty yeârswith books€laining to be iirr authoritativet€xt on Taoism Maoy of thesebooks are valid, some lessso, while others arc sirrply a hodgcpodgeol ridiculousthcories Evenmore frustrat' of mcdievalChinesetextsthat irrra, mÂny0rc cxccllcnltrandations simplytrccause, as translations, they are subjectto arc rrrislcatlirrr (filnrlatorfs intcfprelâtion' the disparities in meaning cx(l n(livi(lurl lhr( y(trr.iI lirrclhctwccnlincs in the lranslatedtextswheo you , , u , s ' , r r,,, r ' ,. u r r h , ,wr ' r ha r r o t l r ol e s h o t k , n g . li,l,o (-hans, rhe leacherwhosel;fe and theoriesare the focusof this book, is thc Headmasterofakung fu lineagewhoseroots can be tracedback twenty four hundredvears.John himself deniesthe ap pellation laoist perhapsrightfully so, becauseTaoism has coûe to be considereda religion by the world. However, since the teachers of Master Chanst lineasebasicallylived within the confinesof historical toist retreals,and since the word Taoisrhas becomea generic term in the \?est for "nâtiveChinesephilosophy,"l will continue to call my teachera Taoist. Perhapsit would b€ more accuratcto refer to hls teachingas"practicalTaoism"to differ€ntiateit from the Tàoismof other sourcesorlineages.JohnhimsellcallsTâoisma'philo'
Encydopedio Bnhûna Ol lma''Iàoism."
a LookinSthroughthe Mirrof
sophicalscience,"the simple study of naturallaw, for reasonsthat I will outlinebelow Of âll the spiritualdisciplinesTaoismis perhapsth€ most con fus;ngand difflcult to defin€ in thàt it began its developmentas a phllosophical school,tum€d into a religion, and waspropagatedasa seriesof folk beliefs. However, there are many ways by which to differentiatea religion from a philosophy and, mor€ so, from a sci ence.In our specificcase,two justificâtionsare most clear The first is that a religion is bas€don beliefs that calrol betror.n, that are a matterofeach individual'sfaith. V€ aspracticalTaoistsconsideroûr tcachinga sciencethat gives testimony to naturalphenomenathat both the studentsof our generationand pastMasteÉ of our lineage by have experiencedfirsthand,a tbarcanh 4rotutæâa rxperinæâ othnsat anf tin?.T'his ]s the most important distinction and one that I cannotstresssufficiently.To put the argum€ntmore simply,a high school student studying physics and algebrawill inevitâbly reach certainconclusionsand developspecificcapabilities,duplicatingthe experiencesandthe logic of his t€achenand of thosein pastgenerations who passedthesesciencesalong.There is nothing "religious" in the experienceof physicsând alg€bra;they are tools of knowlcdge and power,w'th no doctrine or syst€mof beliefs.Algebraand physicsoffer in otherwords,what hasbecomethe key term of Vest cn sclen e, reirodncibhftsult\. They basso'1rcthinl tbat cawot beProocs. This approachis preciselywhat someonegoing ihrough training as John Changkstudentwillexperience,he will follow in the footsteps of thosewho carnebeforehim, en€ounte.the sam€phenomena,reach thc sameconclusions. The secondreasonI assertthat "practicalTaoism"is a naturalis ric scienceis that the word æ|giorhas come to imply a falling-out bctweenman and the Divine on€ that the proffered doctrine can rcconcileby acting as ân intermediary.*\Ve can f'nd no proof ihat
' 'l'he
'1o tie fimly," sùggestingunion orrginal Lâtin verb nli4aEDeâr! with the Divine; assuch it is much clos€r in concept to the Sânskritwo.d yotra(from which comesthe Enslish/ol'), ralher than the concept of rcjoLninathat the word d/rqiorhas coûe to imply today
9 LookinâthrouShthe M iror
mân hasever fallen from Cod'sgrace,*assurningthat there is a Cod; instead.here seemsto be considerableevidencethat man is evolv' ing to becomewhateverCod intendedhim to be. As "practicalTaonocarrot ofredemption,no salvation, ists"weofferno specialmeans to make the donkey run. Rather,we offer a method of enhancing existence,makins each individuâl mor€ of what he already is aod movlng him toward what he can hope to become.\Ve are, simply put, a philosophicalscienc€. Perhapsyou will understandthe distinction a bit better if I anâ lyze the Chineseterm [ '4t Many peoplethink thât it meâns"martiâl afls," but this is not the case.(The Chinese terms fot martial technique ând martial arts are now ox rr{ aod r,/ yt, r€sp€ctively.) arevery difficult to translate,indeed,we must The two words iraa4Ja absolutelystudy Chinesewritins to €omprehendtheir meanins.Let's mâke the attempt. Kur4Jr ls composedof the ideograms,
nrcrns,"the constftrctionand developmentof onesenergyover time, tlrrough daily effort, sLrchthat in the end one obtains maturepow€r ind the spiritualdevelopment of a Master." KrrgJa,in other words,is a path of continualdisciplineand training, of nonstop growth over your entir€ life. This is preciselythe path chosenand representedbyJohn Cbane 3
trt 1,, FU
KUNC
Now, thc firct lcrm, kung, is written as a combinatioôof the chamctcrskul (I.) and li ( f). Kru4 means'to build, to construct." secondterm,Jr,is rnadeup ofthe limcans "powerorstrength."The sinsle €haractert ({), which is a complex ideosram to interpret. Ia is derived frorn the characterfor man (^.), witb added widespread arms and an adult mani hatpln through the character (in medleval China each adult male wore a hatpin throush his hat and hair). The implication is of a mature, large, responsibleadult man or father figure; the characteris also used in other contextsto denote someone'shusband.In other words, the term hu4! actually *
Or, con'ersely, that the puaosc of existenceis sihply suffering, sansara,from which human beinss shoùld strive to escape.lt was not my intent to harp on JudaeoChristianity, I simply wànted to keep this scction as bdel as possibl€
l|)
LookinSthroù8hthe Mnror
11 Lookin8throuShthe Mirol
arrtlwhllc thc calcilrrndeposilsin my right arm did not go away (thcy had bcen thcre for twclv€ yeart, rhosein my lcft arm (which
ChapterTwo
LIFEFORCT
A CARRIDT "l have to go to my prawn farnrthis afternoon.You can com€ with It wâs aboul two wcekçinto my acquaintancewith the manwho wds t() l)cconrcrly tcâchcr For two weekshe had stuckacupuncture ncccllcsinto rrry clbows,knees,and wrists,sendinsa steadycunent ol ch'i (litc cnergy)coursingthroLrghmy body. As I progressedI was ablc to rclax more and more during th€ treatment, and John methodically increâsedthe intensitywith eâchsession.I had discovered to my surprisethât he useda cunent intensity of no more thân O.5 percentof his total pow€rto treatpatients.lt wassiaggering.Normal people,even the strongestrnen,couldbe knockedoutby 2 percent For two weeksI had askedhim every day to acceptme as a student He was âlwaysfirm in retusins,but he neverinsinuatedthat I should "pissoff" (to put it bluntly), and he alwaysinvited rne back for furthertreâtmentthe followlng day.I did;ust that, nevermissing a chancefor a session,gritting my teeth againstth€ pajn and nying to rerleat into meditationasJohn'trppeclthe current,"increasingthe intensity of the power he s€nt into me 1()the highest levelsI could stand.Itvas indeedpainfulbut, more important,thereûa! an effect. It seemedthat vith ev€ry sessioûmy joints fell better and better, 12
hir(l bccn lorrnins for a year or so) dlsappearedcompletely.John rlv, slt<,wcdmc a set of"exercises,"açhe calledthem, to supplernent thc hcaling process,and I practicedthem rigorously every day Ilc had stunnedme the firstweekofour acquàintance by takinga r llrpstick and nonchalantlypushingit throush arrinch thick board (l lclrïcd latcrthat he could do thrsatwillwith a six, or eisht-inch-thick l,icccof wood, thicknesswasirrelevant).You mustunderstandthat he (lid ,rot hammerit in with his fist or anythingof that sort. He simply bmcedhis palmagainstthe backof the chopstick,and itlourcl tnto the board.John handedme the board and I tried to pushthe chopstickin Lr(hcr; it would not move,but when I pulledit outi it camequite eas ily. The reasonfor thls wasthe chopstick'sconicalshape;it narrowed honrbaseto tip. To pushit in farthet l'd haveto crushthe wood around it, asJohn ha4 when I pulledit out, only air resistedthe movement. "Youunderstandabour yang and yin:" he had asked.I nodded. In this day and age few people in the Vest had not heard of these lwo opposinsrniversal forces."lnsideourbodies,both llow in equal nmounts,"he continu€d. "These energiesare oppositesithey cao ncvcr meet Yin and yang oormally run parallelto cach other, never ldting go of one another I use my yin and yang together as one; thal is why Ican do what I do. By itself, yang ch'i cannot passthe limits of the body."' "Neikung,"I had said. "Yes."He seemedpleasedthat I kn€w the word. Vhen he askedmeto go wirh him to his businessestablishment, I lcapt atthechance toget to know the mân b€tter Did I want to gor ls the PopeCatholic? John was a highly successfulbusinessman,and quite v.€althy. He wâs a contractorand an exporterofboth manufacturedand perishablegoods.The expairiateChinese,if they may be called rhat, are often referredto as the'Jews ot Asia," and with good reason. l-ike their Vestern counterparts,th€y cont.ol the màjor arteriesof cconomic developmentin SoutheastAsia. John was such a man. I was to discoverthat he had been born in abiect povertr hov/evet and that he was a self-mademillionaire. 13
Ve went to the prawn tàrm by car John drove,quite tasrbur nol recklesdy.Vhen we reachedeighry eishr rnilesper hour I becamea bit concernedbecauseneither rhe laws nor the traffic conditions of the country he residedin allowed for such a vetocity.(And beâr in mind that I am a Creek and, as such, am used to borh hish sp€eds and deplorableroad condirions.)laffic was very heary and, after a tjme, the inevitablchappened. Johns cellular phone rang and the call was important; he began speakingor) the unit in shorr, rapid sent€nces,cradliog the phone underhis chin andbasicallydrivingwith one hand,nottwo. To com pllcate thtngs, he beganpassinga seriesof cars-quite illegally, as ther€ was a double dividing line in the center of the road. His lane was clear beyond thosecars,and he was in a hurry. John hadcornpletedhis maneuverandreenteredhis proper lane when suddenly a truck, int€nt on passinga similarly slow-moving vehicle in front of it and having hadJohns speedyapproachmasked by that vehicle, enteredour lane.The carswe had passedwere less than one hrndred yàrds behind us, à minute distanc€at our spced. I gripped thc consolcand wassuddenlyvery gtad I waswearins nry scrLbclt Vc wcrc doingaboutninetyrthe oncomingrruckwas go,n8ar lcastsirty,andJohnwasdrjvinswith onehandwhilespeakirrt (, lhc phonc I wasîùe rhatwe wereheadingfor a maloracci_ (lcn(nndwastl\ankfulrhatourcarwaslargcandstrong. Crittins my tcc(h,I poin(cdat the oncomingcar and bracedfor impact. Iohn harcllylookcdup. Vithour skippinsa beât or pausinsjn convcrsalion,he swervedonto the soft shootderof the road, passed the rruck, ànd returncdto his lane.He checkedrhe rearviewniûof to cnsurethar the iruck had succcsstullyavoidedthe cafs rhat had bcen behindus as well, and we wenl on. After a ninute or so he finished his conversatrcnand clicked off the phone "My eyesare still good," hc said to nre dryly. He was tifty-seven a1thc time and lookcd forty. "Do you alwaysdrive this fast?"wâs rhe only responseI coulcl think ol "Vhcn I'm by mysclf I Lrsuallydrive fasrer,about I l0 to 125 milesper hour or so. I like speed,you sce Vhen I have orhcr peoplc
1+
irr thc car I usr.rally stay below ninety becauseoth€nvise,if anything lrappcns, I can'tprotectthem." "Have you everhad an accident?" "Only once. I broadsideda truck doing about a hundred." "Vhat happenedz" "Nothing happened.I used rny power to absorbthe impâct on my body. They had to cut me out with chain çaws.The witnesses thousht it wasa miracle,that Cod or som€saint had protect€dme." I was stunned.Vhat he was telling me was that his body, ausmentedby the powerslriç neik ns irainins had siven hirn, had withstooda stressgreaterthar the yield strengthofsteel.I tried to iftagine the metaland glassshardsflowing aroundhisbody, unableto pierce hùmanflesh. Certàinly, plastic defo'mation as plannedby the cari designersallowcd for much, bùt thefe was no denyins that the mo mentunrhe had absorbedhad been phenomenal. \(as it true?Could a humanbcins rcacha statc in which hc vas imperviousto exterior harm?lt seemedtoo much to swallow. "Youknow,"he contlnued,"when I wasyounger I wanted to be a Ilollywood stuntnan,slnceI couldn'treallybe hurt in crashes beyou powcr I ih.rught, no, il do that too many caLrse of my But then rimespeoplewill wonderaboutyou,andlxsidcs,I hadpromisedfty Masterthat I would not usemy power to make moncy." Ve drove on lor à while ir silerce. He besan to questionmc about Crcccc. He underçtoodabout the BalkansHe had been born penniless, and he ,*,asChrnese. "My father died when I was four,"hc sald "l grew up very poor Llasically I wasa streetkid.Though my mothcr worked vcry hard,she did not bâvethe money to sendlre to school.I did finish hish school latcr on, though, but I ncversrudledat any collese or univercity." "Risht,"ljoked. "Youll,sthâveâ Ph D in becomingn,perhunân." "No," he replied seriin,sly,"you mu\tn'r thjnk ot me as beins à athlcte Not superman. I arnlike a fishtefpilot of a €hanrpionship cveryonecan becomelike me-there arecertainqualifications but so ,:pcoplccan.Vhat I arnis a productol disciplineaod tfainingas nruchas naiu|al talcnt. "My wife real1yhelpcdmc," hc coDtinued1'lexplainedto her
15
v/hen we were marriedthât I could not do anything else,tlrat I had to spendall rny spar€time training. She agreedto this." He had been marriedat eishteenand had sevenchildren. "l worked as a driver for almost twenty years,you know" He smiled."So you see,you needn'tbe so concernedabout my driving. I know theseroads." \yy'edrove on in silencefor a while. "Do you really understand," he finally asked,'îhat we meanwhen we talk about ch'i:" "l think so," l replied. I reckonedI understoodthe basics;I had read all there was to read,after all, and had studiedmartiâl afis for Ch'i, or bio'enersy, is a phenomenonthat has been much dtscussedin recent years in the \X/eçt l/ith the establishmentof rh€ new K'r'g F! series,David Carradineonce again contributed to the \X/esttùnderstandingby uttering the word on televisionàt leastonce a week.Acupuncture,too, is now commonplace,and there is hardly a doctor an''where\sho hasnot spentro"rdtime looking into it. The phenomenonof bio-enersy is thuç under pronouncedmedical and physicalinvcsligation.* Thc orisinalChincscidcos.dmfor c i is bestrenderedas "va p(,r"in lrnslish 1thasalsobccnrcnderedas"vitaliry," but ch'i is very ( I(,srly associ;rtcd with breaih (thoush it would be better to saythar b,cathcontainsch'i) Othercultureshavegivenitothernames,The lllndus call it prard,the Îbetans lx,, (which means"wind"),the 1 lcbrewsruacù(wind), and the PactficIslandersmd"a,while the an cient Creeks called rt p"e!,ra(spirit, wind).r Ch'i is çimilar to el€ctriciry flowing through a wire; it €angenerateheat or work or encrgy, but none of theseresultsidentifiesch'i itself. "So you know that our bodieshaveboth yin ch'i and yâng ch'ir" "Vell," I smiled,"l readâbout it in the Tào Tè Chins."
I hope that this text will cortribute io sûch reseàrch T It is interestingto note that the Latin rptitB also ùeans "breath,"and thàt the Creek word fof the rcspiratoryorgansol our body lthe lùnst r ,t'nno, (lrom which we sct the word prrnoric, for examplc)
16
"Ahl Lao'tzu (he Tàoist," he said. "He was a wise man. Vhat rlocshe sayabout ch';r" I thought at the time that he was testing me. Later Iwould dis, covcr thàtJohn had neverreadthe Tào Te Ching. "Vell," I repli€d," hc saysthat ch'i has both yin and yang components,and that it is lhc int€ractionbetweenthe two that makeslife possible."5 Suchfeedbackbetweenthe positiveand negâtivepolesofexist cncewasthe prime componentof our lifeforce,when we asa species bcgin to understandthis phenomenonfrom a technicalperspective, wc will begin to understandlife itself. (twould later discover,how cvcr, that our bodies are briefly capableof storing both pure yang aodpureyin ch'i in differentar€as,thoughthisstateof nonequilibrium is subjectto entropy.) "l nt€raction."Joho rolled the word around on his tonsue. "Like rlcctricit/, positiveand negative7" "lguess." "Not quite conect-" He paused."B[t you know, one time I ]et a studentof mine hook me ûp to a voltmeterand an amperometerHe registeredno voltage,but I blew the amp meteroff the scale.l burned the machin€1" "Are you telling me that ch'i has amperasebu1 does not have voltager" "l think so. For example,I can withstand householdelectical current indefinitelywithoùt pain, but I canoot light up a lightbulb. I lravetried, many times." I thought about that. CIiDicalinvestisationin medicallaborato riesseemsto i'rdicatelhat the electricalresistânceofthe skinchanges markedly at acupuncturepoints. There are "electricalacupuncture machines"that make use of thjs phenomenonto locat€ the points for n€ophytes.This is an indication that ch'i and voltage are somehow inverselyrelated(thoughother explanationshavebeenoffered). But Iwas to find out yearslater thatJohn waswrons. His ch'i in lact displayedn€ither voltage nor amperagerrath€r, it wâç an entirely different phenomenon,basedon very dtfferent forces. 'And other than beingmore powerful,isyour ch'i differeot from thât of th€ averagep€rson!?" John simply smiled,but did not answer' 17
\)/e ànived at the larm. lt was ol medium size, about rwenty people were employfd there. I roamedaroundwhile h€ finishcd his business.A young girl brought out a bowl of fruit and a decant€rof coffee for me, the tropical fruir was delicious,the coffee rned;ocre. John walted up and sat down, helping himself to some coflèe "People are so stupid," h€ said. "My shipment is b€ins held up jn customsb€causesomelocalofficiàlwants ê bribe. Thatt the waywe operatehere,you know" "lts the sameall over the world," l said."Youhave to sreasethe whe€lsfor them to turn " He was delishted by theclichéd Enslishmetaphorand committed itto memory."Ve havea sirnilarphrasehere.It'strue thatpeople oft€n abusetheir positionç in society fol thejr own beneftt. In the eod, iti all about powei,"he said.He seemedto rhink abour rhe last word for a second,then turned suddenly toward rn€. "Vhat is the differencc betweencû';lmg and raitar4r"he asked "Vell, clilua4 meansto developthe energy of the body.,.. .,' '?ll over the body, yes. \X/hatabout nejkunsT" "N.ifur4means'internal power"' "Ycs,blrl intcrnal to what?"he asked. I hcsirarcd, and.,ohndrcw rhreeideosrams on a napkin:
ÈJ t-
rt
KUNc
NEI
"This isae;tazg. The first ideosram,'ei means'ârnân€nrerinsa house.', "Yes." "Sowhen we practiceneikung,we purch'iirsirie,but insidewhat?, "Uh . . the dantienr The bonesr Chakras2"I was graspinsat John grinned. "Vell, well. I seeall the boots you read did sonr good. Vhat is the dantien?"
18
-fhc
rJantien, or'clixir tield,"is the primary bio,energywarehouse ol thc humanbody.Locatedfourfingersbelowthe navelin them;ddle i,l thc tono, thiscenterhasth€ability to storevâstarnounrsof ch'i.For lhis rcâsonit is alsoknown asci:i i:ai(oceanof ch'i). But it is a mistâke l{, rhink that the dantien itself g€n€ratesch'i, as presentedin many tcxrs.Rather,it is possibleto storc ther€thar ch'i which th€ practirioncr intakesfrom thcuniversearoundhlm.It ls practiceandpemistenc€ that leadto "dantienpower";suchpower is notan impliedcharacteris ric of the humar body. I can perhapsexplainbett€r with â sirDile.Say thai a specificyoùthhasexc€ptionaltalenrin a givensport.Neverthelcss,he still needsto train and work hard-to hone his skillsand his |nindeverydayin orderto becomea championship athlete.The dantien is similarto that youth. Yes,it canstoreseeminglylimillessamountsof cnetw, but tlldtesegynun bef,tt therc Jortb(ddnri\ iolrflcro" k will not soakup, nor will it gen€rate,powerof its own accord ItoldJohn asmuch. He nodded, somewhatpleased."All right," he said. "l'll show you one morethrngroday Cne mt a banana Ireached;ntothe basketand pickeda bananaat randomfrom one ofthe two bunchesin thebasket.I had àlreâdyeâtenthree(imagine the smallerfruit found in Asia, not the overgrovn and afificially ripenedbananasthat reach our tablesin the Vest)r they werc deli ciousand completelyuntâmperedwith John took the fÎuit fmm rne andheld it in plainçishrin his lefrhand.He extendedrhe indexand middlefingersof his righthand, foldinsthe orher rwo into th€thumb. Tènsing briefly, he passedhis hand in a slicins motion about three inchesawayhom the banana;therewas an audibleclicft,and hall the huit fell to the floor. I was long past being arnazedat this pointi the whole thing seemedkind of matter of fact. He handedme the other half of the h!it. lt was shiny, as if cleavedby a hot knilè that had tused the surfaceof the bananainto a slassymass. 'This," he said,"is like à John pointed to the center of his palm. sholgun." He extendedhis two fingers again and pointed to their tips. "This," he continued,"is likc a laser."
t9
TH[,MARTIALARTSAND CHl There can be no denying that the marrial arts are as old as man. Beginningperhapsas a derivativeof th€ hunting skills of primirive tribesmen,the martial arts developedas man pirted himself against man. Vith the appearanceofempires and the establishmentofstate governm€nt,thesearts developedto such an extent as to approach and p€rhapssurpasstoday'sfightingarts. There arewallpainrings in Beni Hasan in Egypt dating from 2000 DcEreminiscentof modern judo, and if the archaeologicalrecord left behind is any indication, the anci€ntCreek martialarr ofpar&rario,(datedat leasrto 1450BcÉ) was much more comprehensivethan karatehasbecom€in our day. One aspectoften neglecredby hoplologists*and martial histo.ians is that, for some reason,the martial arts were alwayscloselv tiedtoandalignedwithreligionorspirituality.Tèmplewallsall over the world-in both Eastand V€st-have, since rhe dawn of time, been adornedwith scenesofcombat. The heroic sagasof allnations ar€ consistenton two them€s:a seriesofconflicts throughoutwhich the hero triumphs,and his inreractionwith gods orCodin doing so. The OldTestament,for example,is undoubtedlya martialepic,much like the Indian Ranraynna and the Creek ll,arl.In Chiûa this precept holds true in both rhe Buddhistand Taoisttraditions. Chineseboxing, urasba,is undoubredlyrhe art of fighting. perhaps at first it involved only muscularforce and srraregicapplication. Over time, however, the Chinese martial arts came to be influenced by Taoist and yogic meditative-respiratorytechniques, which perhaps\rere firsr applied for health purposes,but were later found to have martialapplications.There is every indication rhat all aspectsof Chines€medicine and divination were extant and complete by 1000 DcE;il v/ould not be an outrageoG extrapolationto assumethat the Taoisrmartial artsor at l€asrmartiai a.ts influenced by Taoismwere alsocomplet€by that time. MasterJohn Chang has recordsof martialartistshke himselfliving in China almostiwothou*
A hoplolosist is an archaeolosisror hisroriànwho siudiesweaponsand their useth.oughout hktory
2Q
sandycarsin Xhepâst.It is alsointerestiog to notethat the Chinese madc mofe limited use of metâl armor historicaily than would be oxpcctedconsideringtheirtechnological developmenr,before Iundcrstood the true câpâbilitiesthar ch'ikung impârted to the pràditioner, I usedto wonderwhy. In any case,the martjal arrswerc well underway in China long before the arrtvalof Buddhism. PopularIiteratuledemàndsthat th€ rnartialafts in China be tied to the arrivalofthe IndianprinceBodhidharmaat rhe Shaolintemple in Honan province.But, this is inaccuratero say the leasr.\Y/hatis hue is thal China is a vasrcountry inhabitedby many ethnic gfoups with an often poorly rccorded history.To try to trace the history of the martial arts in this quagmireof recordsis an arduoustask. The literatureon Chineseboxing is full of sapsand srnotheredby ambi, guitiesin many places.Still, we can trace the maftial arls reliably to -fhe the Chou dyoasty (t l2l 255 BcE).* Sprk4 and Autmn Ar,''ak (722 481 BcE)of that dynasty,as well as rhe lireratûreof the Var ring Statesperiod (403-221 Bc[),mention displaysof archery,fenc ing, andw.restlinsperformedby nobles.Ihave alreadydtscussedthe cvolution of philosophy during ihis iime, ir is evident in rhe litefaiure thatyogic respiratorypsychophysiologicalpracriceçwere much in useby the sixth centuryrcEaswell. Indced,the LaaTzuaad,Chuatg Ï2, are both ftrll of referencesto vital erergy and Tàoistyoga. Mens-tzu (Menciut, the orsanizcrof Con|t,cianismand a con t€mporaryof Chuang-tzu,waç amongothersproficient in rhe culti, vationof ch'i,somethingpopuldrconceprion hardlyênricrpatcs fronr a morallstConfucian He promotedthe approachthat "if the will 6,t) is concentraled,the vital enersy[c'i) wi]l follow it and become active."Menciùs alsowrote, "Vill [y;) is of the hishcst imporrancci vitality [cir'i] standssecond."I have heard the sameconrmentfrom anotherstudentofJohn Chang. Accord;ng to Chinesethought, there are basicallytwo types of training involving olrr vital energies:ch'ikung and neikung.It is dil ficult to say where one ends and tbe orher begins, but essenrially .
Draeger,DonnF, andRobe*\Tl Smith,Cospr.r.nr ir. Asian Filbtiq Arts (TokvoandNew York,Kodansha, re80).
21
ch'ikunscenrerson the development and controlof yangch,i (also €alledli; ch'i or "fire" ch'i), while neikunginvolvesthejojnt employment or yang ch'i âod yin ch'i (called ',watel' ch'i or lanr ch'i). ln truth, yin andyans energiesrun parallelto eachother in our bodies, and both àre vital to our continued health Like yin and yans, it is impossibleto separatech'ikung from netkung,indeed,the latter is a higherform ofthe samearr. Perbapsrhe distinctionwâscreatedsimply to help define rhe abilities of rhe adepr.yaog ch,i cannot pass beyond the confinesof the physicalbody, while yin ch,i can and so may rmpart to rhe practitioner preternaturalabilitiessuch as those demonstratedby Master Chang In the second century cE Buddhis. monks began ro arrive in China. Then circa 500 cE came the Zen patriarch Bodhidharma (Tamo)andthe Ch'arn(Zen) sect Tàmoarrivedatthe Shaolintemple to preach to and subsequeotlystay wirh the Buddhistmonks, pass, ing o' to them two methods,the Y Cin Ching, which is essentially ch'ikuns,and the Shi Sui Chins, which is essenriay neikuns.It i, from these two forms that the Shaol;n çchool developed.Appar, ently the ncikuog techniqucswere losr within a few generarions, :nd only thoseof the Yi Cin Chins relàined.Many of todaysùrar_ tial arls, cspeciallyrhoseoutsideChina, are descended fro[r the Shaolrnschoolwirh a stficrlych'ikunsapproach. Thc Taoisrmarrialarrsremainedvery muchalivcinsidcChiûa, howcvcr,spccificallyin placcssuchasVu Tàngmounrainand other Taolstretrcats.Broadlyspcaking,it can bc saidthat rhcif approach is guided nlore by the interplayofyin and yang than the gencrarion of power evident in Buddhisrnarrial arts like thc hard style Shaolin torms. I have noticed a tendency to move thc weishr conpletely from one foot to the other in Taoistarrs,in both externaland intcrnal styles,as opposcdro the sotidstancesof the Buddhisrarts.In addition,thefe secnsro bc more of a llowing and bendingof ihe spinein the tormcrrhanis evidentin thc latter Again,thesccom parjsons arevery generdland,in truth,therehasbeenso rruchinrer aclionbetwecD Buddhisiandlàoisr tcchniqucsand philosophiesth at it i\ difficultto separate thc two. I haveçecnrelercnces to'Taoist brcathing'and"Buddhistbreathtns"in thc lirerâtlre,for example, brt sucha distinction is inaccurareCàrcful reçeafchshowsthat i1 is 22
rrocnsytaskto discngage the rwo philosophies ar thispoint,ar least rr{)t in China \X/hatcverthe path, martial artistsquickly saw.hat by applying thc csoteric techniquesused by the seek€rsof enlighrenmentand imnrortalityin their quest,they developeda power baseand capacity much broaderthàn thoseachievableby muscularstrengtha1one. Practition€rsof ch'ikung acquiredprodigious strength, they werc àbleto balancetheir entire weighr on on€ finger, for example.Prac titioners of neikung discoveredthat there were wâys to escapethe limitationsof the physicalplane of existence.Pyrokinesis,telekne, sis,telepathy,levitation thes€abilitiesand othersbecarnetheir reward for a lifetime of dedi€ationand discipline.Ve will seein the following chapters\a.hatsuch a quest was like, âôd where ir coold take the practitioner . . . and still can today.
23
Chapter Three
BECINNINCS
i
John had more than a dozen patienrsto seeon rhe last day I was in the country He never chargedanyone a dirne for therapy:nd alway$ made rime for whoever came olrr to see him, olt€n without priof arraogement.I had seenmiraculousthings during the month I was there,A stroke victim had regainedthe use of a p;alyzed limb, a woman who had çLrlferedfrom chronic sprnarpain was suddenty hcillc.l lohn spcciâlizedin rrealingneurological ,iisease,though o.thopcdicailnlcnrsand chronicinfectionswere alsoright up À;sal, lcy. I oltcn assisrcd him with his parientsia processthat basically i , , v , , l r d\ r a n d i n B r h e , er o u th r n gr h ep r r i e n r a . r r n ga r a s r o r r n d "nd rorJonnç bro-electri(tty I had been treated rnyself for a month. \X/irh the €xceprion of two very 01dcâlciumdepositsin my right arm, myjoints were tine. I never misseda chanceto askJohnwhether or not h€ would accept me asan apprentice;he alwayssaidno. My self-esteem wasat an all_ rime low dnd I hàd no ideawhat to do \41 rrroney war runnrngour but I did not wanl lo leaverhecounrruw,rhoL,rlohn a, qu,-, -g ro at Ieastsend me on to somestudenrt studenr. Anything, just don,t order rne away,please.. . . I waited my turn for treatmenron thar day, helping John out with the orher patients; he left me for last. He knew I would be leaving the following morning. Ve were alone in his clioic when I askedhim forwhat I thoughtwouldbe the finaltime ro eitheradmit
nrc asâ pupil or at leasrsive me a nameand an addressI could apply to. Ididnl careif he sentme on to the lowesrmanon the totempole; ljrst wanted to study what he had to teach Iwas lying face up on one of his therapycouches,my kneesand elbows full of acupunctureneedles.There was no way I could have chânged position even it I had wanted to, all sudden movements were dangerous.I slowly turned to faceJohn, who had sone quiet. Hewas studyingme carcfully,his softeyeslooking jnto my fâceand beyond, a smallsmile playing on his lips. Thlsis theno'1ddt4elotl'nan h theWesunootà, I thought. I was a head and a hâlf tallerthan he was,andsixty poundsheavier,andyet there was no way I could withstand 2 percentol his power Cood thing he wasbenevolent. 'Actually," he said,"l havealreadyshownyou the trainingmethod torLevelOne. Now, when you finish with that, Ican showyou Level Two." "Does that m€an . ? He had caughtme completelyby surprise.I choked backa flood oftears; itwas my opinion then that it would not do ro becomeemo tional whil€ pinned down on a tablelike a fly on paper In any case,I did not know what more to say to him at rhat point. I had already promisedhim my obedienceanddiligencefor the restofmy life should he acceptme as an apprenrice,and had meanteveryword I said. Tiadit;onallyunder thesecircumstancesrhe apprenticewassup posedto kneel before the Master and pledgeto him once againthat he would be a loyal and hardworkins student ln my casethat was impossible,becauseI couldonly turn ny head.144dLthehelt,I thoushtt lohn k a Westemer as wellasa MasteroJr,eikug I wassilenrfor a rime,ând he respected that silence. John1irup ê cigarette,took a few pults,and seftledlt inlo aDashrrayHe wiped his handswrth alcoholand beganpullingout the needles, wipins edchareadown wirh alcoholashc went alo,rg. ''fhânk you," I said finally and sat up on the edge of the couch nodded and shrugsed.H€ kept smilins John "l don't know what to say,"I continued. "lt doesn'tmâtter,"hc said."Have a nice trip back home." 25 Be8inninSs
Two yearslat€r,sitting on rhe balcony of h;s hornewith my girl friend, I elaboratedon the abovestory for her benefit.John sar si lently smoking while I wenr through the morions,and Doris, who had lreard it a hundred times in the past,simply waired politely for me to finish. "Youthinkyoll hàd a hard rime?"Johnaskedwhcn I hâd fioished. "Yourcasewâs nothingr There are peoplewho have searchedfor me for nlne yearsbefore they finally found me, and then there was no guaranteethat I would welcome rhem asstudcnts." "Have you ever sent peopleaway:" 1asked. "Many tinres."Whata sS'aiklWestemt,his glanceseemedto say, and I felt sheep;sh.Finally I Iookeddowo, unablero rneethis saze. ''l saw your conins in a dream,"he said softly,',three monrhs before youcame to standatmy doorstep.The day you arrived,I was v/aiting for you." "Yeahr" "Yes."Hc paused."Do yoù wanl to hearwhat I \a.entthrough to be acceptedas a student by n7 teachcr:"he finally asked. V/e both jumped at rhe chanceandJohn beganthe srory of his apprenticcship.I discoveredthat I had gottcn ofl,rD. easily.By the time hc waslinished,DorisandI vere rollinson thefloorwirh laugh, ter, John wasa very good storytcller,with an expressiveface,and he renrcnrbered cverythingvividly "My Master! nânrewas Liao TsLtTong,',he said in his pleasanrly accentedEnglish,"and he wasfrom trainland China I ftrst mer him when I was ten ycars old. I loved kung flr from the besinoins and had trained with varioùsteachersalmost from rhe momcnt I could walk, but I had a friend-Chan 1ien Sun was htc name_who kept telllng me that he wasstudyingavery powerfutkung fLrsystemfron an old man in his neishborhood.Chan kept sayins that the old man \4asa greât healerand an eminent Master of the martial arrs.I was curious,so I went with him to the old m:n! house. . .
The Apprentice Vhen the young boy ftrst saw the old man, he was DoLovefty im pressedHe hadcome only becausehis childhood fricrd had insisred
26 8eÉinni!3s
The old nransold bananasfor a livins, the people in the neishboÈ hood câlled him 'Mr Banana" Some people even call€d him "Mr Vcird Banana"becauseit was saidthat the old man wasvery stranse ifld difficùlt to understand. Chan had declaredthatthe old man was a greatMastcrand that he had healedmany people who were seriouslyill. The young boy had heard the stofies,too, thoush il seemedthat rhe old màn was very picky about whom he treated Sone people he kept wàiting fof days outside his houseand then sent âway uncured, conharily, he would hcal othersuifererswho didn'twanr his help evenagainstrheir will, so'netimerchasingthen into thei. own honelt (Later the boy would learn rhat the Master was able to seeeach individual'ska.ma, and would heal the peFon or not basedon that obseNation) Anywa, he wasn'tall thât kcen on studyirg with the old man, brt, well, nen Sunwashis best friend and had insistedthat theytrain tôgether "Vhat doyou want here,boy?"the old man askedthe !hallboy he found standingon the stepsoutsidehis home. Master Liao studied the child carefully The boy was esscntiallya streetkid of Southeasr Asiâ,dressedin simpleclothesand qune rough aroundthe edgcs.He had probablybeenin lishts from dre momenrhecouldwalk. The old Masler saw that the boy's lo*unes had taken a turn for the bener .ecently,but the sisDsof past malnutrition were still therc He sàw muchpain+n orphanr\Vhat type oleducationhadthe boy.eceived? He sawsomething else,too/ somelhingthar excited him considerably,though he did not show it, oicou6e. The boy had the talent. Not o.e man in one thousandcould bccomc like he was His skillwas similarro that of the greatestOlympic arhleres,not only did you haveto havetheCod-bôrnsift, but you alsohâd tôsuffe.thrcush decadesof hàrd disciplineto reachthe finalprize.It wasno easytask. MasterLiaowasinhis late sixties,almosrsevenry,andhad rËincd i n t h e n a r t i à l a r t sa l l h i sl i i e ,s i n c er h c m o m e n th e c o u l d w a l k H . e had been in Javafor more than six ycas and had seenlew pcople il thar timewho possessed all the rcqùifementsto nake itthroush to the end. Could this strcetwaif accomplÈhthe trainingr "l . . . l'm a good friend of Chan ïen Sun,Sfi,*" the child sturtercd, "l would like to ltudy kung tu with you as well."
" The term actually means"father teacher,"though "masrei'is widely uled in the Vest as the trùBlation.
27 BeÉ'nninÉs
The old Master laughed He was alrnost seventy bût looked younser "There are so many kung fu teachersin this cityt \x/hy ûel If I acceptedyou, what would your purposebe in studyingwilh mer" "Vell, for selÊdefenseand lor sport, too." "l see.SelÊdefenseand exe.cise.\X/hâtis your nàûe7" "Chang, Situ.JohnChang,"the boy said,but he wastakenaback. The old man was nothing like he had inasined He had seenmany teach€rs.Most w€re pro(rd and anogant, some were more civil. But this old MasterlTherewassomethinstherehe could nottouch, somethins irdefinable that alnost scaredhim. The old man was beins ironic, but there wàs compassionevident at the sametime He certainly Ddr strange,just as people said,it was as it someagelessc.ea ture was lookins ât him from acrossthe centuries,lull of experiences he couldnot fâthom. Liao Situ ploceededro askhim many quesrions âbout his lite and his familyj he seemedvery kind at thar point, almost fatherly The boyrealizedhe wasbeinsgiven atest ofsorts and tried to answerasbest he could 'Cone back toûoftow at a p.M.,"the old nan finally said.'rù/e can talk more àt that tirne." Thc next day John aÛived prompdy at the specili€dtime, but thcold man wàs no\i,heretobe lourd. H€waitedon the stepsfor rhe rcst of thc afternoon Liâo Sifu finally showedup àt s€ven "\vcll," hc said ro the disappointedbot "it! roo late to do anything Dow.\X/hy dont you come back here tonorrow at roun 'l'hc sâmethins happenedoo rhe next day And th€ nexr. And The young boy was very diriUusioned.It was obvioùs to him thât the old teacherhad no intention of acceptinghnn and wasjust hàving fun at his expcnse.He resolvedto drop the notion ol study inswith nen Sun and tell the oldhan to forsct the whole thing Bur somethingkcpt hin comingback, somethinghe could not quiic put OD th€ fifth day Liao Situ kepthis four o'clock àppointmcnt and qucstionedthe yoùng boy again,this tiore they tâlked for almosttwo hours.The Masterkept him on the steps,however,he did not invite ll went on tor a month. The old teàcherwould mectJohn o. ùe stepsoutside his hoùsc, tâlk to hir for a few ho(6, and tlen send hiû home. The boy was disheartenedand bored. He would havc given up exccpt for the factthatnen Sun encouragedhim to keepat
2r3 BeSjnnings
i t , i n s i s t i n gl h a t L i a oS i f u w a sa g r c a tM â s t e . S o J o h np u t i n à n a p n " ' r r 1 . . c \ e - y d a y h o p r n gr o r w " y t r . r " a .h e r After a month the Master save the boy hope.John arived outs l d eo l L i a o S i [ u !h o u s ea r 4 p M . ,t h e s p e c i f i e d t i n r T eh . e o l d m a nw a s jûst seking off to run an etand He sreetedthe bor b€san to walk away,then tu.nedto look athim. "KuDgfu isvery difficultto learn.[t is very heavy tnini,rg. Are you capableof itr" T h c b o vw : . c , . , : t i c . ï \ o h ) e \ r ' h c . d , d . "Then come back tomorrow at noon, if you feel that yor: are That night john was so excited he could hardly sle€p.At lastl He would start training on the next day with the mysteriousLiao Sifu. He had heard morc àbout the old man dùrins his ùonth of waitins and was really beainni'rs to be in ave of him. Frnàlly he would bc able to sharein the secretsof theold manlsmartialsciencel T h c s d , h d db e e nw o , , F, , I . n S J . w a , n s l . l The next day,when the boykepthisappointhentatthe Maste* hoùse,he wàsinvitedin for the first tihe in a month. He sawthatlhe neishborhood was quit€ correct in callirg the 01d man "Mr. Vcird Banana" There was no lur.iture àt all in the house, not even a bed The boy thoueht, lfl,.t lds r.5l(pr There wasa hole in the.oofthat let in the rain, it had beeDlek open,with no sign ofattcmpted repai. LiaoSitu spokeabruptlyto him. "Cleaûthehousewith thàtbroom and that mop over thc.e Use the rakethat you wrll lind in the backyardtorakcup all the lcavcsaroundthe house.Oh, and,whileyou're at it, fill up the storàgebasinwith wàter from th€ well, wouldyou:" The old man turned to go "Youcan cone back here tomonow at noon, if you wish," he said to John Then he was gone. The boy was lelt alone in the house. John was puzzled. If he! such a great Master,he thought, why does he live like this? (Later he would realize that the Mastcr r€ tained nothins any other pe6on misht desire ) But he did do the wo.k requestedand left the house spotless.Hc knew that kung tu Mastes often tried the patienceard detcrminaiion of their àpprenticesand hâd decidedthat he would show the oldman he cou{dbe a \Y./trenhe came bacft the next day, the old man told him once asain to clean the house,and left him to it. (WhotJon I jnstchawdil r6kdoy! Atd r$ereînathiq in lEretolet dinr, lohn thowllt. ) The boy per formed thejob againasdemanded,despitethinking it a wasteoi time.
29 BeSinninSs
Vhcn the samethingoccured asajnor thc two followingdays, the boy besan to wonder if he would ever be taughl krng tu orjust be an unpaid leûant for the rest of his life. On the fourth day after beins allowed into Liao Situs hoùsc, John discov€redthathis pùraatorywastob€ sjven a newdimension. The old man was congeniàl on that day, almosi jovial. He offered John tea, and they drank together for a time, saying nothing, the Master studyi'ra him. Suddenly Liao Situ looked inro his cup with distasteand sc tinizedJohn with impromptu inspiralion. "You know," he said,"l have a friend down the road, about five hundred yards away,who has a wellwith wondertulwater" "Yes,Situ,"John replied hesitatinsly He did not like the direc, tion the convcrsationwas b€ginning to take, b€sides,he knew rhat the well water all over the areawas the same.He had learnedabout such things in schoolr iûigation and sanitationwere very important "l wanl you to carry water frcm his well to fill my sto.agereser voir here Come with me " They went out onto the balcony and the old man showedhin where his hiends housewas locâted. "\X/hatlswroas with thc water frôm your well here, Sifu? the "lti not rood. lt rnakesthe teâ tastebirtcr.' 'llut Sil!, thc warer i! the sameall ovcr the netghborhoodt" "\I/hy can'1wejûçt usethe water lrom this welb' Thc old nran stood up "lf you dont want to do the work, you can eo home, youknow But don't come bâck ' He walked away and l c f t J o h ns t a n d i n go . h i s b a l c o n y The yorng boy was angfy but he was àllo terriljed of the old man.John had heard even more unusualthtngs about him, Liào Sifu was beconins a leeend in the neishborhood So hc did rhe chores erpected of him, waitcd a while fôr Liao Sifu to .erurn, then wenr h o m ew h e nh e d i d n t . It went on forw€eks. Every day the young boy woùld go out to the Mastcrs house,cleanthe inte.iof, rakeard tidy the extcrior,and carry water from the well a quarter mile away lt took hin all after. noon, ard the oldnan alwayssenthim ho'ùe alLerwardwithotrfteâ.h, ing hin â lhing nen Sun kcpt him ar it, encc,uraginghim everytinre
30 be$nnings
thcy mct, iDsistingthat Liao Silu rvasgreat and that soon he would b e g i nt o t r a i n J o h ni n e a m e s t . "Dld the sane thlng happento yo(?"John askedhis friend altcr a month had passed. Chanlookeddown."Vell, no. Hestartedto teachme risht away." The boy was instantly turious.The old man was usins hitl H€ held on to his angerallthat nisht andthe nextmorning.\{/hen it cane time to go to the old mans house,he barffd right in and conkonted the Master The childs stàndinsup to him amc€d the old man. 'Are y o u e o r n gr u r e a h n e L ù n gf u o , n o , ' "Vhats your problemu "Char nen Sun said thât you started teaching hin right awa, that you acceptedhim as a studentright awayf' "Ah, I see.' Liao Situ kept his face serious."He is wrcns, you know. So far i ha"e neverhad a studentin my life. You f.icnd is not "\vhat? Uut he. . . " Suddenlylobn felt very small and fright "l teachChan llen Sun becausehisfamily helpedne oncewhen I was very ill. I was stficken with lève. and helpless.\X/henI did nol 'llen appear for three days, Sun! father entered my home and his Iàmily gaveme wàter and food Later,they bousht me the medicine l r e q u e l t e da n d I r e c o l e . e d . I f n o tf o r t h c i r h c l p , l w o u l db e d e a d .S o I teach th€ir son to repay ùy debt to them. Do you undestand:" "Y€sSifu. But I've been comins here every day fof two months, working ha.d, cleanins,and so lâryoù havent sbown me ânythingi Not onemovemeDu" Dcspitc his pfctcmatuEl power! ofconce.tration, Liao Sifr hàd to tLrn away to hidc his grin from the boy. "Kune fu i! very .lifli.trlt t o l e a r n ,h " es a i d T . h e n h e l e l t t h e h o u s ec, h o k i n gd o w nh i s l a u s h t e r . Ihe boy immediatelybcgan to cleanand perlo.n.hisdallychc'.es H e w o n d e r e di f h e h a d b l o w n i t f o r e o o d . Liao Sifukept hin wo.king lor tu,o norc nonths Vhen thc boy had completed lotrr ûonths of seNitudc, thc Mdsler sl'oKc ro ,,n,, " N o r vr v ew i l l s c e , "t h e N 4 a s t es.a i d ," i f y o u a f c c a p a b l co f r r a i n i ' r e . " J o h nw a sc c s t a t i c . " l w a n t y o u r o s t a n dh e r e l l k e t h i ! " L i a ô S i f u s h o w e dh i n r h e basic cntry nrto what has been popclarly called the "Horse Rrdlng S t a n c e '( M a B r i n C h i n c s e )J o h . e a s c f l yc o p i e d h i s m o v e n r e . t ,
3l 6eEnnin$
as$rmins the stance.Liao Situ grunted in approval, correct€d him brlefly, then toJohns horror tumed and besan to headout the doon "Situt"the boy cried. "How lons do you want me ro stand hele like this?" The Masre.scowleddown at him. "\X/hr for aslongas you cani of couset" he said,then walked out of the house. Johnt tial went on for rwo mo.e monrhs.The Masrer persisred in makins him clean the house and the swroundings ànd carryinc water hom the distântw€ll; when he finishedhis chores,lohn had to standin the Horse Ridins StânceforhouÉ at a rime. TheMasrervas relentless,never sivins him a minùte! resr Through this ordeal,the boy persisted.He even becamecheertul I *udn,l klq Ju btJore I cabe here,he $o\tsht, bù ftM lik tbis! Durins the fifth month, the boy noticedsomethinsunusual.The Master had bought a few piecesofbâsic iurniturefor the house.These items were rarely usedbut prcsenr Anong them was a large table, touryards long by one yard wide, which Liao Situ occasionallyused On the lirst dây of rhe sevelth month of his tdal, Liào Situ de c i d e dt o a c c e p t h e b o y a s as t ù d e n tH e h a d r e s t e d h i m forsixmonths a n d h a da g o o d i d e ao f h i s c h a r a c t eTr o i n i r i a t et h e c h i t d ,h e d e c i d e d to sivc hifl a. cxhibirio. of the most bastcskills he possessed Th. boy was mystilied.Liao Situwasunexpectedlyco ndescendins on Lhit day ToJoh.! suryrse, he hândedhim a sharp knife and l r m p c d u p o n t h c t a b l e " C l i n b u p h e r e ,b o r " h e s a i d I o h n d i d s o , p r z z l e d a n ds o m e w h aat l r a i d "Dont worry," rhe Mastc. sàid "l wont hùr1you " The boy siood there. "l want yoù to attack me wth that knife. If you can nake me jùnp oll the table o. touch my shirt with rhe blâde,you win " The boyjabbed foMard with the knifejokinsly. "Don'tplayL"theold mansrowled."Artàckme of leavemyhouser" John màde a halfhearredlunge The old man hardly noved Then suddenly somethins slappedlohn acfo$ the face, hard Hcwas thrown Irom rhe tabie,theknife flying from hishands.\X/hat. ever happened had occuned so quickly he could not rea.r. (The Mastef had simply cuffed him acrossthe face,à novemenr roo fast tor the boys eyesto follow.) John stood up, shakingwith pain and anger His face stung and was turnins red where he had been struck
32 BeSinnings
Theoldmanwasscowlincdown at him fromthe table."Youcan eitherattack mewith thekn'feor I will slapyou asainandaaainuntil The boy leapton the table He lunsedforwardwildly,fully iniendinsto hùrt theoldMasterTherewasnowherefor him to es€ape to, he thousht.He will hav€to eitherjumpdovn o. be cut. wasalmoston him,theold manleâptcompletely JustwhenJohn overhisheadandlandedbehindhim. at tullspeed, Johnwentberserk.He turnedandattackedwildly, cafinglittle if he shouldhu.t the old manor not. Buttry ashe misht, he couldnot touchLiaoSitu.It seemedthat the old Masteralways movedat the lastsecond,justwhenthe knife$,asalmostuponhim, suddenlyhe wasno longerther€.The teâcherneverblockedadash, neverresisted, nevertouchedhiln. He just movedaroundtheboy as ifJohnwerenot there.His clothinsvas not cut àndhe did not leap off the table. It waslike fiahtinga ghost. Suddenly, the boy hadaninklingof thebreadthofthe old man3 knowledge andpowerThis wasnoordinaryhuman.He threwdown the knifeandknelton the tablebeforethe old teacher. forcivemy arroean€e "Masteç"he said,"please andâncerPlease àcceptm€ asyour student." The old mânsmiled.He âppeâred âsrelaxedas everasif he had exertedno effortat all. "Verywell,Mr Chang,"he said.'Todaywe beginyourappren'
John walkedus out to our taxi and bid us a sood evenins.I wassilent asw€ were driven back to our hot€I. I thousht of the eveninskstory andhow fortunateI hadbeen to hearit. The tale hadbeenvivid and, knowing John! personality,it was as if I had been a witn€ssto the eventsrather than hearingthem secondhand.Th€ scenesunfolded before me on th€ movie screenof my mind "Youre very qui€t," Doris said. "l was thlnklng how lucky I am, how lucky we allare," l said. "Yes,you got offvery easywhen you think about it. John didnt give you â hard tim€ at all." "That'snot what I mean.Ican only hope I deserveSitu'strust-so far I'vemadea messofmy training and fortunatelyhet very tolerant.
33 BeSinninSs
;
No, lwas thinkins of]ohn himself, how different he is foom Liao Sifu and yet how similar" 'John is a Vestemel" she said,"aswell as an Oriental." "Yes,"I replied. "You know, I get the fe€ling that the old man knew this all those decadesago.Perhapshe simply sawth€ changes that were going on around him even at that time and extrapolated what their effect would be on the future.Or maybeit wassomething more than that, I dont know I m€an,his whole life must have been one ofconstant changeandcontinuousturmoil, tâking into account that he came from China ând beârins in mind how old he was. He must have witnessedso much: the Opium Vars, the Boxer Rebel' lion, the fall of the emp€rorand the institution of the republic,the war between th€ Russiansand the Japanese,the period of the warlords, the invasion by the Japanese,I mean, all those things happened while he was still in China Maybe he could feel the Vest breathingdown the back ofthe East'sneck.Ormaybe, somehow,he could see ahead into the future and knew that John would be the right personto bring his lineageinto the twentieth century." "Ofcourse,"shesaid.Shehad pickedup on it hom the besinning. Vomen are so much more perceptivethan men.
34 BeBinnings
Chapter Four
THE IMMORTALS
THEMASTER'S STORY Itwas a temperatenight, and a cooling wind wasblowing. I had gone to my teachelshouseto seehim, as I did every eveningthât I \ûasin Java.Johnhâdjust finisheda gameof Ping-Pongwith his sonand was pleasantlytired; his sonJohannhad carriedthe day andwas ecstati€ (the cnidge match had been going on for five years,neither parb/ willine to sunender).In the distanceth€ two m€n lookedthe same,it washard to tell who was the fathel and who the son. I had watched them play their gâmein th€ past many times and it was alwaysvery amusing.John moved like a kung fu Master,torso upright, slipping awayfrom the incoming ball and€ounteringasif deliveringapunch. Hissont kinesiologywasthat ofan experttablet€nnisplay€r,weight on the toes,croucheda bit forward,anticipatinghis opponentl moves. Ea'rmeets\(/est,lthought.loohng ar rhem. "You'r€,ust in time for dinner,"Johnsaid,and I felt awkwatd as always.It seemedthat everytime I câmeto his houseI wasgiven fr€e board, after a while it mademe feel like a freeloader. John and h;s sonshowered,andwe satdown to the usualendless coursesof Chinesefood. I finishedlast, asalwaysruntil I visit€d the Eastfor the first time I had alwaysconsideredmyself a rapid eater.I had been indoctrinatedby the Chinese,however,into the €oncept
35
that when youeat, you eat,there\{ould alwaysbe time forconversation later It went againstmygrain asa Creekrin my€ountry, dinner is an excuseto socializeand often lastsfor houn. .lohn wolfed down hls food and rose from the table."Okay," he said,'v/hen you finish, I want to seehow far along Level One you are. l'll give you a t€st." 'You're kiddingl Ijust ate." "So whatz It makesno difference." Oh great, I thought. This hasto be ajoke. My belly wasswollen not from ch'i but fiorn toiedrice and Szechuanbeef. I forced myself to calm downr no matter what happened,it would be interestiog. Ve went into his acupunctureclinic and I sat on the floor in a half lotus, the back of my palms on my knees.I had never been through thisr my heart was b€ating a mile â minute. "You'retenset"John said."Rela"x. Concenrrare. "Hard to when you're being tested." 'You get usedto lt," he said and laughed. I forced myselfto relaxand succeeded in parttallyenteringmeditation. It was enoush forJohn. He brought his index fingerscloseto my open palms.I felt ajolt; currententeredthe centerofmy palmsand crossedinto my body, down to my dantienin th€ centerof my belly "Abour 20 perc€ntfuII," h€ said. I wasdisappoint€d.IhÀdbeen hoping formuch more.l didleam a lesson,however,and thât lessonwâs thât the most minute derails matteredvery much in this sort of training. You couldspend a lot of elfort training i ncorrectlyand get nowhere,and I hadbeen making a lot of mistakes-I was never a good student and training long distance allowed for a lot of leeway. John was not disconcerted,he seemedhappy that I was training at all. "So many peoplehavecome to me,"he said,"askingme to ac, cept them asmy studentsand then neverdid any of the training They think I can giv€ them a pill orsomethingand give them my pow€r" "Like rhe old Chinesealchemisrs." "Somethinglike that. It takesdiligence and efforr, Kosra.I my self studied for eighteenyears,you know" \Ve went out onto his bal€ony and sar in the warm night, sippiog tea. 36
"l have alreadytold you," he said, "the story of how I met my Master and was a€ceptedas his stud€nt. Do you want to hear the "Of courser" "lt would make a good rnovie,Kosta.You can write the screenplay in the yearsto come." He s€ttledbâck in his €ha;r and looked off into the distance. "l have told you that when I was a child we were very poor' we didn't knov if ve would eat from day to day. I had to work oddlobs to help my mother keep us alive, and so I could not go to school." Johnsippedhis tea. "11iç terrible," he continued, "to be in despair,never knowing what wlJl happen the next day, wondering if you will suwive the month, hungry,often thirsty. For an honorablepersonsuchcircum stancesareevenworserit is easyto slip into decadenc€or into €rime when confronted by a repressivefate.The c'ime ratesin the shettos of the major cities all over the world are veiy hish, and that is understandable,human natùre being what it is. It takesân €xceptional p€rsonalityto make a stand and say, "Despite this karnrà,I will not fall."Ve neverdid. My moth€rkept us clean,honcst,and hardworking." His gâze went off into the night as bitter memory intruded to breakirto h's soliloquyIt wasstrangeseeinghim like this,so human. More often than not nry teachervas beyond such thingç, or perhapsI simply saw hin asbeing so But at that momcnt I noticcd sriel and sadnessin his face, though noi a trace of ênser \a.asevi' dent.Vhat washe thinkins? "My sistcrmar.icdwhenI wàseight,"be continued. "l\4ybrother' in 1awwas,lets say,middleclass,and hadsomemoney,ço I wentto live with them in their house He scnt mc on to schoolas well' I startedat eightyears old and had to work very hard to catch up, but I did manage.I havealreadytoldyou how I met Liao Situ when lwas "Yes.It was a great story." John grinned "He had a senscof humor bùt ve never caught on. Anyway, I studied kuDg fu with Liao Situ every day for eight yearsnonstop.I trâinedruaryday, literally. I was manied at eighteen ?
so I had to train int€rmittently after that becauseof my increased responsibilities,but I never stopped.Liao Sifu neverlet me." He pausedto sip his tea "Vhen I turned sixteen,I starteddriv ing a mini bus, transportingpeople and goods around town, I was lorced to drop out of schoolbecause of our increasingfinancialproblems.Despitemy difficuhi€s,Icontinuedro practicemy kung fu and medltatlon every day. Oh, I forgot ro tell you that Liao Situ had shown me the meditation for LevelOne, the sameoneyou arework ing on noq when I was fourteenyearsold. "Not eârlier2" "No. It is better if the newoussystemof the traineejs fully de v€loped b€fore training starts.Also it is good to be past rhe beginning of puberty." "l see." "Liao Situ knew everythiog Idid ar all times. tt mystified me, I could not figure out how he did ir. I €ven thoushr he had people spying on met He knew, for example,whether or not I had fâined on a specificday andwhen I purposefullytried to avoid trâining. He could tell when I was lying, too, you know I recall one day when I visited his hous€and he askedme tf I had rneditatedrhâr day.To tell you the trùth, he had never explained anything ro me ènd I con stantly wondered why I had to do all that uselessmedirarion,so I tried to avoid it when I could. The scenewent softethiûg ljke this: "Liao Sifu, Did you meditaretodayl" Yes,Sifu " "Liao S;fr, Dtd you meditateroday2"
"YoungJohn, "YouneJohn
Yes,S,tu',
SLAPtJohn goes llying acrossthe room. "Liao Situ, Yo re lyinst" I burstout laugh;ng. Johnjoin€din brie,,y. "After that," he continued,"Liao Stfuwasl;ke a god to me. Since he knew everything I did, there wasno poinr in tyine to him, and so I decidedI had betterdo eractlywhat he âsked.Ibecamea diligent shrdcnt,never missinga da1,,putting in many hours. lt scemedthat during my latcr te€nageyearsI was either working or training, not
38
"l was nineteenbefore I was given an inkling of how powerful my Master truly was.He called me to him one day and announced that I had finishedwith LevelOne. I had no ideawhat h€ wastakins "Vhat is LevelOne exactly?"Iasked.'Youveshovn meth€ train ing method, but we've never talked about what I'm supposedto be doing," "ln Level One you fill up your dantien with yang ch'i. You must be in actualm€ditation to achievethis, ând it is tim€ dependent. In Level Two we shapethe yang ch'i to our specificationsso that the practition€r can push it out of his body. This is what neikung is, really." "Vhat about Level Three:" "Ve can talkabout thatwhen the tim€ comes.I will tellyou this, In LevelFouryou bringyouryin and yâns ch'i tosether and besin to "How many diff€r€nt levelsare therc?" "Seventy-two." "Vhat?1" John smlled."No one said it was easy.The levelscorrespondto xhen(mber of châkrasin the humanbody. You know what a chakra is?An en€rgycenter?' "Thesedayseverybodydoes." "PerhapsThe lastchakrato open, Level SeventyTvo, is at the very top of your head." "l know of it I usedto practiceBuddhistmeditation." "l see.I myself knew nothing about those mattersuntil the day my teach€rcameto me and told rne I had finished\eith Level One. On that eveninghe gaveme a demonstrationof innef power,neikùng." "Vhat did he do?" "Do you rernemberthe long table that he had in h;s house,on top of which we had our fightr It was four yards long. He placeda bowlon one end and satat the other He put lour flngersof h;s 'ight hand on top of the table; hls thumb was below it. \{Àet,l he pùshed forwardwrth hr, {rnger. the bowl exploded. "At first I didn't believeit. His thumb wasunder the tabletop,so I immediat€lybesan to look for a button or a wire or something.I 39
thought he had rigged the ashtraywith an explosive,rhar it was a trick Liao Sifu laughed and askedme to bring rny old friend the broom over. I began to clean up the piecesol the bowl but he said no, bring the broom over to him He askedm€ wherheror not it was a tlick broom, and I said no, ofcourse not. After all, that broom had becomea good friend of mine rhe past nine yeârstHe took it from my handsand laid it againsrthe wall. Then he pass€dhis right hand over it ând asked me to pick up the broorn and sweep the floor \(hen I did, it crumbledto dust at my toucht" John took a sip of tea."ltwas at that rime,"he said,"that I began to r€aliz€what my teacherwas.He mademe promjs€l\rould meditate andxraindiligendy to obtain this power,and Iagreedreadily,of "Sifu,"I said,"you meanto tell me that you trainedwith him for nin€ yearsand he nev€rshow€dyou, not onc€, what he could do?" "Cood Codt" John laughed."lkeep tcllins all my studentsrhat they haveit easy and that I spoil them constantly.Maybe now they will believeme.,' He turned to lace me. "Youknow," he said,"it was doubly hard for me not to doubt what I saw,being a modern Chinese.Powers such as his were the stuff of Chineselegends,and I had been taught in sclroolthat thesethingswer€urter nonsense.It wasthelate 195Os, when peoplebelievedthar all things\X/estemweregood andallthings of the Eastsuperstition.But I knew too that Liâo Sifu was a great healerwho hadcured many peopleof terrible diseases that Vestern physicianscould do nothing about." "Did he useacupuncture,lik€ you?"1asked. "No. Nevert Insteadhe would heal foom a distance,passinghis hands over the pàtient, and what rhey would feel I could describe bestwith the wordsa9olla ûearSometimeshe wouldsupplemenrthe treatnent \i/ith herbs He could even curecancer,which I cannot.,' Iwassilent, havingjust lo$my fatherto rhâr diseaserwo months in the past.John nodded,readingmy thoughts.He had managedto convey the power of Liao Sifu to me in a simple sentencethat had
40
'Anyway," he continued,'rl kept at it over the y€arc.Ifinish€d LevelTwo andwas into LevelThree when Situ calledme to him one evening.He told me that he wanted 1o rcst m€ again,the sameway that he had when I was a boy, so we jumped up on the table and wentat it, thistim€ barehanded.Now,l wasalreadyintokvelThree, which meansI had some power, Kosta, b t the Master said not to hold back, to attack him as hard and as fast as I could. He ordered me to try to kill himl I knew better than to refuseby then. "\fle fought for about six or sevenminuteswith no end result;I was happy that I managedto stay on the tablel Suddenly I leapt forwardand hit him on the chest,and Liao Sifu was thrown off the tabl€. I used a techniquew€ call Meng Hu Chu Tong,'fierce tiger charging out of the cave.' "He appearedhurt,"John said."l leapt down from the table ând helpedhim up. He wasgrabbing his chestwhere I hit him. I apologized immediately,but hejust laughedand told me that Iwas great, that I had reachedthe point wher€ I could overwhelmmy Master I imrnediatelypuffed up with pride, and from that point on I was al' wâys very bËve-cock, actually.Before that incident I was quite timid, you know He did that to removethe fear from my heart." "Youhadn't really hurt himr he let you hit him," I said. "Ofcourse, KostatLiaoSitu wasLevelForty-Eightatthat time, I was LevelThree. Do you have any ideâ what that means?" "Vell, no. I can't imagine." "l had about as much chanceof injurins him as a tiny butt€rfly has of injuring you. But at the time, I really did think I wasgreafl" "l see." "Andthe downsideof the incidentwasthat I becameunbearably arrogant.I would fisht with people all th€ time, and âlwayswon. Usually it would end with only one punch, and I hardly usedeven the power I had êt irdl time. lwas young and proud. You know, I usedto f;ght ;n bare knuckletournamentshere in Java,for Chinese studenxso[kung fu only, and I was the undefeatedchampion." He straightenedunconsciouslyand a smile flitted over his face as he recalled his youth. I had to grin. Then he suddenlybecame serious."ln 1962my Mâstercalledme to him asain and saidihat he
41
I signedthe tu with a drop of my own blood and Liao Situ burned lt on a pier. Then he mixed the ashesvith another drop of my blood and made me drink it. It bound me, Kosta; I had to do exactlywhat I promised." John becamesilent and then continued in a soft voice. "He left for China on board a ship with two hundr€d other people. I knew one of the people he wâsgoing over there with, so I kept askingthe mans family for information.Liao Situ had reoted a smallhouseand was enjoyins the time he had letuvery peacetully.He ate the food he favored,took walks,that sort of thing." "He had no family over therer" I asked. "No. No one," John replied, speakingeveô more softly. "l will tell you his story some other day, mayb€ tomorro\{. I went !o the mank houseevery day, asklng for news,and one day th€ expected messas€arrived. Liao Situ was dead, as he hlmself had predicted, ând he had died on th€ very day he had foreseen.I askedthe mans fâmily how it hadhappened,and hadto wait almosta month for the reply.Liao Situhad askedhis neishborto buy him a newspaperaround six o'clock in the afternoonon that day, then sat in his rocking chair
on his porch to read.Atseven o'clocksharph€ died in amoststrange manner.Blood came out of what we call the s€venorifices of his headiyou know, the eyes,the ears,the two nostrils,andthe mouth. Maybe a massivestroke or something,I don't know." \)/e sat silently for a time. I realizedthatJohn was talking about the death of the man he consideredhis father I didn't know what to say,and was becomingemotional myself."He must hav€ loved you very much, Sifu,"I sald. John smiled. "Yes.I know he did. But it was much later that I realized,from his actions,that he waswilling to give me everyrhing he had,includinghislife.l willtellyou aboutit someothertime.But lre nevertold me in words that he loved me, you know, not once." "Maybe it was not in his culture to do so," I said. "Of course,"Johncontinued."Anyway,the yearspassed,Kosta. I kept training and finishedwith LevelThree. One year after that, I achievedLevelFourànd becanto developm) powel "\ù/hatwas that like?"I asked. 'The first time that I "Like ridins a buckins broncol' h€ rcpli€d. wassuccessful,I fainted and could not hold on. There was so much power therel I hâve alreadytold you that in Level Four our yin and yangch'icome together The power that is generatedthenis inctedible, like having a lightning bolt in your belly. Th€ secondtime I tried, I was unsuccessful âlso.But the third time . . . the third time I held on to it for ten minutes,then forced it into the very center of rny dantien.At that point the power vâs mine, for€ver" "How old were you when you achlevedLevel Four?"I asked. "Thirty two." "And then?" "Life went on, Kosta.Renember,I could not usemy power for personalgain.I continuedto work âsa driv€t andwecontinuedtobe very poor I also kept on with my training and proceededthrough LevelsFive,Six,etcetera.lhadreadln the textthat Liao Situgaveme how I coulduse this power in combinationwiih acupunctureto heal, and I beganto do so. I cured many people, Kosta.And I could not take money after the factLI mean,peoplewould offer me money out of gratitude and I had to say no. Not even to pay for food for my family.Somedayswewouldgo hun$y; we could not aftodanything
42
43
had only three months more to live. I believedhim, and askedhim what his plan was. He saidthat he want€d to die back in China. He still had no money,so we collectedtundsfrom all the peoplehe had healed to pay for his iicketr \,/e pâid his bills and still had a good chunk of money left over to last him through his dyiog day. "Beforehe left, I went to his houseevery nisht for the following t1Momonths. One eveninghe gave me an ancient book containins the s€cretsof inner power all the way up to LevelSeventyTwo. He mademe promisethat I would not open the book and read it until I had finished wilh Level Three. And I went through a formal Taoist ceremony; Uao Situ made a cham, aJ" as we câll it. He drew the charm on a piece of paper and I had to writ€ down the following three promis€son the samepieceof paper, That if I finishedwith Level Four, l I was not allowed to usethis power for evil purposes. 2. I was not allorvedto rnâkemoney with this power 3. I would ûot demonstrateto anyon€ exceptmy students.
to eat, and I had a larse family by that time. One day a rich man I had healedgave my eldestson somemoney while he was at school, and I was forced to order him to give it back.And later I threatened the boy that I would throw him out of the houseif he ever accepted money from anyone again!Ii wasmaddening. "But five yeaÎslater my life changed,"he went on. "l wasthirty sev€nyeârs old at th€ time, and Iwas desperate.Ve were €ating every othel day, my children were crying, and I had my back up againstthe wall, so to speak.I becameangry,very angry at the situation. After all, the only thing I neededto do was open a kung fu school and I would have millions, th€re around who coulddowhat I did. That aft€rnoonI wasin our bedroomandbegan to screamup at heaven in rage. I kept crying up at Cod, Kosta. I shouted up at Him,'\flhy did you give rne this power?To torture me?\/hy? Doyou hate me?V/hat have Idon€ to deservethisz'(and also many other things I am not so proud of)." John looked me in the eye. "Then suddenlyI heardmy Maste/s voice in my ear, he said, John, don't wony, your life will change soon.'At first I thought itwas my mind playing tricks on me, but the voicewasso real,l lookedaround.Andthere Liao S;fuwas,sirting in the corner,as solid asyou or I1 "l rubbed my eyesand staredaaainai him. I thought that I was going insanefrom the stressoftryingto makeendsmeet. He looked so real, though, that I thought Iwould try to speakwith him. "Master?'I said,timidly. "Liao Situ laushed,'Y€s,it's me. Yoù D€€dn'tbe so amazed.' " ' B u t . . . y o u a r e . . y o u ' r e d e a d ts' a l id "'Uodeniably,'he replied He seemedvery amused "'Vhat are you doing hereT' "This is thesp€cialtyofourtype oftraining, that after deathyou retain the charactefttics and powersyoLthad when you were altve. Vhen you passLevelFoul you can take allyouryang ch'iwith you.' "l didn't know what to say,Kosta,"Johnconrinued."l didn't really believewhat I was seeing,but there he was,asbright asday and ashuman as the last day thât I sawhim. lt is hard to doubt the testi mony of your own eyes.
44
'meditate,look forme, "'Vhen you have troubl€,'Liao Sifu said, and I will come to help you.' "And I did, Kosta, and bedid. I called him almost every dây at first and there was no one who could not hear him, though only about l0 percentof the peoplecould seehim and then againin varying hues. I think you have to have a lot of yin ch'i to seeâ spirit plainly. Aryway, to some people he was transparent,to others âs solidasyou or L But no one doubtedfora momentthât he v/asth€r€. Evenwhen they could only hear hirn, they felt a physicalsensation when he was around, like an €lectromag.etic field or something." John paused."Youdon't seemshockedby what I am saying" "No," I said."Storieslike this were the reasonI camelooking for you in the first place.I would have been disappointedif they were "And do you think that peoplein the Vestwillbelieve it as\,/ell?" "l think that peoplein th€ Vest ar€r€adyto believeit. The 1950s were a long time ago.' 'Aryway, Liao Situ helped me John lauched."lndeed,"he said. curemany sickpeople,dir€ctingmeon which traditionalmedicineto useandwhat technique.He was alwaysright, and the pâtientâlways got bett€r The funny thing is that he neverused the sam€formula twice for the sâmeillnessrit dependedon the individualeachtitne." basis." "lt was alwayson a case-by-câse "Yes.I tried it many times, you know I would give a different patient with th€ sameillnessthe sametreatment as a pati€nt who had been cured by Liao Situt spirit, and nothing would happen Finally I gâveup on it." "BÙt all Chlnese medicine is like this, right? ltt always case dependent." "Yes.That'swhatmakesitso difficult. Chines€medicineis really an ârt form, not a science.You cannot op€n a prescriptionbook and disp€ns€medication,like a Vestern medicaldoctor" John pausedfor a while, then €ontinued."Ihen one day a very I had helped câmeto m€ and askedif I wanted to rich businessman be parin€rsin ajoint venturewith him. I saidI had no money and h€ said, it's oka, you just do the work and I will put up the capital l
45
ask€dmy Master jf it was all right and he said yes, it vas okây for peopl€ to be erateful as long as I did not directly take mon€y for s€rvicesrendered.So I took the job, so to speak,aod made a good pieceofchange. And sincethen I havestudiedandlearnedth€ ways of the businessworld with the samedilig€nce that I sp€nrstudying kung tu. As you can see,I did okay." Hn hourewar wonh srxmilliondollars. "\vy'hatyoure telling me," I said slowly after he had finished,,,is that you proved to many peoplethat th€re is life after death." ''Io hundredsof people,Kosta,"he responded."t can still prove it to anyone at any time. Vould you like to me€t a spirit?" I jumped up in response. 'Very well," he laughed."Tomorrowwe willgo on a shon trip by car; it's about half an hour away from here.Ve can talk more about it then."
THEHSIEN It would be neglectfulto go on at this point and not giv€ you some backgroundon what is popularlyconsidered"immortality"byTàoist alchemists,ènd what the theory behind the sta.e of immortality is per the school of ner-larTaoistbelief Immortàlsar€ thousht to display abilities similar to those of John Chang, ând the warpins of accept€dnaturallaw is saidto be commonplacearoundthem. How €ver, I must caution you that the technique and method of Master Chang differ greatly frorn those used by oth€r sysrems.Also, as I statedearljer,Johnt teâchingshave norhing to do v/ith religion. lf the outlinebelow leadsyou to other books,l musrwarnàgarnstpracticing the methodology ourlined in rhose publicarions,I have no idea whether or not the proceduresdescribedare fact or fancy (or whether or not th€y are dangefousro rhe student). The perfected,;mmortalhumanorûs;r (ltterally,'/mountainman,') is a centralfigureof religiousTàoism.The techniqueswherebypeople sought immortality were ground€dboth on internaland externalalcheny. The external school (uti laal developedrechniquesbased on chemical experimentarionand dietary regimensand hoped for actual physical immortaliry; there is strong evidencethat they did, 46
In lact, come up with an elixir that provided at least some partial such rquvenation(lhave heardthat Chinat modem leadersconsume (neia potion to retain theirvitâlity andyouth). The internal school dan)stressedbreathcontrol,yogicexercises,medjtation,andsexual tcchniques.Through breath control and the trovement of one's llfeforce (ch'i) throush the fields of the body, the individual both prolongedlife in this body and achievedimmortality through the 'tpirit body" (sl'r"),which be nou.ishmentwithin of an embryonic camethe immortâl self after death.* Throughout its developm€nt, threethem€scameto b€ central to the teachingsof nei-danTaoism, l The philosophyof rur-pei(spontan€ityand noninterference) coupledwith a profound reverencefor life and an enhancedperception of th€ workings of natureon all levels. 2. The yogic alchemyfor transmutingthe endowmentsof the worlà. mind ând body into an immortâl spirit uitii loùerooertbephysical spirit body, the shen, was created and nourishedby the disfilla This tion of Iife enersy (ch'i) augmentedby the power ioh€r€nt in purified semen[clirg). This "purification"was a meditationalprocess. :. The yogasof absolutemeditâtion wher€by passionand dewere vanquished,allowing tbe yogi to eôter into a condition of sire enlightenmentwherein the spirit body can exist independentofthe body and ernanateto "ride the clouds.'t The word ûsio in Chineseis composedof the ideogramsfor ruorl(!rr) tdi andman (,,! ), andmeansjust that. It is thousht that,though mountainsthemselves arcyang,so,rmountainsaretull of the pnmalyin of the universe, and it is to that energythat TaoistseekeÉflocked energy in to "chargetheir batteries"andenjoy the stillnessofthe surroundings I hom a mountainous area myself andcanverify that meditation. come when trainins in the hishlands,the energyI leel is hundredsof tlmes what I experience when tranringh the city vhere I norrnallyreçide. Thewei-dan school,whicb soughta chemicalforrnulafor actual physicalimmorlality, is not directly pertinent to this text. Thc nei Tàoists,who dân, or internal school, on the other hand, is Ne/-cDia " Ercy.lofeàia Btitan i& Onlir', "RelisiousTaoism." t Blofield,lohn, I4,s.. Ii,.Rodl roL,od4l,r)' {Boston,Shanbhala P u b l i c a t i o n s1,9 7 8 ) .
followed this school,soughta meansby wh;ch the condit;on ol human existencecould be transfom€d into one that would last indefi, oitely,but noi necessarilyin physicalform.To achievethjs,th€yworked exclusivelywith the tooh naturehasgivenus,thoseofourmind, body, ând spirir.The'elixirof immortaltty'wasbrewednot in somecrucible usingpotionsolarsenic,mercury and pearl,asin the wei-danschool, but in the body itself,usinsthe indjvidual! own life enersies. In China th€ thr€equalitieço I man! energyarecalledtbe Sarltao, or "three treasur€s./i They are ching, ch'i, aod shen,or essence,en ergy,and consciousness By transmurationofth€ threetreasures from coane to subtleform, and by subsequentinrcneacron, a mysteflous "something'isconceivedThat'tomething,js the spirirembryo,which, like any baby,requiresfurrherc€srationprior to finalbirth However shouldthe Taoistyogi be successtul in developtnsthe spirit body, he can exist independentof his physicalbody and;s assuchtmmortal. Central to the belief tn the spirit body is the tener that, while man doeshave a soul that liveson after deârh,the soul is not immor tal and will also die after time I personâ y believethar thjs felisious doctrine came into being sirnply becausethe yogis could not pcr, ceivethe spifilsofspecificdcceased individùats aftera siv€npcriod at tima-oheftas heJore thdt foixt theycould.Neither lailure nor isno ranccis widely toleratedin China,yor cannotsimplyçây,,1don't know." Thus th€ làoi(r teachershad to come up with sor.il,in4,ând thc dosmâ outlined dbovewas the reçL,lt you' fjnd that there is a basistor my assumption in followingchaplers Ching-ihe tcrm essentiallynreans"esserce',-js the primals!uff of I;ie.Many belicvethatyou aregivena fixcdarrountoi ching for yoûr lifetime, and rhat if you use it up, you are out of luck. ln thc malc,ching is presentin coarçeforn in the spem, and is deposit€d in the lesticles.In more refincd fornr chins circulatesthrolrsh the bone marrow of thc body, and is stofcd in rhe kidneys * Therefore, " \X/henI began to study the litcnnre on Taoisn, I was surpised by how many conceptscôincidcd with tolk beliels in ny native Crcece Upon ensaAingin a tor.id lovc affair with a new siflfriend, and subsequently sho\rins up to teàch my iujursucla$ somewhardazed,I was colnseled by the oldest mân in tlrc clals to ".efrain from los,,,Bmo mù.n lpermi as you will beein to losc yorr bone marow"
48
whax was of crucial importancewas to preserveessence;it is this npproachthat led to the theoriesof spermretention and controlled cjaculationthat have become representativeof Tâoism in popular Vcstern literâture.Some teachersstat€d that ching had a natural tcndencyto flow downward. They thus forbadesexualintercourse ior a thousanddaysat a time while training, so that the ching could "pile up" andenliven the energycentersof the body. Others allowed ior a minimum amountof sexualrelease,the philosopherSun Szuemo recommendsthe following program,"For men in their trM€nties, one €jaculationevery four daysrin their thirties, one in eight days, in their forties,one io sixt€endays;in their fifties,one in twenty one days.From the age of sixty upwardsemissionshould be avoidedaltog€ther,though a sixty year old v/bo is still robust may allow himself on€ ejaculationa month." This isa far cr.j'from th€ exorbitantsexualstimulationevident in Vesternsociety.InEuropeyoucanhardlywalkdown thestr€etwithwomen pout down from the covout thinkingofsex; large-breasted ers of magazinesin every corner kiosk (some nude, some scantily clad), while their mal€ counterpaftspump iron and promisefemale reademendlessrepetitiveorgasmswith their saze. lt is hardly natural;we needonlylook at the animalkingdomto realizethat attempted reproduction is not something a mammal should €ngag€in every day.*My dog can outrun me in his sleepand has kept abreastof a snowmobil€ in deep snow; the averagehuman could not hope to parallelhis physical prowess.He breedswice a year. Perhapsit is this naturalconsewationof ching that allows other mammalstheir tremendousphysicâlabilities. I havediscussedch'i. Shen,th€ final treasure,is a bit more diffi, cult to identify. In coârs€form it most c€rtainly means"mind, self, soul";Iwilluse the term, rsowl aaarness. As determinedearlier,many Taoistsb€lievethat the spirit itself cannotlast indefinitely,and must be'enhanced"so that the prize of immortalitycan be captured.There s€emsto be a orocessfor this.
*
I am awareof both the naturalinclinatior and the reproductivecy€le of ihe dolphin, for readerswho think they havecaught a faux pas.
49
I havesaid that ching, the essenceof life, is firsr transmuredand refined into ch'i. I have seenmany proceduresfor rhis in the litera ture, ranging lrom the sedu€tiveto the painful.uThe most common approachis, simply,sexualabstinence coupledwith yogic breâthing If you're notjcing that the emphasisis on the male and sperrn, you are correct, there is little written in toist te(s thar is ofuse to women seekinsthe\Vay.Neverth€less, historica yand in myth th€rr have been Taoistimrnortalsand Masten who oer women. Ir is as to lou they developedtheir powersand achievedimmortality that th€ literature is silent (shoft of takins a pill, which we must discount). Once ching had beentransmutedtoch';through meditationand yogic brearhing,the pra€titionefdiscardedthe entanglements ofmun dâne life and "sousht stillness"so that he could tufther enliven the shenthrough the ch'i. (Reportedly,the areawhereihe seedlinssben residesis betweenand behiDdrhe eyebrows-the third eyeto some.) But once the shenwas conceivedit had to gesrare;once gestat€ctit had to be born; once born it required nourishmenr;and so forth until it could stand or its own. The proceduredemandedthe con tinuous r€tin€ment of ching into ch,i and the transferenceof the energy of ch'i to the shen.Needlessto say,it took a long time, per_ haps the prêctitionert entire life, and was not somethingto be un_ dertakenlightly. For the Taoist alchemisr,the dantienwas rhe crucible in which the elixir of immortâlfty wasbrewed.It was rhere rhât ching was re fined into ch'i, whjle from the danrienpurifiedch,iwassentup to the "SpiritValley"berweenthe eyebrowsto give birth to the embryoshen. Needlessto say,the dantienwasa very pr€ciouscommodity and one carefullyprcserved(inde€d,it is commonin China eventoday to wrap onet belly asâinstthe cold, leavingthe chestand armslighrly clad). There was a further step from that point on if the yogi truly desiredeternity, The independentshen had to be mergedwirh the Sourceof All Things, the Tào. In essence,what rhe teacherswere saying v/as rhat the personaliryhad ro unite with the flow of rhe whol€ universe.If such a thing is possible,it can only be the final stagein human development.
50
There is a clear reference;n the Tao Tè Ching to th€ seedling after death, shcn and th€ continuation of the consciousn€ss Thosewho retaintheircenter€ndùre. Thosewho diebut continueto existareimmortal This particularsection of the Old Mastr is very imporiant and the rcadershould beàrit in miûd in the chapt€rsto come. It hascaused much consternationand confusion among sinologistsin the Vest, with the questionb€ing, how do you "die but continue to exist"?I siocerelyhope that this text will help clear up the quandary.' Letme repeâtmy word of warningbefore Igo on Though much has been written about it in numerouspublications,the San Bao method is not pr€ciselythat followed by Master Chang, tberc are somesiûilarities, and many of the conceptsare pertin€nt (vhich is why I included them here), but in essenceboth the approachand method are different. By no meansshould you follow the San Bao methodwithout dir€ct, competentguidâncein an attempt to generare abilitieslike my teacherk;that way lle madnessand death.
REVTLATIONS The next eveni.g I wasin a carwith myMasrcr and his family headingtoward a placeon the outskirtsof the cityhe livedin. I wasquiet; t find it difficult io talk when there is much weighinc on my mind, and that night there was Johns €ommentson the previoqsdav had shakenme greatly.Once âgain,I did not doubt him for a second;I was anxiousand wary of whât I would seeon t al evening "Ve are going to the houseol a friend of mine,"John said "He hasheardstrangenoisesa! night while his family hasbeensleeping, and he is quite afraid that there is a spirit there. Thev iust moved into thai houçe,by the way." "So the storiesof hêuntedhousesare true," I sàid "Ofcourse,"he replied."Spiritsare boundby spaceànd time the sameway as anything that exists,but on a different level because they afe part of the yin vorld. \/e ourselvesareyang, thev âre vin "
51
"But we have yin energy iû our bodies too, right?',I asked. "Correct,"herepli€d. "However,a pure spirit existsin a djfferent space-timecontinuum than we do. One year for us is one day for them, and th€y â(e not limited by the presenrmoment but exist in the immediat€future and past aswell. Do you understandr,' "l rhink so." I rook out a pen and paper."Do you mean sorne thing lik€ this?"On the paper I drew,
TIME
MAN
"Exactlyt"he said."Youkno,Mhow in meditation we slow down our breathing and our pulsezltt becausewe move more and more into our yin consciousness." "l see.But are you sayingthatwe havetwo separatebodies,a yin body and a yang body, and that our consciousness can move from one to the other2" "No. It is notso simpleandeasyasthat. \X/hatlsaid is that everythingo/ the earth is yang,though th€ earthitself is yin. \X/e,ashuman beings,are yang creatures,bur v.e have yin €nergy as well. It is rhe combinationof th€ two that givesuslife. Vhen \re die,when we cease to havelife, our awareness movesto rh€yin stareofbeing.,,Hepaused. "tsutit doesnot remainunalteredin the process,"he continued. 'AndrMhat we are going to seetonight, if there is one ther€, is a human spirit, right?" I said.'A . . . ghosr?"I hated using that word. "Yes,"he said. "l see.Sifu, what about what we are told about the afterlife_ heavenand hell, reincarnation,that sort of thing?,'
52
Hc was silent for a very long time and I thought that I hâd of lcnded him. Finally he spoke."l don't know," he said. "llut you have seen so mâny spiritsi spoken with yoû Master alterhe died,and.. . ." "l didn't saythat I haven'thad experiencewith life âfter death," 'rù/hatI said is that I don't know what the final state interrupt€d. he of the afterlife is like." John lit up a cigarette."l will tell you what I do know," he said. "There appearsto be an intermediatestât€betweenthis life and the next.Icallit the whitewav€andtheblackwave.The spiritsofthose who havebeen good in their livesgo into the white wave,thosethat havebeen evil into the black wave.lt is very much like the concepts of heavenand hell except for one thing-neither condition is p€r maneot.At some point all spirits shoot straight up to Cod. \fhat happensto them at that point, I don't know It depeodson whom you ask,I suppose." "You mean to say that there is a heaven and a hell:" I asked, astonished. "Thats not what I said,is it? I said that th€re seemsto be an areâ characterizedby a field of white yin energy into which the spirits with a positive karma enter There they ar€ given allthat they desire, and they lo des;re.I have entered into th€ white field, people were gathercd around celebrating,eating and drinking, only there was no food really present.It is all an illusion for their benefit' thev just lrtuk that they are eating and drinking. Maybe they have to en' joy what they were denied in lif€ in order io go on, I don't know Perhapsthey think thal they are still human." "But they are not?" of the averagespirit "No. The mentalandemotionalperspectives tho'e r human being.' hom of arcvery dilierenr "ButnotyourMasters. He looked andsoundedthesamedeadas he did alive." "Yes.A spirit with €ven a little yang energy is very different. A ' spirit lik€ r'ry Master retainsall its human characteristics. Ithought about the classiclines from the Tao Tè Ching, l;nes that had causedso much controversyamong scholarsin the past,
53
t"
Thosewho retaintheircenrerendure. Thosewho die but conrinùero existareimmortal. Their meaningwasclear to me at that moment. According to Tâoist thought, to continuebeing humanafterdeath,you had to br;ngsome of your yang eneEy with you \(/as the "center"that the Iao Tzu r€ferred to the dantien, which filled up with yang energy in Level Oner And accordingto Cbang Situ,to remainconpirisb. humanafrer death, you had to bring all your yang energy with you-that js to say,to complete Level Four Like Liao Situ. Like my Masrer A shudder ran through me. \X/asevolution at play hefe? \/as humanity no more than rhe breeding ground for higher spirirs?I thought aboùt how an embryo came into being, Out of millions of spem only one becane a baby \7as this the casefor us also, that from a million h(mansonly one was destinedto becomea hsienl And wâs it for entities of this sori that all the fusswas abouQ Or were we evolving as a speciesto rhe point whereall of us could live on vithout our physicalbodies? I desperatelywanted to chanse the subject,but there was no dodging rhe issue.I thoughr about the netaphysical ,,waves,,ofre wardandpenance lohn hadspokenof. Conceptssuchasheavenand hell, the Elysian Fieldsand Hades,were as otd as the human race Vere they realr "And what about the black wave2"I asked. "lf you ever reach Level Four,remernberthat I said never to so into the blôckifyou canhelpit. k is not a pleasant place.The spirits th€re desir€, th€y hurt, they cry, and are denied everythingr it is pitch dark, you canno. seea thing. The only good pojnt about the black wave is that it does not last forever,afuera time those spirits are freed,when their kafma hasb€en tulfilled', "Situ, what is kàrma?" "The consequenceof their actions,thoughts,€motions,and de sires--of their lives,ifyou wânt." k was getting to be too much, too anthropomorpnrcror me ro swallow,like somethingout of ancient myrhology,or the most eso, teric beliefsof the worlds major religions.
54
He seemedto guessmy thoughts.'l don't have any final answersfor you, Kosta,no dogma to respondto the questjonspeople haveabout their existence.I can only tellyou what I haveseen,you canchooseto beli€veme or not. Considermea metaphysicalscien tist. I have not toldyou anything of my own religous beltefs,and I willnot." "\X/hynot2" "Because ldont want to interferewith anyone! religton,"hesaid. "Sifu, what you descr;bedls so . . . basic,so primitive a model that.. . ." "lt! too hard to swallow in our scientific age where everyrhing has to be complicatedand mathematicahVell, you can judge for yourself.Maybe the whole problem with our day and âge is that wele steppedtoo far away from the primitive, rejectine our essen"And Cod, Sltur YoLr've menrionedCod rnânytimes,both today past. and in the Is there really a Cod, a force that caresfor us, the centerof our existencez" "l know there is." "Vhyr How do you know there is a Cod?" "Someother time, Kosta " Ve reachedthe house."Sifu,"l askedas we got out of the car, 'îhy is it that sornespiritsare earthbound,like this one-if ther€ is He shrugged."Vhy do you live where you dor It dependson eachcase.For the most part spirjtsstay away from towns and ciries and preferthe wilderness." \/e were met at the doof by my teacher! fri€nd and his farnily. The housewas pleasanteoough, a two story, three-bedroomaffair Itwas quite modernandhadbeen built only in the lasttwentyyears. Itwas certainlyno centulies'oldcastle!Morepeoplearrived,indeed, quite a large group gatheredto seethe show John joked with rhe men, talking about soccer,the latest tr€nds in world business,and whethelol not a r€staurantthat had rccently openedwasany good. It seem€dthe thing they all studioudy ignored was whether or not the housewas haunted.
55
Afteratime they decidedto go aboutthe business at hand."Okay, Kosta,"John said. "Come on." \Ve went up the stairsto the top floor, and everyonegathered together.There were so many of us that we could hardly ftt ;n the room. Tbe ownerpulled out a table,and on ithe participantsplaced various offerings to the spirit. Tlere was a stick of incense,a cigarette on an ashtray,ted withour sugal coffee without sugar,cakes without sugar,ànd water.It waç stfessedto m€ that sugarwould of fcnd the spirit "lle can smell the offedngs,"my teachersson said to me. ,,lt! what thcy en;oy." I thought about the period som€yearsprior when I had studied lltretan Buddhism I had leârnedthat rhose entities in â perpetual stateofspirithood\i/erecalledscenr-eàters.I hadalsobeentold then that most pcople were rein€arnaredwithin forty days,I thought of the conceptsof dosma and proof. My teachersaunteredover 1<> where Iwas stâôding.',lfthefe is a spirit," he said,'you will seethe offeringsmove ashe takesthem." "Youmeanthatthey haveenoughpowerto moveobjects:"Iasked. "No no no. I will enter total meditaiion-like the borderline between sleep and waking, okay?Ar that poinr he v'ill be able to take yang ch'i from me, and he wtll move the objects." "Yes," Isaid,"bLrthow do I knowrhatit is norsimplyyoumoving them: I mean,I've seenyou usetelekinesisbefore." He laughed,delighted,he was not offendedin the least.,,tfyou pull up your yin ch'i like this, you mây be able ro seesomerhingas well." He showed me the method. "l don't think you will be able to seethe spirit himself,becauseyour yin is very weak,"he contjnued, "but you may seesomething.Especiallyif be is a blâck spirit." Ve all gatheredaround the table. Someoneshur otf the lishts Only a few dim candleslit the room. (Lisht, beingyang, woutd drive the spirit âway.)Everyonequieted down, andJohn beganhis meditation. I did asmy teachersaid,pullingup myyin energy.There was an intensequiet, a total absenceof sound,and then suddenlythings beganto happen.
56
lheard a soundlikethe windblowingr the incensestick appear€d split in two, as if I had doublevision. | rubbedmy eyes.The stick to beganto movetIt bobbedin the direction ofmy teacher,\,/ho immedlately begantalking. He spoke in Chinese'I could not und€rstand th€ words, but I could tell from his tone of voice thai he wassooth' iog and h€aping praiseon what€verwâs there. The cup of tea beganto move on th€ table, and I heard a sound ol satisfaction (aaabhh) I thought, Yor'ni",l ts playtug trickson you l pulled up rny yin and tried to conc€ntrate.Soneiri,, was over the table-lt was indefinableandvague,like a heatwaveover hot tar/ bui therewas no denying that my vision blurred when I looked in that direction. It was actuallybard to stareat it, il seem€dthat the phe nomenonwent awaywhen my eyes(my o,ll:) locked on to it. But I could see it €l€arly with my peripheralvision. If I kept my line of sight down on th€ tabletop, I could s€ea sort of cloud dancing and yafl41lsthatIbere.lsoll playing over the tabfe.I wondercd.Isaureyes;ght I cahw it ôt'ly aith y ,eriPbenlokion) John was talking up a storm, everyonestarted laughing, and I felt llke the odd rnanour. Suddenlythe incenseburner flew off the tableto land at my Maste* feetrit was porcelainand shatteredinto Instantlythe lightsw€retumedback on and peoplebeganclean ing up the mess.I walked over to whereJohnwas sitting. He look€d "Vhat happenedz"I askedhim. "Stupidspirit." "l couldn't seeânything,just a blur" "Becausehe is a white spirit," John rcplied. "lf he were a black spirit, you would seehim." "V/hy did he knock over the in€enseburner?' "Becausehek a Muslim," John said, "and the incens€stjck offendedhim. He considersincenseasbeing somethingfrom the Bud dh;st religion." "\Mhat?Howcan a spiritbe aMuslim-orany otherreligion, for
57
t-
John laughed."They are in the intermediât€state,Kosta.They have not had their questioosansweredyetand, believeme, they are much more anxiousabout the afterlife than we âre. Direct interest, yousee.Manyspiritsretain theirreligiousbeliefsakerdeath; indeed, somebecomevery devout,much more so than they were in life." "Oh boy." 'Too much: Didyou hear the wind when he came in?" "l guessI could swearto it ln court." "Ah. Yoùr yin is weak,you know You will haveto work on that. Iwill show you how later. There is alwayswind associatedwith a spirit.Mymasterwasso loudthathe soundedlike a helicopter Everyone could heal him cornins." I stood there stunned,feeling Iike a goon. I thought about the words that variousculturesaroundthe world hadusedto describeour life en€rsy, the Chinesecb'i,the Creek pra#na,the English'pi"i the Hebrew ruac|,the fndianpran, theTbetzn rl rg.They allmeant'wind orvapor" lt madesense,too moch damn senseto ignore arymore "Here,"John said,"you all have to move back a bir. There'sioo much yang energy aroundthe table, and he is afraid." "You'resoios to call him asain?" "Oh yes. That wasn'tpolite, you knou If he had just asked,I would have put out the incense." John Iit anotbercigaretteaôd placed it io the ashtray.I walked over to where myteachey'sson wassitting and sat down next to him "Can you translatelor me what your father is sayingr" "Sure.Basicallymy father asksthe spirit questionsand then articulatesthe replies he gets out loud, so that we can hear them as well." "lt won't bother hlm ;fyou talk:" "My father: Vhen hei in meditation, you cannoi disturb him even ifyou wished." The hghts went out again.Everyonesat down on the floor far, th€r hom the table, only John remained in front of it. I concen trated as before on the end of the iit offering, in this case the cigarette'once againit seemedto spht in two, and once againthings beganto suddenlyhappen.Theteacup beganto nrove,spilling some of the tea, the glassof watet the cigarette.John began to speak,
It weotsomethe conversation. ind, with hissonshelp,Iunderstood thing like this, "Yes,yes, I understand.You are a Muslim and we will not leave out incensefor you. \ù/emeant no offense.Did you enjoy the ciga' rctte?Cood, good. Vhy are you hete?Ah, Cod sâid you must stay here and you are not Ieaving no matter what. That's okay. Can the pcople stay in this house?Oh, you like theml Yes,they are good people, aren'tthey? You like bananapuddingr Of coursethey will Icavesomeoutas an offering to you. EveryTuesdaynight. Okay. But you must promise to protect them and oever hy to hurt them. If ther€ is a problem, you can come to me. You do promise?Cood. They alsopromisethey will giveyoù bananapudding everyTùesday night.Andcigarettesalso:Okay.Cood, good.I'm gladyou arehappy. lly the way, ,rho do you think will win the soccergametomo.row? No, try harder,b€causeI want ro make a bet with my friends.Ah, good. Yes,they are my favorite team aswell." Peoplestartedlaughing.The lights went on. The owner of the housewrote down the spiriti request.One man helped himself to someof the cakesand the coffee that had been put out as an offer ing. The atmospherewas very congenial;there was nothing mystical about any of it. It was the most naturalthing I had scenin my life. I was envious,incredibly envious.I thought of the Vest and how death is treatedthere, rhe separationand th€ fear that people feel for their dead, beloved or not. Here were people who nonchalantly took everything in stride.Just âs the most primitive culturecouldspeakto the deadthrough their shaman,th€ spiritworld was no st.angerto th€m. Death really lrasa verifiabletransition,the consciousness moving on to somethingdifferent. It was like grow ing olderl most people realize and accept that they will reach old ageand makeplansforretirement. It is pârt of life, afterall. But what plansdo we make in the Vest for our'îetirement" alter deathr Our only comfort is religion, indircct and distant, with nonverifiable dogma at its core and a whole hlerarchy of intermediariesbetw€en us andwhât is io come.But herewassomethingânyonecouldtouch, somethingmatter-of-fact.John hadtalkedaboutsportswith rhe dead, for Cods sakeL
58
59
A Collection of Sacred-Magick.Com < The Esoteric Library I looked at myMasrerwith new awe.lwalked over to him ash€ joked around with his friend and his tuiend,s wife. He glancedoverat me. ,,S/ell,Kosta,"he said.,,Newexperience?,, 'Yes, Sifu.\XAy did you ast him aboutthc soccergame tomorrow?. "BecauseI alwaysbet with my friendsabout who is goiûg to win the game.An averagespirit can seeinto the future about a day orso. I cheated." "ls it a hundredpercent?I mean,can theypredidtlte futurewith "lt dependson the spifit. The strongerthey âre,the more accu, rate they are asw€ll This one wasa very smallold rnan, so I do not trust him all that much, but he was a nice fellow in the end.,, "Vould he lie to you-try ro trick you?. "No. A spirit cannot lie, not ev€n a black spjrit. They can either speakor not. But rhât does oot mean that they are alv/ays right.,, After bidding me a goodnight, he sent me back to my hotel in a _ friends van, alongwith a group ofother people.I wasso numbed by what I.hadseenthat I couldhardly speak.One man in the van spoke Englishwelland tried to engageme in conversarion,unsuc€essfully. l m u . t h a r ei n s u l r e hd r m T h e m a n w a . o tS u m a u aenx t r a r r r o n and he startedtelljng rhe othen that Greeksreally were racistand preju, diced againstdark€r-skinnedpeople.I intervenedonce Iunderstood the gist of the conversation,explainingto him that I simply did nor \vant to talk; I was shakenby what I had seenthat evening. 'Oh1'he said.'!/as this the first fime you had seena spiriP,, I nodded, and he looked puzzled. "Dontpeople die in yourcounrry?,he asked,and I didnot know what 1o say. Hamlet had calleddeath,,theundiscoveredcountry hom whose bourn no traveler returns.,'Thesepeople had lost all dread of that oth€r place. For them there was no,undiscovered country,,, ;t had been explored and charted. I wondered if anyonewould believeme
60
Chapter Five
THESTORyOF LIAOSIFU
It waslate eveningwhen I next satdown to tâlk with my teach€r.He had just finish€dwatchins a soccersame on television,and his fa vorite team had won. Knowing John, he had probably wagereda good sum of money on th€ outcome-and presumablywon aswell. As a result,he was in a good mood. !fle moved to the outsidebal' cony once againaôd sat down for the customarytea. "l promisedyou thar I would tell you ny Masterrsstory todan" John began."l have alreadytold you how I found him and he ac' ceptedme as his appr€ntice.Vhat you must understandalso is the great degreeof differencein âbility betweenLiao Situ and myself. My powersare nothing compared\rr'ithhis." I noddedandkept silent,though I feltlike Iaughinshysteri€ally. It wassunealto hear him speakof his capabilitiesin this manner As yetJohni own power were incomprehensibl€to me, and I had only witnessedasmallfractionof his energy.In the threeyearsI had been with him I had observedtelekinesis,pyrogenesis,telepathy, electrogeneration,th€ displacementof matter, th€ manipulationof Ievitation,the absorytionofenormousamounts chancecircumstance, perhaps and even communi€ationwith the spiritsof of mornentum, the dead.Thesewer€phenomenaI myselfcould testityto, andwould 61
be willing to do so under oath. The full power ofJohn Chang was beyond b€lief, ifwhat I had been told by otherswas true (and I had no reasonto doubt them), I certainly could not imaginethe extent
"Neither could they. So they fought, each clan trying to force tbe other to move away"Now," he continued,"inJiangsiprovince,almosta monthtjoûrney given the resourcesofthe age,therewasa famoùst€achercalled Pai Lok Nen." "Vhen did this happen,Sifu?"1 interrupred.
"Oh, this part of Liao Sifus story takesplace roughly between l9l5 and 1925,give ortake a few yearseitherway.Anyway,because ofthe waa Llao Situ did not marry and generallyled a very turbulent cxistence.Maybe their region wâs like Bosniaor Kosovo in our day. \X/henhe was in his midthirties, his life chang€ddramâtically.One of his relativeshad studiedwith Pai Lok Nen. This man returnedto Lee Hwa Kang at somepoint, and it was evident that he had devel oped great abilities. B€causeLiao Situ was a dedicatedand sincere martialartist,and (lett faceit)becaus€ofthe war, the relativ€wrote a leiter of r€commeodationfor Liao Sifu to also go and study vith PaiLok Nen. So Liao Sifu madethe journey and eventually,because of the letter,wasacceptedas Pai Lok Nen'sstudent.He stâyedwith Pai Sifu for flve years,at which point h€ returnedto his home vil' lage. At the tim€ he was alnost forty years old and had achieved LevelTwenty-Slx." John sealed back ;n his chair and assumeda more comlotable position."Now," he continued,"b€af in mind that thesewere differeot times. News did not travel very fast, if at all, and most of rural Chlna lived;n third world conditions.Vhen Liao Sifu returnedto his home,he foundthat hisclan hadbeendecirnated.Therewasonly one man left alive,and he was crippled,unableto walk. The neighborskept him âlivewith theircharit/. Liao Situwent crazywith gieft he had lost all hic loved ones.Can you imâgine,Kosta,leavingyour home for five yearsand retumins to find that alJyour brothersand your cousins,aunts,uncles,lovers,andfriends,hadbeenkilledr" sisters, "Yec,I can," I saidsoftly. "l'm flom the Balkans." "Youare, aren'tyou?"Johnsaid."So maybeyou can underctand such pain, or perhapsthere are similar €ircumstâncesin your family history. Liao Situ wanted to rush over and attack the neisbborins village. But his clansmanwouldn't let him. 'They havek;lled us "'Youarethe lastoneof us left alive,'hesaid. all. Eventhough you are LevelTwenty Six, there ar€ many warriors in Pu Chia Sians, a'd you are only one man. Pe'hapsthey will kill you instead,and th€n the Liao clân will be lost. The clansmanwas his senior,and siven the Contucianethic of his dây, Liào Situ had to obey him. The man sent him back to Pai
62 TheStoryof LiâoSiÂr
63 TheStoryof LiâoSifu
"Liao Situ was born in a village namedLee Hwa Kang in China! Santong province," my Master continued. "He was part of â large clan-the Liaos,as the name implies.This clan had its own style of kung fu, which they calledLiao Chia Chuan. Ltao Situ beganstudyingthe familyart at the aAeoffive andcontinued studyingitunrilhe was about twenty, by which poinr h€ masteredthe system.He became quite good at both the external and internal elementsof the martial arts,and a good fight€r 'And fishr he did, I'm afraid.You see,next to his villase, a few milesaway,therewasano.hervillag€.This villace wascalledPu Chia Sians,which basicallymeans'thePufamily village.'Betweenthe t\r.o villageswas a spring, the only one in the area(it was quite a barren place,Kosta) ltwas overthis supplyof fi.eshwater rhat rhey fought. Their clanshad been fighttng for a hundredyeàrs,and many died." "lt must have been horrible," I said, "fighting over the fight to drink." "Yes,"John said."The rishi ro sufvive,you mean.Yorrknow how in AIricathc lionsgithcr arrundthe springsandwair lor theirprey? \X/cll,irrrasinc sonrcthinslikc ihis,ând you will be closeto the way il wà! kn thcnr Irvcryday of rheirlives,because a rnanneedsfresh w:r(cfto livc, right?" "-fhcrc was no water anywhereelse?Not i/r?" "Not a drop, I'm told. Oh, maybethere waswater rhirty or forty nrilesawar but €anyou imaginemaking a trip like that to get wâter for your tam;ly, and canying it back?"
Lok Nen with the promise that he would study for a further five years.Liao Sifu did this, swallowinghis rage and pain and putfing them aside.He thought of revengeall the time, thoughr he could not let it go. Vhen he returnedto hisvillage, five y€arslater,he was morethanLrvelThirty.Thatisaveryspecialturningpointforpeople like us, you know Itt â sort of graduation." Iwanted to presshimfor detailsbut John becamesuddenlyqui€t, staringoff into space.At lengrh he spoke. "Vhen Liao Sifu returnedto his home, he found rhe body of his clansman,piercedby a spear.They had not evenhad tlie decencyto bury the mân, th€ corpsewas rotting where it lay. Then Liao Situ went mad. kwas asifthe floodgatesofthe dam hadopened,the pain he had suppressed a1lthoseyearscould no longer be containedand camerushingout. Itwas asif his survivingrelativewerethe lasrbridge to reason,with him gone Liao Sifuwent crazy.He gavein to his anger and his hatred andwent to Pu Chia Sians to rakebloody revenge. "For one hour he killed anythins thar moved, and they were helplessagainsthim. It was as if the Angel of Death had anacked their villag€ and thc warriorsof Pu Chia Siang could do nothing to stop him. Men, women,chtldren,and animalshe killed,eventhe chickens So great was hts anger,Kosta, that he wanted the village to bc wipcd off thc laccol the earth,with nor one life renaininsin it ti, p(,is,nrLhcIand.Spcars andswordsbouncedoff him like paper, lrr q,lrl
64 The Story ol LiâoSifu
lre would have to pay off the karma of his actionswhen he passed away.So he becamevery afraid for hls soul.It was in despairthathe ran back to his teacher,Pai Lok Nen." John took a break and sipped tea. I was silent, shockedby what I had heard. "l alwaysthought," I said finally, "that yo( hâd to be good and moral to be èble to develop abllities of this sort. That power went hand in hand with divine integrity. How is it possible that Liao Situ had not progressedbeyond thoughts of revengeat that level?" John laughed."Youle read too many Vestern books, Kosta, or watchedthe TV seriesKa g I too oft€n. Ahuman beins is a human beingrdon't think it is so easyto stop being human!Liao Situ knew he knew that what he was doing was wrong, but the consequences, he still took revenge,and bloody revengeat that. He was a man, after all, not Cod, and his family had been wiped out. Vhat would I looked down. "l don't know," I said.I thought of the depictions of th€ Buddhaon îbetan ird ld, they normally showed a Buddha attendedby a bodhisatwa of compassionon one hand, and one of power on the other. I tho[ght of the icons in my native Creek Orthodox Church, The Virgin, personificâtionof compassion,was a central theme, but the Archangel Michael, whom I can salely call on€ tough dude,was ubiquitousasw€ll. I beganto understandthat power and clemencyare ind€edtwo separatethings. "Of courseyou do,"John continued."And lateryou would have repented;t aswell, as Liao dld, and you would have had to pay the price, as h€ did. Themes of revengeand regret are everywh€rein human literature, Kostar it is not so easy to become Cod and for sive. ImasinetheJe\.ish people forsivins th€ Nazis." The crimsonpast ofthe Balkanswas bred into my genes'he was ight ând I knew it. I told him as much, and he nodded. 'Yes,"he said."lt is difficult to be pov/€rfuI,twice as difficult to be powerful and good, but that is what we flt]sl do. That is our des tiny. You know how little children are rarely sood by themselves, how they have to learncompassion2" "Oh yes,"I said.I had bitter memories.
65 The Story of Liâo Situ
"A childi mind will give you an idea of mant basicnature.Our purposein life is to becomemore than whar we arc born as.Most people arc not successfulat rhis; they just think that they are And you know this is why it is so important for us to pick our students carefully.Ve do not want to createmonsters.'/ John looked off into the night ashis dog camerunningup to be petted. He playedwith the animalfor a while, and I scribbleddown my notes.A seruantbrought more tea, and, after a time, Joho continù€d his narration. "PaiLok Nen lived on a mountaincalledLung Hu Shan,'dragon tig€r mountain,"' he said. "ls that the Lung Hu Shênthar the lineâseof T'ien Shih Chang had made their homer" l asked.r "Yes,"he rcplied. He seernedpleasedthat I knew about the htstoryofChina. "But Pai LokNen wasnor a memberof their sectrthey respectedhim sreatly and so offered him spaceon rheir land. Pai Lok Nen was a h€rmit, the Master of the school of Mo-Tzu,, he lived on an islandin the middle ofa lake.My teachersaidthat it was an inaccessiblearea,iis warerswere very difficult to traverse.Liao Sifu used a seriesof trees to get across,jumping from one to the other like Tarzan,but Pai Lok Nen just threw a leaf on the waters and floated across." "Cood Codt" l said."Vhat level was he: "Level Filty One." "l can'timagine." "No,"John replied,gainnjng,"you can't.Now, Chinawasplagued by many bandits at the time, and Pai Lok Nen was âlwaysthere to help people. He fousht fo' the villagersand kttled many bad men. He had kllled more than a hundredhimself, I'm told, many of them with a very high level of skill. Pat Situl causewasjusrified, thoush, becausehe fought to protect others,not for his own Cain.There is still karrna associatedwith this type of €omba., bùt nor so much, especiallyif one engagesin it wirh no thoughts of glory or ego Pai Lok Nen was a hermit H€ did not fighr to become famous,or so that he could seducewomen, he fought becauseit fell to him ro be a protectorofthepeoplearoundhim.He wasa healeraswellandhad
66 The Story of LiâoSifu
curcd hundreds.You know he sparedthe livesof many banditspro' vided that they would repent ând stop b€ingthievesand murderers; that mercy was to be his undoing in th€ end." "He just let them gor" I asked. "No. He alwaysmadesuretheycould no long€rtenorize people beforehe allowedthemtheirlives andliberty.Sincethe notion seems to shockyou so much, Iwill tellyou now the story of a very bad man at an incrediblyhigh l€v€I,ând his final encounterwith PaiLok Nen. That man'snarnev.asLim. . . ."
Duel of the lmmortals Liâo sat before a roaring fire, deep in thousht. lt was a cold atuernoon, cold enough for him to seekthe heat to warm his bones.He was over fifty'five, bùt with the constitution and appearanceof a much youncer man; people thought him a hsien, an immodal, the apprenticeol the irnmoltal Pai Lok Nen. On the rare occasiorsthat he ventu.ed into the local villages,they bowed before him, treatins him to their modestfar€ with th€ esteeû resefled for divinity. IJ they o y tueD that I dn notbi$! bû a nttd.ftt, h€ thought. Th€ decimationof Pu Chia Sianc plaeled him constantly,and h€ knew that one day he would haveto pay the price. In restitution Liao had committedhims€lt at Situt sussestioû,to the monasticlife he would try to reachthe hiahestl€vel of powerhe could in this life and help asmanypeopleasdeservedhisaid.Maybe then, whenthe timecame forhim to enterthat otheiwotld, the Lord Codwouldbe mercitulin Hisjudsment. Hou quld I hau killedchildnt Liao staredinto the flames.The truth was,he did not need the walmth of the fire to stay comfortable âny more than a snow bear did; he was beyond such thinss. But wby waste internal enersy to warm hlmselfwhen a good fire was available,and much more pleas' ant to boo" Liao had stayedwith Pai Situ on Dragon nger Moun tain lor many yearssince that fateful dat meditatiûg, traioina, and studyiDs rhe systemof his Maste/s lineage.He had learnedmuch and progresed to L€v€l Fo.ty' to his chaelin, his lask had srown more difficult, not easier,as he increasedin level. Level Four,which he had thought ea h shatteringat the time, had been aseasyas pie
67 The StoryofLiâo Situ
in comparisoD,he srinned as he thought of some of the younger studentsh€ knew,strusglinswith LevelsThreeorFourandso proud of that fact They were in for a rude awakening Pai Sihi was gone for one of his ren day ret.€ars,leavins him alone wirh the OId Robber Pai Lok Nen's method of trainins was very cleve., He would meditate for ten days somewhereup in the mountains,then comeback down ro theirsmallhouseforren dàysto recuperateand prepàrefor the nexr session.Moderation and persis tence were the keys to success,Liao knew Th€ OId Robbersname\irasAsam, and he was almost seventy yea6 old. Assamhad been a highwayman and terorized the sur roundina countrysideuntil he'd had rh€ n1isfo.tuneto pick Pai Lok Nen as a victim. Vhen beaten by ihe nonchalàntimmortal, Assam had pleadedfor his life, promisins that he wôuld do anything if he couldlust be spared;he woûld nev€rst€alfrom or injureanyoneaaain Pai Lok Nen had not knowr what to do with the man; he coutd not v€ry well leâve him where he was, becausethe tandit was surely untrustworthy.He finauy d€cidedto rakehim with him asa seruant. T o m a l e \ u r e r h a rA r à n w o u l dn e , r h e ri n i u r ca n y o n ea 8 d . nn o r r u n awar he had lâm€d him by partially paralyzinAthe grearersciâtic nerve i. the robbers nshr les. Pai Situ then brousht him out to the island, where ii was impossiblefor rhe man ro escape.Now Assam hobbled around everywhereon rhe isle, the thumpiûe of the rhick staff he used to suppo* his weisht the old man! tradema.ksound. Liao had sent the Old Robberoui to sàther some fifewoodr ihe old maD had gone sulkil, not appre.iàting the directives of the younser Liao H€ whined constanrlx but what could he do2 After all, Liao was a hish level studenrof the Master and Asam had no power to speakol. He had tried repeat€dlyto convince Liao thathis beiDs Pai Lok Nens seNant did not meân he was Iiaot sewant as well, but the youoger man was not buying ir. And sinceAssamwas, with sood reason,terified of Liào! powers, he did whar the orher But he didn't hèveto be quick about it And so he took rhe whole aliernoon to complete an hourl cho.€. Liao was quite alone when he heard the sound. It came softly, stealthily,and there was a threar drawing nearvith it, Liao knew A man was approachinathe house,a caretul man checkins his way as he went, awareof dangers A man at war, Liao thousht. An enemy2
68 The Story of LiaoSi{r
He rosea'rd stalkedover to the door Beyondrheirsmall sarden a dârk lorm approachedcautiously.It halted when it sensedhin, waited, then beganto approachagain. Liao sawthat it was a man with a dàrk cloth tied over his €y€s.A blind man "Coodafternoon, brother" Liao said.Thiswas no normal blind mani Liaodid not needto observethe way rhat ihe otherwalked to know this. The man had mad€ it to the island, rhat in itsell was enoush. "Coodafternoon,"the rnanrepli€d."ls this xhehomeoftheMàster Pai Lok Nenr" "lt is." 'Ah. Cood. I am ar old hiend of his. \I/e have not s€eneach other in twelve years." "Pleasecome in and warm yourself.Pai Sifu will return soon." Liao stood àsideto let the blnrd man past He noticed rhat the man enteredthe hut carefully,as ifchecking for possibleattack. He also saw that the man vibrated and hummedwith a power similàr to that ofhis teache. Sù.elymore rhân Lev€lFifty, Liao rhought Could il be that he was highef than his Master? Vhen he sensedthat there wasno one elseiûthe room, the man gratelully sat by the fi.c and beganto warm his hands Liao sâw that hewasanoldefman, in hiseighties,aboutthe sameàgeashis teacher "Can I offeryou some tea, Mr . . r" Liao asked "Ah, Li'n. My nare is Lim. Yes,please.I would be most appre "How do youkDow PaiSituz"Liao askedwhile brewins rhe r€a. "Ah. Ve met twelve yearsback, as I said It is to hiù rhar I owe mycùffent...power" "1see Are you a studentof my teacher! lineage?" justasold andjùs1aspowertul." "No. I stqdiedwithanotherschool, L i a oh d n d c dr h eo . h p rm a r a r r p o f I ' o . . c r L i m s i p p e di t w i t h r e l i s h ' T h a n k y o u , 'h e s a i d ' T h e t e a i s m o s r appropriateon such à cold day." "Yesit is. You havereacheda very hish level, good sir" "Yes.Ii took a long time and gfeat dedication,but I have nanagedto becomeâs lam afterten yeârsof fi€rcetraining. I think thâr yoùr Masterwill be quite surprisedwith ûy power" Li ao staredat the hooded face."He maybe surprised,butwillhe be pleasedr"hc askedfinally.
69 The Story of Lieo S'frl
The other put down his cup. "\X/hati5 your name?"Lim âsked finally. "Liao Tsu Tong." "Liao Tsu Tong, if you do not inrerfe.e when we fishr, I will spar€yoq.life thi, day,in sraritudefor the tea you haveofferedne,' "Vhy do you hate him sor" The other man untied rhe bândageover his eyes, rwo empty socketsyawned back at htm. lt was the face of a demon. "He took my eyesfrom me. I cannor forsive him," Ljm said. "lunde6tand," Liao said."l also havewastedmylife in searchof revense But Pai Sifu has alwaysbeenjust in his punishments.\ù(hat did you do to deseruesuch a sentence:" "lt does not marter" "Ofcou.se it doesrCodljustice must be undererood." "Oh? Did you follow Codijusrice when you rook reverser" Liao looked away. Th€ blind man laush€dironically."l supposenor, ehr" Lim said. "And who is Pai L.okNen to speakfor cod, an).way2Yoùr name is tàmiliar to me, Liao Tiu TonA, às it is to all China, though untilthis moment I did not know that you were Paissrudent. Liao searchedthe tortured face. "Vhat do you mean that my name is known to all China?" "lfyoubehave and do not interfere,lwill letyou liveto discover "l myçeli hàve.€srtted my actions.After twelve yeare,hasyorlr rage not been temperedby time?"Liao asked. "Tèmperedby time? Are you a baby to ask û€ qùesiionslike that? Fof ten years lracrificed my life, doing nothins but rrainins everydar thinkina ofnorhins but findins him ànd takingvengeance. It took me two years to find him; the people in the areaprotecred him, the fools. No one would answermy questions!Bur find him I
"Perhaps.lt is not for you tojudse, destroyerof Pu Chia Sians." "He sparedyour life. He was mercitul." The teacupinstantlycrumbledto dust in Lim'shand and the hot tea boiled away assuperheatedsteam.Liao fearedlorhis life in thàt lnstânt."A thousandtimesthat he wouldhave killedrnel" Lim roar€d "lwas powertulandhe made meweàh Vhatever I desired,a woman or à jewcl, itwas mine for the tàkind lwas the kins of my land, and h€ turned me into a b€ggan" Liao kept his seai. After a roment Lim calmed down and turned towald the fire. ote h,\ e\c\ on.e dsdin. H e r r a p p e d t l . eb a n d a e e "\fould you like somemore tea?"Liao asked."Youseernto have Lim laush€d."Yes,you areundoubtedlyà very braveman I would indeed like anothercup." Liao stoodand went over to a srnallcirpboard.He brousht ovef a cup and off€Ied Lim tea. "You knoq" Liao said,"Pai Sifu is not all "$?hat do you mean2" "He was €rippled in à ficht. He lost the use of one l€g and now "Hmm. It must have been someenemy.I'm slad that the oth€r didnt krll him' that h€ left him for me." "Yes,but Situ is not the Mast€r that he usedto be. He'sold and ffippled now and has lost his powei." "Are you that young and stupid or ar€ you just 1rying to tempt fate andmy pati€nce?You know aswellas Ithat hls physicalcondi tior has nothins to do with itr He c as pow€lul as ever Berides,I hatehim so 'nuch that evenif he were deadI would deçftoyhis arave
what was your criûe2" The otherwâs silent. "Youare eithera very brave man or a very stupid one. I was a warlord in a ûeishboring province My band of wadorç demandedtribute hom the nearby rowns. At one point I becàmesrcedy, ând an old man caUedin Pai Lok Nen. My bandwas desfoyed and my eyeswere taken from me." "lt soundslike you got whar you deserved"
and desecmtehis corpse." "l se€. I pity you, Mr Liù. Havins felt such hatred myself, I knowwhat a worm like thatcan do toyoursoul. Mayyou find peace." The other man'sreply waschoked offby the soundof someone! approach.They both heardth€ heavyfoohtep, the rhythmic thumpinsofthe cane.Lim stoodsmoothly andr$,ifxlyto facethe door He pushedLiao to the wall behiod him. "Don't intenupt or else,"Lim whisperedsoftly. "Reftemberwhat I said." Assâmwâs canyins a load ol firewood, and th€ soins had been difficult for the old man. He easedthe heary stackofl his back and
70 The StoryofLiâo Sifu
The Story of Liâo Siçr
'And
v
laid it down gently in â corner ol theeàrden, rtiU ticd with rhc ropes he had usedto 'nake his bundle. He woutd be damnedif he,dbrins rhe wood into the house for Liao as well. That ùpstart was almost fifteen yearEyounser than he was, after all, and should have rd,, respectfor his elders lt was enough that he had sone out ro set the woodat Liao!.equest, too bad for the young punk ifithadtake, the Insidethecottage Liào sawthc mans silhouettedarkenthe door wây. He had ûo misconceptionsaboutwhat would happen,and knew that Lim sensedthe othefi approàchaswell. Lim slood before him, his back to hlrn ànd facms rhe door. He was reàdy to fight. Vell, so He was at Level Fo.ry hinself, bur he knew that Lin was mùch hisher. Srll, ti,r,rri borft,he thousht. 'Look outt ki a tràp he yelled 1o Assam,and âr the samerime h i t L i m w i t h a l l h i sp o w € ri n t h e a . e ao l t h e k i d r c y s( a n d o n l yf r o ma yardt distance) He erpected the other to fly fotuàrd from the im. pact, at which point he was ready to hit him repeareory. Nothins happened.Lim was unaffected. Liao was allowed a fraclion ()1a sccond in which to curse thc .ircumstanceswith thc worer proianity he coùld think of. Then Lim hoved like â whirlwind He kicked backward,hit Liao, and kDocked him co'n pletely th rough the wallto land in the ga.denoutside,where he lost conçciousncs At the same tiùe he hit Assam three times hom llvc yardsùwaywilh enefsy blasrsgeneratcdfroû thecenrerof h l s p a l m A s s a md i e d i n s t a n t l yw i t h t h e i i r t b l a s t b , u t L i m c o u l dn o t bclicvc Lhat Pai Lok Nen would be so easy ro deieat (for indeed, L i a o t s f a t e g yo l p a s s i n s A $ a mo f l â , P a i L o k N e n h a d w o r k e d ) a D d stru.k agarnard again When Liao cane to, his Màçter was srandingover hiln. k was nor.ins He had been unconsciousall nishr. "Are you all rishu" PaiSifu askedhin. L i a o s a t u p a n d c o ( s h e du p s o m eb l o o d " t r h i n k s o , , , h es a i d "For somc reasonhe wanted to keep me alive.Assam?" "Dead. Cone. \Y/ho did this?" "Lim He said his narnewas Lim " "Lim? I dol't k.ow any man na.nedLim " Liào wasbdefly exàsperated. Ii s€emedthat hc teacherhadkilled so many maraudersthat he had forsotren the detailsof the encounters."He was blind. He said you had taken out hts eyes.,,
72 The Story of LiaoSilu
Pai Lok Nen was astonished."Hiûr?The warlordr Yes,ofcou6e, hh namewas Lim, thàts right, I remembernou But howr I mean,he wasat a fairly high levelwhenwe fought, but nowherecloseto thk." "Hatred."
"Sorryr" "Hatr€dtueledhistrainins." Pai was silent "Of couree,"he said finally. "l .esrct leavins him alive. Manywill sufferbecauseI thousht to show mercy.Somemen are beyond redemption." Liao stood on quaverins legs He saw the hole in the wall his bodv had madewhen thrown backward. "Help me with Assam,"Pai Sifu told him brusquely. They walked over to the other mans remains.Of the body itself, only ajellied ûass v,asleft. "Do you know why your stratesyworked2"Pai Situ askedhim. "Maybe. I think it was becausethe man \i,asso obsess€dthat he was blind in more ways than on€." 'No. It was becâuseLim is obviously more than Level Iifty. A blow from a manlike thatrunsthroush the bonemanowandcrumbles the bone to dûst.Assamwas hit at leastthree and maybe fourtimes, asyou can see,th€re is not much left of him. His skull is mush; Lim was unabl€to inspectthe body to seeif it was me or not." "ri7hy did you trick him into believing thât Assan was fte?" "Because honestly,Situ,the nan frishtenedmeand Ihad no idea which ofyou had more power." "Andyou thought nothins of sac.ificinsAssam'slife?" "Beforeyour own, Situ, no." "Andyou thought nothins of sâcrificirs yorr own life asweu, I "lt wâs my duty, Master." They buried Assam!body. It had no strucrur€and was difficult to pickup, it wasas if the old man hadbeen turned into a siant, dead invedebrate.Paiwâssilentall that day.Vhen eveningcame,th€y sat by the fire. Pai Lok Nen handedLiao a large book and somescrolls. "ln this book,'Sifu told him, "are the secretsof ioteroal power allthe way up to LevelSeventyTwo. Thesescrolls desiflateyou âs myheir. You are nowthe Mastc of my school of Pa Lei Chuàû (eisht ways thunder boxirs). You may leavethis place or stay her€ asyou
73 The Story of Liâo Sifu
"Youar€goinAàfrerLim." "lt is fly duty.I haveunleashed a monsreronthe landandmust laceup to the consequence ofmy acrions.I forbidyouro comewith meiif that ii whàtyou weregoingto ask.'i "Master . ." "l fo|bid itL" "But of course,"John continued, "Liao Situ did not listen to hirn \/hen Pai Stfu left, he followed at a distance,stayins away frorn his teâcherbut n€verlosingrrack of him. k took pai Lok Nen a week to find Lim, but find him he did. They mer in a junsl€. Liao Situ was closeby but he did not dare intrude." My teachertook a sip of tea. "For three days and three nights they fought,,,he said softly. "They were evenly rnatchedin the end; both were at Level Fifty, One. They destroyedthe jungle around them in rheir struggle,and still no on€ could ger the upper hand. Lke the ancient gods they foueht, throwing rhunderand Iightning at €achother, Kosta.Finally, on the dawn of the fourrh day, pâi Situ in desperâtionused a tech nique called Ching Tjik Tue Lik, whi€h in Chinesemeans,,Colden Roosterstandson one leg." lshowed you that movementyesterdayr it is a vcry dangeroustcchniquein tharyou can hit threepoints with onc movemcnt, but you âlso open up weâk poinrs yourself,which thc opponent can strike Of the three points attacked,Lirn managed to block two, bufihe third blow caughthim in rhe chest,atthe same time, however,he manaeedto kick pai Sifu in the chest.They both fell over and lay still. Then Liao Situ emergedfrom hiding and ap_ proached;before that point he had not dared interfere,as I said,' ''ther€ is thar rnu€h differencein power between LevelsForty and Flftyr'l asked. "Yes,and betweenLevelsTwenty and Thirry or Thiri.J/and Forty aswell,"John repl;ed.''tihe forestwas as if it had been desrroy€dby bombs, Kosta. Liao Situ checkedthe bodies.Lim was dead,but pai Lok Nen was altve. L;ao Situ buried Lim and srayedwith pai Situ, trying to nursehim back to health. At sornepoint, though, pai Lok Nen passedaway. L;ao Stfu buried hirn and stayed in the ârea fo, lorty days,then moved on."
l4 The StoryofLiâo Sifu
"\vhere did he go?"I asked. "He was in for a surprise,"John said."He went to a large town ncarbyand saw that he was famous.The governmenthad put a re wardon his head,he wasthe mostwantedcriminalin China." "The village massacre," l said. picture on them were everywhere.He was "Yes.Posterswith his lorced to flee first to Nanchang city in Jiangsi,where he remained for a tirne, then out of Ch;na. He finally settledas a pennilessrefugee in Java." "lts exactlyllke the oldTV showKan4Fr, with David Canadinef' I said. John thought about it for a while. "l neverwat€h that show,you knoq" he said at last. "l mean,I've seensegmentsof it from time to time on television,but lve never actuallysat down ro watch ân epi sode.Listen,you don't think that they heard âbout Liao Sifu'sstory from somewhereand copied itt"*
'Sùch
is not ihe casetK'iù4Fû, the orisinalseries, wasan exampleof art imitatinslife,asit were;the herowasa Buddhist.atber thana Taoist monk,andhe hadkilledthe emperorisonratherthanàn entirevillâse.
75 The StoD. of Liâo Sifu
A Collection of Sacred-Magick.Com < The Esoteric Library
\-napter ùtx
LESSONS TO BE LTARNED
THEEXAMINATION
il
It was raining heavily when I next saw my Master. He had been gone for a week,out of the country on business,t hadspent the tjme lrav€ling, r€ading, aDd digestingthe teachingsof our previousencounters as best I could My wait hadnt been all that much tun, bccauseI had seenmost of the country already,and rhe ciry he lived in was a boring place.John telephonedon the day that he returned. I took my usualtaxi out to his home in the late afternoon,eagerly anticipatingseeinghjm again. Ishook the rain off my windbreakerand enteredhis home.There were many peoplethere, and there was considerableexcitementall around.The atmospherewas that of a party waiting to happen. Jobn yelled out a greeting."KosÎatyou arevery lucty tonight. I will test â pair of studentsfor LevelTwo. rù/eare preparingnow,' I had never seen such testing before and immediately became excited myself. Ir had beeo worrh the week of waiting. perhapsthe most importanr rhing abour rhe abilitj€s my teacherdisplayedwas that they are an acquiredskill, what he hascan be passedon to oth_ ers. That evening I would seeproof of such a transmissionfor th€
lirst 1im€. lt should be noted rhat not everyone can become like l:hn Chang, ;ust as not everyonecan becomean Olyrnpic êthleter still, almost every able-bodiedperconcan be taught to run, and i[ not to run, at leasrto jog Levelïwo is somewhatlike that. Almosr anyonewith the right degreeofperseverance and disciplinecancomplcte it (tboùgb it mighr rake as long as fifteen years).As far as becoming like Chang Sifu, howeveç perhapsooe man in â thousand can achievcthis. lf that many. An).wat I was quite eagerto seewhat rhesetwo men could do. They were the only ones there who did not seempârticularly happy.Both were very neffous, excusingthemselvesio run to .he toiletonoccasion andspendingquire a bit oftime on ihe balconyin ûeditation, trying to regaincontrol oftheir minds and bodies.I was told that it was not up to the studentwhen he would be tested;John himself often p;cked the rime and place and said, "Now." That was the whole point of rhe test, they saidito catch rhe studentunawares so tbat he would learn to be ready at any point in his life for whar ever might occur to him. I was glad it wasn'tme. One of the men looked particularly An argumentençuedia studentofJohnt whom I knew well and who was there as a witnessbeganprotesting loudly. Another man, evidently a seniorstudent,took no reeard.lgnoring the others dis approval,he selzedthe mant cigarettesand shook them out of tbeir container.He handed the loose cigareftesback to my friend and kept the pack The slighted party went ove. to a corner ând sulked, stulfingthe cigarettes into a pocket.The seniorstudenrihen producedtwo more empty packsof cigarettesand stackedthem atop a table alons with the pack he had;ust pilfered. The empty boxes (hardpacksL) were laid on their bases,threein a row, rhebrand names all facing in one direction. It wasup to the men b€ing tesredto move them with telekinesis frorn more than four feet away. John saunteredup to me. "You undemtandwhat we arc doing heretonightr" he asked ! nodded.'They will havero movethe pâcks from a distanceof five tirnestheir forearm length, this is oul tradition." He lookedat my long forearmand longer fingersand grinned. 77 L€ssonsto BeLeârned
"ln your case,"he said,"it will have ro be more than one and a half yards away."I squirmed,and he was delighted. John was a prâdicaljoker I had been with him on an elevator on€ evening âlong with twenty oth* people. The elevator was a glasswalled unit that fenied people up and down the floors of a shoppingrnall;there wasa steelrail;ng all aroundthat peoplerested their backs on. \X/ewere going out to ear that evening at a local restâuranton the top floor of the mall. Suddenly a burst of current pulsedthrough rhe steelbackstop. Vomen screamedand everyonepulled away,suspec.rnga short crrcuit.John had pulled awar too, as Ihad, but I neededonly one look at the barely suppressed grin on his face to realtzewhat had really happened' He had sent a pulseoÊbio enersy throush the railinsl The elevator attendantcaution€deveryoneto stay away from the backstop,and, as we reachedthe top floor, he radioed for maintenanceand shut the unit down. All rieht, so it ,r,rstunny. In any case,the studentswere newousashell They would have to knock over all three packsro passthe tesr. The f;rstmanbeganhistrial.Th€y measured hisforearm,hand,and flnsersanddrew a line beyondwhtchhe couldnot cross.Johnstoodon thc line itsclfandscowledarthe studentashe approached, makingsure that thc man would not darecbeat,not even a liftle. The mao stood bchind Lheline in rhe HorseRidingStance,brouehthis right palm up cvcn with the line, took a breathto calm himsell andbegan Fle pusbed h;s ch'i through his palm and toward the cigarett€ boxcs. One of them fell over. "He missed,"amannextto mewhispered."Buthe willpassforsur€.', John reprimandedthestudentandrhe mant'ied asain This time there was no h€sitation;he knew he could do it. He concentËt€d fiercely and p,lsrrd All three packetsfell over on the tablerop.The first was pushed so hard that it fellotrhe table. The studenthad passed. There was a pausebefore the second mân'strial, and Iwas allowed to approachth€ tesringarea. "Okay, Kosta,"Johnsaid."lnspecteverythingcarefully.,' And I did. I looked for magnets,for wir€s,for fans,for anything 78 Lessonsto Be Leârned
clcctrical or chemicâI,with allthe expertiseI had gainedaftertwelve ycorsin the engineeringfield. Nothins. The tablev.aswood; I pick€d It up off the ground.Ther€ were no wires or strinss an)'where.The packsof cigaretteswerejust thatr they had oot been tamperedwith, fhort ofbeing empti€dof cigârettes.I pulledout of myvest pocket a snall compassI alwayscany with me in th€ Orient, and ran it over thc table and sunoundinsarea.No masnets--or at leastno residual nragnetismwasevident.I could find no indication of the presenceof chcmicalsof any sort. The roorn was brilliantly lit, ând everything had happenedin plain sight. There was no hocus-pocusgoins oo. The inspectionwas superfluous;I did it for everyoneelsei sake rath€rthan my own. I hâd no doubtsabout whât I wàsseeing.In âny càse,the group gainednothing by tricking me. "l wanr to makeone more inspectionwhen the testingis over,"I saidto John, who readily agreed. The secondman! turn came up' this man was very nervous.It wasobviousto everyoneexceptme that he would not succeed.The group repeatedthe procedurefof him, draving â ôew line; he, as had his broiher student,took his place. And failed.Nothing happened. John encouragedhim, told him to relax and try again. He did, andwas unsuccessful once more. The man was in a bad emotional state.I thought they would stop. They didn't.John allowedthe man to try from a yards distance, the packetsnot only fell over, theyjeru off the table to land a good yard away.At that moment I realizedsomethingof importance,The field phenomenonassociatedwith this action d€gradedexponentially. That is to say,its behavior followed this paftern,
1 STRENCTH
DISTANCE --------------> 79 to BeLeârned Lessons
Soneday I wll nap itsresponse andchdracteriz( tbeprccas,I thought. I had alreadyfigured out how to do it. The man wasgiven anotherchance,which he alsofalled.At th;s pointJohn let him stop. He would be given anothertest the follow ing year, but the opponunitieswere not indefinite, at somepoint, if you failed, you were deemedan inappropriatestudent and not allowed turth€r instruction. "Vhat additional examinationdidyou want to dor"John asked. I pulled out a pock€tknifeandcut an empty pack of cigarettesin half. lt was not lined with metalr there was no way it could have been affectedby magnetism.Asain, I did it more forthe groupt sake than my o\^m,it seemedvery importantto them that I be convinced, and I bad to prov€ that Iwas. I was good at that sort of thing. The previousyear a friend of Johns had tried to play a trick on me He had offeredme a srick of gum, which I took, then askedme if Iwould like to seehis power I hâd repli€d affirmatjv€ly,and he dlpped the wrapper in water. "Now hold it ln your hand and squeeze,"he said. I did not need Johni look of disapprovalto know rhat I was being hoodwinked;dipping the wrapper in water had given the man away.Solirn naal, I thought,andonly pretendedtosqueezethewrap per. It waswax coated,squeezingwould breakthe coatingand allow the sodium to reâcl with the water,generaringintenseheat. Thc man bccamedisconcerted, he expectedme to dropthe\rràp, pcr in pain.I disappointed him. "Youcanlet go if you feelthe heat," hc said."Don't burn yourself." "No, itt not hot at a11," I said innoc€ntly."See?"I gaveh;m back lhe wrapper,which I had caretullypressedlnto a small ball. A look ofpuzzlement cameonto his face,andhe took the wrapperfrom me andsqueezedashard ashecould.Suddenlyhe grimacedanddropped it. He look€d at me in wonderment,why hadn't the trick worked on the foreigner2 John had loved it. Ànyway, Iknew I had to convince them on that evening that I believedwhat they were doing was real, and so cut the ernpty pa€k in half. "How lons have you be€n studying2"I askedthe man who had
"About twelve years,"he said. "And how much training did you do every dayr" "Only about an hour a day.Thats why it took so long. But what could I do? I had to work for a living." John came over and held a long discoursewith the man. He lccturedhim profusely,then let him go and pulled me over. "l told him that he had to be very careful from now on," John rold. "Vhen you f;nish with L€vel Two, your ch'i is alwaysready to move.Much of it is governedby your emotions.If he were to hit a man in anger noq the ch'i would run into that man'sbody and de rtroy his heart.The man would die." "S/hat if h€ hits him on the arm, sayr"I asked. "lt doesn'tmatterwherehe hits him. The ch'i will alwaysnrn up to the other'sheart, and it will kill him. And you know, no Vestern lrospitalin the world can help a man hit in that manner He ruilldle unlesstreat€dby someonelike me within tweoty-four hours" "You'reright. He should be very carefulfrom now on." "Yes.You know, when we teach new studenls kung fu, we alwavs move slowly,ând alwayswithout power Safetyis our primary con_ ccrn.Peopleseethaton occasionandthinkwe arew€akrbadmistake." "Situ, what they just did, we call telekinesisin the Vest. Did thcy managethat with their own power or didyou help lhem a bit?" He looked atme, amused."l'helped them a blt,'asyou say They cân passch'i Êromtheir body, but it is only yang ch'i. Dutingthe test I myself generateyin ch'i and act as an opposite pole by standing ncxt to the packs.This inducestJ?iryâng ch'i io extend over to my yin, and that action allows them to move the €igârettepacks The lcst is reâlly to seehow rnûchyang ch'i the studenthasin him " "lsee.So when you saythat if they hit a personthey wllltransfer clr'itohim, theymust touch that p€rsonphysicallyto do so,corr€ct?" "Yes.Becausethey stilluse only yang ch'i. To do it lrom a distance,theywould haveto useyin andyang iogether That wouldbe
80
81 Lessonsto Be Le.arned
Lessonsto Be Leârned
LevelFour." "Situ,"I asked,"physiologically,what is the differencebetween whât ljust sa\vand t€vellour?" Ve moved over to a table andJohn beganto jot down notesfor nrc."Look,"he said,"l havealreadytoldyou that LevelOne is simplv
to fill up your dantienwith yang ch'i, right?Thar requireseighty-one hours of absolutemeditation.Now, a beginningstudentcannothold his concentrationforlong. Perhapsin on€ hoûof sitting,he is actually in meditation fo; t.3 minutes.That meanshe is meditatingonly 2.2 percentof the time, rMhichmeansthat if he sitsfor one hour a day,he needsten yeaE of trainingto get his eighty-on€hoursofmeditation.', "\Vhat is actualmeditat;onlike/'l asked. 'There are no thoughts and there is no senseof time. Ifyou are thinking, you are not in meditation.Ifyou are awareofyourself, you are alsonot in meditâtion.Youmustb€comelike a baby in thewornb, there and yet not therc. Meditation is lik€ the borderlineb€tween sleepand waking, betweenconsciousness and unconsciousness.', "Very difficult." "Not so difficult, Kostâ. You srayedin medjtation for long peri, ods when you were an embryo and a baby, and you passthrcugh it no\. eachtime you drift offto sleep.Youjust haveto rememberhow/' I felt uncomfortable."\X,/har about L€velTwo?,'lasked,to change the subj€ct. "ln Level Two we fillup th€ channelsin our body with yans ch'i while at the sametime shapingthe ch'i in ourdantien to our specifications.Then w€ can push our yang ch'i out of our body-though not through space.Vhen a student becomesproficient ar this, he can passth€ test that you witnessedthis €vcnrng. 'Aod level Threer" "Level Three is very difficult ro pass.Ir r€quiresat leasr rhree continuoushours of training a day, perhapsmore. "Youdon't want to talk about it; okay, fair enough. Level Fourl,' "Level Four is the point where we begin ro bring yin and yang togethel en youfinish with LevelFour,the two sit in your dantien like this," he continued, and drev/l
a2 Lessonsto Be Leârned
"Like the yin-yang symbol," I said.He nodded. "\Vhy is it thal, in popularlit€rature,th€y put the tuo dots in cent€rof the opposing circles,and say that yin hasyang in it and vice versa?" "l donl kno\.v.I think that they mây hâvebecom€confusedover the passingof time, or maybe their knowledgehas become sorne Tlere is alsoachan€€ whatmixedup dueto political circumstances. I myself am wrong." that B t I âorbtit,I thought. "Becausemany p€oplehave witten that yin changesto yang ând so on with the flow of tim€," I went on. "Nothing is as simple as it seems,"he replied. "They also\,/rit€ that a man progr€sses from yin and yâng to tai chi..." "This is t'ai chi. Thats correct." ". . . and from there to wu chi," l finished. "Vhat is wu-chi?"he asked. It was my turn to be shocked.Vhat had just occurr€dwas the equivalentof Mohammedthe Prophetasklnga Muslimiust who this Allah was that they kept rcferring tot wtr-cri is a concept central to Tàoisrn,and I was being askedby a man I considereda TàoistMês' ter, in no uncertâinterms,exa€tlywhat it \{as that I vaç talking about. "Er . . . wu chi is like this; beyond yin and yang," I stammered, and drew on the pap€r,
"l see.I have neverseenanythins like this,"John said. "But all the books on Tàoismrefer to this," Isaid. "it! the final step,the transformationwhereahuman beingretumsto the Sourc€." "l see.As l've toldyou many times,I'm not a Tàoist."He raiseda hand to silencemy protest."Yes,I know, Iknow. There are many -faothings about my teachingthatyou willsay areunquestioningly ist, and my teachen camefrom a Taokt mountain. You have evety
83 Lessons to BeLeârned
right to be confused.I consid€rmyself,howevet simply a practirioner of neikuns." He looked down at the circle I had draw". "ln ourschoolman can neverbecomelik€ this. Human beingsthosewho can completeLevelFout that is to sây-stay at t'ai chi all the way up to Level S€v€nty,Two.Ve are ûever at wu-€hi Perhaps in other lineag€s,like the Mao-shanPai or the Vutang-Pai,0 they have discovereda method to accomphshthis, but I do not know of it, norhave I everwilnessedit. In any case,we in the Mo-Pai* do not use it. \yy'hatelsehaveyou been readingr" Int' aJta$tatian1 I thousht, ,rr tÛlsis /ot tûetrne."Tlre problem with the printedword is that anyonecan write whateverthey want,
Situ,"I sâid. "Okay," he said,"you write a book." "Are you serious?" "Yes.I want to teach peopleâbout ch'i-thar it is real,and what its natureis. I want them to knov/ that ch'ikung and neikung are not hocus-pocusbut a science" WhooyaytI thought. Tineto baoesone fur.
A, ChineseStory In the days be{ore his passingLiao Sifu frequendy lecrur€dhis two studentson the desiredmode of behavior acco.dina to the Taoistf canonsof his own Iineage.On one such eveningthe followins inci John Chàns, then in his earlytw€nties,sàrar the feet ofhis Mâster alons with his brother studentChan Ïen Sun Liao Situ was du€ to l€aveforChinawithin a month, andhewouldbe deadwithin two. "11the three of us were suffering from a fatal illness, and sud denly a bottle ol medicine that could cure this illoessappearedin you. palm,vhatwouldyou do,lohn?" Liao Situ asked."Bearin mind that there is enoqh ûediciûe th€re to cure only one peFon, and thal the other two must die."
*
The schoolof Mo Tzu. 1l usethe termTao,,iin p{aceof the moreappropriateidtioea,$in6e
a4
John did not hesitate.There was one thinathat had beensnawIns ât his h€art and mind for a lons time, He loved the old man Drokrselr withort reseryation,and had never been able to teu him so. The mast€rhad been a fatber and nore to him, bui he was also vcry much a part of the old Chlneseculture.Accordinsto the Con fucianethic that had dominatedChiDesesocietysinceKungFuTzu! passing,it wàs not appropriatefor him to voice rhe côiter emotiôns he felt lor his teacher,or vice vesa. Duty and honor were fine, but love was for poets.Even thouch Liao Situ was a Taoist, he still held himself i. resewe;a British lord would have been proud of hrs com posure,and would probably have told him rhat his "stiff upPer lip" John himsel{was a product of the modern ase às well as beinc Chinese; his thoushts and feellnss had been influeûced bv multicultural stimuli and by the information dissetuinâtionhom \X/este..civilization.As sùch,he hadmanyoptions to considerasta. aswhat was to be deemedproper socialbehavior Liao Silu had told hln that he would soon be dead, and that he would be leavins for China to seehis home on€ last tim€ How couldhe tell the old man that he loved him, that he had been Iike a lather to him? Comins right out andsayingitwas unacceptable.Perhapsthis momentwould be one ofhis last opportunitiesto exptessit at all "lwouldsiv€ ittoyoù, LiaoSitu,"he toldhisteacherwithàffection Dsal Gol, the old tea.her thousht. Hôo cdf I tedchtbis boy tbdt ht flun *e dbonebisaar t^ôtions,bisoM 1ik/5and dislik6,to ser|eth tliite as a rùolet Hou car I teacbhin rb tue loacco s Jroû bedrer,thlt ndn 4s d beiq cor atly àtaa closeto tbisBsercelHe mtst Dlae hunanity abo"Nhisôol pesowlloouatd,lsimtln an instant Liao Situ knewwhât he had to do, andharden€dhis head for it. The old man moved like a blut and the blow was powerful; he dapp€djohn acrossthe facewith such forc€ that the youns€r man wasthrown acrossthe room. Liao Sifu stood, seeminslyturiouswith his pùpil. "Becauseyou spoke with yow heart and noi your mind, I will forsive you this time," he said toJohn. "l struckyou so thaxyou will rememberthis instanceallyoùrlife. The truth is that ifsuch a medicine did indeed exist th€ thre€ of us would go to war with each otheroverth€ right to drink it, fo.life is th€ most precioustreasur€ ofali, and no one siv€s it up readily.The fact that this t€dicine has appearedin your hand meansthat it is tdrr destiDyto consumeit,
85 to BeLeârned Lessons
Lessonsto Be tۉrned
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the.eforeyo, mùsr drink it and no other Fix yours€lf first and then you càn help orhers!Do you understand?4 John nodded,stung He would indeed never forget the lesson.
PO\/ER I couldn'tsleepthatntght. The more I thought aboutwdtingâ book, the more I realizedwhat a probl€m ir would be. The project would have to involve both a rext and a videotapedocumentary,I recog, nized, and it would be no easytask. How do you convince people thatwhat theywere seeingwasreal?Almosteveryonewould think it was a scam perpetratedby specialeffects and willing henchmen. And I was a scientist-an e'ritrrerfor Cod,ssake,wirh an inbred dislike ofspacecookiesand everythingunsubstan tiated.Oh,l watched and,enloyedTheX-Fihsas much âs anyone else,but I was primarily conc€rnedwith reality, not fiction. "You know, I really dont think ir would be such a good idea to do a book," I had toldJohn after thinking about ir for a f€v/ minutes (much to my dismay) I wasrarionatizins,Su€han effort would have màny repercussions/ and ir would be difficult ro plan for every contingency.My main conc€rnwasprot€ctingmy teacher,s privacy.On thc othcr hand, I really rlil want the information I had acquiredto bcconrc cornmon scicntific knowledg€,if for no other reasonthan to salcguardpeoplefrom half tnrths. It hi1 me in rhe middle of the night like a ton of bricks and I wcrkeup, excir€d. I knew how to do il The approachhad occurred 10 me in my sleep.John \Lould get his book, and peoplewould real_ ize that the world was not as dull and gray as our materialisticsociety made it out to be. Joho was a scienrist,too, he wasjust a different ful,l ofscientist. It was true that he was the stuff of Chinesemyths and legends,but that was okay. I knew from my own homelandthat rnanyscholarsin the nin€teenth century w€re posiriv€ that Troy was a myth before Schliemannbegan excavatingat Hisarlik, additionally, many emtnent professorcvehementlyopposedthe rheory that the Mycenaeans
86 Lessons to BeLeârned
were Creek until 1952,when VentrisdecipheredLin€arB. All those people had been wrong, and the few dreamerswho dared stand againstthem had been right. Even in our day the establishedcommunity o[ scholarstended to regard anything outside th€ir norm with dismay,and often fought tooth and nail to crush it. The Inqui' sition had burned Ciordano Brunoat the stakein 1600 for insisting that the sun.and not the €arth, wasat th€ centerof th€ solalsystem. I wonderedif the estabhshedsci€ntificcommunity would try to burn m€ at the stak€aswell. No matter,I thought. Giordano Bruno was an honest ltalian, I was a wily Creek, and I would use a tojan horse to batter down their walls. John was the stuff of legends,it was true, but he was /rdl,just as Tioy was real,just as the MycenaeanCreekshad surelyexisted. \X/hat was scienc€,after allz Our \Testern approach had been founded on two major premises,careful and obiective obsewation, andreproducibleresults.As longas I followed thosetwo main crite' ria, I could be doubted,but neverseriouslychallensed. Now. I was surethatjohn had no inclinâtion whatsoeverto go around to every local university and give a demonstrationfor the Drofessorsthere; nor did I want him to do so. However, there oat pr€cedentfor whai I was planning. In 1978 the Laetoli fooiprints had been discoveredin the Serenseti.They w€re thr€e and a half million yean old and provedconclusivelythatearly hominidswalked upright in a fashionequal to, lf not better than, modern man. The footDrintswere made in a volcanic ash that had com€ again to the surfaceafter millennia of erosion' they were very fragile and could not be preservedfor long. To record them, the t€am of scientists them, they madeplastercastsand took carefulpictures.To pres€r1r'e buriedthem once againdeepin the sand,with disastrousresults.The sând they usedwas that prefened by the local Africân vegetation, lhere are now acacrdlree(growingover lhe and d\ d conçêquen(e sit€, whose roots are undoubtedlydestroyingthe very prints the researcherssoughtto protect. Nev€rtheless,scoresof documentsand analyseshadbeenwitten basedon the plastercastsandth€ pictures. had seenth€ actual tracks themselves? And how many researchers
87 Lessonsto BeLeârned
7
I
Perhapslessthan a dozeo. yet no one doubted thar the tracks €xisted (orat leastlal existed),simply becausetheir presencecouldbe ascertainedby digging up the site again. The "docurienr-and-bury,,approachwas common ror archae oiogists in my native Creeceas well. The country had been settled for five thousandyears,aod rherew€re ruins everywhere,jt was difficult to dig in one'sbas€mentwirhoutuncov€ringsofisirin,As such, when a buildine$.asin its preliminarystagesof fabrjcationand ruins were uncovered,the archaeologistswere called in; usuallytheyjust photographedand documentedthe site, coaredit wrh a prorective resin, and allowed construction to go on.* There were typically enoughwitnessesto go aroundthat no one doubied the buried sites existence,or suspectedthat anyone had mâde ir up. Veil, I knew that thousandsof peoptehad seenJohnand could testify to his abilitiesin court. He h imselfcould reproduceâ demon stration at any tim€, should he chooseto do so. I realized rhat all I had to do was docurnenthis powersand those of his students before a panel of reliable witnesses,and I'd be home free. The important thingwouldbe to carefullychoosethe one eyewrtnessno one would dare dispute. Iv/as so excited that I rushedover to hts housethe following morning uninvited, wirhout calling àheadfirst. That was a faux pas, and something I usuallynever did. It was ten o,clock andJohn was still in his pajamas.He tooked ltke a truck had run over him. "l couldn't sleeplast night,,,he said.,,Theair conditioner broke down in my bedroorn." h;mself a cup of coffee, and I started laughing, I _Te loured couldn't help myselfrJohnChaq, flat1oJ contrasts, I thought. This late riserwasth€ sameyogiwhocouldstophishearratwjlland hadonce spenteighr days in total meditation,hardly breathing,his vital signs so faini a doctor would have pronouncedhin dead. I real;zed then *
| have seenone insrancein which a contractorwàs so taken \rith rhe Romanmosaicucovered thar he made it a pa.t of rhe buildinss majn entrance,-sacnficing an entjft apartment! worth ofsquare footage in the process._Cood for hinr h cosr him â prety penny, but t e p.o,eJ li.r,.tf
how important this mân was to humanity, it was.he first time in history that sucha hcrmanbeingexisted.Here wassomeonewho on the one hand could be the life of a party vhen he chose,spenddays watchingsoccer,or cut a high-dollar internationaldeal involving industrialproducts;on the otherhand, this samesomeonewas equally happy in the wilderness,wearingsimplecotton cloth€s\,r'hileimperviousto heator cold. Here wasa man who could killa grizzly with a puoch, a man who had once spent two years living in an isolated cavein the mountainspracticingmeditation (srwiving on roots and plants),a man who spokewith spiritsand healedthe patalyzed A tme man of both worlds. "l know how to go about doing your book," l sâid. He glarcd at me. At the moment h€ was rnore interesxedin his coffee. I caught the drift of his thoughts, Why dorl yor nn olJnne wherea play,littlehoy.I grinned evenwider,and suddenlyhe couldn't help laughingalong with me. "AIl right, tellme," he said. I did, outlinins my approach. He was grumpy. "l see,"he said. "You know I can demonstrate only in hont of studentsor patients." "That will be a stumblingblock, but I'll seewhat I can do." 'And Ican't makemoney frorn the dernonstration.Ifyou film me demonsbating,lwon't be able to earn a penny.Remembermyvow" "So donatethe money to a €harity." He shot me a piercinsslance.He liked the ldea."Youknoq" he said, sipping his coffee,"l have alwayswanted to build an orphanage."Johnstraightenedandlooked atrnewith renewedinterest."Not that I think that it would sell," he continued. "Neikung has always been for the few Can you imâginethe averagemân practicinghours "No," Ireplied, "bùtthe averageman doesnt study nuclearphysics either That doesn'tmeanthat therc ar€ no suchtbincs asnrcleaf power plants." He smiledand sippedhis coffee."Letus hope thatyourexample is not appropriat€and that the sâm€willnot happenwith.eikungas did with nuclearpower" "You mean the chanceof its being useddestructively2"
8a Lessonsto 8e Leârned
89 L-essons to Be Leârned
"l.don't think so. Not if everyrhing rs open, abov€board,and a\ailablero allmankind.,N4y marnworrv i\ proreiringvour privary... tron r È'er on(ernedaboulr har.Ko\rà. "t mean,redorrers will come from all over the world and harass ''Ihey cannot enter my horne if I do nor allow them to, and if , .n.r^"*:": rmpotire.I wi sendrhemaway. ""1.,1"g "nd 6rn I r houghl.John wara pracricrliokerd\ wellar being a para normalrI pitied the poorjournalistwho went too far, anricipatingan exctusive.,Also, you will be swamped by thou*ra, .f.,..t o..of. hoping for a cure., 'Youie_not going to print my address,are youu "No, of coursenot.', "Fiae.Then if those peoplecan f;nd me, ii js their karma to do c o . i n d i r w i l l b e m y r o yr o r r e a r h e ma ç i r h a . a l u a y s b e e n , a b o u tr e n p r r i c n r .a d a y u r u a l r vi n r h e m o r n r n gI. . . " ] . : ' " . : -be wantectto sure thar he understoodit might go up to f;fty a diy, and told htrn so. He was unperrurbed. "1haveconstdrredallthis before,Kosta. Noneofit marters The , real,,problern will be the Chinese,who may come over ro challenge "Vhac" I was flabbersasred. are ât l€asrten Masrersin China who àre like me,,,he ,"ïere said."One of them or all of them may wanr to come over and chal "Vhyr \t(hat the hell forr,, "Becauseitl trâdition.,, "You'vegor ro be kjdding mel,, jl,wrs.Joinsû,n ro be amu<êd. twdç serins hor rou oon I needro rÊproar h rc. Kosra.he *ard. lundentandyou
h"le shownmerepeateary thatyoureârrydo not ::îfi:r.i";::i"., und€rsrandChinese{ulture.
Unfornrnately,we Ch;neseare, for the most part, ra€ist and ethnocentric. There is the chance that many kungtu Màs(er< w,ll be afhonredby our openrngup rhe rnrrhbehind eç:reûc<(ien,e ro rh€scrurinvor rhe\)/e
that one kung fu Master may challengeanother in order to deterlnlne the most powerful styler môny mârtial art'stsdo nor question this,but lollov the rraditionwirhout hesitâtion.It is what isexpected of them, you see. "One ofmy dreamsis to be ableto go to the Chinesepeopleand Éhov/them five studentswho have completedLevel Four,one frorn cachraceofman. I would Iike to go even farther and put one sucha ,na,rin each country if I can. Like you, lbetieve that it is time for humanityto move on and leaveth€ restridions of the pastbehind. llut thereare peoplein China who, havins beentrained in th€ traditlonal manner,have beliefs orher thân my own. Some of them are tnuchmore powerful than I, those are the onesyou dont haveto be afraidof, Kosta.Since I am no threat to them, they will do nothing agârnstme, "Llke when Liao Sifu, who was at LevelFory, attackedMr. Lim, who was at Level Fifty-One," I said."Lim just shruggedit off.,' "Yes,"he said, 'tecause it was like a child attacking a nan, you see?Tle reâl dangeris from someonewhois plusorminus five levels lrom me, becausethen he will want ro fight. In that câseit comes down to martial technique, not levels of power,,He took a sip of coffee.'One of us may die,' he addedsoftty. Likebell, I thoushi Youaft too lt?ciausto h tndtlity to r,sl. ,,How can someonebe so advanced,"l said,"and still be so stupidr,' "Dont be so quick tojudge," he said.'Most of thesepeoplelive in the wilds of China and have nothins to do v/ith the modern day. Their traditionsar€ all they know" I thought of the television seies Highlo e\ dr.elof the tmmortalscome to life . . . how asininel One ofJohn! studenrsenteredrhe room at that point. He had been removing his shoesat the entranceând had heard the gist of Iknew the man. Hewas a L€velThr€e student,a forrnerkungfu Master of the praying mantisstyle, and qufte a good fighter "Vhy are you so opposedto honorablecombat?,'he asked. "Because combatfor the sakeofcombatis stupidr,,lâlmostshout€d. "Look, we Creeksgaveup suchnonsenseafter rhe Tro;anVar more than three thousândyears agot Thatt why we came up wirh th€
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91 Lessons to BeLeârned
Olympic Camesin the first placeiw€ were tired of our bravestmen killing €ach orherjust ro prove who was rhe better fighter,, 'And what if I were to challengeyou:,, "To the deathr" "Not necessarily." .Ihen I would fightyou in the spirft of a contesr,with my prime interestbeing that neither you nor I were hurt. I would rather lose than hurt you, tor example.', The abovewasnot true,l hatedbeing challengedas nuch asthe next rnanând would rise to take the bait liKe any oth€r seiiousmartial arrist.I had even injured a few peoplern re process. tt rrrs trx€, however,thar Ifelt sick to mystomachêfter everysuch evenr,and at the moment Iwas representingâ point ofview, nor my own faults. 'And if Iwere to challengeyou to a fighr to th€ death?,, "\Vhar forzJusÛoseewho wasthe betrerfishter?Iwoutdconsider it an act of war andgo afreryou wth everythjngI had. That is, I would use technology and chemistryand modern techniques until I killed you. I wouldshootyou tn th€ darkfrom two hundrtd yards awaywith a sniperrifle given rhe opportuniryrI havebeentrajned ro do so.,, 'And if the two of us had perconaldifferencesrSeriouspersonal I squirmed;he had me. I was all for duel;ng and severely disap, pointed that it had been rnade illegal. In my opinion dueling had been outlawed by the ruling classesin the pasrcenrury to pr€venr I her ncrer\inglvllà((id progenyfiom berngslaughrered on lhe rield ot nonor.I wa5rrvrngro convincerhe orhÊr\ rhough. rhat hghlng to the deathjusr to seewho wasthe more skillea figtrterwas stupià ashell. y battlewhenyoucouldinsteadbecomefriendsandshare a few beerstogetherr '"Ihen we would fight face to face,',1srowled. He laughed. "ln the Orient you Creeks have a reputation for . b€ing fiercewarrioru,both in the pastcenrurjesand in moderntimes. Your peoplewon honor in Korea, for example,, "Yes,damn it, for life and home and to protect the innocenr,but not just fo( the fuck of iu Never for thâfl,' wasdtspleasedwirhmy outbursrand stoodup from his seat _John and went away. en he cameback, I had catmeddown. 92 Lessonsto BeLeârned
"Can you imagine,',I ask€dhim, ,what ir would be like jf four or _ llvc people like yourseif could get rogerherand work in harmony, Nomethinglike a \i/esternuniversityor a researchcentea*ratherthan [lghtingeach orhen Canyou imagineshanngnotesandexperiences wlth a man Iike yourself2', "l havewanted to do so, you are preachingto the choi, Kosra,,, . hc said sofdy. "l have sone to Chinâ twice looking for people like myself,hoping to find a brorher i was unsuccessful both t;mes.,, "Butyou know of their existencenowr,,I asked. "Yes,"he said."l know that there are for suretwo and I can sense clght more. I think thar there are at leastten. He leanedback in hischatr'A fewyearsback,,,he said,,three of my Level Three studentswent to China and stayed for a month, looking for neikungpractitioners.They seârchedeverywhere, Kosta, ln Taoi\t cenreN.ar rhc çhaorrnrÊmplc.in rhe mdjor cirie5 I hey t o u n dn o i h i n g n o r h i n C d t a l l f i n r l l y .o n r h ed â \ b e f o r et t e y w e r e due.toleave,a shopkeeperin Beijing said to thern, ,Hey, I hear you rre looking for neikung masters.Vell, you can be ar such-and such ! parkat fouro'clock in the morning.There is an oldman who comes lnd practicesr'ai chi chuan rhere;h€ is a gr€at Mast€r., "Sothey went to rhe specifiedplaceand hid in the bushesnearby. _ Promptly at four o'clock,an old man did appearand b€gan prac_ to rlceir r âi (hi. \X/henhe frnishedhir rorm he walkedover Loa large boulder/rhey rell me rr wa, a r ard rall,and pa.redhr. hand overrr Then he steppedaway fiom it and, from a djstanceof ten yards or more, hit it v.ith ch'i. The bouidercrackedin two. "My studenrsieapr out and kneeled, asking for permission to speakto him, but he ignored them and walked away, they did not darestop him. He had known they were there all along, of course, lnd had simply wanted theû ro know rhar rhey were nothing, that lheir abilirieswer€ those of ch;ldren.,' "Sifu,"I asked,"do thesepeopleunderstandthe shape the world ls in and what lies aheadfor us2Do rhey know how much they can I
Actually more like a library ol an academyin rhe Alexandrian sens€ lhan a modern university.
93 L.essons to BeLeârned
contribute, thar possiblyv/ith their assistance we can averrdrsaster for the whole humanrace?You,the ten ofyou rhat remain,you mnsf work togetherl" "Kosta th€ innocent dreamer,"he said. ,,Do you expect that w€ will all meet, suddenlybecomegood friends,and crearea new science out of the traditionsof rhe pasr?' "Vhj, notzThere are so few ofyou left thateach one is pr€cious beyond compare.\(hy rot cr€atea new sci€nce?you know, Iike the Jedi in Ceorse Lucas'sStarl[ars, who combined technology with internal mastery The best of both worlds, Sifu.' He smiledkindly. "lt is a good dream,Kosta,,,hesaid_,,Unfortunately,I am not the one you have to convince. "Do you want to know what I believeinr,,I asked. To my chagrin both men groaned.,,1,mnot sure,',Johnlaughed. "But I dont think rhat we'regoing to b€ given a choice, in any case.,, "l believerhat humanityhaserown âlong rwo differentpaths,,'I said."ln th€ Vest we have taken a yang approach,tuming outward. Ve modify and catalogour enviro.ment to suit our desires.Our sci ence !s a yang science,our liv€sare yang lives.In the Eastyou have takenayin approach/turninginward.Youmodify andtràin thehuman being,in both mind and body,to becomepotent andcompletein the environmenrthatnahre hasalreadycreatedfor you, ro reachyour full potentialwhile alteringnothing. Both âpproaches, Easternand Vest ern, have to do wirh cultivatingpower,bur sinceeach hasbeen pur_ suedalong differenrlines,neitherapproachrscon€cr or compret€on its own. \gell, the time hascome foryin and yang to come together, Iike trvef Four k is time for humanity to develop yin yan4 kwg." There were so many other things that I wanted to say to them, but the languagebarrier preventedme from doing so. Intuitively, I knew that they had understoodthe gisr of what I hadjust said,but ir was the details rhat I wanted desperatelyto dtscusswith them \Ve had gone too far in the \Vesr,and ir was time for people likeJohn, the last true represenratives of rhe opposingpole of mans develop_ ment/ to saveus frcm ouÎselves. The industrialprocesshad certainly been both a blessingand a cursefor the hurnanrace.It had allowedus to reach new heights of
94 Lessons to BeLeârned
technologicaldevelopment.On the other hand, in separatingthe craltsmanfrom his product, it had begunwhat wasto be a long processoi segregating p€oplefrom eachotherand from th€ world around them. In essenc€both the industriâlprocessand consume.ismwer€ groundedin the processof isolation,of separation.Eachindividual did his litd€ part, only those in the upper rungs of society could bring italltogether The East,however--and Taoismin particular were found€d on synthesis;it was in unity with the world rhat the individual found hls streneth. The true Taoist did not build walls betweenhimself and the world, human or otherwise. \ùtrehad to l€arn that all over again.It was time. "Look,"John sâid kindly. ''rù/eall approachlife in a way that re, vealswho we really are. No one is ever abovethis. Sometimesit is life itself that testsus, €xposingour weaknesses to scrutiny.Practitionersofkung fu systemsare not exempt;som€timescircumstances draw us into battle with eachother, it is our karma,ifyou will. These peopleare not evil. k is simply theirway to test themselves.Can you understândthis?" I kept thinking of the HùlrlaalerTV series."l undentand your words,"I said,"but I disagreewith this reasoning." "lnteresting,"John said suddenly,stood up, and walked away. "You know," the other man said conspiratorially,'John htmself usedto challengepeople,and be challengedby people,all the time when he was younger. He alwaysfought; he never tumed down a challenge.I myself am an example.I usedto practiceand t€ach the mantisstyler I defiedJohn becauseI didn't believethe stori€sabout him. He beat me and sinceth€n I have becomehis student." "\X/hathappened:" '\vhat do you think?k is impossibleto fighr someonewith pow€r like that. For him, it was like fighting a baby." "But he didnt hurt you." "Of course nott Do you want to hear the story of a typical challenger" "Suret" 'John had gone to the United States,to California, becausehe had heard that there were peopl€ io the Chinesecommunity there
95 Lessons to BeLeârned
F
who had masteredch'i. He looked everywhereand found nothing. Finally he did find one guy in San Franciscowho was a ch'tkung marrer Iohn a.kedro.ee a demon,lrdrion "Vell, the iran rook two clay pors, one in each hand, and squeezed,exhaling with force. The pots shatteredinto pieces.The man )ooked at John; John said nothing. Then the rnan took a nail and drov€ it into a tabletop, pounding it in with his fist. StillJohn saidnothing.Finallythe manaskedastudentofhisro gerâmachete; he stood there performing rhe €h'ikung called Iron Shirt while allowingthe studenrto artackhim with the machete.The studentcould not cut through the manl flesh. "Johnturned to one oflis stLrdenrs, whom he had brought along, andsenthim out on an enand.Then he addressedthe ch'ikungmaster "'Finishedr'Johnasked. "'Yes,'theman replied, a bir put off. "'Cood. Do you hâve any coins?' "'Coins?\X/hatsort of coins?' "'Oh, anythins will do.' "Tlre man gavehim two qualrers.Johnput them in the centerof his palmsand squeezed.He handedthem back to the man folded in half. Vhen the man sawthe coins,his eyesalmosrpoppedour ofhis head. "'Do you have a chopstick:'Johnasked. "The man found a chopstick for him, and John pushedu into and through rhe tableropwirh his palm, right next to the nail. The ch'ikung masterwas stlent.Then Johnt studentcame back, he had managedto find â srraightrazor at a local cutlery shop.John gave the €h'ikungmastertherazorandaskedhim to cut hirn an).wherehe liked. Try as he might, the man could not hurtJohn, even though in the end he put all his power and emotion jnto rt. "Vhat happenedthent" I asked. "Nothing. The man had lost the contesr. "Dld he becorneJohnt studenç" "No. H€ was too proud." "Do you know why the man losn" John askedsuddenly from behind us. He had crept up silently and v.aslisteningin "Because he had only yang ch'i?"1 r€plied 96 Lessonsto BeLeârned
"Thatk correct. He was a dedlcatedpractitioner,but he didn't have all the proper information.Vhat he did was ch'ikung' but not neikuog.A man can train all his life and not get anvwhereunlesshe is conect in his training. It doesn'tmÀtterhow tflncbyou ttaint only Loruyou traln ln whatevertime you do practice. "For us in the Vest," l said,"medilation is difficult " "Yes,"he said."lt is difficult to sit still in our dav ând ase, but stillnessis the key to successin the end. Ve are overstirnulâtedbv our environment.11is hard to keep vour thoughts in the prcsent moment, isnt it? You âre alwayslooklng ahead,Iooklng back' worried âbout this, ànger€dby that. You must put vour mind on where you are 'lo'1J, not where you were or where you want to be "How do I do thatr" 'l cdnnoitell you Fachmu.t frndhi' own wa1 "Sifu, LevelFour / r' a aqeit \otnedav l asked', G/edtI thousht. HoJ,s it1' isnt by mediration, is compl€tedstrictly "Yes,"he sa;d."Meditation is most impoftant You balancevour consciousând unconsciousminds when meditating.In this dav ând agewe have come to ignore our limbic system,our stem brain, con€€ntratinginst€adsoleiyonour forebrainsaodplain logic But this is unnaturaland limits our capabilities.It is like using onlv on€ hand when you have two available" "But how can we be unaffectedby all the stressand hurrv in oul livesr"I asked. "Dif{icult. You hav€ to make consciouschoicesr€gârdingvour lif€style. For €xâmple,to cornpleteLevel Four' I left mv home and v/ent into the jungle for a year' I did thiç in order to reacha stâteof total calm. I revertedto the primitiver this is most important. Your mind must be utterly still for yang andyin to come together'I mvself managedto complete Level Four within a vear of finishing Level Three, you know." "Vhat was it like?" "You becomevery weak in the endeavof,perhaps\teaker than you were when you startedtraining in the first place You coax the two centersto go together like lovers, positive and n€gative The flrst tlme I was successfuland they met, the power was such that I fainted,as I told you before.But the book mv Master hâd siven me 97 Lessons to BeLeârned
on inner pow€r said,'lgnorethe pain. Don't focuson it, ifyou do, it will becornetoo much.' I followed that advice,but the n€xt time I tried, I couldn'l etandit eilher. It was on my third Îry that I grabb€d the power and held on to it for ten minutes.Then it was mine." "And then you becameasyou are now?/ He laughed."Of coursenotl I still had to progress,Kosta. You know, when you areat LevelFour,you hâveto sweatandstrugglefor fifteen minutes for the power to come out. lt was when I finished with Level Five that I beganto us€it." "Soyou havethe battery in your belly but you still haveto hook up the cables." "Of coursetAndjust how powertulyou becomedependsonhow many cablesyou are able to hook up, at first. 'Yes. lt become.moretomplicareda* you go on.' "But when someonecompletesLevel Four,h€ is a hsien,an im "Not in my opinion. I think thât someonehas to be more than Level Thirty to be considereda hsien." lwas going to askwhy, but lcould seethatJohn was in no mood tocontinue ihe conversation.His sonJohannsavedthe day,he came over and challengedhis father to a gameof Ping Pong John could neverresista challenge.
Chapter Seven
YIN AND YANC
Titanl to whose immonal eyes, The sulferinssof mortalit, seeûi' their sad realit, \Y/erenot as ihings that gods despise' Vhat was thy pity s recomPense? A silent sufferitg, and intenserthe rock' the vulture, and the chain' All that the proud can feei of pain Ceorge Cordon, Lord Bvron' Promei'Nrs Andreas was an Aussie of Polish extraction with all the exuberance and openness of the stereotypical Australian----a young€r form of Paul Hogan, if you will. He was a brother studentt we had met in Being around Javaat Chang Sifus horne during one ofmvtripsthere Andreas meant belng around his lncessant deluge of beer ând ciga-
rettes;usuallyit v/asfun. Andreashad alsoencounteredChang Situ under circumstances too bizarr€ to be coincidental,having sear€hedfor hirn previouslv lor nine yearsafter seeingRin4oJFne.Ve had sharedmanv strange underthe guidanceof our teacher,andtradednoteswhen cxperiences and where we could. At the mom€nt we were once agâin on ouf way to th€ prawn farm,riding in avan at high velocitvasJohnnegotiat€dthe Javanese roadswith his usualflair Vith uswasHandoko, a Chineseman who wasalsoa brother student,a good friend, and our reliabl€translator
98 Lessonsto BeLeârned
99
to Chang Sifu during those times when the discussionbecametoo "deep"for conversationalEnglish.*Handoko had a problemwfth his right leg, a congenital neurologicaldisorder that had rernaineduncured until he h;d met Chang Sifu severalyearsbefore.After con tinual treatment, his leg was coming back, nervesthat had been dormant for thirty yearswere springingto life. It was incredible to witness.Each time I visited my teacherI could seemy hiendt leg becomingstrongerand strong€r,the musclesmore pronounced;th€ circumfer€nc€of his thigh, onceatrophtedand ernaciated, waslarg€r and more powerful on every occasion. Sifu was keeping us entertainedwith a steady flov. of stories about hisyouth, his training, andhis teacher He bad promisedusan unusualdemonstrationthât eveningaswell, on€ by which he would show us what the opposing forcesof yin and yang were truly liker we were al1eagerfor th€ show and excitedby thejourney. Situ hirn self had askedus out to rhe prawn farm, and this was itself unusual; he typicallyjust told us to wait until he had returned. I had finishedt€vel One andwasbeginningLevelTwo,the hardestpartswereaheadofme So far Ihadnot trainedseriouslybut rather matter of-factly.A long seriesof personalproblems,rangingfrom my fathersdeath frorn lung cancerto a string of financialsetbacks,had impededmypracticeconsiderably. Theseproblemswerecompounded by the fact that I had managedthus far to read eveD4hingin print in Englishon neikung,ch'ikung,andTaoism,the manyrheorjesandmeth ods put forth hadconfusedmegreatlyandmademe wastea gooddeal of effon. It was ooly recentlythar I had come to understandthe two pointsmy teacherhadput forth from the beginning.The firstwasthar, althoughthe tea€hersofhis lineagehadcornehom Taoistcentenand many of his theoriescoincidedwith toist principles,he himselfwas not reallyaTâoist.Andsecond,therewereasmanymethodsof nejkung and ch'ikungastherewere ChineseMasten;you reallyshouldoot try to proeressby studyingwhatis in print. "Youwillonly confuseyounelf
thatway,"Johnhadsaid.I hadfoundthat,asfar asmy own practicewas concemed,h€ wascorrect. Neikung and ch ikung were essentiallymanifestationsof Chines€scienceand philosophyrthey had adoptedvariousreligioustrappingsover time simply in order to survive.B€ingby narurea scholar,though, I had to put it all tosether historicallyand culturallybeforefollowing a given pâth. Having satisfiedmyselfthat I had done so, Icould concentrateon my training. \X/estopped at a roadsiderestaurantând wolfed down sizâble portions of stalefood. My teachersplace of businesswas closeby; he drove off to run an errandand left us there.\Mesat ârounddrinking warm Coca-Colas. " ât do you think he'sgoing to showus tonight?"Andreassaid. His pronunciationwasratherlike CrocodileDundeeiwouldhavebeen aftera weekof drinking Foster!in theoutback.Andreastried to shove a cigarettemy wayi his fing€rsw€re nicotine stainedfrom the habit. "!flho knows. Something amazing,"I sa;d, mak;ng a face and throwing the intâct cancerstick into a nearbybin with relish. I was tired and €austic.A stomachdlsorderhad left me ten poundslighter; my clotheshuog on me like rags. "Oh come on, Kosta Don't be sucha grouch;lighten up a little." "You know," Handoko said to Andreas,"Kosta is your senior; you must alv/aysaddresshim respecttully." "Bullshit." 'Myself also.rù/eare older,you are youngeriwe have seniority." The strong Confucian ethic that bound all expâtriat€Chinese we did not agree wasan endlesssourceofsuffering to us'Ù/estemersi with it and often got into troublebecauseof this. As a Creek,rvhile I believedthat ageshouldbe respected,I also knew that th€re were a lot ofstupid oldmen out there.The thought of kowtowing io someone simply becauseof his age(orwealth) mademy blood boil.* You shouldunde$tand that, while in the Vest we repeatedlyfind in lit eraturethe imageof th€ pârentdying to savehis or her child, under the Confucianethic theserol€swe(e reveÎsed,it \ras th€ child who
-
Hândoko is p.esenrin every deep conversationin rhis book, it is only lor reasonsof expediencythat his contribution has been rernoved.Many of the major philosophicalpoiDtsare Handoko! tunslarion ofwhat Chans Sifu was tellins rrre(and orhers)in Chinese.
100 Yn ândYânB
*
Vealth and educatlonare tied tosether for the expatriateChinese,the conceptwe have in the \fest of a highly educatedûiddle cla.s is noi
101 Yn ândYân3
dutifully died for the par€nr.It was an alien and srrangephilosophy tor me, and I wasn'tbuying any. In the yearsthat followed, my contempt for Confucian morality would get me into trouble. Andreassimply could nor stomachthe thought of me being his "Kidt gettins hot," I said,and we all finally laughed. "l'll tellyouwhat I'veseen,"I told Andreas."Lastyearjohnwanted to show me what th€ yang was like. It was night. He had;ust fin ishedpJayingPing-Pongwith Johann,asthey do everyevening Situ took the Ping-Pongball in his left hand and held it in th€ center of his palm He opened hts hands and held his right palrn about two feet away.Suddenlythe ball pulsedwith a bluish-violetlighrr ir made a noise, too, sort of like a canarysinging. Bluish white sparksflew hom the ball toward his righr palm, rhey were like miniaturelight ning bolts. He kept it up for a few secondsand then handedme the ball. It wasn'toverly hot, but ir was warm. I did my usualth;ng and cut it in hâlf on the spot, which pissedoffeverybodt becauseit was the last ball in the houseand they wanted to continue their game. But I had to makesurethat therewasn'tany circuitry insidethe ball.,' "Bi! Tro$bhin Liuh Cbhq'Handoko said, referrins to a similar scenein the op€ning sequenceof th€ filn byJohn Carpenter. "Yeah,"l nodded,but my mindwas elsewhere.Iwas thinkins, as I hadtheeveningofthat pafticulardemonstrarion, of Vilhelm Reicht work in the 1940sand 1950s.Reich had sripulatedthat the particles of the unknown lifeforcehe haddiscovered,which he hadcalled the orgone bions, were blue. This was almost the samecolor the yang ch'i had become before rny very eyes when my teacher bad contained it by force of will. And ch'i was,essentially,l;feforce. Tberewerereasons why rhispaticular dernonstràrion wasthe most importantof âll that I had seen,It deftnedthe natureofthe yangch,i. Firstof all, the Ping-Pongball'ssurfacewas madeof solid nonporous plastic,while the ball itselfwashollow I had trnmediatelyaskedJohn if he could duplicatethe demonstrationwirh a solid-rubberball, and he hâd repliedin th€ nesativerthe ball had to be holtow for this particulârtest to work. His starementimplied thar what I had witnessed was not a surfacephenomenon.Rather,the energy had been transferreditide theball,whereit had shonemuch like a commonlishtbùtb 102 Yn ândYân8
On the scaleof molecularphysics,this also meant thât the en€rgy John calledthe yang ch'i was neith€ra particlenor a wave,but both I was convincedthat this demonstrationindicatedthat the vàng stipulated asthe Chineseclassics cnergywasa solarphenomenon,just Vilhelm Reich had died in federalprison in 1957 following a wilch hunt by the U.S. gov€rnmentduringwhi€h hiswork and not€s were seized-Had he discoveredthe yâng ch'i and been persecuted by the powersthat be, who didn't want such knowledgeto become common?Thisquestionfrightenedme,l wasalarmedbv what I would be facingwhen it cam€time to do Sifut book The possibility that the yang ch'i was color€d blue was impor tant to me personallyfotone additionalreason.Throughout the eastern Medit€naneanpeoplehad historicallv worn blue beadsor blue talismansto ward off the evil eye. This practic€ dates ba€k to Neolithic timesand conrinuestodây.Could it be thatthe v/earingot blue wassimply usingcolor ofyang as defenseagâinstthe pov/erol yin energy?It was an €xciting speculâtion "His right hand becamecompletely vin, his left hand vang' so sparksflew betweenthe two," Handoko said I nodded,still thinkins of Reich and his orgone Thatevenjng,sittingon a couchinJohns cozv office,the threeof usbroachedwithhim the questionof the exâctnatureofvin andvang Johnlookedat our faces,orderedcoffeefor lour,andsaxbâckcomfortably in his oflice chair;he knew itwâs going to be a long conversation "Yn and yang," he said softl, "existin the world Thev are uni versalforcesfound in all of nature,frorn one end of the univerçeto the other. They are not poetry-thev are actual, phvsical forces' tlrerefor all of us to experienc€and obs€rve" "Vhere doesthe yang ch'i corne from?"I asked "lt is in the âir.Naturecreatesit,lifeusesit Allthings that arealive haveboth yin andyang ch'j."He poundedhis desk."This is vang Of itselfit is lifeless.Fortife to exist,a body mûsthaveboth vin ândvang" All thhgs carry th yh onrbeirbacksauànJolâyat4 uitb| ûhetlth'.ila e$rg| k crîted bamoriarsly lhis stanza from the Tao Tè coûbi1ft,liJes Ching leâpt into my mind once again;it was intriguing how Chang Sifu'steachingsboth complementedand contradictedthe avaiiable lilcràtureon Taoism.
103 Yn ândYâng
,t
"Vhen you sayalllivingthings,doyou meanplanh,animâls. . .2,, "EverythinglEverythingrhat is alive hasyin and yang ch,i." "Vhere doesyin ch'i come from:,'Andreasasked. "From the earth. The yin comesfrom the earth. Ir is some kind of field phenomenonthat feedsour lifeforce. It can be btocked by insulators.For exarnple,if you have a carpet made from synthetic materialsin your house,the yin ch'i cannor passthrough ir. Thatt not so good for your health. "The yin ch'i entersthe body through an acupuncturepoinr that we call huiyit, he added."ltt located berweenthe urinary tract and Won,I thought Iarler Sly and Mother Earth,you dahdeeâ liee us tiJe. lust asa1ltheatcient culnrcsoJtheoatà belh,,ed.And,we as a specieswere destroying both in our questfor gold. I wondered;f there would be clean airenough in rhe frture forthe next generationto ger its share of yang ch'i. Or even find a place with tre€s jn it ro sit quierly and gather yin. Probably not. "Vhen we train for L€v€l One, do we gather only yâng ch'i?,, "No. You gather both yin and yang, becauserne t\{.o alwaysgo together,siruggling,one alwaystrying to complementthe other But insid€your dantien,you put only yang ch'i. The yin ch,t goeselsewhere in the body It is uselessto you beforeyou fin;sh LevelFour' 'And for Level T\i/o,' I asked,,we cornpressthe yang ch'i in our "Yes" John said. He pulled out a sheet of paper, picked up a pencil, and drew a circle on it. "Saythis is the dantjen,right? First it is empty; then we fill it wirh yang ch,i. So:
LEVELZERO
LEVELONE
104 Yn ândYâng
"Then, for Level Two, we compressthe yang ch'i and actually inlroduce twice asmuch into the samear€a.\/e make it hard, so to speak.This is what you are working on now, Kosta. As you know, you must be sexuallyabstinentto cornpl€tethis training." On the
I -
I was not very happy about the sei:ualabstinencepart, but the resultswereundeniableandthere wasno wayaroùnd it. Chang Sifui explanationhad beenvery differenrfrom rhat put forth by the orh€r theoriesI had read Accordingto mainsùeamChinesel;terature,the ideawasthat the energyin the spermofthe male (the Ch;neseword ci:ia4rneansboth 'tperm" and "essence") was transformedtnto ch't. Chang Situ had simply saidthat s€xualabstinencekept "the gatesof the dantien"opensothat the ch'icouldbecompressed. Ihad no idea whether the actual methodology followed one or the other model or both, I dil know that when tÎaining consistently,I had no problem with not ejaculating,whether I had nonorgasmicsexor simply wâs abstinent.I had no idea if that meant that the ching v/asbeing transformedinto ch'i. "And LevelThree:" I asked. He surprisedme by answering."ln Level Three we make the dântienmobile. \X/ecàn make it move, in other words. Like this,
105 Yn andYanÉ
"\Ve move it in thesefour directionsat first, like an Xr after that we can make the dantien move anywhere,'he continued. I thought about thar. I hada hiend in Creecewho was a Korean Master of Tàng Soo Do and a practitioner or neikung. He had on .everà| occa\ioncpubl'Llydemor,rrared hrsprowe\\bv bredking rvoDv-roJrwooctenbcàm\ rnvr(inadnvoncin rhe dudiente ro arrempr the feat betore he did (no one had dared).This man had a ,,ball,,in his belly at the dantien point, a solid massrhat he moved aroundat wi1l. Manipularing the ball asJohn had indicated, this man could passch i energy into his armsand leg5.One physician, upon €xam inins him, had rhousht rny frtend had cancerwhen he felt the huge lump;.the doctor had gone rhrough rhe roof when rny friend had causedthe ball to dancearound.I said as much toJohn. "lt is the sameforus,',he.epliedaftera Iong ,,This silence. manis àt leastLevel Three." "You mean the ball that movesafound in his belly corresponds to our Level Three/'l asked. "Yes.Itis a solid lump of hardenedyang ch,i he can tap into, and uçe,ar will."
106 Yn ândYâng
"Sifu,what is thediffer€ncein ability between,for exampl€,some one at Level Five and Level Six?"Andreâsasked. "The power doubles,"John saidsimply "Foreachlevela_frer Level Three, the power doubles." "Vaii a minute,"I said.Handoko, Andreas,and I looked at each other, shocked "Sifu, do you meanto say.. " "Yes.Eachlevel hastwice the pow€r of the previous." "So LevelS;xhastw;ce thatof LevelFive,LevelSev€nrwice that of Level Six, and so on," Handoko said dowly. 'Yes," John replied simply. Handoko and I looked at eachotheragain.My mouth fellopen. It must have been very surr€al,like a silent movi€ '.lesus,"I said. The implication was that the levelsof power progressed€xponentiallr followins the algebra;claw 2("3).Someoneat Level Four was two times stroogerthan a human being. Someoneat Level Six was2 x 2 x 2 = I times more powertuLAnd someooeat L€v€lThirry was 2r7tirnes (or roughly 134 ,,l;llioxtimes) more powerful than the av€ragehumanbeing, at least from the standpotntof lifeforce. Oh, I was sure that there wâs an algorithm involv€d and that the numbers did not exactly follow a linear progressionasJohns tradtUon seemedto suggest,but even if he were off by 50 percent,so what? Someoneat Level Thlrty would still be . . . a 4ol for all practical Iwas glad I was sitting down. Itwas imperativethat such power not fall into the v/rong handsin our day and age.That includednot only the criminal element oohn's stories had indi€ated rhat such power could be achieved regardlessof an tndtviduall ethics) but ConsumerProductsInternationalaswell. There was no telling what a multinationalcorporationcoulddowith sucha torce behind it. Or even a governmenragency. "Youknow,"Johnsaid,"in theentire history of China, therehave only been two people who have mad€ it all the way up to Level Seventy-Two. One was Tamo, or Bodhtdharma,who taught the monks at Shaolin.The other was Chang San Feng of the VutansPai,who was alsoone of the Headmastersin our schoolt lirreage."rl
107 Yn ândYâng
"\X/aita minute, Sifu,"Andreassaid-"ls this the sameChang San Fengthey say foundedt'ai chi chuan?" "lcân't tellyau whetheror not he foundedt'ai chi,"Johnreplied "l lo know that h€ studiedforâwhile atthe Shaolinmonasteryand thàt aftera time in isolâtionhe mad€it up to LevelSeventy-TÛoby studv ing Tàoism.He lil found the intemal school ofkung tu, of which we are â Dart.\l/e traceoùr lineageback to Chang SanFeng,you know" "Situ,"I askedslowly,"when do you ihink that Chang SanFeng lived?" "Almost a thousandyeaÎsaso," he replied. "\/hy?" Surgdyasty,I thousht. J $ lilc $e nornsaboutbin clain "Becatse different r€cordsplacehim at different times in Chinesehistol,," l said. "Some say that he lived to be five hundred yearsold. Others say that he is still alive today,that he never died."'' John was silent."He was Level Seventy Two," he said simply "Could he stillbe alive?" "No. He lived to be two hundredand di€d like any man. So did Bodhidharma." "Sifu,"Andreassaid,"will you tell us about LevelFour nowr" "lf you wish. Vhen we àr€ finished with Level Three, we send our yang down to the hui yin. There it gathersas much yin as we have sentdown yang.Afterê time, mayb€evenmonths oryears,yin and yang rise togethel like this,
'Thewhitecircleis theyang,theblacktheyio.They floataround lnside the body, and the pain is incr€dible,constant,unbelievable. Only if yoLrhave the discipline to ignore it can you control them and put their power insidc yourdâniien. At that point, they become squeezedtogether and take this shape,Iike the t'ai chi symbol."
108
I hadseenitbefore, and so was not assurprisedasthe othertwo' "lf you are successtul," John contlnued, "bv forcing the t\rr'otogether,you also force them to react Remember,thev are oot like electrical poles; they do not âttract each other, but repel This is how the spark,the lightning boll betweenthe two is generated,and you begin to becomeas I am " 'And if we are not successtul:"I asked '-fhen you will probably die,"Johnsaidsoftlv "Ther€is no point in doing this type of training unl€ssyou afe readv to die for it " There was an awkwardsilence. "For example,"John continued,"Do vou know of Mo-Tzu:" "Mo'Tzuwas the founderof our lineage He knew aboutvin €h'i andyang ch'i, but he had no ideahow to put th€ two togethe' So he experimentedv'ith his students;he told one man to try it this way, anotherto try itthat way.Many peopledied' to thesemen we owe a debt, becaùsewithout theiYsacrificewe would not have discov€red the precisemethod of bringing the two energi€stogether"' I did not knowwhat to think of this, it wasceftainlv cold' order' ing men to their deathsin a sort of humanlaboratorv'On th€ other hand, few cared to rememberhow our governmentshad gleefullv absorb€dthe informaiion derivedfron1the Nazis'laboratoryexperi ments on J€wishprisoners.And how much of ou' curr€nt medical knowledgewasbasedon this data?As a sociery we had forfeited the right to judg€ such things. I asked. "Vas Mo-Tzu himself sLrccesstulr" "No. He never managedto make vin and vang m€et. It was an unknown teacherof the school ofMo-Tzu, the Mo Pai,who finallv maoagedit hundreds of years later' After him there were various Headmastersat different levels,until Chang San Feng,who became the first to reachLevelSeventvTwo He left us a book outlining the 109
m€thodr ir was this book that Liao Sifu left to me. If and when you reach Level Three, you may copy it. But you have to learn to read ancient Chinesefirsr.', "Can you show us what yin and yang are like, individuàllyt,' "Yes.Touch rny hand.,John extended his arm, and Andreas touched his fingers with h;s own. John sent â burst of ch,i to his linsertipsr immediately Andreaspulled his hand back as it he had been,burned.I had sufferedthesamedtsplaymany t;me. in the pust. "Hot, isn'tit?"Johnlaughed. "So.when you demonstrareby sefting a newspaper on tire, it,s yang ch'i that you send down to it?', "Yes.,' "And whât is rhe yin ch,i like?,' 'Th€ yin is passive.It can only follow, never lead. It can absorb energy bur never initiate motion. you know the rites where p€ople walk on coalsànd su€hthings?', 'Ve h a v er h e mi n C r c F L àe 5w e l l t b u e d , n . $ / e L a l t t h e m r h e . Anastenària.Andreasglaredar me 'Vhenpeoph watk on coat, ius vin (h., rhar rheyrre u,ing , , \àrd.'\omerime\ John r
lt0 Vn ândYâng
He picked up an empty lruitjuice canrthe alloy wasnot the rhin alumirrurrof Coca Cola cans,but rhe thicker "tin" meial found in Lunacâns, ior example.John began to pump up the air rifler âft€r about twelve full cycles,when he could no longer pressdown the leverwith muscularstrcngth,he insefteda lead pell€tinto th€ charn bcf. He put the can on the ground with a thick phone book behind it. Placingthe muzzle of the rifle about an inch away from the can, he pulled the trigger The can was pierced rhrough both sidesdiametrically.The air rifle had power, it could easilywound human flesh. "Okay, Handoko. You first," John sa;d. He handed rne the air rifle' I pumped it twelve times and placeda pellet in the chamber John told Handoko to place hts palm over rhe muzzle of the air rifle. "Vhen I tellyou to shoot, pull the trieger immediately,"John Standingbehind Handoko, John placed the first knuckle of his risht index finser into the smallof Handokot back."Shoou"he said, and I did. Tlre rifle went off with the characteristicci:lJfmade by Handokoopenedhishand.The pelletlay in his palm. It was undeformed.Vhatever had absorbedthe momentum o[ the slug had not damagedit in any way. Nor had Handoko been harmedln the least.Neith€r had he felt anything. "Me next," l said. Ipulled a lead pellet out of the packet V;th my penknife,I scratchedthe surfaceof the slugi point. I would recognizeit in thismanner,itwouldbe impossible forsomeone to swap itwith anoiher I pumpedupthe airrifle twelvetimes,put the màrked slug in the chamber,and handedthe weaponto Handoko. I grasped the muzzle in my r;ght hand. Johncameupbeh;ndmeandpulledmy shtrtout ofmy pants.As with Handoko, he put a knuckleup againstthe smallof my back, tn the areaof my kidneys SuddenlyI felt l;ke I was being pump€dup with air I coLrldfeel my belly distendins and my bladder being squeezed,I wanted to pee.There wâs no other sensation;no cold, no rush of energy,no electricaldischarge,nothing. Just the feeling of fullness. "Shootr"John shouted. l Yn and Yang
heardthc cû4fland
lookedinro .l ,n-ked p.rr.t,,,ndeio,,,,.fi; ;;.ii;ljî;Jil,î:l:,f:::;l; *':rïi'-Ii'ï::T-'the
rishtest touch'butthatwasail
Jvas intrigued; rhe.air rifle had pierced both sidesof rhe ,,rin,, -"-
,1;*m,,:,,* :ï{,!ii;ryïîî:iï};:..:h:rffi j ffi;liirT:i,iï 'llïi:ï:î:;i;i:i:ï;:t*;iff j:lï
no way we would nor have beenwoundedby tfr. o.il.,, n .f,""la
do\r.n ro thebone,cuttinsthroush muscre
H:.""ï."11i*i"
And the slugwasundeformedt Vhateverhad protectedus had prore:red ir dçwell Thi\ wd\noràninv,.ibt. f,"ra,fl,aa ,i" r n o r v r d r , d td \ \ o m e d u r h o , r ( , € \ \ e e r n l o \ u g g e \ r \ V h a r e , e"-r"a r*a.rh.,e
;:i:::"î::,:;,
rhe wc,horer",h-.,,,,,"; "", "r, enerev
,.;;
rwl\ dr1zy. rhatenbv rheimprrtarron rheFrrsr ^, raw or If:ufenlv hermodynamir\ did nor
' . l;:':l::;:i:'lj;nkrng
orrhepowerrurge"jns '|heir hànd\ on
-\.4€,ner,, Andrea\âJmo.rl.apr our or hr\.harr
rohn.. d ,^".i:i,;:it:ll:il*l:::f ;î;:l;e,,".,"nr -o immediat€lv besanto pumpaptheairrifre
*nn',f,j;.o""nt"o
"Twelvetimes, no more,,,John warned,nc.
e .hn,.., ^.,,ii:i:;t1î*::*ï:.ï:l i::ïi,:.r*-dhe and,oo(ed Andr ea.rah,,";,.ï." ;:;;i :;l;.ï i."ji;1 il;,.
r1e rdlrer"d.t. dn loo( mean whenI wanrro.Balk"n,*,ut ,.o,ur., tohn rhouredand I did Therewa,d shorkedtook ,,.\h*], qndreà\sld(e. hc wd\ on worlred.He e\pêcredrhe wor\t pe er tetl oll hA.beltv. Thereua, a
.,.ii:;"ïjl:;T:::.::d
rooked at,hemark''\y4r"."... ";;;;;;l;
"Because of Kostar He had a look on his face like he ,ratltedto "Nonsense,,I said.,'l normally use a sawedoff shotgxn fo. that sort of thing. Lesschanceyou'd get up.,, John glared at me, then turned to Andreas.,,tf you are fr;ghte n e d o r y o u r e m o r i o n \ d r c s o i n s s i t dr h ey , n r n , n o rb e r r j t e J n o I r à n n o rp r o t e L\ro u r , m u ,h a , w h e n v o u a r er a l m . f h a r s why you were bruised,, I picked up the iead pellet. It was undeformed, as before. I said asmuch and showedir toJohn. Oh y:: he rard I g"re hrmrhe vrn enerev heru.rrhrewa brr , 01rr oui or his body by be,ngafrard.,, r.anwe hold rhi\ vrn Fnergyvou 1dn\le. ro u. rF.ideoLJl , ,"Çifir. Dodres ior long pelod5of hme-',I a5k€d No.Youranonlvte.pa,muchvrna,vou h a v e r a r g $ / h e nI , oo d demonsrrdlion trkerhrs rhe vrn energyI grveyou lea,her trom yourbodv dtmo,trmmedrdlelv lr r\ d wd\rcot .nv own energywhi.h I have to replenishby rneditation.,, "So yoLrdon't like to do this very o[ten... 'Of cowse not I did ir for you students,so rhat you can undefstandwhar the yin ch,iis like.,' "Thank you, S;tu,,we all chimed in together I was silent for mosr of thar evening.The exisrenceof yin en ergy as a phenomenonrhat was associated with rhe.n..gy iield of our plamrroutdposrbll irll in manygap,,n held rh.o,y ; s.";.J. w rar wa\ ilr rohnhad\ardlhàI ir\ behdvrorwa\ rrmrlarro rharol an elec.romagnetictield, rhat an insulatorcoutd btock it, and thar its flow could be easilydisrupted.Howcould any scientisrcharacterize a phenomenonhe could not trace?And how couro any screntjstresrstsuch_ a challengerFor example,germsand bacteria float around ur dnd rh'oush u5 bv rhe bi ,on. bur we eannordr.ecrtvpercerve d r . c o r e no r , h c m , c , o , . o p
112 Yn ândYâng
ï3 Vn ândYânÉ
quantified soon, with all the work being done on vital energieçand psychic phenomena.But of the yin, w€ll, the \Y/estdid not yet lravc There would be a Nob€l Prize for the scientistwho idenritied either yang or yin energy,of this I was sure-I also knew that thc current shapeof the world wouldchangeonce we understoodch'iand for the better. Lif€ and naturewould no longer be denied. John had mentionedthat a studenthad to be at leastLevelThrec to be âble to s€nsethe yinr that a humân being, by his own naturc yang/ cannot sens€yin energy dir€ctly. Rather,a human sensesthe trcse$c.of yin by its r€action to the yang. Here is an unidenriijed force that leavesno traceofitself, thatwe cannot feelinsideourown bodies even in excess(unlike electricit, but perhapslike gravity), but whose resultsI had v.itnessed,experi€nced,ând felt It wâs a frustratingposition for an engineerto be in. I had seen the "ether"but neededa way to prove its existenceto the world.rl Vhat was also intriguing wâs the fact that most people in the \ftst think ofyin and yang asphilosophicalconceptsrather than as actual physical energies.A s€riouspresentationplacing the rwo in an orthological vein wouldbe revolutionaryat best.Oh, rherewerc plenty of reterencesin the lit€rarure to yin and yang âs physical energies (particularly in maftiâl arts books and related texts on ch'ikung), but most sinologistsconsideredyin and yang oo more than dualistic modelins, much like computer binonials. Similarly,I had seen many respectedauthorstrcat Taoism like poetry, rath€r thân the collection of adual biophysicallearnng rLwas. I flnally grinned, a particularlyevil grin, thinking of the trouble I would stir up given the opportunity. Later thài nisht I traded ooteswith Andreas,who had studied physicsat college.He washoÎrified. "Keepthis quiet," he said "Let's digest it ànd seewhere it takesus. Maybe the world ts not ready for information of this sort at the mom€nt. Maybe it neverwill be." I grumbled somethinguncomplimentaryin return and wished him a good nisht. To bellaith yo r Jean,[il, I rhousht. Tèn ro one Andreashad nev€r actuallyread Coethe! Fact anyway.I could not deny, though, that he had a point Andreas'sconcernswere justifiable ifyou soughtto simply quantifyJohnl powersûit ortrhe proper 114 \4n ând YânÉ
rplfitual iosight, in cssenccsubjugatingEasreDscienc€to Vestern. l-lcll dld indeed gape wide irs doors ar th€ end of rrri road. But I r.ckoncd the trajl to successfollowed a more precipitousroute. \Me htd to rcris?Vestern physicaltheory and convrncescrenrsrsro emIlncc the conceptsof yin and yang ch'i. In doing so, the boundary hctwccnphysicsand metaphysics$.ould inevirablyfall, alt€ringrhe worldk destiny forever.For th€ better I hoped. The role model we had to emutate here was not Faust, bur l'tonrctheus.I coLrldsee that John burned with the compulsion to Itrlng the knowledge of this particular fire to mankind. \/hy etse lCccpl \l/estern stlrdents?My main apprehensionwas making sure thnt the informarion would becomepublic knowledse. I want€d to lhnkc up the statusquo rock the chairsar rhe top and the founda ll0ns at the bottom. I had thought of a hundred applicarions,and worked out àn approàchtoward quanrifyingthe phenomenon. Iwondered if the gods would chain me to a boulder and have an ltgle eat out my liver if I rnadethe attempr l)crhapsit would even be worth ft. I would wait and see I slept like a baby, ôeaming ot Byron.
115 YinândYânÉ
A Collection of Sacred-Magick.Com < The Esoteric Library wi!h Chincscphilosophvin the Vest'" isnrhasbeconc synonyrnous "Yes,but for us Chinese,Taoism is the sameas Tao chiao, the Taoist religion. \X/ein the Mo-Pai afe not Taoiçts You \X/estetn€rs
ChapterEi6ht
THEVILL OF HEAVEN
\7e were having a heatedargument.The issueat hand was, once again,whether or not what John was teaching could or should be labeledTao;sm. The combatantswere rnyselfandVei Chin, the Level Three student who had previouslytaught the praying mantis style of kung tu. Handoko was the referee,and Andreasthe audience. The ring was John! front porch, as usual,and the fisht was very bloody. I had rny opponentcornered,but he wastough, he managed to slip and slide on the ropesal vill, avoiding my "blows."Justwhen I thought I had him in the crushinggrtp of reason,he wriggled free and punchedback hard. It was tun. No on€ \r.aswinning. ''Iàoisrn," \x/ei Chin said,"is a religion \X/eare a school of kung
tu."
"Yes,"Isaid, "but we are a school ofkung fu whose Headmasten camefrom Taoistcenterslike Lung Hu ShanandVutang-shan.Also, much of the trâining is v€ry basicTaoist internal alchemy,just like you read about in the litemtu:e, and the resultsare very much the "The training method is very differentrit is not at all the same." "Okay, but it dealswith many of the sameconcepts.Inthe Vest, when you talk about yin and yang, or the t'ai chi stateof our Level Four,or neikung,then you are talkins dbout Taoism.The word Tao-
116
It was an interestingdile[rrna Vei Chln was verv educatedin Chincsehistory and culture by traditional schooling;I had read cv erythins publishedin Engliçh on Chinesephiiosophv. All four of us were speakingat once when John came outside carrying a cup of coffeerwe must havebeen like somethirg out of a cartoon to him. He stood and watchedsilentlv for a vhile' amused' "Vhat are we arglringabout?"he asked 'Taoism,"the mantiç ieachersaid. Johnjustnoddedandpullcdup a chair "Okav,"he said"'tonisht t will tellyou aboùt my owo spifitual beliefsand expcriences.Then you can comparcmy beliefswith Taoismasvolt wish." There was a stunnedand suneal moment of silenceon the fac€s ofus two Vesterners,to be replacedbvlooks ofavid greed l shut up completely,and Andreasdrew closer' "Vhen Iwas young,"Johnbegan,"l reallvdld not pavattention to the different things that my teacher,Liao Sllu' had told me about metaphysics.I was not really interested,vou sceiI wanted çimplv io learn to fight and to have power But m:nv of the things cameback to me latc. I have already told you how, eventuallv,after I corr pl€ted Level Fout my Mâsters spi'it found me and grridedme for many years.He would alwayscome when I called hlm' and some times when I didnt call hirn, more ofren than not to scold me for somethingthat I had done wrong " He took a sip of collee and looked at me "Liao Sltu performedmanymiràcles,vou know lt is unfortunàte that none of the peopleinvolved are now willing to come forth ând testily.' "For examplez"I asked. "Okay, two cases.One is a student of mine who was riding on his motorcycle when he suddenlvgot an intensefeeling that something wâsvery wrong. He pulled over to the side of the road lnside his wallet h€ kept my picture' he pulled it out and pravedup to the
117 The\/illofHeâven
heavensaloud:'LiaoSifu,'hesâid,'pteas€, S,-ft,,4,*whatev€ri1 is that is happeningand is a threat, pleâseprotect me and my fâmily., At that very moment this mant brother was crushedby a truck in a constructiirn accident. Everyonethought that he was dead, it was impossiblethât he was alive, for a cement truck had failen on him. Vhen they clearedthe truck from his body, though,they foundthat the man aliveandùnharmed" John searchedour facesand saw acceptance.Ve had seen too much to disbelieve him 'Another incident," he continued, ,îas the case of the highjncome slrrgeonwhose daughter had developed bone cancer She was hospitalizedin Singapore,ànd the only treatrnentrhey had for h€r was to amputateher right leg before the cancerspread.In desperation he came to me asktngfor help, he was not a student,jusl sorneonewho knew about rne. I càttedmy teacherand askedhirn whetheror not he would help the doctor, and he said,,Oh, him. He always refusestreatment to thoçe who cannot pay him and deals with Deoplelike cattle. You tell him that if he wantshis dâughterto becornewell, he must firsr sive a third of all his wealth to the poor, and then every night for a week, from midnight to five in the morning, he must stay a{/ake and beg Cod for forgiveness.Only then \Vill I give him the medicine to help his girl., 'Meanwhile the daughterwasunder a time constraint;they had to amputatethe leg lrjth;n a lew days to saveh€r life. But the man believedin us becausehe had heardso much and decidedto rrustus. He gave away his money as Liao Sifu had ordered, and spenr hjs ev€ningsin repentance.Vhen the weekwasup, he cameto me ask, ins forthe medjcine,but Liao Situ would not answermy call. So the man went back to Sinsaporefuriousand cuning me. \ù/hen he got th€re, he put his daughterthrough a completeexarnination,hoping that there was rime to amputatethe leg. Of the bone cancer,they c o u l dn o r J r n d ar r a r e i t u a . r o m p l e r e l y g o n e . He took another sip of coffee.Ve were all sjlenr,enthralted. "Liao Sifu! spirit was with me for abour fifteen years.In that time it was jmpossiblenot to develop a deep int€rest in the meta " Literallr'?ràidfather-teacher." 118 TheWiliofHeâven
I beganto 'ee splttt' ohvçrrrl.sncc I dcahwrrh iLrlmu'r cvcrvdav and I srrllrememberrhe rrrsrrrmerhdLI '..'. ii."r,.' r "or' """"a nrvselfwas out of mv phvsicalbodv'" off into He leanedback "l was lving on mv bed when I drift€d bed on the mvself meditation. Suddenlv Istood there looking at
iii"*r,
sotbiso.tsrbenv vinboâva ' *."*nr' il,, t is tttvtdl1sbodv'
prove io h* ^*d Jrolttoîeto theotherSo I wanted to ^n **,a^*" over to the ,,i,r."tl ,t'u, *t u, ** f'uppeningwas real First I walked nothins but click' the iinf',.*i,.1 *a tried to turn it on l heard
il"i...i,
ad t6. r;grrtstavedoff o[av. I thorght'I'll ualkoutside
it ajar' So I openedthedoorand walked out' leaving hi'*'d"*"1* were sometaxi drivers Itookawalk aroundthe house Outsidethere I rnemorizedtheirtaces sittingaroundonthesidewalkplavingcards; of their cars' and nÙmben licençe -d Jhrt th.y.,.l... *.arins' the op€n andwent wentback inside.I madesureagainthat the doorwas Valking towaro to the bedroom,where I saw mv bodv on the bed wereo{r lrghLs 1 he ir I wa. .udd€nlvdwakc h rngdown | 'rood up I thoÙsht Then I and rhe.qrtch had not be'n roved :rr'!eorr there' it was locked walked to the door to scewhat had happened O[al o' r l"a left it b€fore lvins down on the bed' ".Jl"lt.a,l',t ThereIdidinde€d srri[etuo, I thought So I went outsidemv home plaving cards'th€ same them, just seen asI had find the taxi drivers, faces,th€ samevehicles.' Kosta' The He looked at me "l know what vou are thinkins' risht? time' th€ rÔomsall sâm€thing happensin hospital operating point ,lr. ,i-., it wâsa new experi€nceAnd trom that S", f.. .J "t did people who on t.o.,ta una.rstund*hat washappeningto those waçsimplv mov their consciousn€sç haveout of-bor1vexperiences, ltwas not mûch later ing from theiryâng energvto theirvin energv that I learnedto do so at will' 'Ànnvay," hecontinued,"allduring thosefifteen vears'Liao Sifu the mountainsand kept telling me thàt it was mv dutv to go up to and women Frnallvtn soendtirnein r"treat dwrv lrom orhermer w o r l df o r e t e rh t qt e t mo t r ' g o : ' , , , - " r , , n ei o r h r mr o l c a v er h i ' 'This is vour lastchance" penunc.lvu,o'ne,*d h. couldgo up to Cod 'f,t or n€ver''I had no inter€st in soins awav' I i. .lta . *.. "* time' ând mv businesses lik€d my life just finer I was having a good 119 The Will of He.âven
\
weresuccesstul liut because I had promiscdt_iàoSjlu that I woutd,I finally did leave.One day I put on comfonableclorhesand shocs,put my passportin my pocket,and took a fcw hLrndreddollarswith me. I alsoworé my RolexbecauscI vanted somethinsthat kept time wetl and that I could trade lor money tf I becamedesperare. I had no idea wherc I would be sent, Ithought the Himalayasor somerhinslike that So I told my wife I wasgojog down to rbe prawn farm for a few daysand kissedher and rhe children soodbye On the way I handed rny chauffeura letter explainingeveryrhing,then I told hjm to stop for a while on the side of the road so that I could buy cisarettes.I disappearedfrom sight. After a few hours of looking for me, he re turned home and handedthe lefter to my wife. She cried and cried, and so d;d the children,but becauseI had alreadyarrangedfor their protectionand their welfare,therewas not much more I coutd do. "l finally wound up in rhe junste, along the border between Mâlaysiaand Borneo.The closestsmallvillagewasa three-daymarch awayr I was isolatedfrom soci€ty.I hated the place at first. Vhen night fell, I could not seemy hand in front of my face, jf I tried to light a fire, so many mosquitoescamethat they would eat me alivel tsutit was there that my teacherhad ins;stedI go. "Therewasnot much to eat;I had to huntwild boarandscrounge for benies and fruit. The funny thing was that there was a tribe of Dayak nativesrherewho harassed me and finaily attackedme openly with spears,and on one occasionarrows.I pulled down a large tree and set it ablazewirh my ch't, after that they left rne alone. It rnust have been very lrightening for rhem. I ber they are srill s€arins naughty children with storiesabout me " \(e all laughed,I could imasineJohn rhe practicaljoker retishing the occasion.Poor natives. "Anyway,"Johncontinued,"ir u.asthere that I stayedand lrredi tated, living in a cave.lt rainedfreqLrently, and food wasscarce.De spitethat, aftera moDthI could standit reasonably well, aftersix months I did not want ro leave. "ln time, somethingv€rystrangehappened.I could spendlonger and longerperiodsin neditârion, once I didnot move foreight days. And my consciousness wouldfly allovertheworld asIdesired.Isaw rny family in their home soins aboùt theilbusiness;Isaw rny friends 120 The wll of Heeen
and felatives,€veryoneând anyonc I wanted to. All I had to do was wish to seesomethiogand I was there, if I closed my eyes,actual eventswould flashacrossmy mind asif I were watchins television.I wrote Iettersto family and friendstelling them what they were do ing on specificdays,then madethe trek to rhe village ro mail th€se lettersto them. They were very surprisedwhenthey receivedtheml lrememberevenwatching them asthey receivedihes€letters.----seeing the look on their faceswhen they readwhat I had written. "ln thât mountainI sawmany spjritsiindeed,spiritsand animals were my constantcompanions.And when my consciousness had expanded,I could seespiritssoinsup r€gularly.One day Ibecamecuriousanddecidedto follow them, to seevh€re they were going. I sent my awareness out of my body and accompaniedthem asthey w€nt. '"Ihe earth recededbelow me, and somehowthere was a shift, I cannot explain what I felt. I was suddenly in a wave of blackness, around me there was much pain and anger and hate and jealousy I left that placequickly ro find myself in a field of whue, there I saw many spirits around rne wlro were very joyful. Someof them were makingmotionsasiftheywere eatingand drinking ând invited me ro join in. O[l)', I thousht, I'd lik?d rteceoJcrtcln. Vithoui warnins, a tastydrumstickapp€aredbeforeme,wben Igrabbed;t, though, I saw that it \Lasnot real,that it wasan illusjon forthe benelit of rhe spirits in that place \{ho ihought they were still human. Still, I saw other soulssoing hisher and higher. I follo\i/ed rhem rhroush two more levelsofwhite energy,andbeyondthat point I couldpassno farther" Iohn paused,and I checkedan urse to interrupt him. Therewer€ so mâny questionsthat I wanted to ask He was,after all, describtng "After a while," John cootinued, "l becarneworried about my physical body, becauseI knew that tlrne passedvery differently in tbât place, and I had no idea how long I was gone. I decided to return to the earth. In doing so, I passedonce again thro{rgh the black wave. I was curiousryou cannot see anything at all in that place,but you can hearthe spiritsmoaning.So I approachedone of th€m and ask€dhim,'Hey,how areyou doingr'(Yes,Kosta,assimple as thatl) He said,'Oh,I hurt, I'm in pain.'Suddenly I becamevery afraid,and with that strong emotion I woke up back in my body." 121 TheWillofHeaven
Vhat do you say in responsero a story like that2 I had heard it in short form in the pasr,but that had not had the impad of this longernarration.That he had catledspiritsbeforeme Ino longer doubted, on three separâteoccâsionçhe had spoken to the shades of the deadwith me as the silentwitness.Vhile I could not, as a scjentist,swearin courarhat he was not producingan illusionfor my benefit through hts Lrndeniablepowers, I would have to ques tion the motivation lôr producing a fraud of this sort. He certainly had no need to trick us. I did nor doubr rhat john could make me seesomethiog that wasnot th€re should he choose,but why woul<1 I recalledthe shaman;sticorigins of Taoistpractices;,a what he hadjust describedwasvery similarro thejourney of the shamaninto the spirit world, in€luding rhe various levels. I was very sure that Joho had never readJosephCarnpbell;he was describingwhat he had seen.And he gainednothing by fickery. Indeed,he sacrificed much becausehis powerswere very real. "ls there any way of telljng if someonewill becornea white or blackspirit?"1asked John shot me a piercing look. ,,Youar€ thirkjng of your father,,, he said.'rvell,y€s,ifth€irpassage is not duetovioleoceoraccident, then usuallyyou can tell by the look on their faceswhat w;llbecome of them. They get a glimpse of what li€s in srore for them before they completely leaveour world.,, My father had died wùh retiefafte, fishting rh€ cancerfor half a year. Indeed,he had died conscjously,wairing for all of us to gather aroundhim beforele$ing go of his finalbrearh.Isaid asmuchtoJohn. "Your father is probably a white spirit now,',h€ said.,,Butyou know, becausehe had no yang to take with him, his natu.eis much sirnplerihân you think." "Vhat do you mean,Situr" I asked. "l meanthatatypicalspiritisbasically likeourunconscrous mrnd. He cannofthink deliberarely, makedecisions,orcreate.He is subject to whateverhe hasbroughtwith hjm.,'John\,r'as silenrfor a time, then caught my eye and held me wrth his gaze. ,For example,,'he said, "your fathercan remembereverythingabouryou He knowsthat you are his son. He rernembersholding you in his arms when you were 122 The \\/illof Heaven
to love vou " born. Vhat hc cannotrcmcmberi$ whal it waslike Ve were shocked,all oi us 'to what detinesth€ir "They haveonlv vin," he continuedsoftlv' That is whv it is so conlinuation is simplv their karma,good or bad' your time com€s' lmportântto haveyang to take with you when that wav vou retain vour humâniry" l whisper€d John "Because dântien somenodded approvinglv "Does having vang ch'i in our how lessenthe effectsof karmal" l askedhirn be re"No. You still have to pay for what you have done- or all around' and warded.But having yang with vou makesit easier more deliberateeither way.' "Heavenand hell," Andreassaid "Not really,"Johnansw€red"None ofthe conditionsIdescribed " is permanent.After a time all spiritsreturn to Cod sinc€ Andth€re itwas, the bigquestionthat I had dancedaround I dared' "tell us I had come io know him. I could not resist "Situ"' Codwas aboutCod. Youmention Hlm frequentlv" Andmentioning between notvery Taoist,I thought, perhapsthis was the disiinction John'steachingand mainstreamTaoism one bv one "All right,''he John leanedback and looked at us of hearts'I did sald."BeforeI went up to the mountain' in mv heaft everv Sundav' not real1ybellevein Cod Oh' I usedto go to church Ct'ristian' but I hâd no faixh;I went to church ...i""ttv f., f " "to expematter-of factly Vhen I was up in the mountain' I wanted rienceCod for mvself,to seeif He was real or not "l prayedandl pravedfor weets, askingCod to revealHimseli mv awâreness to me. Finally I sat down in d€epmeditation and sent 'Cod' please asking' I kept out asbelore. Everv dav,every rnoment, Piease' correcç tell me the trlth aboutthe afterlife;which rehgion is perçist€nce it with at I kept Lord, tell me.' I receivedno answef'but me "\lgithout wârning,on€ dav a voice boomed in the âir above It was like a thunderclap,and it saidto me: n€ed "'R€ligionis like a walkins stick Vhen vou arevouns' voLr needa cane' help from yout parentsto walk \Vhen vou are old' vou a cane' it vou Vhen you are a healthv adult, vou have no n€ed for like thatr to ch tty to *n, ,t *ill onlv hinder vou All religions are ' Cod directly, and vou will have no need of them
123 TheWillof Heâven
"l came out of meditarionwirh a srart, ir was so strong and so realt I had felt the words like a vibration inside m€. Ar fircr I was ecstaric,but when I tried to reach the voice again,there was no answer So after a time I beganto doubt; finally, I no longer believed that it was Cod, just some strong spirir hêving fun with rne. I had had many experiencesof the sort with L;ao Sifu, remember,and I knew that rhe.e were many such beingsour there. Finally I became very angry.l roamedaroundthernounta;ntopslike a madman scream lng up ar neaven. "'ïàlk to me, Cod,' I screamed.,lf you do not talk to me, I will not believein Yout"' John chuckledto hirnself 'You cannorjnlâsinewhat Iwas Iike,,, he said."l wasvery thin becauseI d;dn,thavemuch to earrmy beard and hair were long becauseI had nothing to shavewith. My clothing hung on my body, and Imust have smelledvery bad I moved foom tjmes of extremely deep meditation to moments of extreme rage as if someonewere throwjng a swirch inside mei I oft€n sat down in the lorus position in Deditârion and rhen suddenlyleapt up all in one motion to go running around the mounraintops.All rhat time I had only one thought in mind, to speakwith the Lord Cod. I wanted proof rhar He was real. "Eighrdayslaterithappened.Iwas in meditationat the moment and begging Cod to let me come ro Him. Suddenlya star bright ened incredibly, like a second sun, and fell out oÊthe sky wi;h a crashto land before me in an explosionof earrh and dust. k made a huge hole and lay there,burning. A wind like a thousandhurricanes buffeted my body and shook the ground. "'You are not yet cleanenoughto come to Me!,ê voice said,and Iknew it wasHim "l came out o[ meditation \.rith a srart and op€ned my eyes. In hont ofme wasa larsecraterin rhe eround.And Iknew one thing in my heart that made me happy beyond belief: Th€ vojce was still with met Cod was allowing me to speakwirh Him. 'Many thinss I askedHirn in the daysthat followed, Iwanted to know what sort of behaviorwas right and what was wrong. For €xample, I wanted to know if fjghting was okay,sioce I was a kune fu
124 Ihe \)(/illofHeâven
Mastcrand had becnin nranylishts Thc voicetold me that it was mdnv all rightto dclcndnryscll,but Ishouldneverinitiateaggressioni thinss werc Ndsed by how vou felt inçlde lf I was afrajd for mv safety,I could evenrtlrcl lirst to protect mvself and mv familv' but there were no fine lines governing behavior' it all came down to how you felt ins;de. "l askedHlm about hunting and killins same l detectedamusemeot in Hisvoice when he answer€dthatquestion'becauseHe said' 'You are asking Me about thls becausevoû killed a wild boâr last week to eat, didn't you? It's okav to kill for food, all of nature is a strugglefor sLrwival.But you must never kill for sport or for pride, becauseall of natLrrebelongsto Cod."' John bowed his head. "Anywav, manv things like that I asked Him, to somequestionsI receivedanswers,to othersnot " Helooked up at us and smtled. Andreasbroke the silence."Sifu, are vou saving that vou spoke to Cod:" "l think so,"Johnsàid."l spoketo an unbelievablvpowertul sentience.\X/heiherit was Cod or somekind of angel or other spirit, I really don't know to this dav But soflrlrin4câme and answeredmv que\lion..dnd stavedwrrhm< lor a Iong time "How long were you up in the mountains2"l âsked ''Iwo years,"he sald."l cameback down becausernv son devel oped rheumâtoidarthritis. Vestern medic;necould do nothins for hlm; my hiends took hlm to ô nativc healer,who simplv said,'Onlv the faiher can cure ihk boy.' So I cameback " "Did you €ure him2" "Yes,with acupuncture,within two monlhs " "And you iust lærohe was illi no one sent vou a message? "l have alreadytoJdyou that, when I was up in the mountâins,I couldseepeopleand placesfar awavdlrrins the time lsPentin meditation. I watch€dlny family a lot, it helped me feel lesslonelv" A sewant carneout with tea, which we gratefullv accepted No oBewaswillingto stârtupthe convenationagain Vhatwe hadjust heard had shockedall of us more th:n anvthingJohn had ever said ordone. Herewas a man who statedvervsimplv ànddirectlv that he
,| TheWillofHeaven
had spokento Cod, it was the pinnacleof humanexperien€e, and there was not much anyonecould add to rt. There were a thousandthinss thâr I\.ranledto askhim. \(/e have lost the luxuiy in this dây and ase of being able to speakin such personaltermswhen describingthe erernal,societyand scjencebe ingwhat they are.Peopledonljust sit down and askCodquestions The Lord Cod Himselfi \Xfty the h€ll not2I beljevedrny teacher.At leastI believ€dthat he was neither a liar nor delusional.He had seen . . something. I darcd the question."Sifu,when you spoketo Cod, dtd you ask Him what happensto our soulsafter we drer He looked puzzled. "l have aheady describedthe btack wave and the white wave ro you," he said. "Yes,and you said thar neither cond ron was permanenr,that aker a time all spiritswenr up to Cod " "Yes." "Sowhat happensnext2Do we reincàrnate2 Do we live only one iife? Do we ceaseto exisP \X/hart the story?,' "l have alreadytold you rhat I dont know "But. . . ." "He never answeredthat question."Johnpulled out a cigaretre, lit;t up, and leanedback."lcd, tell you what Imyself, as an indi vidual, believe.This is not somethios that Iteach, I have students who areChristian,Buddhist,Muslim,skepticslike yourself,andmore. NeikuDg has no basisin religioustheory. lf you wanr my own oprn, ions,you arewelcometo rhem,btrrrcmember,they arenothingmore than my own opinions." "Okay." "l believethat ir is logical for reincarnationto exist,sinceCod is very just and very fâir. !/hy should someonesuffer for sorneth;ng that they hav€n'tdon€: Vhy shoutdone man be born a cripple and anothel with everything?It doesn'tseemfâir or even logical. So et th€r the univ€rseis unjust or, if you believe in a just God, then He hasplannedforjusticein our lives.So I beleve rn rejncaroation., I did not want to debatehim, different religjonsin rhe historyof humanity have even postulatedthe exisrenceof an nj sr Cod to explain lifes disparatedisrributionof blessiùBs. 126 The \(illofHeven
"You have rnentionedkarma* to mc in the past,"l continued. '"Ihe consequenceof our actions?" 'Action and reaction.People paying for bad actioosand being rewardedfor good ones.Makes sense,doesn'tit?" "Doyou believethâtsom€onecaniestheirkarmawith them from one life to the other?"Andreasasked "Yes.I personallyas an individual,yes,"Johnanswered. I had studied Buddhismior many years;one of the issuesnot addressedsufflc;entlyby thât religion (in mv opinion) is the very obviousevolution of the speci€sgoing on continuouslyaround us, as if by divine p)an. And man'spresenceand developmenton the planet cannot be accountedfor with satisfaction,even bv modern science,giving rise to theorieç of little green men performing ex perimentson primatesand what not "Sifu, is evolution directed?"I cha.gedto drive the point hom€. "Sorryr" "DoesCodhave a plan for man and the earthr Is therea gùidins intelligencebehind everything?" "ln rny opinion, yes." And there it was,the core of religion'sdebatewith science. "And is this God a judge:" I continued "Does He decide everyonetkarma?" "No. Ve dec;de our own karma Cod HllTrse]finterferesvery âfter oLr little in our livesand in the judgment of our consciousness deaths." "But what about the white wâves and the b]ack wave vou described2" "Vhat about themr" "Doesnt God decidewhosespirit goesinto which areaand how long he remainsthere:" "Not r€allyr kârma decidesthat. Cod baslcallvintercedesvery little in the courseof affairs.Ve call the will of heaveniolo in Chi' nese.Forexample,thatyou Kosta,andvouAndreas,arehere isiodo
*
or"actron The Sanskritwo.d means"consequence"
127 Thewillof Heâven
Do you know how many peoplchavecomesearchinslof me ancl could not find me?It is the will of heaventhat you are here.', Ve lookedateachother Ve hadcertatnlyboth foundourreacher under inusual cjrcumsrances-tflpo5sir/s circumstances,starisrically speaking. "Sifu,"l insisred,"\(/hy isnt findingyou merelyjust good karrna: l(hat rs the differenceberweenjodo and kârnal 'lodo começfrom Col,'he said."Karmacomesfrotr ls " "So Cod hâsa plân,butit is rp tous ro live up to jt,,,Andreassaid "Yes,"Johnanswered"And you will reapthc consequcnceot a your actions,whether good or bad. Karnrais purely naturallaw, like jodo is the wjll of heaven.I cannotmakethiogs biolosyandphysics; any clearerthan thar. For mosr people,jodo simply decidesthe tine and placeof thetr btrth and the tirneand placcof their death.Bui bad karmacan alsomakeyour Iife shortcri if you aredestinedro live a hundredyears,you may wincl rrp living lifry rnsreao. "For example,"he continued suddenly,,,I_iaoStfu coutd sce an individuali kama and dc€idero hcalhilr) or not basedon thatkarma He could also seejodo, the will of heaven,as it approached.Let rnc tellyouàçtory..."
a r r a n g e m e nxxosv i s i l h i m o n a g i v e nm o r n i n ga n ds e to u t t o t h e m a n s house.Itwas roughly ten o'clock when he arrived.A seryantopened the door and Liao was usheredinto the manl inner chambes. His hi€rid roseto Areethim. "Liao Situ," he said,"once asain you ho.or me." Liao stoppedbriefly in his tracks,stunned.He could seethat the mànwas soins to die at noonrJodo,thewiU olheaven, was standina He tousht back an urse to sit down. Outwa.dly, his lriend de tected nothinA amiss in the old Master! composurerindeed,what had seemedlike an endlesspaur€to Liao had beenlessthan a quarter ol a secondin real time, undetectableto the other. "l cannot stay at the mom€nt, my friend," Liao said,"but I wart yoû to do me à favor" He noved with preternaturalspeedand stole a blank sheet of pàper fron his kiend! desk,seeminslypùllins it out from urder his "Do you have an enveloper"he asked. His f.iend handed him one, and Liao folded the pàper inro the envelope.Afterwritingsomethingon ihe top andscalingit, he handed 'At
exactly elevenforty-tive,l wantyou to take this envelopeto t h e t o p o f t h e h i l l a t w h o s eb a r e y o u . l a n db e s i n s à, n d l € a v ei t t h e r e , "
The Letter Old l.iao had fev friends, becàusemost people consideredhim a srange and alien being, and so he held his true friendsvery dear He hàd enjoyed himself gready i. Javai for the fiBr timc in his tifc he had bcen a nember ot a boisrerousand conle.reo numan socrery Neitherthe ci.cumstâncesof his yourh no. thc içolarionolhis middle yeas hadoffercdhin much hopeforjoy in Iife, a,ro Lneconseqùence! ot his cÎeat cfime haunted Ëim conriûuoudy with evil forcboding Liaohad foundpeaccin Indonesia.He had ùany d.q fricnds, and he was widely respectedas a sreat neârer. Andhe had the boy at his sidewho'n he had come to tove like a son. Liao knew drar rhe young one woutd reach the upper levcls of nastery/ rhoush how hish the chitd would so, he did not know. One ofh6 hiend! wasan affluentbustnessman who wasa learned scholar of Chineçe histo'y and cultute as well Vith this man Liao spentlong houresippingiea andwagingendlessdebate Hehadnade
128 ThewillolHeeven
"But lhave an agpointnentat noon, and, asyou know my house bordea on the;ungle.Thathilltop is almosthalfa mile into thejunsle." "l will have to changeclothes ànd
."
"Very w€ll, Liao Situ. If it is so important to you, I will do it.' "Thankyou."To the manisùrprise,Liao Sifu save him an almost Thc oldMasterwent lmm€diatelyback to his own dwellins and beganto prayearnestly,centeredin deepmeditation,reque!tingrhat Cod prolonc his triend'5life and lift whateverkarma had made ir so short. At eleven forty-live his ffiend, impatient with having to go into thejurgle and everythirs that action entailed,gavethe lerterro a sewant instead,with the instruction rhar he tak€ it iDto rhe foresr and leâve it at the top of the hill. The man himself ser off for his appointmeDtin the city
129 The willof Heaven
At noonp.ecisely, ashc crossed thc roadiDlroDrot Lhecityposl officeon rhe way to his appointmenr, he wasstruckandki ed try a Thùs LiaoSilu learn€drhàrthe wilt ot reavencannorbe over-
"So, Kosta,"Johncontinued,',teltrne now Am I a Thoistz,, "ln my judgment as an educatedman, you are very much a neichia Taoisr,Sifu." "l see.And il I told you that I practicedch,ikuns and neikuns strictly lor martlal artssktll, as I am the Headmasterof a marrialarts school and not a plicst, what would you say to thaË Remembel I only becameexposedto the realm ol spirjtsaJkr I had developed yin yang kung-Levels Four,Ftve,and so on. I wasth irry sevenyears old when I first saw rny Master,sspirit; besjdesv/hich, I only devel oped a knowledgeand an inrerestin maft€rsof the spiritr.[i?/Iwent up to the mountainsfor my retreat in I992. In other words, Idid not originâlly pursueneikung for any meraphysicalgain ir offered, nor becauseof any specificspirirualbelief.,, "Okay, if you are not a Tâoistâlchemist,what are you, then7,, "l'm the Headmasterof Pa Lei Chuan, a school of kung tu. I arn the teach€rof a Chinesesciencecâlled neikungrhat involvesstudy, ing, enhancing,and finally combining the energiesofyin and yang in the body, rhe particularneikungIteach is of the lineageattributeà to the sageMo-Tzu. Beyondthis t arn s;mply a man l;ke any other,, I did not know what to say ro all rhar.There €an be litde doubt in our day and age thar consciousn€ss is as much a product of rhe physicalâsof rh€ spirftual_Descartessaxiomsseparatingthe psych€ from the flesh have long sincebeen proven wrong. An injury to or illnessof the brain would readily affect someone'spersonality,mod, ern medicinehasmillions oI documentedcases.Our,tonsciousness,, is the result of rhe intermingting of the mind and rhe body, of the spiritand the tlesh.Had the ancientphilosophersof China stumbled onto th!s secretin their investigationof the energiesofyin andyang? Had they somehowisolatedthe bodyt energiesand seenhow rh€y could be transfenedcompletelyro rhe spirit?Is this howTaoism the
130 The\)villofHeâven
rcligionhad developed2 And whal can the scienceof neikungoffer to the world in our time of rapid technologicalgro,/r'th?Here vas a man who had many of the answersin his pocket. "l suppose,Sifu," I said,"that you are whateveryou $.ant to be." He smiled at that, and I looked down at the ground. A brief discussionof plantsfollowed,John supportedthe postion that they had awarenessand were telepathic,and Andreas,an avid botanist, wasagreeingwith everything he said. I wâsuncharacteristicâllysilent for a while. Finallt in the pause that followed, Iasked, "Sifu, w;ll you teach us?\Vill you teach the world êbout neikung?" "l am alreadyteachingyou." "No,lmean,willyou teacheveryone in the world,willyou dem' onstrateopenly and explain what you are doing?" He was silent himself for a mom€nt, then said simply, "Do you know about Atlantisr" "Of course." "Do you know why the islandof Atlantis was destroyedr" "ln my culture we saythat it is becausethe gods werejealous." "ltwas becausethey had gotten too €loseto the secretsof heaven. \/hen humanity today sets too close,we also will be destroyed." "Vhat the hell for?" "Because the humananimal is not yet ready to becomea god." "Then why createus in the first placel Logicallyiwe were either cr€atedto developtoward somehlgher purpose,or we are the play thinss of a hisher sentiencewho simply wants to keep us as slaves. To say that Cod Himself will destroy us makesme think much l€ss of Cod." That blunr.raremenr shockede!eryone. 'So you think I shouldcomeforth compl€tel, shareallmy knov/l edge, becomefamous,andwin the Nobel Prize,"John said. "Yesand no. I think you should offer the world concret€,repro' ducible proof that yin and yang ch'i exist,without specificinformation as to their precis€nature.That would be enoûgh tor you to go down in history asthe mânwho help€dhumanity evolveto the next plateau,"I rephed.
131 TheWillofHeâven
"lt has never beenthat way in human hisrory.' "Ve have neverleeaat this point in human history before,Sifu. Look at yourself,forexampletYou ar€ the fjrst Masterof the Mo-pai to accepJl,)/esternstudents.Mankind is evolving, EastmeetsVest. There is no hard evidence.hat Atlantis ever€xistedany.way;*maybe itsjust a story that capturedthe imagjnarionofa Greek philosopher centuriesin the past-man agâinstthegods.,,lmâdea silent promise to buyJohn a copy of Platot works Knrtasand limrers. "And perhapsit is a true story t follow the w;ll of heaven,Kosra. I rvill do what Cod wantsme to do." He stood up "But I will think about what you have satd,',he finished. And with thar, our ev€ning lessonwas over On theway back to ourhotelAndreas beratedme coniinuously. He had beenshockedby my confrontationalapproach.,'Vhatwould you do," he asked,"if you were Sifu:" "Bring fire to mankind,"l answeredunhesitatingly. 'înd be chained to a rock by the seawith an eagleeating oût your liver for all eternity. . ." "Prcmetheusttorment didnt last for all eternity,Andreas.After a time, the godsset him fr€ebecausethey felt guilty. He did\,r'hathe did out of pity-to ajd humanity,you see,' "Are you sureit wasn'tpride2" It was my rurn to be silent. He had struck a point horne. '\X/e didn't say much for the rest of rhat evening, each of us wrappedin ourown thoughts.Andreas!commenthad brought home somethingvital,som€thingI hâdalwaysknown in my heartbùtthat, obfuscatedas it was by my own prid€, I had not clearly seenbefore. I wasno ntan; irwas notup to me.OnlyJohn could play prometheuss role and sharehis secretswith humaniry.Our missionwas to convince him to b€stow such a gift and, jn so convincins, shouldera portion of the consequeoces.
*
Though there is linguistic ànd ci.cumstantialevidenceas such.
132 TheV/illof Heâven
ChapterNine
THE KTRIS
There arenore thingsln heavenandearth,Ho.atio,thânâ.e dreamtof io yourphilosophy Hcnlri,Act I, Scenev ând friend Chrnese,a localbusinessman Henky wasanotherJavanese of my Master for over twenty years.Henky had attemptedthe MoPai trainins âs well but had unfortunately not progresscdvery iar' Stlll, he had garneredbenefits'he was over litty but looked much younger perhapsearly forties,vith a slim figu.e ânda springingstcp A dedicatedspoftsman,he exerclsedand ran on a daily basisaswell. Henky wasvery much a product otJava.He spokenot a word of Chineseand was ignorant of Chineselristoryr ràther, he spoke flu' hc hadsoneto a Dutchschool. ent DutchandgoodEoglishbecause A devot€d siudent of the hrstory of hls own home nation, He,1kv Hindu empire, was particularlyan experton the MajapahitJavanese which had held swayinJava and the surroundinsislandsdurins the fourteenthcentury cE. keris€s,all antiques,êllmore than five He owned threeJavanese from the time of the Majapahit state years all datiôs hundred old, They were rnagicallycharged. BeforeI proceed,it would bc usefulto go into the history and mythos of this particularbladedweapon.There was a time when all Javanesemen, from the âge ot three on, were required to wear a 133
I k€risi it is still worn today in formal ceremonies.The sheâthsand hilts of the keriswere often exquisitelydecoratedwith carvingsand j€\rels, \1,.hileomàmentson the blade itself were thousht to provide additional protection from misfortune. The keris blade often has undulationsflol), usuallysevenor nine, though up to rhirry one have been counted.An odd numberof lok assuresthat luck will b€ sood The wavy blade is also thought to createa more damagingwound, though the kefs is a difficult blade to wield in combar. Kerises are consideredto be magical by all Indonesiansand Malaysians Tladitionally, o1d kerisesare kept as family heirlooms and are passedfrom generationto generation.The mak;ng of the keriswas a work involving great power and artr the orrr, or "smith," was considereda holy man, and his work was frausht with ritual. Once ayear the keriswastakenout of its scabbard,cleanedwjth lime juice aod arsenic,and sacrificedto. Incensewas bumed to it and prayen offered, the blade was €oatedwirh a fragrant ott. The number of times the weaponhad tastedblood addedto its power Magicalkerises(not todaystourist fare)arerhoughtto be ableto speak,fly, changeshape,and even father humanchildren.They can protectthe wearerfrom harmor destroyhis enemies. They arethought to rattle in theirscabbardsto warn theirown€rsof impend;ngdanger. In general,they areob;ectsofgreat reverence,ândarevery powerful. Vhen Henky offeredto showme h;skeris! powers,I vas t€mpred to laugh, except for the fact that he was a good friend ofjohnl. In truth, I had alreadyseenso much frornJohn himself that I no longer knew how to approachsuch clairns,I no longer had the luxury of skepticism. "A magicalkeris:" I asked. "No, three of them." "Vhat can they dor" "Many things,ordngputiir,*but for you they rnay move around a bit, andyou canseeJohntalkingto them." 'John can speakto a pieceof metal?" "They are notjust piecesof metal,they are aware,just aswe âre." I glared at Henky out of my left eye, the mean one. My face is *
Oûiq purih" rtanslates as "white man"
134
e)rtremelyexpressivc,part of my Mediterraneanheritagc,and some_ what bimorphicr t am sentle and kind on the risht side and mean and nastyon the left. I havea lot ofNeanderthal genesin me aswell, xher€suttof millenniaof Balkaninbreeding,which givesme an edg€ when I wânt to look either dangercus,sâintl, or stupid' "You'r€serious,right?" I àsked. "l'm alwaysseriouswhen I talk about monev or things ot a spiri My money had run out, and Henkv wasbuving me lunch l was lot of weight on settins tir€d of Chinese food, lndeed had lost a what I called"therice diet," so Henkv wastreatingme to a Vestern style steak.I was,ery gratetul 'All right," l said,"l'll bite Doris is flvins in this afternoon;mavbe we can make an appointmentwith Sifu tonight l'm sureshe'dlove to seethis aswell." My girlfriend, Doris, had been mv constantcompanionduring the yearsI hadknownJohn Chang and, asa result,had sufferedthe sameassaulton her establishedperceptionof realitv thar I had duringthat time petiod. Sh€tendedto acceptthings much more readilv than I, though, being more intelligent and having lessof a temper' ''fhe kerisesaresentientin their own wav "l meanit," Henky said, "Sure." "Look, I could tell you manv stories,but I will s€ttlelor thiç one' A few yearsago my dauchter$'as going to go on a trip with some frlends.They pulled up to our housein their je€p and shestated to go out the door, suddenlythere was a banging soundfrom the cup board where we keep our kerrsesVhen I openedthe cupboard'mv most povertul and oldestkeriswasshakingin his scabbardl told mv daughternot to go on the trip, but sh€ insisied;new bovfriend' vou see.\(ell,lcould not let her go unprotected,so I gaveherthe kerisio take with het with firm instructionçthat he protect her' That night they had an a€cidentand the ieepw€nt off the mad TTev rolled over three timesbeforethey hit a treerth€ vehicle\tas a total loss'but no one wàs hurt, not even a scratch They were not wearingseatbelts and were thrown aroundinsidethe jeep consid€râblvasit rolled" I did not know whât to think and had no wav of judsins his slory. Certainiy thete were enough mvths of magical s$'ordsand 135
legcndsot scnticntwcaponsin gcncralin cvcrycultLrrc rll (,vcf th, world (think Ircalir'rr. CoLrldthey be rruc rhc way John Charrr wasreal, the way Tioy, which had been considcrcda myth by nrany learnednien ior generations befor€its discoveryby Schliemannirr the ninctccnth €entury,was real aswell: I had seentoo much of the spilit world around my tcachcr to scoff; the word si:anran suitedJohn aç well as the word TaoÂt,if yoLr could truly distincuisbthe two. Indeed,as I wrote this book, Iwa\ ttoubledbywhat I shouldpresentresardinsJohn and the spirit world Could I discountmy own eyesand earç lfjohn was pulling a scam, he was fooling thousandsof people.There were other plausibleexplanationsfor what we were s€eing one of which was simply lhàr John was imposinghis will and imageryon the minds ol the partici pants,a sort of masshypnosis.But even if thât were th€ case,it was a power worth notins, and I would have no problem walking into a courtroom and testifying to the experience.To say nothing at all would sirnply be cowardly,and unfair toJohn aswell. Lft me sharewith you one such encountelwith a power{ul and benevolentspir;t.Judgefor yourself.
The Prince Hefcùles (no relàtion to the hero) was a cousinol ninc whom I had brousht with ne to Indonesiarlohn had been kiDd enough to allow him toloin ourgroup and witne$ the summoningof a spirit who had died at Level Three. This spirit was rcpùted to be so powerful that anyone could hear him, and some people could see hin âs well, at L e v e l T h r e eh, e c e r t a i n l yh a d a l o t o f y a n g c h ' l . The ghost was the spi.it of a sixteenth-centuryprince, and his sravesitewas situâtedin the PuncakPassnear Bogof in centralJava Hc hâd slainmâny enen,esdurins hi! lifetime, and his kamrawas ro watch ovc the island of Jàvain retribution. For the last four centu ries or so the lonely shosr had linsered on the hillrop rhat bore hk grave,suardins his native land. Peoplecamc to sleepthere and ask hin for lavor and protection,whlle Indonesiasleàders,even in this moderû day, olten visited th€ site with variouspsychics A largepaÉy ofus walkedùp the trail to th€ gravesite,an Indone sian minister had pâved that path wilh concretefor his own conve
nlcncr FIcr. was er
137
I 'Ah r)/hai a r et h e i rn a m e s ?t "h e p r i D c ea s K e d . "Kosta ànd Hercules,"John answered,and the spirit fepeated I concotratcdas hard asI couldon the shini ng orangeltght and made out a slim hand da.cing in it, but try as I might I could see rothine more. The conv€Barionweni on, roo difficult for me to understandwith ny poor Indonesian;aÊtera rime, .lohn thanked the spirit and he left. I immediarely approâchedmy Master.'\X/hy did he ask if we were hom Hollandr" I asked. "tsecause he sawHercules,s blo,rdhâir \T/hilethe princewasalive, the white men who werecomins toJava were Dutch, and he was not fond of them. He wonderedwhât you were doins here, rhats âll ,, Brr I thoùsht. Cood thins he under$ooo we were not hrs an cient enemies."Did ev€ryrhingAo well?" I asKeo. "Not really. I wanted to ask him about a friendofùine who was dyinA, \aherheror not he could help, the spirit simply said that my friend had developedbad ka.ma, and that it was the wi ot heaven thàt he die now He sussestedI remind my inend thar rhere wa! a Cod, to trust in Him complerely,and nor resistwhatever punish ment his karma brousht him." Iwas quiet. My teacher'swords hàd mov€d me, and I realizedat the sametime that he hàd done us a grear honor Ve were the fûst white rn€n thar rhe spirir of the prince had seenin lour hundred years,rhe Iiret thar my Masrer had brought up r o t h e P u n .a t P d \ w , r h h r I didnt know what ro say ro my teache. Once asain he had honoted me beyond all words. HuggingJohn was out of the question;lava k not the Mediteranean, and the Chinesedidnotgo in for displaysofaffedion in senerat.I hopedthat in the tuture I would be r b l " r o r e p a vh m r o . t h " m d n ys i l . L e h d d s , v e nm € Ve met John in the late €venjns and had dinner at his house, as usual Later, after the cÙstornary pleasanrries had b€en exchansed and $.e were sippiog rea our on his terrace, John asked Henkf to bring out his kerises. There werc three of them, as Henky had said, one mofe beauti_
tul thanthe others.The btadesof the firsrrwo wereundulared, bur the lastand mostbeautitulhad a straight,unwaveriogblade.The
$udaccof the mctalwasblackcncd, coarse,anddamascenedi aswas thc customin Malàysiaand Indonesiarkeriseswere etchedwith hot llmejuice andarsenicupon fabrication. The kerisessmelled fra$ant, the ace of the bladescoated with a sweersmellingoil. I askedHenky what it was. "The oil of a tree that we use for this purposein Indonesia,"he saidsimply."lt is th€ir lâvorite." "lsee." "You must usethe oil foom a living plant on a keris, n€ver a p€ troleumderivative." "Okay." "So am L How much doesone of thesethings cost?" "Betweenrwenty andforty thousanddollarc,if it hasrealpower" "l doubt I'll ever own one, Henky, but thanks for the tip," I said. "Youmaydesireone to pmtect your family in the future,"he said simply. John steppedin. "l think we should show Kosta and Doris what the keris can do," he said."You must all sit down on the ground." Doris complied immediately.I wasstupidenoughto ask,"Vhy2" "Becauseitt better,"Johnreplied, simply enough. Ve clearedthe coffee tâble betweenus of the tea ùxensilsând cupsandsat down around it. I satacrossfromJohn; Doris wasto my left, Henky acrossfrom her. John took a saucerand fhpped ;t over, settins it down on its face.He took a stick of incenseand lit it, laying it down carefullyon the back of the saùcerto protect the tabletop, which \ras Formica. He took the smallestkeris and laid it out on the table, the blade restingon the sheath. Vithout warning he was all concentration,and my belly shook. His facebecamelike a statueand I could almosthearhisheartslowins, stopping Everythingseemedto condenseinto a spherearoundhim. Suddenlythe blade turned to move over the inceôse. Doris smiled. John picked up the keris, played the incenseover it, and re' turned it to its sheath. "This one doesn'thaveall that much power,"he said. 139
He took out the se€ondkeris and laid it on the table rhe samc way as he hadthe first. Agâin he concentrated,rhis time briefly. The secondk€risturnedalso,rotatingto come overthe incense.lt seemed to be eagerlyèonsr-rminsthe smoke,vibratins slightly asit did. Iohn pickedit up. "This one is in a very bad mood tonight," he said.'Iyy'ewill not He set the point ol the keris into its scabbard.The keris pulled the scabbardov€r its "body" with much force, making a loud clack rng norse. "l'd like to seethat asain,"l sâid John smiled."All risht," he said. "Here, hold the scabbard."He removedthe blade from its wooden sheathand offeredthe latter to I took the wooden scabbardin my right hand, holding ftrmly. John insertedthe tip of the blade into the sheath.Hewhispered something to the keris The scabbardwasjerkedfrom my graspwith considerableforce, the keris blâde pullins the wooden sheathover itself. "As I said,"John remarked,"this one is in a very bad mood and does not want to be bothered" He removedthe blade from its sheath,playedthe incenseover it, and retumed it to the scabbard.He placed it to one side. Henky handedhim the lasrkerjs,the onewith the straightblade. ''Ihis one is very powerful,"Johnsaid."He was madeduring the early yearsof the Majapahit empire,and his narneis Samar"* lohn laid the weapoô on the table in a sirnilar manner,and it immediately spun to settleove. the burning incensestick. "SifLr,"Dor;s asked,"how do yoù know its namer" "He told me,"John answered."He rememberseverythiDsabout hjs mâkjng,the circumsrances andthe time. He remernbershis name as well. He is over five hundredyearsold." John picked up the kerisand passedthe incensestick under it. If piece a of metal could appearcontent, that one certainly did John -
Since to know the nameol a keris is ro hàve power over ir, I hàve chânAedthe weapon! nametD protect Henky.
14{)
to lhc wcapon,thcrls'riit down on thc table whi{pcrcdson1clhing siickbàckon the dishandttrrnedto Henkv The t't" pur thc lrrccnse two m(:nsPoketo each other brictlv evenins con I looked at Dorls, who secmedverv happv That viih spir{irrrcclfor her what I had told her of mv own expcriences ils in John'scompanyin the Past "Sihr,"sheaçked,"how cân the kc'is do vhat it do€s? "lt all practical "Becàuseit has vin power"' he answered is' for ' purposes,a spirit saucel lt had Ireached out to adjùst the incençestick on the thât it mislrt rolted near the edge of the saucer,and I was wonied roll '- off and burn the Formica to cÙt me l ifl. f.-o SarnarspLIna'ound verv fast and tied gasped pdled my hând backin tim€ just asevervoneother thânJohn "Becaretull"Henkv said. "Tlev have a mind of th€ir own' vou this "l'm I looked at the keris; somehowI knew how to handl€ "liustwanted said notifngtotake awavvour incense'mv friend"'l to adiustit on the tabl€ " go aheadand "ile doesnt understandEnglish,"John said "But tru to make hi€nds with him " witb one hand I picked the weapon up ging€Ïlv bv the handle oiherr I concenand passedthe incensestick ùnd€r him with the asI wouldhave much tratedan,1tr;e,1topro;ectapp€asingthoughts' a dislike to me' done with th€ pet of a friend that had taken fecl the vibrâÊventhoueh I was expectingit, it was thrilling to tion in my hand asthe keris seemedto hum' ' "Apologv accepted'''Johnsaid "Put him down I did so. what he can "He is actuâllvvery nice and nov wanrrçto show us rh' teapon bàLl' In ir\ '(dbbd d and 'er rr do lohn sard He pr.rL lohrr and lookedat u' do.n rhe h'lt l* 'ng rowardhrm'eh "nied said' andthe tfu,"t tt n.'H" to"t.aat the kerisbriellv "sâmârl"he the tabl€ across weapon leapt completelv out of its sheathto skip andj mp into his openhand \fle were delishted said ves' "Vant to seeit again:"John asked'and we of coÙrse 141
He calledthe kertsagain,andoncemoreit jumpedoverto him "He seemsvery eagerto please,"Doris said. I was reminded of a golden retriever I knewr rheir dispositions seemedabout the same. JohnpickedSamarupbythe hilt andra|lrhe inc€nse stickunder him Th€ kerisvibratedin contentment.SuddenlyJobnlaughedand put the w€apon back in his sheath,haoding it to Henky. "Like a bab9" he said."He hashtsown mind and his opinionsare JustthenJohn'sLhasaapso,caltedLovely,trotted up to my heels. I reacheddown to pet rhe turry back. Lovety sniffed around a bit, wr€stl€dbriefly with Do.is, then seroff to find somethingmorc in, terestjngro oc€upy her time. 'A keris spirit is somethingltke that,,'Johnsajd,pointing to Lovely. "lf you pet him and stroke him and feed htm regLrtarly, he will be loyal and happy.Ifyou starvehtm and ignore hirn, kick him and beath;m, he canbecomeunpleasant.,' "Their intelligenceis about the sâme?,, I asked. "No. The kerist sentienceis not so developed.,' "Situ,"Doris sÂid,'you can speakto him bccauseyou havecombined yin and yâng, correct?" "Correct." "And how about usr Can he hearusr" "Oh yes. He can lrearyou and seeyou and senseyou in ways you cannot understand.Ir isyo who cannot speakwith himi you must be into L€velThree to senseyin powei unlessyou learn how to useyour drearns.' "There is a lbetan Buddhistdreammeditationcaltedthe nr;lan," I saicl. "Yes,and in Indonesiapeopleoften go to the gravesof Muslim saintsand sleepthere," Henky said, "hoping to communicatewith them. Frequentlythesespiritsdo speakto rhe peoplein rheifdreams and give them a|swersto their quesrions', "Sifu,"I asked,"doesthekerishaveyanglIsthat how he canm ove,",' "No. He hasyin power rrapp€d inside a frame of meral He is taking yang from me at my requesr But sincehe hasyin power, he can absorb yang and so protect you. If an individual managesto 142
combine yin and yang, thcn he can makea keris movc and speakto him ât will." I wanted to clearup somethingthat was gnawing at ihe back of my mind, somethingthat would be incredibleif itwere true."Sifu,"l asked,"Samaris a crsated beins, isn't he?" lookedât me wjth interest."No, Kosta,you aremissingthe John point. Nice try, but no cigar, as they say. Samar is not a creâted beingar all, he s rh. exren.ionof a manwho ont e wa'.' "Can you explainthis, Situ?" "Vhen I first developedrny power,"John said, "l was curioos about the abilitiesof the keris.In an antiquesshop I found a keris of power that was rusting awayrthe storekeepercould not sensethat the keriswascharged,you see.That weaponwas five hundredyears old, but he thousht it was;unk and treatedit as such.lbought;t for a few dollarsànd took it home,where I investigatedits origins using my own skills.In the very centerof ihe keris, bLtriedin the layemof metal,was a strip of pâperon whlch a charm waswritten in Sanskrit Ieiters.It wàsvery similarto a Chinesetalisman,a fu. At that point I undentood the techniqueof fabricâtingthe keris." "Vbatt a fur" Doris asked. "A charm,aTaoisttalismanof protectionandhealing,"Iaoswered quickly her and turned toJohn. 'A tu comesfrom oLrrown person,"Johnsaid.'Vhen we makea and our power into the charm, and fu, we extendour consciousness th€re that power can s€ruea specificpurpose.For exampJe,when I speakto a keris, it is actuallythe spirit o{ the kerisi maker whom I am speakingto, this màû has,in the past,entendeda part ofh;s own lifeforce and spirit into the fu in the heart of the keris." 'A He leanedback. tu is like an antenna,"he continued. "You young and wantedto medltate,Ihad ser;ousprob' know when I was lemsat nightbecausetherear€so manymosquitoesherein theTiop ics. \/e could not afford screens,and chemical repellentshad not of their yet beendeveloped,so I had problemscon€entratinsbecause fu tbat would me how to make a constantattacks.Liao Sifu showed attract mosquitoes,I would focus,draw the charm on a pieceof papet andputpoverinto it. Then I wouldplac€itin my ba€kyatdând, in this manner,be left in peacefor as long as I wanted to meditate. 143
After I finished,lwould tearup the fu and rcleascrhe mosquirocs; there were alwayshundredsof them there " "YoumeâIl the mosquitoeswould be attractedto the paper?" "Yes.But itwas my own lifeforcethat made the charm possible." "How long doesa tu last:" "All of theseitems have a time span,and their enersieshave to Lrerenewedconstantlr"John answercd."ln the caseofthe keris,the metal body naturallyholds the yin power well. Vhen the keris is a family heirloom, its power is renewedon a ycarly basisbecauseof the ceremoniesâssociated\r.ith its keeping Butyou know, to makea tu, the pnctitioner must hàve abilitics like myself, and even then perhapsmakesonly one or tvo fu in his \,/holelifetime. lr is no easy thing The tourist'trade fuyou seeforsaletn Tàoistrempleshaveno rcal pow€r, they ârc imitations,like a fake Rolex." Doris was qùi€t. "lt soundsalnost like magic,"shc said ftnally. John shrugged."Perhapsin a way.Mdric, or sorceryifyou will, is by definition the use of outsidc energiesro fulfil a specifictâsk or desir€.Strictlyspeakjng, sincea fu comesfrorrrour own pcrsor,rr rs not nragic. One does not invoke spirits to rnakea fu. In any case, Doris, even il you were to considerthcse kerisesrnagical,they are oot m/ doine I am no sorcerer.Thc neikungrraining I have done all my life sinrply givesme power over such things " I thouÉthtover the conccpt of the fu as an ântennato thc dcad makcr'sspirit. "Siftr,"l said,"you told me oncc ihat a spirit cannotlie. That meanshe cannot createaswelli is that correcc" "Yes,Kosta. It is the coming together ol yin and yang that al lows crcation, it is specificallythis attribule that makesall lile on earth special.The humanbeing is even more unique in that he possessesthe biological qualificarionsto |nakefulluse of the ability ro
@ E (b)
of à typicalChineseBuddhisttu usedlor prctection Fig L An €xample lorcesis shownat (a) The Sanskntsvllableusedto charse âsainstneaative the inasebv itselljs not is depictedin (b). Ho,^,ever, th€talisman for youto copvit andattemPtto etplov it. "charged'-itwoùldbeuseless "Yesand no. The personalityof the makerwas establishedduling his lifetime by the interaction of yin ând yang, now that h€ is orcreate.I seewhatvouaresaving' onlyyin, he cannotdevelop,lie, though; hiç decisionsare filtered by the fu and constrâinedbv th€ fact that h€ is a spirit. Thât is conect." Doris looked at John. "ls h€ right? Is this writing dovn of the characters-whether Saôskrit or Chinese-during the talismant making a kind of pro$amming?" "Close enough,"John said. "lti a way of initializinc a process Aren't you yourselfthe result of programmlngrYour brain, which js a type of cornputer,read externalstimuli as input when you were a baby.lt processedthe datâ,and, through the y€ars,vourpersonalftv was fomed. It is much dre same,exc€pt that you as a humanbeing possessboth yin and yang in equal balance Ïle keris does not Making a fLtis like giving birth, in a way. You are essentiâllvputting a part ofyourself lnto somethingelse,and this antennawill continu€
"So this fu in the keris,this aotenna,ir feedsthe maker information and allows hirn to act on rhe earth aswell," l sàid. "Yes,but only with yin power,"Johnanswered. "Fair enouch. How strong his influence is dependson the fu, right2 It! Iike computer proÊramming,isnt ir?"
fol a given duration." John pausedto hght a cisâretteand leanedback "The problem is,"he said,"thatmany IndonesiansandMalavsianstreartheir familv kerisesas articlesof worship rather than the loval companionsof mediocreperceptionthat they rea1lyare " Doris iooked at Henky, who grinned John smiled."Not Henky. The truth is, I doubt that a keris will everwin theNobelPrize in physlcs,becauseofthe doubleconstraints
144
145
"Our brains"
thât we menrionedearlie.Samaris ân exampleof a highly inrelli_ sent ooe A kerisshould be treatedlike a pet, fed and cared fo1 bur neve. worshipp€dlike a sod. This is a very seriousmjstake,and one I constantly'reproacbmy frtendsfor Somepeopleevenpray to their kerisest" Lovelycametrottingupagain.John pickedherup,puther in his Iap and beganto per her ''fhis is how a kerjs shouldbe treated-or any fu, for that mafter like a loyal friend and protector. you can caressher ifyou wish, bur I doubt you would everpray to her,would you?There is only one Cod, and He aloneshouldbe worshippedby Ve could not really addmuch to thar simplesratement.perhaps ot all the thinss I had seenaroundJohn,the kerisand the concept ol tu were the most shockins.I could seethat Doris wasshakenaswell by the ràmificarions. Could all the myths and legendsof humanity indeed be true? Suddenly many things were clear to me. Yearsof academicschooling stoppedbuftjng headswith yearsofsearchingfor esoterictruths, .he momenrsI had spent with.lohn rushedthrcush my mind like a hurri€aneand I was grantedanswersto quesrionsrhat had plagued I had graspedan undersrandtngoÊnature. It remainedto be seenwhat I would do wirh it John studiedme caretullyand nodded.Perhapshehadseensome lhing in my fâcethâr mirror€dthe thoughtsracingthrough mymind. Awkwardly, Doris and Istood up and said our goodnishts. It vr'as Since that day I haveseenhundredsof kerises,somewith great powel others with less,but each with its own distinct p€rsonality. The phenomenonneverceasesto amazeme. I willclose this châpter with the simple affirmation rhat I have becorn€convinced that the magic of the keris is genuine.For the moment, to sayanyrhing more would be pointless
146 The Keris
Chapter Tèn
THF NATUREOF REALITY
It was at sunseton a b€ach on the island of Evia, north of Athens, that I finally enteredinto hypernormalstatesofconsciousnessI \vas seatedin a half lotus, engagedin my LevelTwo exercises,prtlling in yang ch'i, se,rdingit down to my dântien, aod compressingit tbere by yogically holding rny breath. Suddenly there was a whirrinc noise, like a helicopter or the propeller of a boat (indeed,at first I thought there waç â boat pass ingby). The noisekept gettinslouder andlouder Vithout warning, everythingwent black: CoodGod,I'nbaoinga strokr,lthought kwas not an uncomfortablefeeling, howeveri indeed, the sensationwàs ratherpleasant.lobsewed the phenomenonfor a while, complelelv awareandconscious,beforeI beganto teelafraid and pulled mvch'i back up. The world carneback to me and I reeled,dizzy for a few seconds.I felt powerful,notweak; thiswas no stroke.Vânting to finish the set of exercisesI had begun,I sent my ch'i back down lmtnedi' ately,the whirring noisebeganagain,but this time I wasapprehen siver I interrupted the processand pulled away A third repetition yielded the sameresult. It was g€tting to be too much l stood on shakylegs and walked over to where Doris was waiting 14?
She was furious."l thought you said you were only going to be twenty minutesor sol" shesaid. "Vell, I wqs,I mean,Ithought. . . . Vas llater" Istammered. WlJrftdiàthetine40, I thought. A yogic repetition usuallytook me a minute; I had wanted to do twenty before we went to dinn€r ât a "Vhat are you talking about?I'v€ been waiting hete watching you for forty-five minuteslYou didn't rnoveât all for at leasttwenty minutesone time. Iwas worried." I wasshocked.lt seemedthat,for twenty minutesor more, I had of time. held my breath and lost all awareness I immediatelycalledJohn. "Congratulations,"he said. "Vhat do you mean,congratulations?" "Cood experience.It meansyou're progressingwell along l-evel Two." "lt was supposedto happenr" "Sure." "\i/hat wâs the whirring noise?A Sufi friend of mine sâidthat it was the dantient chakrawheel as it spun." down to He laughed."Oh yeahl Youtransfenedyour awareness your dantien,thats all." Thatl alll The miraculoushad apparentlybecomeroutine and the sublimecommon aroundJohn. How could I go about brinsins such knowledge to the Vestern world without being ridiculed or condemnedzVhat was the best \{ay to proceed?And how to k€ep my own ambitionsand hopesat bay while I did so?Tiese thoughts were for€most on my mind at the time of the above incident, and with good reâson. You will recall that Liao Situ made my teacherpJedgenever to demonstratehis powersin public, nor usethem for profit or for €vil purposes.Vhen lohn made the decisionto so aheadwith a book and film in May 1996,he consultedwith his Master,who had djed mor€ than thirty-four years earlier and gone up in 1992.To reach Liao Sifu'sconsciousness, John fastedfor more than ten days and out ând avây. Liao enteredde€p m€ditation,sendinghis awareness Sifu told him that it would be okay to proceedrthe time was ripe,
r48 The Nâtureof Reâlity
runtlhunanity wasrcady.tlc alsowarncdJohn thât w€ would bear rhc karmaof the effort lfwe could teachhumaniiv about the factual l)cocfits of meditatioo, ch'ikung, and neikùng, then the blessitss would be greatlndeed,it it backfired,andw€ createda Frankenstein rhenrhe tarma wouldbÊveD bad. nr,,n,ter, Vhen initially taking up the task of producing a book for mv tcacher,I had quickly se€nthe need for a noted scientific authoritv to lend credibil;ty to what I was writing l was âlso acutelv awareof thc limitations imposedbvJohn! oath to his own Master' A public clcmounder chnlcal conditionswas not permitted The plan I came up with to overcom€this obstâcl€was simple'John was allowed to lrcat anyonewith a real illness,andthe phenomenonof electrogen csishe used during theseacupuncturetr€atmentswas enougn or a demonstrationfor any clinical phvsicist.Mv strategvwaç to tind a distinguish€dauthority who was ill, set up a therapv s€ssionwith uç John, and hopetully induce this man or womân to support John students front of those coLrldthen do a f"ll demonstrationootlttr in o[his who were alsodegreedscientists,there vere quite a few ofus It would be enough,with the right personin ourcorner I spentlong lrours feeling peoplc out and setting up contactswith eminent rescarchers.ln two such casesJohn got cold feet at the last possible lnstant,and I was left with making the nec€ssaryphone calls to the rnen (who were probablv convincedat that moment that Dvnamo Jackwasa fraud). Aftermany frustratingmonthsI returnedto Indonesiain November 1997,whereI met with AndreasandHandoko At that tim€ Chans ques Sifu reaffirmedtous that a public demonstrationwas out ofthe tion, \trhile he had receivedpemission from his teacherto do a book and film, he wasstill bound bv his promiseto Liao Situ ln the round' rable discussionsthat folloved, Andreashad the idea of bringing LawrenceBlair*into the prolect,asa filmrnakerwhohad alreadvwitnessedwhat our Mastercould do, and becauseRrrg oJFnehad been our introduction to.lohn in the first place h was a good idea The next mornins I boardeda plane(or Bali and beganlooking for Blair
I
S e er h e r n t r o d u c n ^ na n d c h a p t e rI
149 The Nâture of Reâliq,
Now, LawrenceBlâirandJohnhadnotspokenlof tcn ycârs;thc latter was ansfy with the former, for he beltevedthat Dr. tslairhad rricked him. Accordins to John, the orisinàl footâ{refor Rr 4 oJFre had bccn fllnied for the purposeof scientificldcnftrridrlo,of his abili ties,not lor commerciâl use.LawrcncewastenifiedolJohn dnd had stayedaway from him for ten yearswhen he heard that my teacher I mct with Dr Blairthat sameevenjns in his housein Ubud, ac cording to him, a mimnderstândingwasêt the coreol the mdttcr Blail had Lrsedthe Malay word/ollunoriairwhilespeakinsvithJohr, Chans Sitr! had construedthe $.ord to mean "documentatior,"while ar the samctnne Blairbelievedhe had carteblanchcto usethe footase. I brought the two ften tos€thef that we€k, with thc intcnt of having Lawrenccdo a seconddocumentaryenploying rhe existing footage he had from R':4 oJFrre. Apparently that meetinsv/ent very well bccauseJohn reachedan rrnexpected decision,Dr Blairwasgiven pennissionto shoot a rsxrdocunentarv on John, wirh Henkyt assis tance.I breatheda siebof relief,freeto continuewith .ny ovn pfoject. I had an agendato keep. I wanted to reach out to those ltke myseli, peoplewith \(/esterntechnicaldegreeswho were alsoexpe riencedmdrtialartists,peoplewho couldandwouldcombineJohn! neikung training with an orthological approachand \X/esternsci cnce. lt had têken humanity a long, long tjme to evolve such stock, menandwomenwho weren€itherEastnorVest but a littleofboth. Itwas timeto cashin on the investm€nt.PerhapsthosewhomCeorge Lucashad namedtheJed; would come in the flesh. But it would be no easytask,for the rulescould not be broken I knew first-handwhathappenedwhensomeonebrokean oath around John. Let me shareone such incid€nt \i/ith the reader:
A ChanSjein the Weather I wasdrivine backdown toAthens frornmy villagein northernCreece when the rainstormhit \X/rth me in my V\v Colf was Spiro, a twenry-€isht-yearold pilotwhowàs both a tiiend andmy studentin the martial arts Itwas sprinstime, llowerswe.e everywhere,and Easterhad come and sone. The sun was shining and ther€ was not a cloud in the sky.
150 The Nâtureof Reâliry
Q u i L cs u d d c n l ra n d i n v i r w o t d r c l a c t t h a r S p i . o t Î â t h e rh â d jus1lost a kidncy ro infectioD,rhe ropic of our conversationrurned t o d e a t ha n d t h e p o t e n t i a l o f a na f t e r l t f el h a d k n o w n l o h n f o r a b o u t â year at the time and wâs b(6ting to tell so'neone,anyone,what I had witncssed.I was,however ûnderst.icr ordersnot to discusswhat I had seen,alrd had promisedJohnas much Scizing the moment, I told Spi.o whàr I had learnedin Indone sia, how there was no longer any doûbt i. 'ny mind that there was life after death. I describedthe whiie wave and the blàck wave and whatJohn hâd tàught me. Suddenlya massof water struck the windshield I couldnt see, and tu.ncd the wipeB on. \X/ewere passinsfreshly turned fields '\fe musr have pa$ed ihfotgh a sprinkle.,"I said to Spiro. Srànge that I hadn'r seenit. Half a min(te or so went by as I drove on \yater kept poudng down on th€ windshieldwith unbridled ferocity,I clickedthe wipe6 to their highestspeed. "No, its a ràinstonn,"Spiro said He was puzzled.As a prof€rsionalpilot,he krew aboutwearher,and therehad beenoo indicarions wewould be havinga showel let aloneone ofsuch inteDsiryThe raiû continucd to pummelus wilh vigor so much thà1I could hardly see. \N/erode on in silence After abour a mile I noriced sonethiDe stmnge The ca6 that ûe.e conine toward ne in rhc oppolite laDc didn't hâve their wipe.s on. I lookcddown aLthe ground aswe paxed. kappcaredto be dryr "Vhat kind ol fockins raiDsrormis thisr" I said ort loud At the same ùoment I hcârd a snall and frishL€nedwhimper kom the pasengers scat "LIh, did you do somerhingyou weren't supposedto when you told ûre àbout all thisz"Spiro âsked I looked over at him He was white with fear and amazemcnr. "l don't knoq" I said The situation was sureal, like a cartoon broughtto llfe, and I wasbeeinninsto enjoymyself.I adually srinned, then looted up at the heavens. "l'm s.,.ry Sif!," 1said "lt won'r happe. again." Spatteing ûs with the rattle of a few final drops, the rain sud denly stopped I pulled over to the curb aDdwe sot out quickly. M y W w a s s o a k e d . Iht a d t h e l o o k o f a c a rt h a t h è sb e e nl e f t i . tropicalthûnderstorns for aweek. Other cars,conpletely dry kept pâsins us left and riaht aswe stood on the side ofthe road.The sun was shiningras before, rherewas not a cloud in the sky.
151 The Nâtureof Reality
Spiro cauaht my cye. "Okar" he râid, "either it didn'1happen and I walk away from you, or it did happenand t haveto start tfain ing " He qausedfor a secondand smiled "Vhen can you show me Level Onez" I c a l l e d l o h na ss o o na ! l s o t b a c k h o m e ,d e s c d b i n st h e i n c i d e n t to him. He let me have it, holding nothing back "lt was hom my Master" he said."Next time, when you make a promjse,you keep it no matter whau"
Since that day I have kept every promis€ I have made. I fear my own pride and $eed, yoù see, and try to be av/arc of th€m as rnuch às possible. In writjng this book, forexample, in presentingJohn to the \7est, I am walking on a tishûope. I, too, will have to pay the karma of my actionç ând intentions, good and bad. I dread the latter, my heart is far lrom pure, andrny hands notas clean as lwould Iike them
RFINVENTINC THT\(/HËTL As I've statedrepeatedly,the point is not to subiugateEasterosci ence to \ù/estem,but rath€r to createa rri, sciencethat is neith€r Eastnor V€st. Scientifictheory is always to paraphraseDr Frlqof Capra*-at bestan drproxindtior, someone!attemptto mod€lor do€ument the underlying nature and processesof physical reality. Fol example,classicalNewtonian theory was quite adequatelor illus tratingthe behaviorof large,slow'moving masses, but had problems charâcterizingelectromagneticfields and even more problems on th€ atomic scale.The trials and tribulâtionsof the world'sthinkers can be amusingto follow (ifyou're the type of individualwho enjoys watching intelligent peoplerunning headfirstinto brick walls).Two hundredyearsago,for exarnple,peoplebelievedin somethingcalled ûloln]'on,an imasinarysubstancethought to exist only becausehumankinddid not prope yunderstandcombustion.The failureto come
up with an adequatemodcl for combustionwas an insurmountable obstacleagainstreal progressin chemical theory. Never willing to say"l don't know,"the scientistsof the day announcedth€ existenc€ of the imponderablephlogiston,â substancecontâinedin all materialscapableof sustainingoxidation.There is,ofcourse,no suchthing. I could not, asa scien.ist,discountwhat Ihad seenwith my ov/n cyes,and, unlessJohn was the greâiestmagicianin th€ world (or a genetic mutânt), there was no way he could be tricking so many people. You can compl€tely discount the rnetâphysicalaspectsof this text as Johns own impressionsor delusions,but ther€ was no discountingth€ energiesthat I and thousandsof people had wit nessedand experienced.In addition,theassumptionthatJohni powers are the result of a genetic mutation is not vâlid, becauseall his studentsencounteredthe energi€sh€ describedv/ithinour own bodies during our training. In a sparringsession,for instance,I accidentally nearlykilled one of my own students,who had surprisedme with a quick punch. In r€action I hit him in the chest with my right palm while blocking with my left. The man a strapping,powerfulCreek villager-immediarely suffereda mild heart attack and collapsed. There wasno rationalexplanationforsuch a reaction,nolcouldany clarification of his condition be found in a hosoital. He was. and thankfully still is, exceptionallyhealthy. Th€ cornerstoncof our body ofknowledgeis the scienceof physics.Most peopletoday take quantumphysicsfor granted,or look at that sciencewith distrusr,indeed,its imm€diatepracticalapplication, nuclearpower,will plâgle usuntilwe cometounderstandthephysics of fusion.In 1905,when Albert Einst€in(then a clerk in the Swiss pat€ntoffice) publishedhisnow classicpaperson relativitsr/ andwhat wasto becomequantummechanics,theresponçefrom theestablished community of Newtonian physicistsv/asquite vicious.Despitethis outcry within two decadesa teamof dedicated,brilliaot men,*work had irrefutablysetthe foundationsof ingâcrossinternationalborders, quantumtheory The point is that manl perceptionof the universe
.
*
Capn, Fitjol,'I\e TdooJPrlicr (NewYork,BantamNew AgeBooks, 1977). 152 The Nâtureof Reâlity
Heisenbe.s, EMin Einstein,Max Planck,NielsBohr \Y/erner \X/olfgang Pauli,PaulDirac,andLoûisde B.oslie Schrôdinge.,
The Nâture of Reâlib/
changedradicallyand suddenly,destroyingthe establishedconcep, tions of the sci€ntificcommunity in a short and bewildering twenty years.\X/hile it is more comforting to think that scientificth€ory is constant and on top of things thus reducingthe insecurityin our own lives the truth is that scientific theory is ever changingin its attemptsto describ€realiry And I use the tem eovchan4n4rather than mabh4 purposely,becausein many casesthe departurefrom establishedpatternsof thought hasbeen quite revolutionary. Imagincthe shockto the establishedscientificcommunitywhen the realit/ of the atom came to be understood.Until then people had supposedatoms to be incrcdibly hard, indivisible part;clesof solid rnâss,qoânturn rnechalics (and the discovery of the X ray) showed th€m to be mostly space,existing only in relation to €ach other and definableonly by the lawsof probability. Relativity theory and quantummechanicsare, of necessity,holistic and ecological,however as far as humanityt social evolution goestheir discoveryis fairly recent,andtherehasnotyei beeneôoùgh time for them ro have a benevolenteffect. (lndeed,their initial de, rivative nucl€ar power-has to date been negative) It is certaio that we will see their poçitive sid€ in the next fifty years;for the moment it is reassrringto know that thc creatorsof quantumtheory th€mselvesquickly âppreciatedhow closely their new physicsfol lowed the model of Eastrn mysticism.Many of thern beganstudy ing the wisdorn of the Eastin ord€r to b€fler understandtheir own bfain€hild. Niels Bohr visitedChina in 1937 Vhen he wasknishted ten years later by the king of Denmark, h€ chosethe t'ai chi (yin yang) symbol as his coat of armsto acknowledgethe harmony be tweenancrenrFarrernand modcrrr\{esrernriences Letus assurnefor a secondthat bothJohnt abilitiesandhis theories prove tru€. Iwould like to iouch upon what such information could offer humanity.(For a more detailedapproach,turn to appendix 2.) ln the third century cE Chinesesagesdescribedthe process by which things were createdfrom the Sourceand would return to it.r5To symbolizethe statebefore time and spacebegan,thosewho would come to be calledTaoistscameup with the concept ofwu-cht (literally,"ther€ is no extremity"),symbolizedby a circle. \/u-chi is thecondition ofstillnessinwhich allthings areund;fferentiatedtoom 154 The Nâtureof Reâlity
thc ultilr]ale. lirom this statc a point ol moveDcnt, of pure yang, shinesoutThereis interactionb€twcenyin andyangleadingto the stateof t'al chl (the supremeextr€mity)' here yin and yang are emlrraced,distinct yet tog€ther,count€ractingeach others forces.
(d) Iis 2. (a)\/ù chi, pureyin. (b) and(c) A lpârkof movementin the (illness;yansin th€ centerofyin.(d)T'ai chi;yin andvangetbraced
IfJohn! theoriesand the modelin fisure 2 areaccurate,th€n our own archetypeof the universeis missinga key ingredient:the fact rhat the substanceexistingbefore the "Big Bang"*is in constântinuôiverse,stillDess(vin) terplaywiththelabricofourpresentphysical and motion (yang) foreverbalancedasone. It ls safeto saythat such a postulatewould accoùnt for the many discr€panciesin physi€al theo)y that scientistsaroundthe world have obseruedand reported The yin is not preciselythe "€ther"sought by Hendrik l-orentz and Jules-HenriPoincaré,i'6but it /o?roffer many exciting possibilities *
Assuminsthat there @a5a Big 8ang.The Chinesemodel also covemthe possibilitythat eners'l'is constâDtlybeing Prodùced,and the universe hasno b€sinnins or end. t Int€restinslye.ouch, wh€n Poincarépostulâtedthat a clock slowed in rime âs it moved irto the ethet he wâs describinsone of the attrib(Itesof
155 TheNâtureofReâlity
John dkclosed the following key sraremcnrro rne on one occasion' "Everythingoathe earth is yang, but rhe earth irs€lf isyin.',Fof me, asa scientist,this impliesthatyin energyis associâtedwithgravitational,wellssuch as planetsand singulariri€s,and that the balance describedby the t'ai chi symbol existsin the universeas follows,
STAR,/SOLAR ENERCY CREATER YANC
C Fig 3. Mac.ocosmic yanAandyin. This simplediasramsusgestsincrediblethinss. First of all, I am fairly certain that the yang ch'i is a solar phenomenon.*John had said,'The yaDgch'i is in the air; oatur€createsit.,'l haveseenit ro be blue in color, as I noted eâ(li€r As a neikung traine€,I can feel the yang ch'i constantlystored within my dântienrit is hot, just as rhe classicalChinesetextsdescribeitto be. Both.heseobservationsm€sh perfectly with Vilhelm Reich,swork on the orgone.It seemsaswell that the conceotrarionof yang ch'i increaseswith increasingelevationi in otherwords,yangch'itendsto breakawayfïom enviry (v/hich is why yogis flock to the mountains).I can feel the yans ch,iwanrins to go up within myown body, ifrhat is âny indication.The existeDce of the yang ch'i clearlyshowshow insanewe are asa species,Considering that our currentlifestyl€is benr on d€stroyingrhe environment,
*
Indeed, I believethat, like lisht photons,yaosc6'i is neithe.a particle nor a wave but borh.
156 The Nâtureof Reâlity
ind asslrmingthat oaturccirculatcsand propagatescsseoriâllife en crgy,thenby eliminatingnaturewc arekillingourselves. The greatsurprise,however,inJohni model of the univene is yjn cnergy,becauseit simply behavesunlike any otherrecordedphysical phenornenon. Nothingaccountsforit nottelekinesiç,notmindcon trol.John passedit tnto my body on severaloccasions, andthe sensa lion wasunlikeanythinselseI haveencountered.kwas a coldrush, a winter breeze,the vacuumof outer space.ClassicalChinesetheory calledthe yin ch'i larr (watel) in an artemprto describeits texturcr likewise,ir had calledthe yans ch,i l;i (fire). Both namesare apropos. The law of conservationof energyis a foundationpillar of phys ics.Duling the incidentat the prâwn farm,whenJohn passedthe yin ch'i into our bodiesand we caughtthe bulletsfoomthe air rifle, rhere hadbeenno deforrnationofthe lead pellet,norany radiationofheat. This suggestedthat the bullet'senergywas not conservedbut rather somehowceasel tonrsr llndercunent physicallaw,thjs is not possible. The prospectthat such a continuumexistsin our v/orld, passive but everpresent,is mâddeninglyexciriûg.The yjn is the primalchaos that existedbeforematterand space-timehad corne;suchorder aswe haveln our world comesfrom the interactiondefinedby the tai chi symbol.YinJor{4rt againstyang,but the balanceof their forcescreated life.I reckonedthatunderstanding rhe natureof yin andyangch,iwould givehumanityantignvity,faster,than-light speed,andalmostcertainly cluesto the riddle ofrime; Ihadvalid reasonsfor theseassumprions.
Levitation Ve were in Barcelona.John wàs tourins Europein the company o{ th€ lndonesianminister of th€ inrerior; he had conlided in me jokinsly that the man fek saferwhen he was a,ound John came into my horel room nunchtng on Indon€sianpeânuts, he toss€dme a bas and slumpedinto a lounge chair For a few momena we madesmall talk; th€n, quite sùddent, rhe topic turned to the subjecrof ch'i in relatjon to the biophysicalsciences. "You cannot study ch'i undel a microscope,"John said ,,Ch'i is the study of our.xridc., not simpl€ matrer Forexanple, ifyou have ch'i,yoq can bypasslvhatwe definerodày asnarùiallaw you can walk throush walls,you can ris€from the ground,you can doûanythinss.,,
157 The Nâtureof Reâlity
"You mean levitation," I said."So the sroriesof yogis lcvitaring off the groùnd in meditation are true. Can you do tharz" "Of course/'he replied.'1t took me only a lew monrhs to learn ihat t.ick, bu1 i1! lto bis deal You just rtse up abour à yard off the Croundand sil thert, yoùcannotmovein anydir€ction,just backdown ,, "Yes,but...." "Nô butst"heiûtempted. "Anyone withch'i càn lea.n howro do this.Itl nothingl" He rhought thatstatementover for a second,then added,"But firsr yoù hust have ch'i " "Car yoù show me rhis, Sifr17" John looked at mc with disappoinrment."Surc,"he sàid,and sa1 down on the 1loo.,crossinshis leesin a fullloxrs. He becamestlll; it appearedthat his brearhingstopped. He was a sratueof an Eastern mystic lor a timc. Smoothly and suddenl, almost matter-of-factly,he rose horr the floor at leâsieisht iDchcs,and remainedrhere. My breath causht in my throat, alter half a minute or so, John càmeback down "Thecarpet is synrheti.,"he said,siàndinsup, ,,ôrheMiseIwould have risenmùch more." I thankedhim repearedly,he seemedsurprisedthat I was so impressed.Forhim it hadbeer nosrcât fear{ pa.lortrick, funcrionally uselcs exceptasa demonstFtion of the inhercntcapaciricsoinan "\Ï/e'regoingolt tô dinrcf," he saidat the door "CominAwith us:" "Chineselood asàin)" I asked "Yes.The.es a sood Chineçerestaurântdown the s1reer.,, The little hairson thc back of my oeck stoodup. " S i t u , I"s a i d ," r n a yI a s ky o u s o m d h i n s :Y o u ' v e b e etno F I o l l a n d , Cermanr Arstriâ, Swirze.land,Italy, Nice, and now Spain, richrl, He nodded."All this time, hàveyou only eatenChineseloodz" "Ofcourse not " he replied iDdiAnantly."Sometiûeswe earThai
For an immediate outlook as to how modern marhematrcs cân b€ applied to Johnt theories, look at the work of Dr. IIya Prigogtne.* In
*
Bestknown for his confiburions to nonequilibriumstaristicatmechan ics and his theorieson the role of time in ireversible processes.
154 The Nâture of Reâlity
l!)77hc rcccivcdLhcNobcl llrizc lor showinsrhatcomplexchemiintoltructuredrelationçhips calsystems tendto organiz€ihcnrsclvcs vords, that ol their own accord in othcr self organizâtionis â fLrndamentalcharàcteristicof the universe.Thesechemicalsystcmsbe havc in such a manneras 1rlalmostbe alive, except for the fact that ihey do not generatcor reproducccells Suchseli organizedsystems seemto be the halfijr'aypoint betwccnwhat can be consideredàlive and whal cannot. lndeed,in recent decadesour establishcdconcep tions of what life really is have receivedsevereblows. Viruses,for example,cannot rcally bc consideredalive as we deiine the term today becauçeoutsideof a livirlg ccll they have no real "stateof be ing." It is only when they have infected a host and pcnctratcda ccll thar they form a systernin conjunctionwith the cell, this systemdors function in a self organizcdwây Coôtrary to most othel examples of the biological cycle, howcvcr, the vi'us cell systemt purposeis not the slrf,/ivalofthe system,but simply the gcnerationof hundreds of nev vimsesât the expenseof the original €ell Perhapssuch be haviorcanbe explainedby the simpleinterplayofyin andyangforces. Mrusesaside,I arn convincedthat complexityand chaostheory hold the mathematicalfomrula for modeling the int€raction of yin and yang. As such, I sincer€lyhope that this rext will provide the impetusfor sucha model to be formulated.I cannot stress necessary enoughthât the yin-yangimagemadepopularby modernculturehas beenmisinterpreted;yin andyang are,asI havesaidrepeatedly,0ppo5' i''4 forces.*Yet life itself is a combination of yin and yang energies runningin parallel.As such,thc archaict'aichi synbol Geefieureab) describestheir balancefar bette. than the modernsymbolusedtoday (figure4a).The configurationsuggestedby figrre 4a is a descriptioô of yin andyans in flow andby natureincorstant. lt could be saidthat
'The
newer ùgûre is alchemical,describiDgthe transition and fluÎ of €n€rgy with time rather than a steadystatesituation.The cunent asttophysicalmodel of the evolutior of stamhelps us understandthis It would seemthat the growth of a sta. to the red-siant stage,and its subsequenttrandormation i'Îo a black hole, sugsestsâ transition koû greateryans to yin. Check appendix2 for turthe. analysis.
159 "l1leNâture of Reâlity
(")
(b)
Fis 4 Yn andyaDsin balance. Tbe figrreshownin (a)is undertension, it relatesto LevelsFouraDdFiveof neikùnstraininsaûdrequires heishtenedstatesof enersy.This symbolis erroneously usedin poputar vo.kç to describethe naruralstateof our li feforces, balance, which is moreaccurarely depictedin (b) (ThirdcenturycEdepiction)L?
into the yang with each €poch. It se€msunlikely that the âncient Chineseunderstoodthe evolutionaryproc€ssbetw€en1000BcEând 300cE,when the yin-yang theory wastully developed.Moreover,as statedby the Tao I€ Ching and confirmedbyJohn, in order forlife to exist,Iiving beings(plants,animals,bacteia) must haveboth yin and yang ch'i running parallelto each other A wooden tâbl€ is simply yang and lifeless,whlle a tree has both yin and yang ând is alive. Vhat I am saying,in summary,is that the reality of yin and yang energi€slendscr€d€nceto ourhopesthat th€rersa CreatorCod, and to the idea that t ' 'rirrfse uasactualized uith th htat oJtrrodnngl:û axlJ. And thls, ln our age ofrigid logi€, is perhapsthe most shocking realizationof all.
the archaicmodel better depictsyin and yang in their most productive balance,at rhar moment when the rwo energiescombineto create life, whereasthe modern symbol better describestheir l,rocess oJ cbdï|e ovet tlme. (One €xamplewould be that of a star in the red giant phase*greater yang transforminginto a black hole, or lesser yin. More on this in appendix2.) In the humanbody the moderntai chi symbol is stricrly alchemicaland requiresheighr€nedstar€sof energyto exist (though once ach;eved,it is permanent). I will closethts chapterwith one final bornbshell.Considerthe yin âsthe primal qualty beforespacetim€i the anragonisticcomple ment of our own yang nature.John himsell sens€syrn energyby ,rs interactionwith yang; he feelsan electricalcurrentwhen the two enersiesare brousht together(asdo we all). Sincerhe yans ch'i is both a prerequisir€ro and a resultof life-,--andassumingt is, as I believe,a solafeoerg./-ahen its precenceimplies thar rnerewas ân intenr be hind the cr€ationof mafter lù/ecân s€etestimonyof our continuous growth from the yin toward the yang in the evolurionaryrecord of life. \Y/hile our universeis a balanceof yang and yin forces,some things are more one than rhe other. \X/ateris considereda yjn ele ment. Life besan in the oceansin the form of ltuid one celledcreâ tures,evolvedinto plants,into fish;and finally steppedawayfrom the yin to the solid shore iD the shapeof amphibians.Our evolutionary processcontinued on the land, we are still growiûs more and more
160 The Nâtureof Reâlity
l6t The Nâture ofReâlib),
A Collection of Sacred-Magick.Com < The Esoteric Library
Epilogue
FORA BREATH
r TARRy....
THELIMITSOFCRO\/TH A human being is a part of the whole, €altedby us'Llniveree.". . . The delusion(of separation)is a kind of prison for us . . . Our task must be to hce ourselvesfron this prjson by widening our circle of compassionto enbrace all ltving creaturesand the whole oi nature
mean that everything Chang Sifu beli€vesin is scientificallyverifi' able, nor that it should be taken as gospel.As a sci€ntistI cannot, and will not, arguewith this mode of thought. I can take such a functional analysisa step farther Let me as_ sumethatyou acceptboth myown sincerityand thatofmy teacher: Everything I have written here is fÀct and you believe it. The.e is still room to wonder v/hat the point behind all the effort is. I mean, why botherz \trhât is to be practically gained by the lessonspre' sentedin this t€xt?Evenif everythingstatedhere is factualandtrue, how and why should it affectyour day-to-dayexistence? The answ€ris quite simple.Ifour day-to-dayexistencewere not injeopardy if we didnot n€edthe lessonsprovid€d in this workthe demonstrationswould never hav€ taken place, nor would this volume hâve everbeen writtenIt is a stâpleof rhe Chineseesot€rictradition to âvoid intervention in the courseof the affalrsof the world at large.Ve have seen, however,that historically this tradition has been broken from time to time, and that many masten (suchas Pai Lok Nen and Mo'Tzu) havewalked a fine line, mersins theif karmawith the world'swhere they çaw fit. No Taoistmâstet not even on€ at hvel Seventy-Two, is a god; they all remain human beings,with the desiresand €motions of a human being, however refined. Foremostamong these emotions ar€ love and concern for their fellow men and for the progressofhuman cultwe. They lo give a damn,so to speak,aod do not âlwaysstàndby and watch. Sometimesthey step in, and this is
AlbertEinsrein This book may have been no more to you than  journey throush Vonderland. A logical man might not wish to so too far in concurring with whÀt he has read. For exarnple,if I myself $.ereoutside looking in and oor intimately involved wirh rhe project, I would probably be very hesitanrro expressa positivejudgmenr. Cranred, thousaodsof wirnessescan affirm thatJohn Chane hasuniqueabili ties Perhapsa hundred rnore,*ch as myself, would be willing to come forward aod sweârin court thar he possesses the knowledge whefeby most men can developsomeproficiencywith whar we (un, til now) have labeledparanormalsktlls.To the skepri€rhis doesnot 162
I do not know Chang Sifu'sreasonslor opening up his teaching ro the world, but I do know my own. Therefore, in this s€ction, I would like to speakfor myself. \(hat follows is basedon my own idealsand opinions,and doesnot necessarilydefinethe teachingsof Chans Sifu. However,nuch of my rationaleis groùndedin my experiencesvith him. Therefore, any errors are my own, wbile any credit belongsto my t€acher \]/e live in â problematicworld. It is readily apparentthat greed is our major sin, the major cancer inherent in our Vestern lifestyle. ''fhls much is enough," and that has been our Ve can never say, 163 EpiloSue
downfall. Most of us are not aware,or simply do not câre,that our standardof living is in fact destroyingboth our planetand ourselves. I will addressthe destnrctionof both our bodies and our wortd, but before I do, I would like to addressthe issueof sreed. It is very d;fficult to dealwith an intansible. How do we define gred? Most dictionariescal! it "an ardent and selfish desire.,Itt as good a definition asany.I pref€rtouse th€ t€rm shortsigbteùrcss, which implies that the personsufferingfrorn greed is not awar€that in the end he is doing his own self harm. He simply does not have the perception to seethis. Properperceptionis an all-importanttrait and a djfficult one to understand.Ve must be able to disengageourselvesfrom events,to look ât them complet€lydetachedlyin order to be ableto assess cri teriacorrectly.Ther€ is rhe much,usedmodel of the antelopeand the biologist, for example.To a herd of antelopes,a lion is an evil €ntity, intent only on killing and rend;ng.To a biologist, however,the lion hasa purposein the schemeofthings, the predatorjs in fâct ensuring the continued survivaland health of the prey. Insidenaturessystem otchecks andbalances,one cannotsurvivewithout the other Butthe antelopedoes not havethe perc€ptionro seeits dependencyon the lion, and thereforewould like nothing b€tter than to be rid of it. It is unfortunate that life is som€whattike this example.Our d€siresand preconceptionsinduce us to look at the \rorld stnctly from our own standpoint.The twin axiornsof ignoranceand greed often serveto further separateus from reality as wet1.Sometirnes. people as a masscan persistin a distorted standpointto the extent that they wind up doing rhemselvesor others damage.Many cultures have reachedannihilation in rhis manner.rù/e in the modern day, too, have pushed the limit fat but luckily we have also been given time and the meansro stop our self destrudion. Most people do not realizethat we have becomelike the gods of old mythology, for we have almost unlimited power and \i/ealth but lack the common senseto useit corr€ctly.'3 Man is by instinct andevolutjon a pack animal,mor€ content to follow than to explor€ and individually decide for himself. Vhen under the direction of the leadersof our society,we commonly let things go until we are hard pressedto ignore them, regardlessof 164 EpiloÉue
whetherthis hasa positivcor ncgativeoverallellect on our well' is being.It is a miçtaketo think thal the scienceof sociodvnamics any lessadvancedin our day and agethan, sav'plrvsicsorchemistry, the degreeof control that world leadershave over the populaceis staggeringwhenanalyzed And the world can be a very/unforsivins placewhen we live in it so narrow-mindedlv Most pheôomenain nature tollow the law of expon€ntialprocression;this cardinalrule hasled to our undoing from the beginning In 1972 an internationalt€am of scientisisheadedbv Professor Dennls L. Meadows of the Massàchusettslnstitute of Tèchnologv publishedthe r€sLtltsof a study,p€rform€dat MIT undef the dir€c tion of the Club of Rome, in which a compùter sim(lation tracked the decline of world resourcesbasedon existing trends Th€ same conclusionshad been reachedbv other scholarsin th€ past, more notably by the geologist M. Kins Hubbelt in the earlv l95os, but the MIT study wasthe first that world politicianspaid anv attention to. Dr Meadows'sresearchwas eventuallvpublished {or the mass * marketand becamethe classicbestsellerTlr LiaitsoJGrootl which sold rnillionsof copiesin the I 970sbut appearsto havebeen forgotten in the I990s. Basicalty,the simulation projected the death bv stârvationof a third of the world population bv the vear 2100, the destructionof our€cosystemand the collapseof the world financlal basewill induce and acco'npânvthis worldwide farnine Manifestationsof the phenomenonare alreadv evident in Af. rlca, Indla, and SoutheastAsia Few p€opleseemto care ln Creece' for example,more sweatis spenton whether hemlinesshouldrisein a siven year,or a new talk-showhostesshachad breastimplants(are ttry reah),than on the hungry millionsin nearbvAlbaniaandKosovo So given the continuing phenomenaof greed and ignorance, howclosearewe to the destructionpr€dictedbv ProfessorMeadows! model?At the moment, the simulationis uncornfortablvon track There can be no more denyinc, for example'thât global warm ing causedby irresponsibleindustrializationand deforestationis a
*
Meadows,Denris L., et al.,TtrlimiB oJGroo.L(NewYork'Sisnet Books,The New AmericânLibrarv,1972). 165 EpiloSue
fâct. The United Nations and the \Vorld MeteorologicalOrganiza tion haveestablishedthe lntersovernmentPanelooClimateChange to monitor the situation and propose an actjon plan. To date the IPCC hasanalyzedwhat we can expect in rhe tuture as far asglobal warning is concern€d.Here is a brief surnmary. The averagetemperalureof the planet will rise by one degree centisrade by the year 2025 and ao additional two desrecsty the year2100 That may not soundlike nuch, but bearin mind that rhis rise will not be uniform all over the planet.The remperatureat thc poles may rise much more than at the equator and the air wjll be much warmer over land mâssesthan over th€ seas.(Another model suggeststhat, follo\eing the initial meltdown of the poiar ice caps, the poleswill actuallyger colder, initiaring anorherice age at high latitudes). Establishedwind patlernswill change,El NiRo is one such example.Asian monsoonsftight becomeAmericanmonsoons.There will be a worldwide increasein rainfaU,but this increasewill ako be unevcnlydistribded. At [roderatelatitudeswe might seean increase of 5 to l0 percentin anDualprecipitarion,but rhe areasof the planet that arealreadydrywiilbecome evenmoreso PerhapsrheentireU S. Sunbelt,for example,will at somepoinr becomeone endlessdesert. There will be an increasein severeclimatjc phenomena,hurricanes, srorrns,and floods.Ve arealreadyseeinerhisif ihe severefloodçand stormsin the làstthreeyearsof the pastcenturyare any indication. Vithin the next fifty years,landscunently used for âgriculrure will become arid and useless,cultivation will have to take place at higher€levationsto ensuregrowthin the lorthcominghotter climare. The ice cap is indeedmeltiog, scientistsexpect a srx centimererrise in the level of the oceansby every ten yeax from now on. And the ozone layertSevenyearsago a sunblockfactor of 2 was acceptablefor thoseofus of Mediterraneandesceot;now we havero put on sunscreenrated level 24 andheed "sunintensity warnings',to In March 1997 the National Science Foundation esrablished beyond a shadowof a doubr that the fish in the Aotarctic were suffering incrcasedmutationratesandgenericanomaliesduero el€vared
166 Epilo8ue
theozone lt confirmcdthat,duringthe springseason, solarradiation. level ir the Antarctic drops to 50 percentb€low the limit that en' suresproteclion from UV radiation This is just the beginning Havingsaidalltheabove,letme alsoaffirmthatsvnth€ticmatedals are unquestioninglywonderful for usein their proper place As I willdiscusç further on in this scction, th€re can be no doubt that polymen and synthetic rnateriaishave giv€n mankind the kevs to the future; the advanceswe are se€ingin technologv and medicine would not be availablewithout them. No, the issuesI am addressingàre subtleones:gr€€d and igoo rance,nothing else.I havelivedunder primitive conditions;ii is not that great.My point here is that what Vestern civilization oeedsto succeedis a caretulbalanceof objectives,actions,aôd responsibili ties. Our children and our childrent children will have to pav the price for our decisionsand our inaction todâv, as such,our love for thern should temper our desires. " You don't alwavs The word lama trans]atesês "consequence hav€ to act to b€ responsiblefor something'vou can also,bv inacVe in theVest haveallowedour elected tion, promote conrequences. to act asthey havertherefore,we alsomust shoulder representatives part of the blame.Andwe will. A studentonce askedme if I thought the citizens of Iraq deseruedto watch their homes destrovedand their loved on€s killed iust becausea power'hungry dictator ruled theircountry Irepliedin the affirmative,becausethev uniortunatelv bore the collective consequenceof allowing him to control their lives in the firçt place. Ltnder the rule of exponentialprogression, they had allowedSaddamHusseinto srow in might until he became too powerful to deal with. Nature is not very forgiving So what doesall thls have to do with Chans Situr Noth;ng and everything.The hotrorstoriesoutlined aboveare simplv the factsof life, but they cên also seweas examples.John Chang agreedto this book for one reasononly, to expandthe horizons of peoplearound the world and show them, beyond a shadow of a doubt' that their livesare not as limited asthey think. Sometimesit is €noughto give peoplea hint. All sortsof miraclescan happen l am remindedof the memberof Creenpeacewho, having clandestinelvtaken a position
Epilo8ue
as a cook aboârda tuna boat, brought the tuna industryto its koces aft€r filmins the wholesaleslaughterof dolphinson tuna boats.That man struck the sparkthat startedê fire. I am hopins that this book will work in a similàr mannef. Chang Sifu! lessonsare intendedfor the leadefsof the world as well as the common man. "Look," he tells the powers that be, "the universejs not as simple and plain as you once thought it was.You cannot act as you do with no thought for the future or regard for retribution. You will have to pay for the consequences of your ac tions. Therc are asp€ctsof the human state of being that you are unawarcof at the moment." Perhapsthe leaderswill not care,you say.Hasn'teveryreligion in the world issuedthe samewârnins?Many powertul people feel exemptsimply becausethere is no proof of th€ validity of thci. personalreligion or creed. H;story has shown us, h o w e v e rt ,h a r. u t h a n a t r r r u drer e r r o n e o u r . The aforementionedCreenpeacemembernotwithstandins,it js astonishinghow often the effortsof one man can affectthe courseof history. Our cunent Vestern civilization is essentiallystillbased on the approachand methodology of two seventeenthc€ntury scholars:FrancisBaconand RenéDescartes. Baconwasthe founderofthe modem scientificempiricalmethod. ph;losopher A and poiitician, he wrote that mân should "seizeNa ture and force her to sewe us." Baconassertedthat man should es sentiallymâkenaturchis slave,that he should"tie her hand and foot and torture herso thatshewillrevealher secr€ts."Todaysuchwords may sound insanerhistoriansrealize that the famous philosopher wassimply echoins th€ judicial systemof his day.One wonden how he would have enjoyed a tour through a nuclearwastedumpsit€. As for Descartes,there can be no doubt that h€ v/as a brilliant man; therecan alsobe no doubt that jt is to him we owe much ofour current misery.D€scârteswas a profound math€matician,scientist, and philosopher,butunder his direction Vestern man begana sepa ration from the earth, naturalforces,and his own kind the extent of whichwe areonly now beginningto reâlize.Indeed,Descartes's most famous line, "Cogito ergo sum,"definesthat separationclearJy.In severingmind and body and making the flesh worthlessand subor-
168 EpiloSue
dinate to mind, Descartesdrove a wedge betweenman and the uni_ verse-a w€dge that doesnot, ând cannot,physicallyexist.It is well known, forexample,thât Descartesvivisectedliving animals,ignoring their cries of pain and despairin order to determin€the struc_ turesof their bodies.His was the mechanisticapproâch,naturewas a machineto be analyzed,nothing more. Functionalanâlysiswas to be carriedout in ever-increasingdetâil so that, in the end,eachcornponent would surrenderits final specificsecret.lt was undoubtedly the Cartesianmethodthat putman on the moon. On the otherhand, it is apparent that, by embracing the Cartesianmethod, we have concentratedso much on the g€arsthat we hav€ lost sight not only of the machin€but of the road this machin€hastaken aswell. I have used the wo '?Pantiotlasain âôd asâin (much to the chagrin of the edltor of this text, l'm sure)simply becauseI believe that it is iûde€d separationthat definesthe Cartesiansystem(and, unfortunatel, todays Vestern society).The industrial process,for example-anunmistakablederivativeofCartesianphilosophy has separatedthe craftsmanfrom his product. In other words, by work ing in an âss€mbtyline, eachemployeefabricatesonly à tiny part of the entire project' his self-worth is only as greatas the partial product he shapes.In contrast,the medievalblacksmithtook greatpride in his work b€causeit wasl,isfrom beginning to end. Today! axembly Ilneworkeç who rnaydo no rnorethan drillholes in a d€tail Part (which will be rivetedinto placeby someoneelse),hasno regardfor hls chore and can hardly \,,/aitfor the weekend(or 4/y time when he isn't working). D€spite the progreçsVestern society has made toward advancingthe rights of the individual,employmenthas once againbecomeserfdom. Conversely,the Japanesehave enjoyed immensecommercial succ€ss with their factory goodsbasicallydue to theirpolicyof inte gration.The presidentof a companyoften goesdown to the assem bly line and assiststhe workers; all white-collar enrployeesare expectedto hav€ spent their time "on the line." This approachfost€rs the id€aofunity and pride in the product,which, in the manner ofthe craftsmanof pastcenturies,hasl€d to peopleconsideringtheir work important.As such,their merchandisehassold well.
169 Epilo8ue
A further exampleof arroperarionthat thrives on separationis todays food industry.The processof meat producrion is an abomi nâ1ionianimalsaresequestered in stalls,not allowedto move,stùffed with hormonesând recycled foods, and subsequentlydaughtered. Their livesarea Iivinghellandhavenothingto do with the pleasanl ranchesand wide-open spacesof the past. Meat is processedand packagedand put on displayin neat câsesin the supermarket,most children thesedays haveno ideathat they a:e earingwhat was onc€ a living animal. Fruits and vegetablesare unfortunatelyjust as bad, The arnountof chemicalsand pesricidesus€dwould causemost of us to quit buying fmit altogetherwere we awareof therr The con tinual and incessantrapeof the seasand marinewildlife is evenworcer in a few decad€sthere willbe no fish lefr to cd!. The point is, all ofthis canbe rumed aroundif societyasa whole adoptsth€ proper attitudc, if we càn realjzethat rhe lifestylewe âre following has no real placein the world. I have seenmany \ù/estern medicaldoctorswhopreviouslydisregarded Chinesemedicaltheory completelystop in their trackswh€n someonesimply spoketo rhem in their own language.Contrary to Descart€ssexpectarions,the bodyt cell structureis rot a consrantand mechanisricrhing, indeed, cellularbiology is somev.hatlike quanrumtheory.The pancreas,for example, replacesall ;tscellseverytw€nty-four hours,while rhe stomach replacesits cells every rhreedays.The body! white blood €ells ar€ renewedevery ten days,while 98 percentof the proteio-based tissuein that most complicât€dandwonderfulof organs,the human bràin, is repla€edonce a month. Ve can thus approachmedicaldoc toÎs with the simpleexplanation that Chioesemedtctneis basedon the lrocsss of contilual change-not the detailsof pùnary ànatomy focusedon by our Cartesian-based Vestern rnedicalsystem Ceneraliy that distinction suff;cesto breakthe ice and seizethe audience! To closethe loop and get back to Chang Sifu, ir is apparenrthat your viewpoint of the vorld can govern your efforts and axioms,as well as your resultingsocialdirection. It is ro the holistic vievr'point afforded by Easternmysticisn (and modern Vestern science)that we must turn if we wish to surviveas a species.For most of us, the
170 Ep'lo8ue
common peopte,thc lcssonsol thc Eastare simpl€ \Ve n€ed not indulg€ in consumerismor blindlv follow the dir€ctivesof sp€cialinterestmanipularorsVe are eachcapableo( thinkins and decidins lor ourselves.The road of lif€ is on€ of balance,consequence,and simplicity, Taoist doctrine statesthat th€ universeis compris€dof heaven, \J/e have earth, and man, and that all embodv a patt of the Tao' reachedthat stagein our developmentwhere we mosldccept this truth. Everything and everyonearound us has the right to life, in deed,all life is a preciousgift and should be treatedas such For all our power,do we reallyrrlerstanllifer Tlre wisdom of ancientChina tells us that everything begins in and returns to the Tao Similarlv' our t€chnology can tell us much about the origins of our solar svs tem and life on earth, and what we have learnedgives us causeto wonder.The assumptionthat our world is simply the resultof a ran dom agglomerationof elementsis no longer viâble The eafth is roushly four billion years old. Even taking into account the latest dev€lopmentsin complexity theory' there is no way thal we can âccouniforthe factthat life, in the form ofbacteriaand single-celled jnto the earths animals,beganroughly four hundred million veârs existence.A singlebact€riumcontâinstwo thousandenzymesiour most liberâl estimatesof the time it would take for th€ random assembly of such enzymesto give birth to bâcteria is roughlv forlv bill;on years,two orders of masnitud€ off The secondprobJemis that evolutioô seemsto haveoccuned in much too orderedand pur posefu1a fashion,our currentmâthematicsandcurrent theorieçsim ply cannotaccountlof the evidentcomplexitv and interdependenc€ of livins beinss. It seemsthât if indeedeverything is a part of the Tao, then we are quite a way frorn understandingone of its components,life on earth.Andwhat aboût man himselfi Our own evolution is puzzling Modern humanbeingshavebeenon this planetfor about foÉv ùou saDdyearsrhow and whv did we come to f'e aswe atc?The size oi our brains explodedin evolutionaryterms, doubling in âlmost two million years.lndeed, the increasein brain size was so sÙddenthat the rest of our bodjesdid not have a chanceto catch up As a result
lV EpiloÉue
of these larser brains,which could not passthroush thc mother's birth canal, human infanrshad to be born very early in their devel_ opment. (The size of a humanchild,sbrain doublesin rhe first year of lif€.) The ihfants of most mammalscan walk within a few daysof theirbirth. Conversely,humanbabiescannot walk forayear and are helplessfor âlmost thr€e. Thesetotally dependentchtldren restruc tured the order of societyrth€y had to be protecredand taught to function. The evolutionary history of the human animal seemsto deô. both the srandardprocessof evolution and the principles of s€lf-orgânizationoudined by complexirytheory. It is evenmore per plexing if we examineclosely the history of mankind through rhe last ten mill€nnià.The wheat plant, forexample, mutatedquire sud denly teo thousandyearsago, almosras if ir oarrel .o be made into bread by the people of that age.And there is still no evolutionar/ justification for the pleasanteffects that the fermenrationprocess has on milk, grape,and grain. So in d€aling with earth and man, have we finally come to addressheaven?Is evolurion directed?Ic there indeed a Codr As we have seen,MâstefJohn Chang believesstrongly in Cod, and is un doubtedly a creationist.I myself am a product of my age and so questioneverything. Oh, I firmly believein unconditionaluniversal principles:Iove,justice,consequence. Ibelieve thât thereis an after, life and that I have seenspjrirs.As a scientist,howevel I feel more comfortable wirh the Easternnotion of heaven in rhe senseof an indefinable, incomprehensible,quantum-physics-likeabsoluteen compassingthe enrireuniversePerhapsthereisa penonalCod whose domain is this planet, who has seen to our growth. perhapsHe is even the mânifestationofa UniversalSpirit that encompasses allthe extant galaxies/âssuggestedby the Christianconcept of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I do not know, and I am much too small to judge, so all I can do is hope. $/e as a specieshavebeen given, and conrinueto receive,great opportunities. \]/e are also in greâr peril. From now on, therefore, we have to act carefully and with forethoueht-like responsible adults-in order to reach our full potential. Ocrrworld will tolerate no ,nore mistakesor loolishness,no more childishness.The human
172 Epilogue
anirnalis, aç a rcm:rkablcman so eloqucntlypùt it so long ago,at Childhood\ End* And there  hope for the future Ve are neitherborn into the worldwithout sufferingthe pain of vithoùt experiencingdoubt and birth nor passthrough adolescenc€ heartache.Humanity âs an entity hasjust passedthrough pubeny and standson the threshold of adulthood.Like a teenager,we have and inrpulses, sufferedfor a time andbeen subjectto ourweaknesses but now we aregrowingup. As we enter the third millennium of the Common Era(morethan the fourth millenniûn of recordedhistory), hurnâniryis indeed readyto becomea responslbleadult. Look how far we havecome in lessthan one hundredyears,and how rapidly we are progressingat this pointl Let us conc€ntratefor awhile o. oùrtriurnphsratherthan ourfail tes.In the faceof nuclear wa1 for instance,reasondid prevail; the superpowersof the world took a stepback hom th€ir ColdVar antaeonism a war thât/ aher all, was fought over an economic systemand nothing more. Ecological organizationsare more powerful now than ever before. Information disseminationhas become worldwide, and lit€racy is growing in third vorld nations.Medical knowledge is soarine;we can now performmiracles.lmaginetelling a nineteenth-centuryphysicianthat it would b€comeroutine to rip out the sickenedheart of an ill man and replaceit with anothet storedfor that purpose,from a sujtabl€donor (andwith the donorsconsent-itself no smallthlng)r Or imagin€ telling the sàmedoctor that, harnessingthe power of light, we can perform surgeryon the delicatehuman eye, that we can open and closethe humanbrain: Citizensaround the world are nowmore than everâwareof their ights and willing to standup and flght for them, not only thât, we do not hesitateto stând and light rcniolntly for the rights of ottr's. Evenmor€ surprising,this ryst€mworks, andworld leadersare ready to concedeto itl Chandi would not have had a chanc€in medieval Europe.
'Arthur
C. Clarke, foryounger readers
173 EpiloSue
Despite setbacks,we have indeedset foot on thc moon and arc making pfogresstoward conquering the solaf system.Ve rray be close to a new form of cleanenergy.Legislationhasbeen passedtn the \trest restricting corporationsfrom inesponsibleecologicàldarnage. Technology is advaocingso rapidly that electronicsare often obsoletewithin a few years.Vonderful new materials-
thar will usc hydrogcnas a lucl. llydrogen burnsclcanly,Lurnins into watcrvaporwheo oxidized. Thc point is,hadwe not gonethroughà phaseol rapidindustri alization and technolosicalsrowth, we would not hàve developed the knowledgewe now have that makessuch dreamspossible.lt is our.11lr./tmarerialand physj€alsciencesthat have handedus these rewardson thc proverbialsilverplatter The world of the futurc will because the major indeedbe"clean"from an ecolosicalstandpoint, ity of peopleon the carthud'i il to be. This book is also a good cxample of how far we havc cone. Even thirty ycars ago, in the heyday of the 1960s,I would ncvet havedaredto wfite thesewords, nor presentthe conceptsI have,ior fear of retribution. In truth, I rnysellam very much a produc! of the yoke forged by earlier gene|ations,a person neither Occident nor Orient but both * Moreover,it is certainthat MasterChang himselt would not havc bothered to come forth in tbe past, for lack of a çuiiableaudience.But in oÛrday everyonehasseenSldl"l'fdfr on the silverscreenandKln4 Fr on television,many ofus both in youth ând middle age, and such things:re more readily acceptedas natural
Epilo8ue
Epilque
lf any of us needsmore proof of our growth as a species,then nore than our accomplishmentsit is our lreansthal w€ must exam ine. Vhere do we ud"i to be2Vhat is it that we covet?Look deep into yourself.Do we, in fact, not covet the stars?Can there b€ any doubt of this?There is ê catch here,however,asIhâve triedto rnâke clear in this chapter, In order to reach the starswe hunger for, we must first pres€rvethe womb that bore us, this very planet earth There is no way aroundthis. " Other than the peFonâl erperiencesinvolved, nothing in this text should be consideredinnovative.As far back as t93a, Piofe$or \v Y Evans'\Ï/entzwas talking about torging a new sciencethat was neither East nor Vest in his book TbetahYold and SrcretDoctrirts I I retum to Ceorge Locas! work asàin and asai' simply becauseI feel that it has beànns on where we as a speciescould be heading TheJedl combine technologywirh are all-iftpoltànt in that they successfully mysticism,and in doins so, touch peoplesheads all around the wotld.
So how doesneikumg cnterthe picture2 Vell, whatif€verything ,_ I hav€ written is true2Can it be developedand nurtured?And if so, where will it lead us2 I bel;evethat such inqrdry wilt guide us ro rhe thresholdof the starswe so desire.Neikung rsthe studyofour lifes energiesandmore, it is the study o[ our exisr€nceirs€lf.Mânyofthe answerswe seekare hidden wirhin the acrivitiesof yin and yang Vhen we arereadyand able to unlock thesesecretsfor all mankind,only then will we st€p into the tuture promisedby our dreams.lbelieve that in rhis unfold_ ing epoch, the boundary betweenphysicsand metaphysicswill fall for good (if it was ever really there in the first place),and that even death will begin to lose its terro. Conceivably\Le âs a specieswill come to perceiv€rhe answelsro the questionsthat have plagued us sincethe dawn of time, Why areoe hero And Whueqft aegoin4, Sucha world isJohn Changs sift to humaniry.
AppendixOne
NOTES
r . Alexanderof Macedon "King of the Creeks"in the words of Kiplings Mat Who Worll BeKug-swept across Asia from 334 to 326 BcEwith an army of forty thousandmen to reâch the northern bordersof India. He was stopped only by the unwillinsnessof his men to go on; they rebelled,refusingto march eastwardbeyond the and their descendantspenHyphasis River.Alexander! successors etratedeven farth€rinto India,creatingkingdomsand becomingthe stuff of legends.Somehistorianssay that the list of Creek kings in India ls as long as that of the kings of England from the Norman invasionto the prcsentday.* In any case,what is important is that the two cultureslil meet and interactedin a waveofmutualadmiration and r€spe€t.The resulting exchangeof ideasand infomation had a profound effect on the history and developmentof both the Eastand the Vest. From the Creeksthe Indianslearnedsculpture,architecture,astronomv.andmathematics. Fromthe Indiansthe Creeksleamedabout the inner workings of manl mind and body. Many Creeksbecame Buddhists;in fact, one Hellenisticking, Menandros,is honoredas a Buddhistsaint bv the Theravadandenomination.There can be no
*'ù/oodcock, Ceorge,Trr creefrs if Llid (London,IaberçFaberLtd, 1966). 176 Ep'lo8ue
1n
denyingthe pronouncedeffectthat Indianthoughthadon the Creek philosophersof the period and, as a consequence, on later Vestern development.Since it wasHdls"Àticthought and sciencerhar subse quently influencedthe Romansand, through them, the early Euro, pean natiors, I can safelystatethat the phtlosophyof the Eastdtd tn fact strongly affect the history of the Vest. The two peopleshad spokenwell ofeach other evenbeforeAlexande/scoming.The Brah min leadersof lndia, in the classicIaos oJÂ1aw,placed the laoanas (the Sanskritword for "Creeks,"from'Iorveçor e,o-nes,asthe Cr€eks ofAsia Minorwere called) in the warrior (Kshatriya)cast€rrhereis a referenceto the Creeksin the Indianepic Mrrarûarafaaswell. In the fifth century BcEthe CreeksHerodotus(a hisrorian)and Hekateus(a geographer)affirmedthat "of all barbariansthe Indiansare leastbarbaric"(a strong statem€ntfrom the ethnocentricclasstcalCreeks).Bv Hellenistic times the Creekswere speakingof the Indian sageswith open admiration.The famousphilosophersApolloniusand Plotinus bothwentto India in searchof esotericknowledge,andmanya Creek diplomat in the court of Indian klngs wrote bestsellingbooks describing India to the Creeksback homet*.1 Many scholarsare of the ooinion that it is the Greeks them selveswho were responsibleforthe Mahayanaschoolof Buddhism.f If this was th€ case,and taking into account that it was Mahayana Buddhismthat spreadto China, Tber, Korea, and Japan,then tlre Vest did inde€d strongly influence the history of rhe East.Conversely,there can be no denying the pronouncedeffect that lndian tbought had on the Greek phiiosophersol the period and,asa con sequence/on later'!?esterndevelopment.The phtlosopherPyrrhron, for example-who followed Alexander to Indiê and returncd ro Creeceto influenceallthosewhocameafterhim (Xenoand Eoicurus. amons oth€fs)-was for all practical purposes a student of the Digambara(sky'clad) secrof theJain religion.s
The consequenccsof th€ Hell€nistic A8€ spreadall th€ way to ofthe Silk Roadt China in the first centuryBcEwith the estâblishment technology that was a bvthe coîtinuous exchangeof learningand product of the silk tradeaffectedpeople! lives from Spainto northern China. :. I had often wonderedwhat prornptedMao Zedong to turn so dramaticallyagainstChinesecultureand science,attackingbasi' cally everyth;ngin sight first in 1949and th€n again so bloodilv in 1966 with the Cultural R€volution. I have come to believe that it was this €litism and sequesteringof knowledge,this continual con flict among the powerful, that the man resented.There can be no doubt, howeveç that Mao botched thejob and destroyedmuchthat would have othe'wise benefitedhumanity. quite rightlv, havedespaired 3. Manysinologistsandtranslato|s, of everconveyingthe proper meaningto Vesternersand havebeen content to use tbe term "energy{ime" for ltan4ir, duplicating the simplicity of the Chineseideocrams.I\,r'ouldlike to take a moreJedi approachto the ideograms'meaninæ.Ve cannot hope, asVesternofthe Chinesecharâcterswith words. ers,to duplicatethe con€iseness However,we can useanother\X/esternapproach,that ofmathemat ics, to duplicâteEasternculture. Io short,
ENERCY
TIME -
For example, Megasthenis! hliar lats andDiimachuss O,Itrlû. neitherof which is extanttoday. I oi.ou, Nit tl, G.,i B!/tra (Athens,Nefelipublicarions, r98a) "., + Durant,\v., Irs S!,,1,,JCi,liza.io',vol. II (Ceneva: Edito SeNice,te63). 3 Dimoù,ri,r Ci..l Brdlta 178 AppendixOne
Iig. 5. KûnsFu = Jt F(Ê,t)dt, whereE=enersvan.]t=time In otherwords [u4la is equâlto the int€gral of the energvspent in training p€r day, over the total anount of time spent in traiôingl 179 AppendixOne
The areaunder the cuw€, the integral, definesthe total power that you have achlevedthrough your efforts.You wilt seelater on how precisethis definition is. (Yocrcan also see how a train€et €fforts vary from day to day; &rrrj,r refersto the total power accumulatedin the process.)It seemsthat there are indeedtwo English words that convey the meaning of km4Jr, and those are barduorkt 4. The theory that Taoismhasmademost famousis rhat of two opposinguniversalforces,I am referringof courseto yin and yang. It is hardto imagineân areaoi the worldwhere thesetwoubiquitous wolds hâvenotbeen heard.(lndeed,wheretheyhaverotbeen heard is where the conceptsare probably stillrefened to by otherwordsl). As I typed th;s text, I activatedmy word prccessortspellcheckorogramrrt did no( pdu\eIor eitheryn or yang one moreindrcàrion of the words'acceptancein the \X/est. The twin forcesof yang and yin are complet€ opposires:mal€ and female,white and black, light and darkness,hot and cold, posit;ve and negative.The Chin€seideogramforyar,, maybe translated as"th€ sunny side of the mountain",that ofyil as,,theshadyside of the mounta'n."Our physicalbodies areyang, the energy and being of spirits is yin. Conversely,yang comesfrom heaven,yin from the earth. Both forcesare presentin everything aliv€ on this planet,but they are not harmoniousforces,as often representedin the !ù?€st. Instead,they are in constantstruggle,neverable to meetyet always interâcting.It must be stressedthar this clashis a struggleof natural universalenergies,not a co.tention of sentienrdeitieslNeither yin nor yang has anything to do wirh good and evil, they are independent ofpurposeandmorality.lt is very intereslrngronote rhat many diverse cultural groups have made use of the same imagery.The Navajo Indiansdraw FatherSky and Mother Earthin rheir sandDaintings rn.uch a wav rhat evenrhe morr naiveobcerverwill rhrnkof yang andyin. The ancientCreeksmadeus€of the sameidea, asserr ing in their rnyths that everything on the world was createdby the .natins of FatherSky (Uranus)and Mother Earth (Caia). By 1000BcEthe conc€ptsof yin and yang had been refined and the patternsof the two forces'interactioncharted,the date indicates
180 AppendixOne
that this philosophy exist€d loog bclore the concept and word ot %olsnwere developed 5. TheTaoistphilosophicaltndition (Tâo-chia)is associatedwith the classicaltexts Tao Te Chins br LaoTzr), ChuatlgTzu,LiehTzu aîd others.It hasbeen saidthat next to the Bible andthe BhagavadCita' the Tào Te Ching is the most translatedbookin the \Torld Much also hasbeen saidabout the conflict betw€enConfucianismand Taoiçm, which in popularnotion portravsKung Fu Tzu as the glorified civil servantstressingob€dienc€,while lao-tzu is the mysticalhemit r€ siding somewherein the mountainwildern€ss.The truth' however' seemsto be that both were simply men of their age,strugglingwith conceptsgerminatingând developingduring their lifetimes fuo:zx (old mastel)is the honorific given to Li Erh Tan, a minor official of ihe Chou state who lived around the fifth century lct (Ve have no way of proving or disproving this information ) After his death and for the next hundred vears, savingswere collected that were attribut€d to Li and presentedin a volume called the lao Tzu.Of Lao tzu the man we reallvknow nothing Vhat is important is that this work, which came to be known as the Tao Tè Ching sometimebetweenthe first century BcEand the first century cE,sets the basefor phllosophicalTàoism Ho\tever' it is c€rtain that Lao' tzu did not call himself a Taoist.Insteadthe l,o Tzl, like the works of Confucius,is more concern€dwith providing a basefor correct politicâl leadership-a manualfor rulers,ifvou\sill lndeed,the title fto 1?Crir4 tells us much about the volume Tro (simply translatedas "the wav") is the nameless,the origin b€yond orisins. It cannot be definedbv human beinss it is untold times beyond us, aswe are abovethe amoeba The Tào is unknowable,etemal,without shapeor endvet havlng allshapesand all end ings.Formless,it petmeateseverything and is the goalof all existence Teis an equally difficult concept lt can be translat€das "integ rity," "virt e," "the proper mode of behaviorin relation to th€ will of 'ttrength effused heaven,""power,""inner potencv,""knighthood," with honor" The key issueis that both Lào-tzu and Kung Fu Tzu thought that te is somethinga good ruler should have Thev were
141 ÂppendixOne
not too fdf apartin thcir bâsicidcasrit was thcir appfolchcsrhaL diffcred. ContuciLrssaw the Vay as being a sct of rules that hcavcn had bequeathed ro nan, hterarchical in naturcand lull of ftltaldc. pendencies with clcarandunyieldinsrdnkines. Materialrewards and staluçwere compensationsior correctly following the \\/ay. Hencc, whât wasto be stresçedwaste (sincete cafte frorr heaven),thc Vay would then tak€careof itself.(Because Confucianism emphasized obedience,it is obviouswhy the rultng classeswere â11for its adop tion by their subordinatest) Lao tzu did not follov the sameroure.He counseled"sagehood" andstressedthe Vay for its own sakeratherthan forrhe comnunityi profit. Just as all bcingsassuredlyretirrnedto the Tào in death,so ir was necessaryin life for eacb indivtdualto rerurnto the original pu rity ând simplicity of his basicnature.The key was to "nlanifcstth€ sinlpleand embracethe prirnal" Taowas likencdro f' , rhe "uncaNed log," the best metôphor for expressingthe simplicity of the Vay. "Thoughthe uncarvcdlogis snall,"Lao tzusaid,"nooncin th€world darcssubjLrgatc it." The key to achievingthe Tao wasor-ort, sponta neity ànd noninterference "going\a.ithth€ Tlow,"tousea New Agc ism. However, it shoLrldbc understoodthat wu wei does not irrply passivity.Rather,like a wise swimmercrossinga deep and powerful river, the Taoistswirnsoi* the current ratherthan againstit The particular section ol the bo Tzu I quoted ro John Chang goes as tollows, 'All thinss carry the yin on their backsand enfold the yang withinr when the two combine,life! energyis createdharmoniously."(Tao Te Chins, section42) 6. Since ching is associated with the reproductiveprocessand apparently flows downward, some Tàoists {and Buddhistsof thc Ch'arn sect both-the two dogmasare not rhat far apart) took to using the Chlnesetheory of"opposing flows"to makethechingrise. This theory says,simply, that if you want someihing to rise, pull ir down, and vice vexa. To makethe ching ascendto a higherposirion in the body where it canbe relined into ch'i, thesepractitionerstook to hanging and swinging heavy weights from thejr peniseslI have seenphotos of a monk hom the Shaoli. temple suspendiûga sixtypound stone from his organwith ropes.I am unawareif he achieved 142 AppendixOne
thc ascendance ol ihc ching throughthis practice,but hc had moçt certainlt overmany yeàrsof repetition,developedwhatis colloqui Conversely,how many men ally called "an enormousscboarstaecfter" have sufferedlmpotenceor damageas a resultof this practice,I do not know (and I say this by way of warnins, becauseI know that there is not a male out there who did not, upon readingthis, irnme diately think, "AharSo thatt the \,r'ayto do it!"). Oth€r Taoiststook io what is euphemisticallycalled "double cultivâtion,"aod is a€tuallynonorgasmicsex.That is to say,the practitionerengàgesin the serlalact up lo the point of orgasrn,atwhich he withdraws and or ceases.The next step is to yogicâlly for€ethe collectedsemento rise, once again,to an areaof the body whete it can be processed.I have seenmany books in the \Vest describins thistechnique,but, onceagain,I hâvenov€rificationof itsefficiency. 7. Becausethis is sùch an important verse,and one that you must understandin order to conprehend the metâphysicaloutlook ofJohnl school,it would be best if I presenteda literâl translationof the Chineseideograrls.They are,
To die (a parent stândingover the death bed of a child)
m
bui (â m stache)
T not (a seedunder the cround) É vanish,perish (a man in a crypt)
# he who (an old rnanspeaking)
t
Eir immortality, Ione life (lons lifc)
183
Many diflèrentiDterpretations olthisstanzâhavebcenaftcmpted in order !o make rhe passage/ifit/'into \Y/esternphilosophicôlmod€ls.ln truth its meaningis very literal.An exa€ttranslationwouldbe, "He who dies but doesnot perish has lons life.', I chosea more pe remptory usage:"He who dies but continuesro exist is i,nmortal.', The passasetmeanincis simple,Individualswho llikeJohn Chang) havereachedCaichi andcombinedyinandyansinsidetheirbeinss retainallawareness, m€mory andab;lity afterdeath.They,,taketheir yang with them," asJohn so aprly put it. 8. No accountofreligioustoismwouldbe compl€tewithour a presentationof Chang Tào Ling Born Chang Lins during rhe Làte Han dynasty in Szechuanprovince (probably in the year lsO cE, thoush others say 35 cE), he was â child senius.At sevenhe could read and elaborateon the Tào Te Ching, and by eight he had masteredthe art of fengshui(divinarjon).As an adult he dtsplayedpreter naturalabiliti€sandrremendoushealingpowers,on both the physical and psychologicallevels.But Chang Ling was unique in more than justhis capabiliries.Hewas alsothe first Taorsrmasrerto organrzehis followersinto a movement Chang managedthis by insrituting a lifetime fee for healing or for mediation wirh the spirir world. Now it had be€n customary/ sinc€ primeval times for the village to support rhe shamân,but no on€ priorto Chang Ling had graspedthe conceptoforyanizarioo so tundamentally.Chang chârgedhis patienrsfive bushelsof rice each year for lfe (the American Medical Associationwould approve of this approach) This is a lot of food, and tne payment was guaran teed for manyyean. Itwas a lifetime f€e also in the sensethat ifyou pâid the fee, it ensuredunlimited medi€al and spirituâl treatment; there was no extrachargeeachtim€ you becamesick (sort ofa combined churchand HMO). Th;s tithe enabledChangto satheraround him a large goup of followers,whom he promptly graded into a hierarchy basedon each individualt abilitiesànd latent talents.So unusualwas this innovation rhat his group becâmeknown as the Five BushelsSect. In all fairness,however,it is said that he work€d miracles;the pàralyz€dl;l walk and the btind lil se€,so to speak.
184 ÀppendixOne
Otherwise,he wouldncvcrhâvebeenableto pulliroÊf,not in China (for reasonsI will explore io lurther chapters)and c€rtainly not in the tei ond cenLuryLE.The manhad power Chang Tao Ling and the peoplewho gatheredaroundhim were uniqu€in one more specificway (indeed,in this casehis perspedive goesradicallyagainstthe popularimageof the Tàoisthemit, indifferent to society).ChangLing, byorganizinghis followersand agreeing to keeppeoplehealthy and happy through his powers,andby agreeing to fight with evil and exorcisedemonsand evil spirirs,consdrtel to ifliercede in thecou$eoJhffitanityaberebccould-where karma allowed him to. This was a profoundst€p for a Tàoist,primarily becausein doing so, he acc€pt€dthe consequences of his actlons.Rememberthat, accordins to his beliefs,if he did well, his karmawould be good, if he failed,he would haveto pay for it. Bearin mindalso that Chang lived during the secondcentury cE, b€fore MahayanàBuddhismv/ith its ideâofth€ bodhisatwaand self-denyingsacrificeenteredChtna.You shouldbe able to seeby now that the imageofTaoism propagatedin the \(est is not at all accurate. Chang assumedthe title T'kn Shih,"heavenlymaste/' (or T'rer SrJr,"heavenlyteacbey'';it dependson whom you ask) and passedu on to his offspring (he l,l have children-once again in contrastto the imageof th€ Taoist hermit). His descendants,after a history of variouswars followed by the short-lived estâblishmentof a Taoist theocracy,eventuallysettled on a mountain called Lung Hu Shan (dragontiger mountain)inJiangsiprovince.Over the centuriesthey practiceofint€r€edinginhumânitylaffairs,storingin continLredthe their hâlls,arnonsoth€rthinss, thousandsofjars in which iheyjailed the powerfuldemonsthey hadexorcised.OtherTàoists,not oftheir denominatioobut loos€lyaffiliatedwith thern,andsharingtheirbelief that à rnan blessedwith power should aid humanity, congr€, gated on their mountain,there they were given shelterand a place to meditatein peace.One such man will be central to this book, as we will seelateron. In 1927the Communistsectionof the NationalistArmy brokeoff andattackedLung Hu Shanwhile en routeto Hailufeng.TTey forced the monks in th€ temples,among them the hereditary Heavenly
185 AppendixOne
Mast€r,to flee for their lives.The troops smashedthousandsofjars and containers/rel€asiog(a€cordinsto the monks)thousandsof evil spirits to once again walk the ea h; purportedly,it is rhesespirits that causedVorld rùflarII! The T'i€n Shih eventuallysettledon Taiwan, where they continue to ljve to th€ presentdày Vhat is âgain central to our story is that (ashappenedalsoon Mao-Shanin 1949), someof the hermits on Lung Hu Shanwere not at all put off by the armys appearance,they were so powerful that they fotghtenedthe soldiersaway from their retreats! 9. Chancesarethat ifyou askedone hundredpeoplewho have readup on Chinesephilosophywho Lao-tzuwas,they could all tell youi some perhapsin great detail.The typical researchelhoweveç rnight be shockedto discovcrthat a man whose school was historically a greaterrivalto Confucianismthan Lao-rzu'sTàoismeverwas is virtually unknown in our day. Such a man was Mo-Tzu or Mo T. He is pertin€nt to this text in thàt rh€ schoolofkung fu inherited by John Chans tracesits lineageback to Mo Tzu himself. For the two centuriesfollowjns his dearh,the schoolofMo was the main rival of Confucianism.Born in the stateof Lu in 469 BcE, roughly ten yearsafterK'ungFuTzut passing,Mo Tzu wasextremely well educatedas a youth and apparentlya martjal artist and master oi strategy as well. Indicationsare that he was from a poor family and may haveeven beenbrandedasa criminal, sinceMo-Tzl means "Mr. Tàttoo " TTe priociplesofjustice wer€ the driving force of his ministry, howev€r,and though by nature a stubborn and extreme individual, universallove was the center of his teaching.Four hundredyearspriorro the biÉh ofChrist, Mo-Tzu is recordedashaving said the following, "lf people were to regardother staresas they regard their own, and their neishbor as th€y regard themselves,then they would not âttack one another,for il would be like aitacking their own person.,' Before I continue, it mighr be prudenr to say that there is â difficulty in usingthe woÂs Mi1)trçtlloeeto describethe centralthem€ ofMo-Tzus philosophy.Fromrny own standpoint thosetwo words better depict a Vestern consciousness than an Easternapproachto
ta6 AppendixOne
life (though I will continrc to usehioetsalloteIn the text for lack of a better term). The reasonfor my insistenceon a distinction is that Mo-Tzu wâs prcoccupiedwith justiceas much as he waswith com' passion,and did not tend to be a very forgiving fellow Contrarily, in the Vest, as a consequenceof our Judaeo-Christiantraditlon, universallove has become associatedwith the forgivenessof sins, which is not really focal here. Perhapsa better word for Mo-Tzui teaching would be rriuers4ltt* v.hich does a b€tter job of tracins back to the €entralessenceofTàoism and the concept of ka'ma. In any case,the universalperson considen his neighbor tbe sam€âs hlmself, and the father of his neighbor the sameas his own fath€r, and acts accofdingly. In 393 BcEPrince \/en of Ku Yang was planning to attack the much smallerstate of Cheng. Mo-Tzu went to him and âskedhim what he would do if someof the laryercitiesin his country suddenly raidedthe smâllertowns, killing and plundering.The princ€ replied thât he would punish them severely.Mo-Tzu then askedh;m if he himself would not be punishedin the samemanner by heavenfor attackins Chens. Prince\Zen replied that he wasjustified in his as' sault, for the people of Cheng had murdered their lords for three generations,and were alreadysuffering the retribution o{ heaven. Mo Tzu askedhim how he would feel if, when punishinghis son for somebad deed, his neighbor suddenlyappearedand beganhittlng the boy, declarinsthat it was heavent will that he do sol lf the lord ot a $eat nation attackshis neighboringstate,killing its peopleand st€alingiheir possessions, then writes down how grand andjustified he is for doing so, how is he different hom the simple mân who attackshis neighbors?Priôce\ven realizedthe wisdom of his words and backeddown from his plans.t Mo-Tzu neverhesitatedto standup to the powertul and risked his life on many occasionswhile doing so. His drivins force wâs a *
ôJMô-Ttu, Hstn-Tzu, Vatson,Burton,ILe Basi.Witih4s a Hat FdTzr (NewYork,ColuûbiaUniversityPress,1967) 1 Bect,S"nae.son, Àrl,r..! o1Taosnad Mo-Tzuhttp,//www.san.beck.orel ECt5-Taoism.httÎll
147 ÀppendixOne
pronouncedloveforjustic€.Indeed,Mo,Tzui followerslaterbecame the protectors of the common man and of holy places.Heaven is awareof ev€rycrime that peoplecommit,hewrote, andheavenloves justic€ add hatesinjustice.How do we know that heavenloves justic€?In ajustworldthere is life, wealth, and order,while in an uniust world there is death,pov€rty,and chaos. Mo Tzu believedthat heavencherishedthe entire world universallyandsousht mutualbenefitforalllivingbeinss. This is a vely simple, dir€ct, and eloquent statemenrattempting to describethe Tào. According to Mo Tzu, heaven d€sired rhat those who have strengthprotectandwork for otheE, thosewith weairhshareitwith others,thosein positionsof authorit/ work ethically for proper gov ernment,while thoselabor;ngshoulddiligently carry out their tasks. Vhen a stateor societyasa whole avoidsconfl;cr along its bord€rs, feeds the hungry, ministersto rhe ill, then that nation will flower and prosper.Almost tw€nty-four hundred yearsago, Mo,Tzu had written that if we substitutegood govemment for offensivewarfare and spend lesson the army, we will gain many benefits;if a leader acts according to the universallaws ofjustice and setsan examole. then he will have no enerni€sand bring incalculablebenefit to the world. As an exampleof this, Mo-Tzu noted how many hundredsof officialsand how many thousândsofsoldiers ar€ requiredfor a mililary exp€dition.In the meantimeinternalgovernmentwasneglected, farrnersforgot their crops, merchantshoarded their wares. If one flfth of the suppliesand veapons were salvagedafterward,it was consideredfortunate.Countlessmen died or were crippled in a war. Mo-Tzu askedif it was not pervers€that the leadersof the world delighted in the injury and €xte.minationof their own citiz€ns. Mo-Tzu âttackednepotismas well. Originally, h€ wrore, gov ernmentwasint€ndedto beoefitandhelp the poor,bring safetywhere there was danger,and restoreorder where there was chaos.Peoole chosethe most capableamong.hemselvesasleadersso that govern, ment could be unified under intelligent direction. However,admin istrationin his day wascanied out by court flattery,while the relâtiv€s and friendsof thosealreadyin power were exclusivelyappoinredto positions of authority. Since the citizens realized that rhese indi-
148
vidualshad not bcencommissioned for the welfareof the people, they resentedtbem and did not id€ntify with them, which fostered revolution.Vas this surelynot insane?Mo-Tzu suggestedthatthose in positionsof powerhonor the worthy and impartiallydemotethose without abilitt to do away\rith interp€rsonalconflicts. untortunately, no world leadefto date (other than Chandi) has seenfit to listen to sûch common senseMo-Tzut observationsare still pertin€nttodayrwe havelearnednothing in tvo millennia.Even in our so-calledmodern democracies,"lt ain't what you knoq itt whoyou know" and"Might makesright" are tundamentallyaccepted principles. Mo Tzu believedinnonhumanspiritualbeinss andihespiritsof human ancestors,asevidenc€,h€ cornmentedthat countlesspeople all over the world had experienc€dencounterswith such entities His philosophyandworldviewwere,from a metaphysicalstandpoint, v€ry closeto the shamânisti€model. Mo Tzu could be very extreme in his views, ând certainly hts asc€ticsoutlook appealedmoreto disciplinedwarriorsthan to layfolk. He wore only coarseclothins and had few possessions. He practicedyoga and the martialartscontinuously.The historical (and sci entific, by th€ standardsof the day) d,octrmentHui-nan ttu stated, thât he n€v€rstayedin one placefor very long. Perhapsthe authors main disagreementwith Mo-Tzu was his expresseddislikeof music. Mo-Tzu thought that singing, dancing, aod playing music were a \,r'aste oftime, that suchan €nlightenedindividual missedout on rhe joys of crealive expressionis sâd to say the least.*The celebrated TàoistphilosopherChuâng tzu himself,while calling Mo-Tzu "one of the greatestof soulsin the world," criticiz€d him for economizing on funeralsand music.Chuang-tzusaid that peoplewiJl sing when happy and wail when in grief, and to attempt to stop such things went againsthumân nature.I could not agre€more.
*
Fol those who ar€ interestedin such thinss, I am an (untalented) amateurmusicianwho liv€swith a talentedand competentprofesrional
189 ÀppendixOne
As statedearlier,for two ccnturiesafrer his dcarh in 391 J]c!,the school of Mo-Tzu wasthe main rival to the schoolof K'ung Fu Tzu. Mo-Tzu's followers becametemple sûafdiansand the defendersof the simple manrmost of them were from common stock themselves while alsovery educated(quite a contras!in the fourth century nce). However, his school qLricklybroke into three branches,eachaccus ing the other of heresy,and becauseof th;s confltct among them selves and with Confucianism, they quickly lost power. By the Conmon Era they had mostly disappearedor sone unoergrouno. 10. In addition to thc Lung Hu Shansect,there are three other Tàoist traditions that have had an impact on Chinese history, all were establishedin the fourrh to sixth centu.ies.One is th€ MaosharSbargch'in, (Mao Mountain suprernepurity) sect, which fol lowed the teachinss of Vei Hua-ts'irn, Yang Hsi, and T'ao Hung ching, among others.This sect did come closerro rhe popù lar image of the Tàoist hermir, stressingpeacef l meditation ànd a reclusivelilestyle to obrain rbe prize of immorrality.The secondis the Lins-pào (sacfedjewel)scriptufaltradition, which wasbasedon sacredtexts and emphasizedcomplexritùalsandliturgies The third is theVutang-Pai,whichemphasized marialartstrainiogasa meâns io enlightenmentione of;ts members,Chang San Feng,is regarded aç th€ founder ol internal martial arts and is certainly perrinent to our story.(Seenote 12.) r r. The issueof ùlrimate enlightenm€ntor immonaltty ;s one that hasbeen written Âboutin detail and.equiresseveralvolrrmes to address.In short, therc seemto be differentsragesto the game.From the point ofviev ofJohni Iineage,the first stageis achievedbycornpleting Level Four (actuallyLevel Five,though I have not addressed the dislinction to avoid confusioo),which ensuresthar you can tàke all your yang energy with you when you die. Such a spirir is still bound by the lawsof karma,howeveç and will remainso until Level Thity is attained.In otherwords, to ensureescapefrom the cycle of r€birth you must attain t€vel Thirty or more while alive. Ukimate enlightenrn€ntresultsat Level Seventy-Two,wh€n all seventy-rwo
190 ÂppendixOne
chakmsin thc body arc opcrrcdarrdthc very last, locatedat the top of the skull,is allowedro bloom.At this point the yogi is one with I have found Johni method to be similâr to tbât of Kundalini yoga and the nbetan BLrddhistyosâs of Naropa (as well as some branchesof Tàoismand shanranism), but, as meniionedabove,â proper comparisonis bcyond the scopeof this book. One issue,however,that I would like 10 address's the fact that suchan approachis not lirniledto Eastern mysticism. ln my opinion the ancientCrccks,Me5opotanria.rs, aDdËsyptians allusedthe same nethod. \(/hile the evidencefor this is circumstantialrather than hard, it would appearthat the theory is on track. The serpenris a synbol iound everywhcrcin rhc Creek archaic relisiousrecord asv€ll asihc Esyptian.The depiction of rhe snake retersto "carth cnersy"or, in the words ofJohn Chang, "yin power" (yin ch'i risiDgfrom the earth). Certain researchershave proposedthe theory that the chakras olEastem mysticisn1areno more than d nctwork of"standingwaves" in the field of yin enereythât surroùndsand pervadesus.This standing wâve network reflectsour personalitlesand our karma both, a colrntc.pat to our genetic makeup In figure 6a a simplifiedversionof the chakrasof Easternmysti cism is shown (ihat is, the main seven,rather than all seventytwo). Comparethesechakrasto the bâsicstandingwaveofphysics (figlre 6b), ând to the stdff of Hernes (flgure 6c) usedasa symbol by physiciansaroundthe world. This symbol is actuallyquire old ând can be seen on a Mesopotamianvase in the Louvre dated to 2000 B(:E (flgure 6d). You could alsolook at the stafl of Asclepius,god of heal ins (fisure 6e), or the snakecrown ofthe pharaohsofancient Esypt (figure 6f). All the imasesrefer to the ascensionof earth energy.I will leâveit to othersto make a more detailedcomparison.+ " All of th.'. ."n..pt' *.re p.€s€ntedby LefterisSarasàsin Âtraposmagazine,Aldebaranpublishing,Athens, Cleece,Jun€ 1998 The orisinal sketch of the vaseiD the Louvre was fi6t pùblishedin the newspaperËletrroilpia, Athens, Octobel 4, I 998.
191
\t.t 211 U/
I11
>K (b)
1 (e)
Fig.6. (a)The chakrasof Easrem mysricism(b) A çtandinswave.(c) The staffof Hermes.(d) Mesopotaûian inase showingthe samenetworkof (e)The staffof Asclepius(1)Thesnakecrownol Egypt enereies.
12. One other semibistorical figurewho hasa bearingon this text is Châng San Feng An intcrnal alchemistof great power,he is credited by many with originating the internal martiàl arts that is, the applicationofnei-dantraining to martialtechn;que.John Changs school of kung fu counts him as a prominent and highly successtul memberolits lineage. Amongotherthings,ChangSanFengis con 192
sideredby somethe originatoro f t'ai chi chuan,althoughhis legacvt allegedinflu€nceon t'ai chi is an areaof controversy.I will stick mv neck out and say that I personallyam convinced that Chang San Fengt internal martialart did indeedinfluenc€t'ai chi (though I will not at this point get into the whys and hows). Fengsnameappears in historical Chinesetexts under two different spellings,as Chang "ThreeMountain Peaks"and Chang"Three Abundances"(both pronouncedChaq SarFng). As such,someChinesewrit€rs suggestthat Chang lived to be at leastfive hundredyearsold . . or more The first referencewe have to Chang is from the seventeenthcentury scholarHuang Tsung Hsi in his frtidr, Jor Wa$qCbwgna4 who wrote, "Shaolinis famousfor its martial art. Howevet their art stressesonly offense,which allows an opponent to tak€ advântag€ of this to strik€ weak points. There are internal martial ans, which a5soon a\ the dggret.o.' employ.lillnessro over(omeacrivenes\. thrown For this are immediately com€ into bodily contaci, they reason,Shaolin is regardedas an extemal martial art The internal martial arts originat€dwith Chang SanFeng IChang Three Moun tain P€aksloî the Sung dynasty [960 1279 cE], who was an alche mist on the mountainof Vu Tang.He receiveda summonsfrom th€ emperor Hui Tsuns. On the way to see him, he found the road blockedbyagroupofbandits.ThatnighthedreamedthattheheavenJyemperorHsuan I/u, th€ Taoistgod of war, taught him martial arts.ln the morning Chang killed over a hundred bandits"* Of sisnificanceis Johnk insist€ncethat Chans was â Shaolin monkbefore hebecamea Taoist,somethingthat fits in well with the seventeenthcentury scholar Huang Pai Chiat (Tsung Hsi! son) stat€rnentthat"Chang SanFengwasa masterof Shaolin,but reveÎs' ing its principlesdevelopedthe Internal school."tThis is a distioc to martialartshistorians,one that hasnot tion ofsome consequ€nce been sufficiently stressed(in my opinion) and that, most assuredlv, 'The
wordinsis rny own,basedon two translâtions' 'lii a. Huane,Alfred,Conrlar C,i,(Tokyo,CharlesE Tuttle,|993) b Vil€, Douslas,lot T'ai-ChiClasicsJro^ thelih al i4 Dyd\tv (AlbaDy, StateUniversityof New YorkPr€ss,I 996) t Vit", il;/. I ."."-mend thisbook to the seriousscholar 193 AppendixOne
Taoistscholarcwill takeumbragewith. Anothcr importantpoint is Huangi useof the word sfiil'ress to describeinteroal martialarts He is referringto yin energy It shoLrldbe noted that i nternalmartialarts are not of necËssityflowingand evasive,âswe havecome to betiev€ in .he Vest (sinceall movern€ntis of n€cessityyang).Rather,in this text, Huang is denoting yin in rhe context usedbyJohn Chang, in other words asa "graviiationalforce"that absorbsenergyand warps space-time.The Àpii4p,Jor WoU Cbng Mt offers considerablecir cumstantialevidence that Johns schooi is indeed deccendedfrom Chans San Feng In the Ming historical text Mi", ShihFan Ci ûwan, we fiod,a rcterenceto Chang San Fens;h€ is presentedas beins',big and rall, with a cranei back."* Apparcntly, the first Ming emperor tried to find him in 1392,but Chang dtdn't want to be found. Seventyycars later ( jn rhe M ins texl,{4ifi ktl Yh Cbi ShouLei Ko ) w€ find mention ofhrm asajn That particularMinsemperorwassuccesstul, for Chang dcigned to visir him r Othcr Mtng referencescatalog ChamgThree Abrndancesas a nativeof the Yi djstrict of Liaoningprovincein ôorthernChina. Hc is listed as beins a Taoisrleaderbetwccn the end of the yuan and the besinnins of the Mins dynasry( r 368 cr) who eventuallybuilt a cot tasc oo \yy'uTàngmountainto devotehimçclfto rhe studyofTàoism+ \/as thefe a Chans San Fcng who lived 1rl be more than five centuriesold: Even five yearsago I would have said rhar claimslike this wcre sh€erno,rsenseThesedaysIhesitatcto evenoffer an opinion on such matters.That th€re od5a historical Chang SanFcng (or sevcralof then), therecan be no doubt. Vho or what he really was, however, wecannotknowPerhaps his issinrplyacaseotoncrnan in cachgencrationpo5ingashis predecessof-aqùitecomnronrusein world hlstory. Or perhapshc wasindccd an agctessTàoistimmortal. The Taoistaurh{trl.iHan hsu,in 1844,uponputrlishinsabook titled Ttu Cù,kk Wûks ol (:hd", Sd'JFn . claimedto have mer rhe Dran. YansJwinsMins, Al,arcrdYd"4Sr,leTdiCnl a-lL,,rUàmaicaPlâin,Ma$, YansiMartialA,rsAssociation, 1987J l Ya.clwinsMinc,riil + Huùoc,Alhed, C-o,t1r.ni Cri 194
if he werestill alive,sharinga ioke at this It world bc wondcr'lul cxpense. I'd like to think that indeed he is, somewherein author! the mountâinçof China. 13. The question of the ethert existenceplâguedscientistsat the turn ofthe century.Besinninswith Clerk Maxwell! andMichael Faraday!discoveryof el€ctromagnetics,the controversyâs to how suchforcesshouldpropagatepuzzledscientists,who werc still work ing with Newtonian mechanicsand mateial bodies.Over tim€ the b€havior of a "field" cam€ to be understood,and in turn that of a ins th€ natùfeof lisht, "wave."Allefforts then centeredononderstand propdgated in à substancecalledthe with Fresnelitheory that Iight luminiferousether being rnostpopular(this ether wasthousht to bc at rest in absolutespace) In 1887 the fanrousMichelson'Morley experimentprov€d that a mechanicalether could not in fact exist For eightccn yeârs this finding vas the center of d€bai€, but wàs finally acceptcd,despitefi€rce rcsistancefrom someof thc sreateçt scientistsof the day (such as Lord Kclvin, Hendrik Lorentz, and JulesHenri Poincaré).The issuewas scttled in 1905 with Albcrt Einstein'sfamouspaperson quantum theory and relativity. Ther€ were still adberentsto th€ old ether theory,howcver notably Lorentz and Poincaré,who introduced à model whcrcby a clock slowedas it nrovcd into the ether. I believethat they wcrc close to the trulh. 14. The rootsof Taoismstretchbackto thc 'hamaniçtictradition that svcpt through all partsol the world beginning somethirty people thousandyears aeo.*The word sbanarcones from the Tunears of Siberia,who livcd on the northcrnmost bordersof the Chlntçe asa bclici thatshâmanism world However,it is a mistâketo assume bcgan in Siberia.According to lhe ârcha€olosicalrecord,its ofigins wasthe first |najorworld werealmostcertainlyEuropcanI Sbamanism 'Pafincr,
Martin, Tir Ëimortsof Ïaorn (Sha{tesbury,Doret, Uement B o o k s1 9 9 4 ) . t Canpbell, I o'eph, Il,r WayoJttu AnindlpûDts,Nttbolalts ol ttu Ctùl Hrrt (New York Harpe. ând Row, 1988J
195
r€ligion andreachedfrom northernEuroDeacrossAsiâto theAmeri, can contjnents. Indicationsare that it dispersedthrough Asja into North Americâbetween 1t,000 and 8o0o BcE. A shamanfunctionsby studyingând knowingnature,and thus is abl€to reachoutto natureon all levels.The corebelief o[ shamanism is that theuniverseis madeup of two parallelandoverlappingworlds, the physicalandthe spiritual.Iùtreofthe physicalworldmav be influencedby those of the spiritual-It is rhusnecessaryfor an intermediary to communicatewiththe denizensof the spirirworldandintercede for the dwellerson the physicalplane;this mediatorwasthe shaman. The forcesofthe spirit world, who maybe deceasedhumans or nonhumanin origin, canbringon goodfortune orbad, illnessor prosperiry Th€ shâmanentersthe spiritworld throughth€ rrancestare,during which he speakswith and/or becomesa mouthDi€cefor the sDirits. The spirit world'smain directiv€usuallywas that p€oplefollow and understandthe way of nature,indeed,the cosmologyof shamanism tookthe firststepsin €stablishingthat thererunsa Vay humanbe;ngs could follow to be in accordwith the world and avoid sicknessand disaster It is this primordial immediacy and und€rstandingof the naturalworld that shamanismhasbequeathedto Taoism. The early kings of China were shamans.lr was to the first king, Fu Hsi, that the spirits r€vealedhow ro bring civilization to man, reputedly around 3000 BcE.Fu Hsi tâught his subjeds agriculture and writing, among other things. He is also the patron of the Chi nesedivination artsin that he first originatedthe €ight trigrâmsfrr&îa) that led to the eventualdevelopmentof tbe I Ch;ng. It is said that the secr€tof the eight trigramswas inscribedon the side of a horsethat rosefrom the RiverHo to revealits€lf to Fu Hsi; thus this pattern is called the Ho-t'u, and describ€sthe underlying nature of all things. It is inte{estingto not€ that an ,riflal pres€ntsFu Hsi with the knowledge of the workings of the univene, and that Fu Hsi is olten drav/nv/earingatigers skin and accornpaniedby animalssuch as th€ tortoise.There can be no clearerties ro shamanism. One of the greatestshaman-kingsto follow, and one especiâlly reveredby Taoistsastbe traditional founderof Tâoisn, is the Yellow Emperoa Huang T, who reportedly lived between 2697 and 2597 BcE.H€ is credited with inventing govemment administrationand 196 ÀppendixOne
medicine,amongothef things. Indeed,Chinas most famousm€dical (thot'gh text is called Tte lloo Enperor\ClasicoJlrxrnal l'Leàictue chancesareit wass'ritten in the secondcentury8cE)Huang Ï is also reputedto be th€ inventorof the chimney,of plov.s,andofsilk looms, but is bett€r known for his experimentswith lnternal and external alchemy and discoveryof the secretsof immortaliry Another sha man-kingwasYue,who foundedthe Hsia dynas' (11os-1765 BcE) t people his heaven to lead designatedby it wassaidthat he hadbeen io centuriespast,KingYu€ sawananimalemerge Like hispredecessor (in this caseâ tortoise from the River Lo) with a from the wâters patternof eight trigJâmsinscribedon its back.This pattern is called the lo sll and is referredto as the Later Heaven pa-k'ua,while the Ho-t'u is calledthe EarlierHeavenpa-k'ua.The Ho-tu describesthe ideal ord€r of things in the universe,while the Lo shu describesthe order of fluxand change.It canbe se€nthat whât shamanismoffered to Taoismwasth€ senseof a relationshipbetweenthe lawsof nature and the ultimate power of the universe,including the concept that changecannot be forced or haltedbut simply underctood.The idea of "going with the flow" is âs shamanisticas it is Taoistiindeed, it is very difflcult to draw a line betweenthe two and specifywhere one trad;tion endsand the other €ommences. ol thePar Treltise 1 5. The saseKuo pts ChingJuq chag (Classic third century cE, clearly tensoJtheGenLlontains),vritten during the describesthe processby which things are createdfrom the Tao and return to it. This work reflectsideasthàt had be€n in existencefor nlillennia âod were confirmed by otber writers in the Suns dynasty eight hundredyearslater* The author begins,"ln the beginninCvâs darkness,for the Void iç not visible."i Compare this with ihe ancient Cr€ek myth (per Hesiod) that the earth sprangtoom chaos,the unfo'med,+o' to the .
Vong, Eva,Fog 51,,i(Boston,ShambhalaPublications,1996)
I vone,ibid. + Th€ word craosin it! original context has nothing to do with its neaning today o[ "contusedcrazedftâs." Insteadthe word (Xdoç)comesfron the Creek root meaniog"to open wide,".efenine to space,the indefinable
197 AppendixOne
Old Testament. Vu chi is rheprimordial,thc Sourcelt is thecondition of stillnesswhefe all thinss are undiffereniiatedffom the ulti mate. In this statç a poiot of movement-of pure yang shincsout (scc fisure 7). There is interactionbetveen yin and yans leadins to the stateof t'ai chi (the supremeextremity) vhere yin and yaôg are embraced,distinct y€t tosether, balancingeach othcis forccs.This is the One referfed to try Lâo tzu, the mother of "the ten thousand fai chi hasthe $ings" (all liie). Vhere \ru-€hiis absolutestillness, poteDtialof change.\(hen t'aichiis at r€st,yangandyin areunitedr when t'ai chi is in motion, the two opposingforcesscparat€.Hercin lies the secretof immortality.
(d)
werc wantonly slaughtered,but not rnanyrealizebow quickly it was done, and by how few In 1870 there were twenty million buffalo roaming the grass lands; by 1889, lessthan twenty years later, there were onlv one thor-rsandleft. Fromthosethousand,carefulconsewationhasvielded a herd two hundredthousandstronc in our day. \flby were the buf falo killedr 'ù/hat purposedid the eliminètion of such an incrediblv large food supply server Iti simple. Nobody owned them. They were free, and could feed the economlcallydisadvantagedof the nation without anvone makiîg a profit. Vith the buffalo extant, the cattle barons,and the poliiicians in th€ir pa, coûld not hope to corner thc v/orld meat market Thesemen had alreadydeterminedthat the srasslandçw€re €xcellent for raisins câttle, so they made the buflalo go awav.The €orpsesol the slaughteredanimalswere useiessas food, since thev had normallv çpoiledby the time aoyonecouldset to themi instead they wer€ €arted off to plants like thc Michigan Carbon Vorks in Detroit, wherc they were crushed into fertilizer. lnto Jcnilizer,lo( Codi sakel It was simply a caseof gfeed and ignoranceworking hand in hand, as usual.Vhy did people do nothing at all bâck then in thc faceof sucb slaughter:Perhapsthey didn't care. Perhapsthev had been told that killins the bûffalo wouldn'r matter.Perhapsthev be lieved that buffalo rneatwasiuçt no damn sood.
(a)Vu-chi, the Tào.(b) and(c) A sparkof Fig.7 Kùo'puspresentation. yangiû the centerof yin. (d) T'ai chi, yin and movementin the stillnessi yangembraced andbalanced 16. Seemy text for note 13. 17. Seemy text for note 15. 18. A historic exampleof how much damageman can do in the processofbeing greedyand ignorant is the corDpleteelimination of the buffalo in the United Statesin the late nin€teenthcentury Most p€ople are awâre that the great herds that once roamed the plains 198 AppendixOne
199 AppendixOne
A Collection of Sacred-Magick.Com < The Esoteric Library
Appendix Two
OBSERVATIONS AND SPECULATION
At thls point a truly academicdiscussionof the phenornenadelin eàtedin the text is out of the questionbecauseno clinicalÎrials have beenhe1d.Howwea I cannorhelp butspeculateturtheron the things I witnessedin the courseof beingJohn Chang,sstudent,and in this brief appendixwould like to offer additionarcomment. It is €xcitingto believetharw€ r,rillone daycom€ to understand the nature of the energiesthat lendJohn his powers.yang ch'i and yin ch'l govern the equation of life, as Chang Situ h;mself has rep€atedly stated-A brother student of mine once mocked my ps€udoscientific âttemptsto quantifyyin andyâng by remarkingthat experienced r€ality directly,andthus had no need foiquantifi_ John cation. He was not far from the truih. Nevertheless,while Chang Sifu may not needsuchdiscourseh;mself,the rest of us certainlydo, so we may as well attempt it.
OBSËRVATIONS Yân3Ener$y .
energyinto a Ping-Pong ballheldin hk left handwhlleat the sametime gen€ratinga yin pole in his right palm. The ball pulsedwith a blu€ light while at the sametim€ emitting a chirping soundsimilar to the sons of a canary.A continuous streamof bluish sparkswas observedto flow from the ball to\,/ardJohn'sright palm,in ess€nce a miniaturelightning bolt. kept this up for about five seconds andstopped,fatigued. John Vhen questionedas to whether he could do it with a solid rubber ball, he replied in the nesative, statins that the ball had to be hollor,,r. . Pyrogenesis.As seenin Ri', oJFirsând capturedby myselfon simplevideofilm aswell,Johnis€apableof inducinspyrog€nesis usingthe yangch'i.The typicalsubjectmâtterisnitedis news' paperor tissue,but he hasboiled water on occasionaswell. o Energy blasts.Though I have not witnessedthissp€cificphe' nomenonpersonally(yet), I haveheard it describedby other students,Johnis capableof issuingenersybolts of gr€atpowef overconsiderable distance,simiiarto lishtnins bolç. (The color of theseblastsis alsoblue; the energyusedis identicalto that used in th€ Pins-Ponsball derno.)I cannot help but think of Bi1 Trôlblein Lttle Chind,or the the flms Monal Conbat Pos,àet, god Chineselegendof the lei Krag (Zru in Creece).The ex tent of thesepov/€rsis unknown. I have heard that brother studentsof mine at LevelThree are capableof strikins up to eight metersawaywith the addition of just a bit ofJohns yin en€rgy into their bodies,v/hich allows their yang energy to escapethe confinesof their own skin. (You can assumethat our skin is a sort of Faradaycagefor our bodies'energies. ) . X ray diflraction. In trials held manyyearsagoJohn and two of his studentsat LevelThree allowed their dantieopoints to b€ subjectedio frontâI,donal, and lateralX-ray examination. Johns dantienshowedup asa flatcircular disk,while thoseof his studentsexhibited curvedglobular indications(alsoflat).
Yn Eneréiy
The Ping-Pong ball demonstration.Outlined;n chapter 7, this demonstrationbasicallyinvolvedJohnt transfenjnsyane
200
.
Telekinesis.I havecapturedJohnon film movins a matchbox from one yand away.He extendedhis left palm toward the 201
.
box, which we had placedon the floor, generatinga yin pole in that palm. The matchbox skidded acrossthe floor with obs€rvabl€accelerationto rest in his grasp. Absorition of energy.On two sepaÊteo€casions John passed yin energy into my body. I was then capableof catching a bullet from an ajr rifle by plactng my hand over the muzzle. Two differcnr air rifles were us€d in thesetrials. The pellets showed no deformationand there was neither generationof heat nor any impâct upon capture(chapter7).
Only time will tell if this assessment is accurare.
Vn-YangEner6y .
but rather this one,
Electrogenesis.The easiestofJohn's powersto witnessiit is also the most difficult to quântiô/. Tlre repulsive force between yin and yang brings about ihis dynâmismias the two energiesare"squeezed'togetherin ChangSifui dânrien.John routinely us€sthis ability on a daily basisto treat patients with âcupun€ture,pâssingsaid energy into rhe traditional points.Howevet repeatedtestingwithborh AC andDC voltmeters and amperometersindicated neither currenr nor pot e n t i a l ; n o r w a s m y t € a c h e r c a p a b l eo f p r o d u c i n g incandescencein a DC light bulb of the lowesr volrage (ro ensurethat this /'currenr"v.asinde€dbeing passeddurtng the trials,the aothoractedasground).Therefore,while this power feelslike electriciry,ir is most definitely not. One characteristic worth noting is that the "current" generateddoes not seemto follow the standardwaveform of physics,but instead consistsof a seriesof peaks.I have no hard data to quantify this statement,but I could feelth;s effecttn ChangSitut body during electrogenesis. That is, I receivedthe impressionthar th€ power generateddid not follow this mode,
202
SPËCULATlON Yan6Energy Tle Ping-Pongball demonstrationmention€d aboveand described in chapter7very rnuchdefinesthe naturcofyang ch'i, should sucha thing truly exist as an independentform of energy.The color blue observedis reminiscentof Reich! orgone; indeed, many of the behavioralcharacteristicsdescribedar€ similar The nec€ssiiyofusing a hollow, plastic,seamless ball to accomplishthe demo is most im portant: It suggeststhatwhat lwitnessedvas not a surfacephenomenon, but râther ihat the energyhad penetratedthe polyrnericshell and shonei/'idr the ball much like licht shinesin an incandescent Iightbulb. This seernsto indicate that the yang ch'i is neither particle nor wave, but bo.h. I believethat it is a solar energy stored in our earthi atmosphere. The yang energy is roi. It is capableof incendtaryeffects, as evidencedby the pyrogenesisdemonstrations.Moreover,there is an interestinscorrelationbetweenChans Situs êrchetypesand Reicht observationson the orgone in the treatment of cancer Reich had witten that cancercellsdie when placednearthe orgonebions.My teacherhas successfullyusedan overdoseof yang ch'i to treat can cer, stating thât cancercells"dry up" when exposedto strong yang. (That said, I must at presentdashwhateverhopesI may have given to thoseafflictedwith cancer.AsJohn hassaid,he cannot curecancer He has madeseventrials to date and has hâd a 43 percentsuc, c€ssrate. \X,/hilethree of those peoplewere instantly cured and are
203
|' alive today, the other four died on the spot, their weaken€dframes unableto endurethe blast ofenergy. Chang Sifu no longer attempts this type of therapy.I have written this pâssâgein faith thar further researchmay lead us to a cure. Once we undentand the yang ch'i, \{€ n illbe ableto curecancer) I am convin€€dthat what Reichcalled the orgone,w€ in the Mo-Pai have for the last twenty five hundred yearscalled yang ch'i. The phenomenonof X ray diflraction is alsoan interestingpoint (w€ know that it is the yang en€rgyinducing this effect by virtue of the fact thatJohn'stwo LevelThree studentsalsoevid€ncedanindication). X ray diffraction may prove to be the method by which we can correlât€and clinically prove bioenergy.
Fic. 8. (a) Fisùfativesurfaceof spacetime. (b) Yin field to "fall."
obiectbesins
Yn EnerSy It is simply impossibleat this poiot to have a cleal idea as to what the yin ch'i really is. If any of the propeltiesaccountedcan be clini cally proven,then we willhave to revisethe FirstLaw ofThermody namics.The demonstrationinvolving th€ air rifle is most precis€in defining the characteristicsof yin, The €nergy of the pellet was rrof conserved,there was ro deformation, o generationof h€at, no impact (conservationof momentum). In a rccent conversationJohn describedthe yin as "being like gravity in that gravity itselfwasalso a yin ch'i." I have stuck my neck out in this lext repeatedly,not least by statingthat understandingthe yin €nergywill give us the secrets to faster-thanlight speeds.Let me do so once again in this parano nowben, sraph with another simple sentence,IJ etergycantisappear thenit canbecreatetr rotbirg as oe\.lnagine what a blow such news rafr would be to the energy industry;they would probably fight Iike ra bid wolves to prevent such information from making the rounds, even as idle sp€culation. During the demonstration of telekinesisdescribed,lohn explainedthat he hadusedyin ch'ito draw th€ matchboxinto hisgrâsp. I beli€vethat what occurredduring this teleklnesiswasessentiallya wârping of spaceand time in rhe direction of his left palm, much in the mannerof a gravity well. In otherv/ords, to usea simple model, what is transpiring is as shown in figure L Again, whether such an assessment is accurateor not remainsto be secD.
204
Yn-Yaryl Energy Perhapsthe clear€ststatementI €an make rcgarding the power of electrogenesis displayedby Chang Sifu is to saythat it is most definitely /ot the resultof electron flow If it were, such elecxronmovement could have been recordedas a potential or a current ol some in a sort, andJohn would have been abl€ to prcduce incandescence lightbulb. Nevertheless,anyone coming into contact with this en ergy will swearthat he feelsan ele€triccunent passingthrough his body. In addition, this enersy is thoroughly transferrablethrough conducton (metals,water), but not ihrough insulatoÎs.If this cur' r€nt is not due to electron flow, then what is causingit? Iwould like to take another shot in the dark at this point and proposethat increasednu€l€aroscillâtionmay be the caus€of this Several researchers(Kevran, Komaki, Pappas,HilJman, Coldfein)* have suggest€dthat electrically induced nucleâr fusion ("cold" mrclearfusion)takesplace inside the body at all times, and indeed may be the driving force that fuels the sodium-potassium caretully.The transferinsidethe cell. I havechosenthe word irarsJar (called proposesa the Sodium-Potassium Purnp) mainstreamtheory mechânismwhereby sodiurnis exchangedfor polassiuminside and '
Pleasecheck http,//wwpapimi.el
for related literature.
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potential out of the cell in an attemptto explain the transmembrane ofthe cellmembrane.Howevea this modelhasneverbeenvalidated and stumpstodays investigators.Proponentsof the biological cold nuclear fusion theory, on the other hand, sùggestthat sodium is nuclearlytransmutedtopotassiuminsid€the cell,* andthat the processshould righttully be labeledthe Sodium-Potassium Tiânsmota tion. This model is, of course,outside the acceptedboundaliesof todayt physics.Taking everything into consideration,howevet it se€msto me quite sensibleto proposethatJohn! yin-yaog kung energy may be due to increasedstatesof nuclearexcitâtion.This en efgy is geoeratedasa seriesof pulses,and is inducedbythe inteGction of the solar yang energy with the "gravitational"or "dark-matter" force of the yin ch'i. k is this increasednuclear€x€itation(or fusion) thatJohn'spatientsand studentsfeel ascunent. (The differencebe tween my viewpoint and that of the aforementionedresearchersis that I do not believe that this tusion is €lectrically induced.Neither is it "cold," st.ictly speaking.) You will see that such a postulateis most logical if we look at thingsonceagainhom amâcrocosmic,astrophysical perspective. Our curr€nt scienceacceptsthe notion that, were it not for the dynarnism of nuclear tusion servingas an expansiveforce, our sun would collapseunder the force of its own grâvity. In fact, models d€lineating rhe evolution (life and death) of a star follow the archet.pei io fisure 9 (not to scalet). Vhat this m€ansis that dll starsare batdefieldsbetweensravity and some force providing outward pressure.Llnder normal conditions, the outward force exceedsthe force ofgravity, and a sun radi atesenergy (9à). In a white dwarf the pressûreof gravity collapsesa stâr when its "fire "runs out, creating a d€nse'packedatomic structure (9b). A neutron star,the result of the explosivedeath of a star two to three solar masseslarge, is even more compact, its atoms crushedand their nuclei stackedtosether (9c). Finally we com€ to
v,; o g
CASPART!CLES
K1
\-à
(b)
(") Fis.9 (a)Our sùn.Its radiusis 1.4millionkm (b) Vhire dwa.f,radius 10,000km. (c) Neutronstâr;radius60 km. (d) Blackholeiradius6 kû1
the caseof a black hole, where spaceand time lose all meaningand ve hàve a singulariry(9d). Ifyou look at the modern fai chi symboi below,vou cans€ethal it accurâtelydepictsthe transmutationof a starat peak solarpower such as a red giant (greateryang), explosivelvtransformingiûto a black hole (lesseryin).
Let! look at our t'ai chi model of the univene once again,nsing the ârchaicsymbol. It is probably begioning to makemore senseto
ENERCY STAR/SOTAR YANC GREATËR
-lollowi'srhi\lormula 1 , N a 2 1' r O l 6 Â f n e r g u ' 1 q K { 9 r Ld.ou J'an Picrre"Llnra.krnsBla,k Hol". " Srnrry',q'o^4n 280.\. May 1999. 206
k)
207
Uoderstanding fai chi is casieronce we redefincfundamcntal concepts to coincide with the archetype. Let! start with graviry. \X,4ren most peoplethinkofgravity, they rememberthe basicsleamed in high school, One massexertçân attractiveforce on another,and it is this attractive force that ke€psus on the planet'ssurface.Lett take this truism one st€p farther and define things more precisely: Craviry is that force in the universethat wântsallnaitarto collapse into a singlemass,and ultimately into oflcsingularity.That is,gravity is that force that seeksto compactspaceandrime into a single,massive black holei k is this dynamismthat absorbsenergyand sendsit into nowhere Cravity is preciselyrhe intrinsic yin ch'i usedbyJohn Changto achievehis spectacular, energy,absorblngdemonstrations. (l must reiterate,however,that while gravity ir a yin ch'i, the yin field is not limited to gravity.Th€re are other âspe€ts.) Solal fire, on the oth€r hand, is rhe exparsiue force thar defines spaceand time and keepsit extant Vestern s€iencecalls this solar torce nuclear fusion. The ancient scholarsof China called it yang ch'i. lt is one and the sarne.Macrocosmicallythe combat between the forcesof sravity and solar fire (yin andyans) defin€sthe naiure of reality. Microcosmicallytheir interactionÂrelsour lifeforce.(lt is losical to hypothesizethat should such a contestcompriçethe tun danentalnaturalconditionolouruniv€rse, thenourown bodicsand our very lifeforce would reflect it. The ancient Chinese,who knew nothing of blackholesand rcdsiants, experiencedand deducedthis struggleusing other methods.) \Vhile â true cquatioDgoverningsuchbehaviorwould be fractal in nature, we could mathematicallystate th€ balanceol t'ai chi in simplifiedfo.m as,
l-l
of the Creek wordneta/lor,(pétoÀl,ov), which meâns,quite simply, "that which transmutes."Bettermen than I have found ancient cultures to be extremely sagâciousin the ways of the world. Perhaps the ancientCreekssimply understoodthlngs a bit better than we do today.Leti closeon that thought.
I ,:,rt+-i= r
.h.r. ]-- I dcfinesthe narureof rhe yjn ch'j, o:t [+-] rhat of the yans,nnd K is a constant.('nme,t is not applicable ro the dcfi nition of yin, because it is a yangcharacteristic.) Lct me shakethingç up evcn more for those who nray thi k I have gone ofl the deep end. Chang Siftri "electricity" is transmil table rhrough metal objects The Enslishword'cia/ is an adaptation
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The Martial Arts of Ancient Crecce Modern FightingTechniquesfrom the Age ofAlexander by Kostas Dcnmisaul Nektarios Lykiarào1,oulos The SpiritualPra(tk es o[ rhe Ninja Masteringthe FourGatesto Freedom by RossHeaoen Qigong Teachingsof a Taoist lmmorral The Eighr EssentialËxcrcisesof MasterLi Ching yun by StuartAloeOkan The JadeEmperorsMind SealClassic The TâoistGuideto Health,Longevity,andImrnonality by Snat AloeOkol Iron Shit Chi Kung by Martak Cbia BoneMarrow Nei Kung TàoistTèchniques for Rejuvenating the Bloodand Bone by Nla takChia Martial Arts TeachingTàlesof Powerand Paradox Freeingthe Mind, locusingChi, and MasreringrheSelf by PascolFaiot InnerTiaditions. Bear& Company PO. Box3BB Rochester, VT 05767 -800-246-8648 t wwr.v. InnerTiadirions.com Or conmctyour localbookseller
