I met David in August of 2006 after corresponding with him on an internet forum along with a small group of interested students.Having never met David or each other, six of the private thirty member forum took a leap of faith and decided to join David in Thailand for three weeks of training.In the course of my training, David introduced me to two of his masters, both belonging to the Lei Shan Dao, or thunder path way.
During several weeks of correspondence prior to our trip, David related some of his experiences with the various teachers he studied under, so we did have some basic ideas about what we would experience.What I did not expect was the simple ordinariness of David’s teachers and what they can do; what seemed so fantastic, once experienced, was as suddenly real and no longer supernatural or magical.Not that these beings are not amazing in many ways, they are; but after I met them and experienced the power, something unexplainable became self evident.For them, what is so foreign to us is part of their everyday experience.
David first gave us a few days of basic theory in Bangkok before introducing us to Sifu Luo.After long drive into the country, we found ourselves entering his small home where we were greeted by him and his daughter and immediately noticed the presence of an energy that is hard to describe; like a subtle shift in the atmospheric pressure along with mild euphoria, a sudden self awareness and quietness.David greeted his master with a warm smile and embrace and we were invited to sit in the small living room as they spoke briefly in Chinese.After tea and some introduction, we were instructed to sit and meditate.Sifu Luo said some prayers for our group and gently flicked some water with an herbal preparation in it on our foreheads.The mixture burned a bit and induced a very particular sensation at the mideye point; a feeling of qi and warmth and a vibration filled my head as I sat with eyes close on the floor of Sifu Luo’s living room.
Presently David began calling us into a small room which served as a treatment room adjacent the living room.Sifu Luo is a traditional Chinese medical doctor among other things.When my turn came, David walked me into the small room and asked me to sit in front of Sifu Luo.The treatment was an empowerment as well as a way to diagnose blockages and illness.When Luo touches the top of your head with his qi, you literally see a light like a Fourth of July sparkler. You don’t see it externally with your eyes, but rather with your visual center, (at least it seemed this way to me) with your mind; I would imagine that it is something like what one sees when they are struck by lightening, but at a reduced intensity and level of force; it’s very physical and bright.Sifu Luo ran this current of electric like qi though various points all over my body by simply, gently touching me with his fingertips and with seemingly no effort on his part.The force of his qi was incredibly strong, causing my muscles to contract uncontrollably and become immobile as the force of the qi passed through my body.At some points the energy was quite painful.Especially so in my lower back on the left side; and Luo explained that my left kidney area had a blockage caused by incorrect practice and that I should stop practicing that particular practice.
After the treatment, when we again meditated, I felt a steady pressure on the bai hui point at the top of my head and it felt like my whole body had been pressurized or inflated with a subtle energy.Needless to say, our group, having all experienced this together for the first time, was in a state of quiet amazement.
Sifu Luo was delightful to be around.He had a remarkable simplicity and quiet grace, but also a commanding presence and magnetic energy that came through without words.After two days of instruction and treatments and a good deal of very strong Chinese tea, it was time to begin our formal training with David.Sifu Luo said some blessings for our group, wishing us well on our training as we said our goodbyes.
After we left, I could still feel the effects of being in his presence. Even a few nights after, I could feel his energy in many of the areas of my body that he had worked on, especially the upper points of my head and neck.David explained that receiving this type of empowerment would benefit our practice and help us progress more quickly in our training.
From Bangkok, we flew to the lush tropical island of Koh Samui to commence our training.David instructed us in the basics of foundation training or Zhu Ji as well as a wealth of theory and history that was unlike anything I have experienced in over a decade of studying Daoist meditation and qigong.Toward the end of our training, David invited me to come to China to participate in a ceremony where he was to receive formal acceptance into the Lei Shan Dao under another master named Sifu Jiang.The invitation was completely unexpected and would require extending my stay several days, but something in me said just go, so without knowing what would come next and feeling inexplicably compelled, I went.
It was now late August as we arrived in Shanghai after a short flight.From there we traveled to AnhuiProvince and deep into to Huangshan, the yellow mountains.We were met in Sifu Jiang’s small home town by a group of David’s close friends and students.When we met him for the first time, Sifu Jiang was wearing a bright red basketball jersey, matching red shorts and flip flops. He had a big smile on his face and came out to greet us very warmly.Despite the fact that it was very late, Sifu Jiang accompanied us to a local restaurant that had remained open after hours for our group.Not unlike Luo Sifu, Jiang though much younger, carried an aura of simplicity and power; emanating a magnetic energy that was pleasant and quieting.
The next morning when we gathered at Sifu Jiang’s house, I was surprised to see several hundred people standing in the street next to a dozen large passenger buses in front of Sifu Jiang’s house.David explained that over three hundred monks and lay practitioners from the eight main Daoist mountains had come to witness and take part in his acceptance ceremony.The ceremony took place in the ancestral mountain temple of Sifu Jiang’s lineage.David is the first westerner to be accepted into this branch of the Lei Shan Dao at the highest level.In addition to being a high honor, David was also given a tremendous responsibility upon accepting a place in the lineage.Sifu Jiang carefully explained that even one mistake or instance of abuse of the powers given could cost David his life; that with the secrets of life and death and the power to heal, comes the power to take life away and this power must not be abused.It was a sobering reminder why these methods are kept secret.
Some of David’s students requested treatments during our stay and despite his busy schedule, Sifu agreed to take a look at all of us.The day after the ceremony, which was quite an experience, Sifu came to visit our hotel a few blocks from his home and began treating us one after the other. He would have each person sit in front of him while his assistant opened the deep channels of their legs by pressing his index finger firmly and passing his qi into the soles of their feet.This was done to assure that the person being treated was grounded to avoid damage to the internal organs. Then Jiang would activate his qi by concentrating and doing a short breathing exercise while he pushed the qi into his hands by pressing them into the air in front of him a couple times. After he’s done this, he asks the person to stand and holds their hand while he directs the qi into their body by pushing his other hand along the length of his arm and then into the body. When he ‘injects’ you with his qi, the muscles in your arm instantly contract as his qi surges into your body.
Even though I had experienced this with Sifu Luo three weeks before, I was startled for a moment at the sudden, involuntary muscle contraction caused by his qi.The force of the energy is overwhelming.His qi is different than Sifu Luo’s, like a steady magnetic force that produces a strong current wherever he chooses to move it.After he ‘injects’ you, he relaxes and begins systematically touching various points on that side of your body. He touched different points on different people and each time the corresponding part of the body would gently and suddenly contract. When he was done checking a given side of your body, he would use this same technique he used to inject you with qi to pull it back into his body.It was a fascinating process.After he checked each person, he would give a detailed report through the translator about the condition of each person’s health and status of the overall balance of qi in their body and issue a clean bill of health or advise further treatment.
Sifu Jiang recommended further treatment for several people in our group, including myself.After a big lunch at his house, I was asked to stay behind with the translator and some of the local students. On the morning that Sifu Jiang tested us, as he passed his qi into my left side, the qi began to pulse, stopping and starting in a kind of rhythm as my arm contracted and released. He said that I had a fairly serious blockage in my left kidney area, the same area where Sifu Luo had found a blockage, and suggested a treatment whereby he would draw some of the stagnant blood out and treat the condition with some special herbal pills called Dan.
Sifu Jiang had me stand on his porch as he lanced the veins in the back of both my knees with a prong the size of a knitting needle what seemed like at least a half inch into the flesh. After he got the blood flowing he used his qi to push the affected blood out of my body. What came out of me was about a half pint of what looked like roof tar. It was literally black and thick like a paste, dead stagnant blood.I was given several large herbal pills/Dan to clear anything that was left in my system. According to Sifu Jiang, because of the properties of the type of medicine that I was given, I will never have to worry about this problem again and will be able to reach my optimal health.The translator who was with me (also a student of Jiang) told me that when he met Sifu he was completely paralyzed in his left arm and couldn’t turn his neck at all. Apparently he had the same kind of blockage or blood condition, but more advanced; he said that he was totally cured within two years of meeting Sifu Jiang.
The healings and treatments he administered that afternoon were probably the most remarkable and amazing demonstrations I have ever witnessed. I will certainly never forget what I saw and experienced.
In addition to the treatments, Sifu and his student the translator, demonstrated their ability to transform water into this sweet nectar* with their qi. Some people in the group had asked David if they could see this particular demonstration, so David politely requested for the group. Basically Sifu just took a bottle of ordinary bottled water and pushed some qi into it for a minute or two.We all got to taste it; it’s like sweet honey, but not like any kind of recognizable sweet taste. His student did the same demonstration later that night. It was really amazing and, at the same time, just very matter of fact and done with out any preparation.One of David’s students is a molecular biologist and had the water tested in a mass spectrometer in early 2007.The sample was compared to millions of known molecules and turned out not to be any known substance.Research on this and other aspects of these practices is ongoing.
We also witnessed a woman demonstrate the same ability to produce the electric like qi.She showed us her skill by giving David a now familiar jolt of qi. The women in our group were very inspired to see a woman, who had two children no less, who had developed this power because there are methods that women who have given birth cannot practice due to changes that occur in the reproductive system.
It was inspiring to see objective demonstrations of qigong science like this, but David explained that it was important not to become fixated on developing abilities and encouraged us to explore the deeper meaning of the abilities which are the side effect of a process that is essentially and foremost a spiritual practice; a method to achieve liberation.David explained that a person who can produce this kind of qi has been liberated from the cycle of death and rebirth, a xian or immortal being, and that eventually one could reach enlightenment through dedicated practice and cultivation.
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Over the course of the next 16 months I practiced and attended further trainings with David.Then in late November of 2007, David contacted me and invited me to China, this time to train with Wang Liping, the Daoist master written about in the acclaimed book Opening the Dragon Gate: the making of a modern Taoist wizard.The training was one month away.By this time I had become accustomed to this kind of surprise and determined that if there was a way to go, I would go for it.As it turns out, we were to be the first group of western students to study close-door teachings with Wang Liping, a man whose achievements are beyond human imagination; a teacher that Daoist monks and officials wait years to meet let alone train with.
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For me this latest meeting with David was the fulfillment of a long time dream and the beginning of a new chapter in my practice life. I am very grateful to David for inviting me to join our small group of students in China in what is hopefully the first of many study groups with Sifu Wang Liping. I hope that those reading this who have dreamed of meeting Sifu Wang, as I have, get a chance to meet and train with him.I am hesitant to write about my experience because it’s something sacred and subtle and hard to communicate in any way that I would really honor the experience or adequately communicate the simple grace of Wang Liping. I hope that I can do the experience justice at least in part; it is after all something worth sharing about.
The seminar actually began with a visit from Jiang Sifu who checked all of us and gave some, as usual, mind blowing demonstrations. When you read about things like this, they take on otherworld proportions, but as those who have witnessed them know, they become perfectly normal events when seen and experienced first hand. It’s hard to explain, but somehow Jiang burning blisters into our hands from a meters distance just seemed perfectly normal.
When we met Jiang in his hotel room, he greeted us with his characteristic informal greeting from the hotel chair, half watching some Japanese military drama on the TV as he called us one by one to sit in front of him. After his assistant prepared us by opening our leg channels with a firm poke in the sole of each foot, we each received the now familiar surge of qi.Jiang checked the level of our Xia Dan Tian and reported that most of us had some level of qi; some more than others. I was happy to receive a clean bill of health.
After Jiang finished diagnosing the group, which took all of five minutes, he sat back in his chair and turned to David with a smile and asked, through the translator, “What should we do now, David.” David shrugged with a smile, everyone laughed. After a pause, David asked Sifu to do some demonstrations for the group. We took a break to allow Sifu to recharge, and when we returned, Sifu used his qi to burn all of our hands** from about a meters distance. Some of the group had large blisters including a student named James who made a point of holding his hand under the laser like focus of Jiang’s qi for a full 5 seconds. He had a bubble the size of a quarter in the center of his hand which he proudly displayed to the group.
Someone suggested I put an RMB note over my hand for the demo so that the money would burn as Jiang focused his qi on my hand. It was a nice souvenir to take home and one of those experiences I won’t soon forget.
Next, to my embarrassment, David insisted that Jiang strip off all of his clothing and demonstrate his qi once more on me. David explained that it was important for me to have this experience, because in the future, if people ask, I can now say, ‘Yes, I have seen a master produce this phenomenon naked, without the aid of any device.’ Jiang asked the ladies to leave the room and once again produced the strong current of qi. This time the qi was the strongest I have ever felt. He made the current jump across my chest, something I hadn’t experienced before. It was a humbling experience to be at the complete mercy of this man, striped nude in front of me. Jiang asked if I could feel anything. I nodded yes with an ironic look as the current flowed through my heart to the right side of my body.
After a lunch break, Jiang met us at David’s house for a short talk and an empowerment. Jiang talked about the importance of meditation and distinguished between various levels of stillness and their corresponding attainments. Then he made us sit and infused the room with sweet qi.To do this he waived his hands in the air and, with what appeared to be considerable effort, ‘pushed’ his qi into the space of the room.We could taste the sweetness in our mouths and on our fingers. After he made sure everyone could taste and feel the sweet sensation, he said good bye and left us to meditate in the field for about forty minutes.
The following morning, everyone met back in Jiang’s room to say a few words of farewell. Jiang said that because most of our group had met him several times and become close, that it was destiny that had brought us together. He said destiny is very important to him and something that he does not take lightly and encouraged us to keep in touch through David. Meeting Jiang for the second time reaffirmed my deep admiration and feeling of wonder for this man who makes the impossible seem so ordinary.
With out skipping a beat, David confirmed that we were to meet with Wang Liping that afternoon. As if meeting one immortal in a week was not enough.
It’s not everyday that you meet a living Buddha. And of course, when you meet one, they just look like everyone else. Maybe a little more glow; something about their smile, but otherwise just like any other human being at first glance.
David explained that we were to be the first group of westerners openly taught inner teachings of the Long Men Pai by Sifu Wang. He mentioned some other groups as well, but if memory serves, we are truly the first outside of a monastery or temple to get these teachings in such a way; and definitely the first westerners. He also shared Sifu’s message of optimism that anyone with the proper training and self discipline can create the Dan Tian and fix the Shen to become immortal. Although very few have done it, there was mentioned a group of monks that train with Sifu, a few of which have managed to create their Dan and reach a good level. David warned us to be cautiously optimistic in the sense that, while the method we were to receive represents perhaps the most effective and quickest method to create and cultivate the Dan, still we were are up against daunting odds, years of hardship and celibacy and the simple fact that very few, especially in our busy modern world, have the time and discipline to successfully achieve the results of the training.
David reiterated these statements throughout the seminar; it was clear that David wanted us to be realistic and not get carried away into imaginings of easy success and or any sense of a guarantee that, because we have met Wang Liping, we now have it easy or easier than anyone else.
David explained that, at this time, Sifu Wang has no intention of training a successor. The time and circumstances required to train and nurture such a student to his level are just not realistic given Sifu’s age and commitments. So instead, he is focusing on sharing the teachings with as many as possible. This is the reason for the book that David will publish this year and the many other projects which include disseminating the teachings, at least some basic outer teaching, to the public. With a little luck, in time a spiritual genius will be born who can carry on the lineage and teachings in their fullest expression. But still, many can benefit and a few will achieve something, create their Dan and fix the shen and perhaps more. Sifu also expressed his regret that the teachings have become so endangered by the traditions of secrecy and the tradition of passing the teachings to only one or a handful of students.
It was a sobering week, which certainly reflected David’s words. The excitement of meeting Wang Liping, was quickly overshadowed by long painful sittings were Sifu Wang used his abilities to create a field of external pressure that literally pressed in on us, magnifying the usual discomfort of sitting for over and hour by several times. We were asked not to move at all during training sessions while Sifu, in his gentle, pleasant voice, ordered us to simply obey his commands like good solders as he led us through each training session, occasionally adjusting our qi and the color and quality of our individual fields. We worked primarily on the Sheng Zheng Gong, level two in essentially the same way David taught us with some differences in technique and greater emphasis on the work with the organs.
On the first day, Sifu Wang explained that the aim of the first ancestors was to, through the practice, discover where we come from and we’re going when this life ends.
Sifu Wang Liping is probably just what you would imagine from what’s been written about him. He is a tall Northern Chinese with a very gentle, benevolent smile. He is at once funny with a lighthearted sense of humor and charismatic and, at the same time, all business. At the beginning of each day he would tease us a little about how tired we must be and then, after a brief talk or introduction of a new element, he would say, ‘Ok, Pan Zu;’ time to sit.He is an amazing human being; every moment in his presence was a powerful blessing that you could sense and feel.
The focus was on the practice and Sifu Wang spent little time socializing with us before of after our training sessions. There was no fancy display of power, no show, not that that would not have been welcomed; none of the bliss or meditative ecstasy that is the mark of inexperienced or comparatively immature teachers, just gong and the inexplicable force that pressed in on us from all directions and brought us closer and closer to stillness.
After the sessions with Sifu Wang, David would debrief us and help clarify important points of the practice. He would also tell a few stories or relate some detail about Sifu or some other master in the familiar, casual way that he does. He told us that Sifu Wang is the person that the Chinese government looks to when it comes to Taoism. He decides what is taught in temples and he is the one who orchestrated the government’s recent interest and impetus to present Taoism to the world in the decade to come in the same way that Kung Fu has been presented and disseminated as a cultural olive branch to the west. It doesn’t take a genius to see the power underneath the unassuming surface of Wang Sifu’s gentle exterior.
It would seem that Sifu Wang is complete in all aspects of human life and endeavor. With great political and social power and influence, he is the epitome of modern social ambition, but with no personal agenda or selfish lust for power; he has a relatively typical family life and lives a seemingly quiet domestic life in a typical neighborhood in a typical city; and yet, he is highly enlightened being of remarkable achievement, even among his peers, having reached the same par as one of histories greatest, most highly achieved Buddhas. The more you think about it the more mind-boggling it is and then you just have to stop thinking about it because it’s not possible to comprehend.
With Ping Heng Gong, tree practice, at night in addition to the daytime training with Sifu Wang, we had time to eat sleep and train and that was basically it.
At night Sifu Wang suggested we try to connect with him using a special practice done before going to bed. The idea was to do some practice lying down and, if I remember correctly, actually meet Sifu with our shen. If we could do this successfully, we would meet are common ancestor and realize that ‘Sifu is in us and we are in Sifu;’ an experience that is at deeply imbedded in the practice with profound implications. Although I had some remarkable sensations and experiences, I was not successful in actually meeting Sifu. Next time I hope to be able to successfully do this practice.Many in our group, including myself, remarked that they felt the force that Wang Sifu projected very intensely during this practice even though we were several miles away in our hotel rooms.
It was also interesting to meet many of David’s older students in one place. Many of them started with the Nei Gong practices which make up the core of David’s early teaching and were fairly new to the Sheng Zheng Gong training, at least in relative terms. During the training, in the brief periods we had to meet and share our experiences, I was able to clearly determine the two main lines of training that are available to us as students; not that it wasn’t clear before, but there were several distinctions made that helped to clearly differentiate the two methods that David teaches. Perhaps nothing new for those of you who have taken seminars with David, but worth mentioning for the readers who are not students.
Either you do Lei Shan Dao nei gong or the shen training. Most people will have to pick one to focus on; the shen training can greatly help your nei gong, but if you choose nei gong, then you must commit to that road, at least up to a certain point. David said he has found a balance to do both, but for most people it makes more sense to do one at a time. The shen tien training is much harder to achieve in relative terms, but a much higher order level of attainment. And, it is the shen tien training that is now the focus of David’s writing and teaching, despite the fact that he is currently more committed to his nei gong training; although it seems there will be more emphasis on the shen tien in the next years. I guess for David, it really is a unique balancing act that goes in cycles and follows the will of the masters.
We discussed this topic several times and it seemed to present the older students who have spent the last years training in nei gong with an interesting choice or choices. Nei gong is definitely the more approachable method of the two, but the shen tien training has a strong appeal and the connection to Wang Liping who is a master of unimaginable heights; during our talks David said he is at the level of Padmasambava, also known as Guru Rinpoche in Tibet, and the only master at his level willing to teach. Of course we all have plenty of time to decide such things and both paths have their strengths and weaknesses.
During our time training, Sifu Wang Liping formally accepted David and Anna as Tu Di, disciples without fanfare, quietly in David and Anna’s bedroom while we were waiting for class to begin. The acceptance as a ‘closed door disciple’ of the highest level represents a remarkable achievement for David and Anna; it is a long process of government approval and training to to reach the necessary requirements. The casual, quite way Wang Liping accepted David and Anna seems to be characteristic of the way he operates in general; hiding behind that ever smiling, unassuming face; pretending to be a simple qigong teacher with seemingly no attachment to names and form or reputation. He never demonstrated his power overtly or asserted himself. He always spoke politely in a kind voice.
Later he said, if we meet again, he will not treat us politely and he will not take it easy on us. He said he would, if we gave him permission, beat us during our training and make us sit for two, three and four hour sessions. We all laughed, but we all knew he was completely serious and we all understood his invitation for the compliment it clearly was and eagerly agreed. At the end of the seminar, Sifu Wang said it was destiny for us to meet, that out of six billion people on the planet, for us to meet and train in this way was the design of heaven.
The week went by quickly and, after many memorable moments, I found myself standing at the door to David and Anna’s apartment, saying goodbye to my fellow students. Just like the past seminars with David, it was hard to say goodbye. It would be so easy to slip into that life, practicing everyday among friends, meeting and training with these incredible beings and being a part of such a worthy and meaningful endeavor, but life calls and the duties and responsibilities of this modern life are what make the few weeks practicing and experiencing these things with David that much sweeter.
As always, I return home with a clearer view of the road ahead. I'm not in such a hurry these days. I know destiny has its own pace and timing. I know a little better what it takes and how hard it is; a little closer, a little more mature and a little more inspired.
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*These are the results that Professor Heimo Breiteneder a geneticist of the Vienna academy observed after analyzing the qi water and the crystals within, “In comparison to untreated water, the one energized by the master contains a major peak of a small compound (379 Dalton) and two minor peaks of equally small molecular weights (365 and 380 Dalton). The masses were determined by mass spectrometry but the molecules could not be identified by comparison with data stored in that machine, where millions and millions of molecule’s structure are kept! All existing sugars were compared and it is NOT any of them, neither a compound, so we can conclude it is not a sugar molecule. Glucose has 180 Dalton, saccharose has 342 Dalton so forth and so on...We will try to go to Munich where one of the biggest and most accurate of these mass spectrometers is located. Another possibility would be to try to get into a facility with nuclear magnetic resonance and try to convince somebody to work on the sample. In any case, this is quite interesting, using qi to create a certain unknown sweet tasting molecule.”
**The picture below is a blister left on one of the group member's hands after Sifu Jiang used his laser like qi to burn it from about 1.5 meters distance. It took all of 3-5 seconds to blister to this degree; Jiang explained that this only takes a small percentage his power.
