We also went to Wuhan where we studied meditation with Grand Master Cheng Zhen, the Abbot of Eternal Spring Temple. A special ceremony was also arranged by Grand Master Cheng Zhen where we all received a Daoist name and became members of the Dragon Gate lineage of Daoism. I was given the name Xin Gen which means Genuine Root or Genuine Source.
Grand Master Chen Zhen is pictured on the left giving me a certificate in recognition of our training there.
My Path to Medical Qigong and the Wild Goose system
Prior to any interest in qigong I had been practising Tibetan Buddhist meditation since the 1970s. Although not known by this term in Tibet, the influence of Tibetan Buddhism in China left a Tibetan Buddhist Qigong there known as Mi Zong Qigong. To this day some of the Tibetan Buddhist mantras are in common use by Chinese qigong practitioners. Although the pronunciation may have strayed somewhat from the original, just as the pronunciation strayed when the mantras went from India to Tibet.
I first came across qigong in when I was studying Polarity Therapy in the 1980s.
I discovered that the teacher Franklyn Sills was also a qigong teacher and asked
him for personal instruction. Franklyn’s main teacher was Sifu Fong Ha (www.fongha.com)
and Professor Peng-
For the last week of my stay in China, I was studying alone at Xiyuan hospital with Dr. Xu Hongtau (shown on the left with me at the Great Wall) who is head of the Tuina and Qigong Department. I had the chance to refine my practice of Guigen Qigong and to learn some Tuina which is a form of Chinese Massage and a branch of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Every afternoon from 3pm to 5 pm the patients, Dr. Xu and myself would practise the dynamic Guigen Qigong forms for half an hour and then sit for an hour and a half of meditation.