Lightbody and the Internal Arts of China and Japan

 

Lightbody and the Internal Arts 

of China and Japan

(email exchange with an indoor student)

Simha: Been making some wonderful personal discoveries lately with regard to Amrita Asana and its relationship to inner martial arts/inner hatha yoga.

A few weeks ago when traveling to Finland I practiced standing meditation at the airport. As I stood past the first minutes, I started naturally applying the principles of Amrita Asana to the standing posture. More specifically, I understood the importance of "expanding" in all directions (up/down, front/back, left/right). At first, I was thinking of it as kinda pushing to fill the whole frame but soon realized I might as well just allow myself to be pulled.

Whichever perspective you take, what I am describing is sort of intentional settling into the whole "frame" of the posture. This very quickly unifies the whole body in the standing posture and thus activates the meridian field.

This week I made the same discovery with regard to various aspects of pranayama. I've always loved breathing techniques, and have regularly practiced Bellows Breath (bhastrika) and Shining Skull (kapalbhati), combined with breath retention and yogic locks (bhandas).

First I connected the actual inhalation and exhalation with the "expanding" in all directions. This wasn't entirely new, of course, as it's how Vajra Breath is taught in RBY, but I felt a deepening in the sense of the whole body breathing 360 degrees regardless of intensity. This feels effortless (and very empowering!) when all muscles are working in unison.

Then, with regards to yogic locks, more specifically root lock (mula bhanda), abdominal lock (uddijayana bhanda), and chin lock (jalandhara bandha), I realized that I have been doing these three locks separately from one another. This has caused unnecessary effort required in holding the locks. When applying the principles of Amrita Asana, on the other hand, the body (and thus the locks) become united, revealing the great lock (mahabhanda), which again instantly forces open the meridian system. It's a subtle point but makes all the difference.

The above discoveries have also led me to experiment deeper with the basic posture in sitting meditation. It seems obvious when I say it, but of course, the very same principles apply to just sitting as well. By intentionally filling the frame of the seated posture, the meridian body is forced open and sitting becomes effortless.

I know Baba has been talking about these things for a long time, and I've had glimpses of it myself too. Nevertheless, the practice of Amrita Asana has propelled the maturation of this understanding like nothing else. It feels like it has naturally opened up a whole nother dimension to the practices I've been doing for years. Very much looking forward to exploring this further. Thank you!

Baba: I remember when I first taught you standing practice (c. zhan zhuang) in Tammisaari in 2016-2017. We've come back to it every now and then at retreats and when hanging out. I've also lead qigong and zhan zhuang sessions at retreats for years and years but I saw a problem there: that it was too hard (unpleasant) and too difficult to people to understand what the practice was about. I've done that work when I began internal martial arts 25 years ago and it took me years to even get the basics right, even with lineage teachers, and it was just uncomfortable to grind all those hours. So seeing this problem with my students I wanted and needed to find a way to make the training much more enjoyable than the grind or die-traditional training style so that you'd even get interested in internal arts and their principles as they are taught in East-Asia, namely China and Japan.

After having learned a wide variety of internal practices it took me a number of years to come up with a sensible structure that my students could learn and start practicing. So I took some bits that I had learned from internal martial arts, such as Yi Jin Jing, Second Course Yiquan of Han Jingyu and hard Shaolin qi gong, Indian yoga postures, basic elements of yoga tantra (prayer and mantra) and subtle centers that have long been forgotten by the yogic culture and put them all together as the first level of Amrita Asana Yoga (abr. AAY). I've gotten so many positive comments about the practice, people really love it but the thing is that if I had taught under the name of "internal martial training", people would have had no interest, I am certain. So I tricked all of you, ha, but as you know the results are great. There is no yoga or qigong style that puts all these elements together but I suspect there might have been in ancient China in the days of the ancient immortals.

What you describe about realizing how to activate the frame (after just 6 months of regular Amrita Asana practice) took me years of traditional internal martial arts practice to understand. I got glimpses of it and of many other things but I didn't really understand it but after a number of years. Through your AAY practice you have now developed a connected physical frame that you can apply your intent (c. yi/意) on, to affect changes and transformation in the meridian field. Adding yi to AAY is taught on level 2 but you already got it.

I have made quite a few posts about yi recently because it is one of the key practices to transform the meridian field which condition as you know is the ground of immortality/lightbody/rainbow body. Yi is physicalized concentration. Being able to focus one's mind mentally is one thing but to focus (yi) with one's whole body mass, the whole skeletal structure, muscles and tissues harnessed behind it, like a pack of horses in reigns, is entirely different thing. The principle of yi is entirely unknown in Indian and Tibetan yogas and their traditions but developed into a key principle in China and Japan, and their many arts and traditions.

From the perspective of hatha yoga, without yi you're just doing a physical workout with moments of mental focus here and there through dristhis, bandhas and so on but what is typical is that even highly regarded professional of hatha yoga never develop a frame as it is understood in China and Japan. If you don't have a connected internal frame, even if you could put yourself into very complex and advanced postures, the effect on the meridians that makes a great part of our psyche will be very limited. With a built frame, yoga asanas will immediately take a different gear because the frame allows one to not only work on the physical field but also the meridian field which is really really important from the common perspectives of health and wellbeing, but also from the point of view of trauma healing and preparation of the lightbody. In Amrita Asana Yoga you start with postures but through the tensing of all muscles at once in each posture, you actually start building that frame effectively from the start and work out the whole meridian field. It makes the body very strong very fast because you're doing a gym workout (without weights) through the tensing and flushing the whole system with prana/chi that is spiritually charged because of the preparation in the beginning of practice and during through mantras or whatever techniques from RBY you might be using. The difference between level 1 and 2 of AAY is that it just becomes subtler and with yi-without yi is given more emphasis.

That phrase "with yi - without yi" is something that I could say a few words. It is written all over the Taoist classics, this thing about "marvellous alive non-doing" or wu wei and it has been extensively written by zen artists of Japan during the past over 1000 years. My master Terayama Roshi dedicated his life to studying and writing about it, as did the masters before him in the lineages. But just like on the side of dharma or spirituality this principle is vastly misinterpreted in various ways. Not having to do anything about it for one to realize or to successfully wu wei just like the immortals or that if you just sat immovably like the Buddha that'd be the same as being a buddha are two of them.

One great gift that mahamudra and dzogchen texts by Tibetan masters such as Gampopa and Longchenpa have to give us is the clear definition about the most fundamental spiritual part of us. It does not matter whether we discuss of the Tao, Christ, God, buddhanature or whatever, it makes sense that regardless of beliefs and opinions we are all built the same way and have the same basic nature of mind. Understanding this was made into science by the master yogis and while I can see many others from other traditions speak about it sometimes identically or similarly, I think it is because of the unreligious pragmatic nature of buddhadharma that makes it more understandable and therefore better accessible than any other system I know about. Poetic, mystical and glorificational sources definitely give as much benefits as they do harm because of the option of (mistaken) interpretation. My point is that without knowing the ground of all beings or the mind common to all beings, it is impossible to understand without yi (c. 無 意) but you know all this already.

So, next in your practice, now that you have grasped all three: the frame, yi and without yi; next step is to play with them. Form doesn't matter. I stand, do yoga, sit, dance, walk, do crossfit and lift weights applying "physicalized intention together with basic awareness" and "basic awareness together with movement but without intention". This strikes the main teaching of Garab Dorje.

Rainbow-light blessings,

-Baba, 30 March 23

Bodhicitta is truly amazing

 

Bodhicitta is truly amazing

Suffering of all beings is direct means to attain full enlightenment. First, all that pain and confusion opens up the subtle body made of nadis and chakras, and establishes one’s mind in the wisdom of the buddhas. At this stage all uncertainty about existential matters is gone for good. Then, through taking the suffering of all beings into one’s body, the meridian system opens and lights up, and connects the basic state with the physical body and its cells and organs. We are indeed connected to all surrounding life through our vast number of nadi-channels as well as the innumerable cells of the body. The true enlightened body of all beings, with its clarity and love, covers everything without exception. Bodhicitta is truly amazing.

-Baba, 1 March 23

Practices of Emptiness and the Lightbody

 

Practice of Emptiness, Practice of the Lightbody

(from a facebook post)

Dealing with trauma ain't no funny business. That's what you're left with after purifying bhumis, (if one has proper trauma). It can make one feel infested with strong negativity, just very negative world view. And the difficulty is not that you can't "purify" it but because the whole way of seeing the world is distorted. This means that the energy system where the trauma is stored is broken. That's psychic injury or trauma.

I am not sure if the past generations of masters understood trauma the way our generation experiences it. It is logical that they did and there are many central practices like smiling meditation, shamatha, loving-kindness or jhanas (skt. dhyana) that are excellent for healing trauma and have been practiced for millennia but I'm still not sure. I've met a few lineage holders who had no clue about trauma though. They just thought it was a form of compelling self-delusion.

In Amrita Mandala we dive deep into the world of emptiness insight (skt shunyata) from the beginning. We do this because our primary concern is to remove self-delusion that gives brth to existential confusion (skt duhkha). Our method is built to get one from ignorance to wisdom (skt prajna) very quickly because the priority of dharma is to awaken. We don't have a period of shamatha/calm abiding meditation to prepare and no mandatory preliminaries, apart from doing 1 year of Rainbow Body Yoga Lite before taking up the full version of Rainbow Body Yoga. In traditional systems, new students would practice simple calm abiding or do preliminaries at least for one year before even giving them empowerments and practices like RBYL/RBY.

Amrita Sundari

I have built the method in this way purposefully because removing of dukkha needs to be a priority. You can't get true relief from shamatha if you're very much troubled by the sense of self. I know that from experience, having started with lots of shamatha practice leading to a dead end of sorts where I was existentially as miserable as I was before I started practicing. Same happened to Shakyamuni who practiced jhanas for 6 years. My point is that from the purely dharmic perspective the sense of self with all its friends and buddies needs to go first, i.e. emptiness or wisdom needs to be established first.

Traditional methods start differently. They start with calm abiding (skt shamatha), preliminaries, jhanas or such and usually don't give instructions of emptiness insight from the start. There are exceptions but this is how it usually is. The reason why these kind of practices can be extremely frustrating to someone whose hair is on fire due to existential discomfort is because shamatha and jhana meditations work on the subtle body made of meridians which is not where self-delusion is even located. The good side of these practices is that one purifies the meridian system but the bad side is that one's existential issues remain intact.

I think that most lineages and traditions don't even know that there are two different types of subtle bodies: 1. one made of nadis and 2. other made of meridians. These two systems are closely related but are different and have different laws.

If we practice shamatha or jhanas, the cultivation happens in the body or field of meridians which is the subtle system closest to the physical body and its organs. The sense of self as defined in buddhadharma and doctrines of awakening is not there so from the perspective of wisdom awakening these practices are utterly pointless and useless. They just prolong one's existential pain. But, and this is very important, from the perspective of healing of trauma these practices can be golden. I say can be because I also know many people who practiced shamatha for years and still had huge traumas. 

 

Something that I do not understand and do not agree is when shamatha or jhanas are marketed as techniques that develop concentration. I don't think developing concentration is that important when compared to healing. In my zen days I developed concentration to very high degree that I could burn holes into sheets of paper, figuratively speaking, but that skill is quite useless. I wish shamatha had been presented to me as a way to heal but because it wasn't I missed a huge opportunity to heal my traumas because my teachers didn't even know that sphere of human issues and I also didn't even get awakened which is what I had come for. What a miserable sorry ass pancake. 

 

If we look at the human subtle bodies from a different perspective after one has purified the body of nadis (bhumis), which is where the self-delusion is stored, one can be fully and completely awake and yet still have lots of trauma stored in the body of meridians. In traditional systems this doesn't happen, or ideally shouldn't happen because the meridian system should by that time be already purified. But in our system it is the opposite way, the traumas and echoes of the former samsaric mind are still there because the body of meridians hasn't yet been adressed.

During the past few years I have given empowerments and teachings of the Ten Wisdom Goddesses (skt Dasha Mahavidya) and various hingu guru yogas that adress the meridian system but I am just now about to really get the engines started regarding this matter.

I have been working on this question in my lab day and night for over a year now and I am glad to say that my work has produced results. I have given trauma healing teachings before but the best is yet to come. I found that an excellently effective way to adress the meridian system and get the traumas washed out from there is in my old old friend - kriya yoga. For those who don't know I used to teach a form of kriya yoga called Sundara Kriya Yoga until about 10 years ago before switching over to buddhist tantra.

These years and the constant experimenting with various tantric practices have been both very fruitful but to me also very frustrating at times because I haven't been given ready-made answers by my gurus. I had to dive deep into my system and contemplate my butt off to come with solutions and results. An example of this is figuring out whatboth myself and my students were experiencing after bhumi perfection stage when they started feeling distant echoes of the former samsaric mind or still had the same psychic injury they had before. It took me a while to figure out that they are coming from a *different energy system*. Then I had to find out *how to adress* them effectively. This investigation has been a massive undertaking but I am finished with the processing now and have everything my students need. 

 

So just to be clear when it comes to wisdom we have RBYL and RBY, guru yoga with Yeshe Tsogyal and Guru Rinpoche, vipashyana instructions, bodhicitta, basic prayers and so on. No change there. I will, however, introduce a different set of hindu tantric exercises side of these buddhist tantric exercises. The name for this set of exercises of Amrita Kriya Yoga.

Our sangha members have seen glimpses of this already. Few weeks ago I posted an image of Amrita Sundari, which is a form of Tripura Sundari given by mahasiddha Agastya. Amrita Sundari is the main deity of Amrita Kriya Yoga. There are other supplementary practices such as Amrita Sundari Astottara Shata Namavali or 108 names of Amrita Sundari. Like Rainbow Body Yoga, Amrita Kriya Yoga is a program that consists of different yogic exercises.

When Rainbow Body Yoga results in realization of emptiness of all phenomena, Amrita Kriya Yoga results in lightbody, healing traumas and removing old samsaric imprints from the meridians along the way.

Monsoon blessings your way,

Baba, 23 Jan 23

Deathless Body of Light and Why Getting Fully Enlightened Isn't That Simple

Deathless Body of Light and 

Why Getting Fully Enlightened Isn't That Simple

Sketch from my upcoming book "Life As A Buddha.

I think there is lots of confusion and mistakes in presentations about "full enlightenment" or the most refined type of buddhahood. In everyday discussions I also use the term full enlightenment for less refined states that nevertheless are states of perfect liberation of the mind (emptiness of all phenomena, bhumis 1-10). However if we think about this in binary fashion there is really only one kind of full enlightenment and this most traditions do not know about.

When a fully enlightened human being dies, there are no physical remains at all. This is because the physical body has been integrated and made a continuation of the enlightened mind. If the body has not been made a continuation, then there will be a physical corpse. What actually happens at death when a fully enlightened master leaves the body is that as the physical body is seamlessly connected to the subtle body, the physical body gets sucked into the subtle body. It is as if the enlightened subtle body pulls or vacuums the physical body into it and in consequence no remains will be left. This has been exemplified by legendary buddhist masters like Padmasambhava and Vimalamitra but also by Jesus, Ramalinga from Tamil Nadu (in 1874) and Du Xin Ling, a taoist master from China, in 1989 (see link below). These masters left no remains at all. Both Ramalinga's and Du Xin Ling's cases have been documented and reported by officials. Also the orthodox christian tradition of desert fathers knows this phenomena well though it is difficult to acquire information from their highly secretive tradition. A technical term for this full enlightenment is "full rainbow body" or just "light body".

People might think all this is crazy talk but even over the past decade there has been written and photographic accounts (see photos from the links below) from Tibet where some highly accomplished practitioners attained "small rainbow body". In small rainbow body, where the physical body and its cells are not completely integrated with the enlightened mind, the body shrinks over the next few days after the heart stops beating. It is as if the body was scaled back to the size of babies body with the exception that also the head shrinks with the rest of the body. This is a sign that the practitioner has reached a point in her/his practice where the smallest building particles (I just call them cells) of the physical body are included and cleaned in the purification process. I will explain this in more detail in my upcoming book about buddhahood.

Anyhow, if we think about the various doctrines and practices of yoga, meditation, dharma and tantra we come to see that most traditions don't even mention this phenomena. In most systems even masters leave corpses to be buried or burned but it simply is a fact that the process can go much further than that and most importantly, if we have the fortune to meet and study with genuine masters, learn highly effective practices and have the readiness and eagerness to go all the way, we - you and I - we all, can actually go all the way to full rainbow body.

In my view this does not require special circumstances like having to become mountain recluses or having to do long retreats. In my experience, as a householder myself, this can be done in the midst of 21st century city living.

-Kim Rinpoche, 4.5.2022

http://openheartopenheart.blogspot.com/2018/06/taoist-master-attains-rainbow-body.html

http://openheartopenheart.blogspot.com/2019/10/god-took-him-with-body-by-lama-ivo.html

https://openheartopenheart.blogspot.com/2019/10/bodily-dissolution-in-dzogchen-by-fr.html

Taoist Master Attains Rainbow Body

Taoist Master Attains Rainbow Body

From book ”Qi Gong” by Baolin Wu

Du Xinlin, known as the Master of the Purple Luminescence, was an extraordinary modern seer. From his earliest childhood to his mystical passing from this plane, he lived his life as something more than a mere man. Tales of his feats of divination, martial artistry, and healing are recorded within the annals of both the Purple Cloud and White Cloud Monasteries.

At the age of 116, Master Du left the earthly plane. He lived his life as a towering mystic and master of the Taoist arts and had decided to dedicate his passing to a demonstration of the truth of his lifelong beliefs. What he accomplished was a manifestation of the power of Oi Gong few have ever attempted and no one had ever truly succeeded at in the modern era. His accomplishment is a significant event in Chinese cultural history. To present the inner teachings of 9 Palaces Microcosmic Orbit Oi Gong is a testament to his attainment and the fulfillment of his last living wish.

Du Xinling in 1987, photographed by Patrick Kelly

A few years before, when Dr. Wu was still living with him, Master Du told him that he believed that Lao Zi, Wang Chongyang, and all his other teachers were waiting for him in the Nine Central Heavens. As Lao Zi's disciple, he was ready to join him there. He told the young boy about the Rainbow Body that a worthy believer could cultivate inside his mortal body and that if his righteousness  merited it, it could leave the body with consciousness and spirit intact, instead of physical death, to fly up to Heaven in a rainbow of light.

Transubstantiation and eternal life that bypasses corporeal death has a long tradition in the East. It is known as hong hua, literally a form of the word "rainbow" that can be used as a noun or verb: The Rainbow Body is cultivated within a righteous person's physical body at the moment in passing. Taoist and Tibetan Buddhist tradition is peppered with stories of famous monks, hermits, and high lamas who attempted this feat by devoting their lives to meditation, training, and saintly acts. The ones who attained the RainbowBody were revered forever as saints and Immortals. Those who tried to pass over by "rainbow-ing" but did not succeed in leaving the world without a trace of their physical remains left behind were still venerated , the remnants of their bodies kept enshrined as holy relics. One such relic had been housed in the White Cloud Monastery when Dr. Wu was a boy there. It looked like a tiny, shriveled little man about a foot and a half high, covered in leathery, age-darkened skin. It was explained to him that if there were any portions of the Rainbow Body practitioner's body that had not been properly purified beforehis or her attempt, it would be left behind in a shrunken, desiccated form.

Master Du told young Wu the day and the hour he was going to Rainbow and made him swear to be there to watch his attempt, no matter what. Soon he became so focused on his future that he would spend the whole day quietly whispering, "I'm going, I'm going" to himself. In the beginning, the boy thought, "My teacher must be too old ... what is he talking about, all day long just saying, 'I'm going, I'm going!' Toward the end, when he had to return to Beijing for his studies, he remembers pleading with his master to stop worrying and continuously talking about it with him, assuring him that he would skip school and do whatever else he had to do to be there and watch him when he was ready to leave. Even with his childhood of Taoist training, the teenage Dr. Wu was still skeptical of his master's unconventional ways and crazy ideas. But when that particular day finally came to pass, Master Du attained his Rainbow Body. Ever since, Dr. Wu deeply believes.

 

The day before he was set to make his attempt, Master Du called his young student to his side. He told him, "Tomorrow I will be rainbowed. I am goingto my place in the Ninth Level of Heaven to do my practice there. I am going to continue my studies with my master Lao Zi and sit at his feet, learning what he teaches, but from now on you are going to have to study by yourself. You're going to have to work hard. Of all my students, you have learned much, but I am worried for you. You don't study hard, you are skeptical in your practice, and yet you absorb my teachings so well. All that I know, I must pass to you because none of my other students have the wisdom and insight that you barely realize that you possess. Because of the troubles in China, there is no time or place to find someone better than you to pass these traditions to."

As he sat in a tub of hot water strewn with fragrant flower petals, being washed by his student, he talked to him at length about the key points of 9 Palaces and 5 Centers Qi Gong. He told him of the real meaning of martial arts, When you learn martial arts, you are not going after specific movements, or their proper visual form, or if your hand moves correctly or not. You have to have the feel of a natural force living within you. If you feel it rising inside you, then you can bring it out with power and dynamism. Why does it take more than one person to catch, control, and subdue an insane person? They have left behind all the things that have separated them from their original abilities. Within your own original abilities lies your power. Why was Wang Xiangzhai (the founder of yiquan) so successful in his martial arts? Because he was able to bring out his own personal essence, his own unique force. There are special trainings to accomplish this. If you just focus on supple movements it might be good exercise, but if you really want to learn true striking power, true healing power, true energetic power, the basic foundation is Qi Gong.

They talked together like that all night, the student bathing the master, the

master transmitting his last words of wisdom, from eight o'clock in the evening to five the next morning. When Master Du had said all that he could,he faced his apprentice seriously. "I know you question what I have taught you, but tomorrow I will show you the reality of this knowledge. Of all mystudents, you are the one with the most doubts. You have difficulty trusting in me or believing in the teachings. But I believe, because I believe my owneyes. I believe in myself. I know you are a good student. You're a very smartperson. You have good comprehension and understanding, you can see things through, clearly and quickly. You have your own measure of wisdom. If tomorrow I fail to attain the Rainbow Body, all I ask is that you bury my remains in the place I have directed you. You can go on with your life and never think about Taoism again. I have high hopes that if tomorrow you seewith your own two eyes that I have indeed succeeded, you will vow to teach the 9 Palaces nine hundred and ninety nine times in honor of the truth you have been witness to."

That day, the temple was decorated with flowers and auspicious banners. Monks with musical instruments played continuously. Over one hundred people were assembled, including silent monitors from the Communist Party. Master Du sat in complete stillness and silence on a silken meditation cushion embroidered with dragons. At high noon, the moment for the transition had arrived. At first he remained immobile. At his side, Dr. Wu momentarily grasped his shoulder with a small shake. Suddenly his teacher flared with a burst of energy. Still enclosed in profound contemplation, his body began to levitate, spinning straight up from its cushion, rising by itself and revolving faster and faster. Turning so fast his body was a blur, he hovered for a fleeting moment just above the heads of the stunned onlookers. The solidity of his form shifted, became indistinct. His outline evaporated into red smoke; a piercing ray of red light shot straight through the center of the sun, transfixing him; and at once, the Master was gone. He had departed. No trace was left, except a pleasing fragrance that filled the courtyard for hours after.

How can this be understood? How can it be explained? For the rest of the afternoon, Dr. Wu and his companions were lost in wonder and shocked

speechless. They had been witness to proof of the heights a lifetime's study

in Qi Gong could achieve.

White Cloud Temple & Du Xinlin

excerpt from Infinite Dao by Patrick Kelly, p 242-244, buy here.

Before departing China, we chose to do a little sightseeing. A look at the Great Wall and other compulsory first visit tourist attractions, served to make clear how little China has retained from its position as the “country at the centre of the world” of previous millennia. We investigated many Daoist and Buddhist temples but the only one where we felt something real still existed was the White Cloud Temple in Beijing.

It seems that at the time of the ‘Cultural Revolution’ when most temples – at least those in accessible locations – were being self-righteously and systematically ransacked, Premier Zhou Enlai realising the destruction was unstoppable, had concentrated his influence on protecting the White Cloud Temple. I had read that Daoism was previously split between the north and the south. This temple was the headquarters for the northern branch. Most impressive was the head sage. In his eighties or nineties we guessed, with a long white beard, he looked every bit the part. Mostly he sat quietly inside the main temple building where the other trainee monks would regularly come for chanting, summoned by the ringing of a bell. We later learnt his title and name – Dragon Gate Master Du Xinlin.

The old sage Master Du, was quiet but observant and wishing to communicate with him we waited patiently in front of him. After about 5 minutes of studying us he began to talk and once begun he continued non-stop for more than half an hour. He ranged boldly from political subjects like the persecution they had suffered in the ‘Cultural Revolution’ to the depths of Daoist philosophy. He said that in the archives of the temple they had preserved manuscripts on the theory of Taiji that had been more than a hundred years old and irreplaceable as far as he knew. All of these were destroyed by ignorant people in the previous few decades.

He joked that just like a bad smell seems to linger on, so the traces of the ‘Cultural Revolution’ were taking a long time to dissipate. He appeared happy that we were interested in his opinions and gradually became more outspoken. Towards the end, laughing, he explained, “When people get old like myself, if they have lived their lives correctly they will have wisdom based on deep personal experience and are worth listening to. But common people dissipate their energy, selfishly seeking only personal comfort. Then, growing old they became more stupid and a drag on society rather than a benefit to it.”

We discovered that this old sage was a teacher of Taiji so we arrived at 5:30 that morning hoping that by practising outside his gates we might tempt him into revealing something. His hands constantly played with a set of inter-linked wooden rings – each about 12cm in diameter – as he talked. It appeared that long years of this practice had given his hands a soft, flexible, almost ethereal appearance. I would have enjoyed experiencing his touch at Pushing-hands. But when we politely asked him to show us something of his art, he apologised saying it was only for the Inner School.

Talking to some of the stall holders – the temple had become something of a market place under Communist control – we learnt that though most of the workers in the temple we saw were dressed in monks’ robes, this was just a show for the tourists. Each evening these same people dropped their monks’ disguise and joined the normal commuters back to their homes and families. But the few young monks who came at the call of the bell to the main shrine where Master Du Xinlin sat, suggested a core of genuine Daoism still existed within his White Cloud Temple. No trace could be found of him on our subsequent visits several years later – whether he had died or been ‘officially removed’, I am unsure.

I had felt a strong connection with him during our talk and afterwards he broke his firm and long-standing rule of “no photographs”, posing serenely for my camera in front of his temple door.

Though this tour had its high points being my first visit to China, without the anticipated presence of Master Huang it fell short of expectations. Within a year we were to be called again by the Master and asked to prepare for his second attempt on China.

Du Xinlin in 1987, photographed by Patrick Kelly